Y2: Autumn Fiction: Plan 1A Familiar Settings Main texts: A Lion in the Meadow Margaret Mahy, You Choose Nick Sharratt/Pippa Goodhart

Wk 1 / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Whole class teaching / Show chn A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy. Tell them it’s about a boy who makes up stories, which to him seem very real. Chn talk for a couple of min about stories they like to make up. Look at the title page and discuss the picture. Where do they think the story might be set? It’s in the countryside. What are the words (vocabulary) that go with that setting? Fields, hedges, trees, etc. Start a useful vocab page with a heading for different familiar settings on the flipchart or board (see resources). Read A Lion in the Meadow and discuss whether they think there is a real lion and dragon or is it the little boy’s imagination? There are 4 settings used in the book – can the chn identify them? Kitchen, garden, meadow and bedroom.
Spoken Language 1 / Comprehension 1 / What is happening in A Lion in the Meadow? What is a ‘true’ story? The lion says, “Some stories are true and some aren’t...” Has the boy made up a story that he is then frightened of, or does he really think there is a lion and a dragon? We don’t really know. Can chn remember a game or story they play now or played when they were little where they frightened themselves! Talk to a partner and then share with class (tell or make up one of your own). Show chn You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart (a fantastic book for helping with story ideas). Look at page Why not get yourself a pet... and find the lion & the dragon. Read speech bubble A huge huggy lion. Go back to A Lion in the Meadow and find the descriptions of the lion (big yellow lion, big, roaring, yellow, whiskery lion). Underline the adjectives and remind chn of their function. Grammar 1 / For today’s comprehension you can use the poster book version of The Pet that Flew/Tilly (one of Hamilton Trust’s Animated Tales). Today chn will read a story about another unusual creature that comes into someone’s house. However, first explain what exclamation marks are used for. You can use exclamation marks to show strong feelings, e.g. And she would wish – VERY HARD – that she had a pet! This story is about Tilly who is desperate for a pet. Look at pages 1-9 of the Animated Tale The Pet that Flew/Tilly. Read the text carefully together sounding out unfamiliar words. Chn raise their hands every time they see an exclamation mark. Click on the nest on p5 and p9 and discuss and try and answer the questions. Word Reading 1/ Comprehension 2: Group Reading / Show chn the resource they answered when group reading yesterday - Questions about The Pet that Flew/Tilly. Ask them what they notice about the sentences (they start with a capital letter and end with a question mark). Questions often start with the words -How, what, why, when, where, which. Write these on f/c or use plan resource. Ask chn to think of questions Tilly might have wanted to ask the librarian or the librarian ask her. What might she have wanted to find from find out from a book. If you have a non-fiction book about swallows this would be useful to show chn. Write/type the questions using red for capital letters and full stops.
Grammar 2 / Remind the chn of the two stories they have heard and read this week and explain they are going to write their own story about an animal that comes to live under the stairs. It could be a real life scenario like The Pet that Flew/Tilly or include fantasy like A Lion in the Meadow. Talk about the difference.
Fill in the chart Animals you could really find under the stairs, etc. chart together using the Why not get yourself a pet... page of You Choose to help with ideas (see resources).
Show chn the cupboard illustration leaflet (plan resource - photocopied back to back). Open the leaflet to see the cupboard and discuss which animal they are going to find.
Grammar 3
Objectives / Dimension / Resources
Spoken Lang / Listen & respond appropriately to peers
Articulate and justify opinions
Give well-structured descriptions / 1. Monday: Thinking about the vocabulary of settings
Chn discuss the different settings in the book. They talk about these settings in a house they know and like. Encourage chn to listen to each other as well as articulating their own ideas. / See Monday Comprehension 2
Use spoken language to develop understanding through hypothesising
Participate in reading discussions. / 2. Wednesday: Answering questions about a text
Chn discuss a text that they are reading together. They should discuss the questions and agree what answers they want to give. / See Wednesday Comprehension 2
Comprehension / Understand the books they can already read accurately and fluently by:
a. drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by teacher
Listening to and discussing stories / 1. Monday: Thinking about the vocabulary of settings
Give each chd a copy of the resource about the settings in A Lion in the Meadow (kitchen, garden, meadow, bedroom). They draw a quick picture of each setting and write as many nouns as they can that relate to that setting (see resources).
Plenary: Chn work in pairs to see if their partner has thought of any words that they have not. They add those words to their list and vice versa. / Grid - Story Vocabulary for different settings
Grid about the settings in A Lion in the Meadow (see resources)
Understand the books they can already read accurately and fluently by:
d. answering and asking questions
e. predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far / 2. Wednesday: Answering questions about a text
Read The Pet that Flew/Tilly as a group, pausing to discuss parts. Use the resource sheet and work together to answer questions about The Pet that Flew/Tilly as you go (see Wednesday Word Reading 1 and Spoken Language 2). / Questions about The Pet that Flew/Tilly (see resources)
Word Reading
Transcription / Pupils should be taught to:
f. read most words quickly and accurately
g. read aloud books sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation / 1. Wednesday: Group reading
Continue to read the Hamilton Group Reading book - The Pet that Flew from p10. Give the chn questions to think about and discuss (see resources). Ask them to notice any exclamation marks and to read those sentences extra carefully to see if they can work out why they have been used.
Plenary: Discuss the differences and similarities between The Pet that Flew/Tilly and A Lion in the Meadow. Both about animals coming into children’s lives, TPTF/Tilly could perhaps be true while there is an element of fantasy in ALITM. / Hamilton Trust’s group reading book - The Pet that Flew/Tilly (see resources)
Questions about The Pet that Flew/Tilly (see resources)
Grammar / Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in Appendix 2 by:
a. learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly, including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks & question marks
b. learning how to use:
expanded noun phrases to describe and specify, e.g. the blue butterfly
Use grammar terminology / 1. Tuesday: Finding a character and describing it
Give pairs reduced size photocopies of the Why not get yourself a pet ... page in You Choose. Explain that they are going to write a story about an animal that comes to live in their house in the cupboard under the stairs. In pairs, chn do lots of talking about the animals, which they like, what they know about them. Then they choose one, draw a picture of them and write a sentence using adjectives to describe them, e.g. A big, brown, bouncy, smiling kangaroo. A tiny, fluffy, yellow chick, etc. They check they have started the sentence with a capital letter and finished with a full stop. Model this for chn first. When they have done one, they choose another animal and repeat.
Plenary: Chn underline their best sentence about their favourite animal and read it out. They also show how they have used correct punctuation. / A reduced size photocopy of the Why not get yourself a pet ... page in You Choose One for each pair
Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in Appendix 2 by:
a. learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly, including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks & question marks / 2. Thursday: Punctuating sentences using capital letters, full stops and question marks
Chn write questions that Tilly or the librarian might have asked using a question word at the beginning of each question. They carefully use capital letters and question marks. They then write a sentence answering the question making sure they have a capital letter and a full stop. Continue with more questions and answers.
Plenary: Watch an animation by David Attenborough about migration of swallows at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Barn_Swallow#p014dfr9. / Words useful for starting questions (see resources)
Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in Appendix 2 by:
b. learning how to use:
expanded noun phrases to describe and specify, e.g. the blue butterfly
Use grammar terminology / 3. Friday: Choosing and describing an animal
Photocopy the two cupboard illustrations back to back (see resources). Give each chd a copy folded in half. They then talk to a partner about the animal that they will find under the stairs in their story. Use the photocopied page from You Choose to help with ideas. They think of words and phrases to describe their animal and say them to their partner. Then they draw their animal in the cupboard and write the descriptive words and phrases they thought of round the character.
Plenary: Put all the drawings and descriptions on the tables. Everybody walks round and admires them and makes lots of positive comments! / Cupboard under the stairs illustrations (see resources)
Wk 2 / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Whole class teaching / Today chn will think of problems and solutions for a story about an animal under the stairs in their home. To recap: the story setting is in their home and they have decided on the animal. Now they will have to think about how it got to their house and a ‘problem’ to solve. Identify the ‘problems’ in the 2 stories you have read. 1) The boy is scared of the lion and then scared of the dragon. 2) Tilly wants a pet but needs know how to look after it and then be brave enough to let it go.
Sit in a circle and play ‘Unfortunately and Luckily’ as a warm up. Start the circle with ‘I found a tiger/mouse/animal of your choice/ under the stairs’. Next person says, e.g. Unfortunately it drank all the milk in the fridge’. Next person says, e.g. ‘Luckily the milkman arrived and brought more.’ Then ‘Unfortunately the tiger climbed onto the milk float without him seeing.’ ‘Luckily there was a tiger expert in town...’ etc. Then brainstorm some possible ‘problems’ for their stories and jot down the ideas (see resource), e.g. Their mum or dad don’t like having a bear/snake/elephant! The animal eats too much/ misses its mum/ makes a mess/noise, etc. How could the ‘problems’ be solved? Spoken Language 3 /Composition 1 / The chn will plan a story today. If you have the book There’s no such thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent read it to the chn. It is a humorous take on a similar theme to A Lion in the Meadow. Billy’s mother keeps saying ‘There’s no such thing as a dragon’ until it grows so big she just has to notice it. Alternatively read a book of your choice that might be helpful with story writing ideas.
Explain and model different ways to plan a story with the chn (story map, story mountain etc. – see resources). Or use the framework your school prefers. Show how to do quick sketches and how to move the story along. Jot down useful words. How is the animal going to get in the cupboard? Where does it come from? Spoken Language 4 /Composition 2 / Focus on spelling skills. Have a look at the /j/ phoneme (Appx 1 Spelling page vi).
Show chn plan resource and read the words beginning with /j/. The letter j is never used for the /j/ sound at the end of English words.
At the end of a word the /j/ sound is spelt -dge after short vowels.
After all other sounds whether vowels or consonants the /j/ is spelt as –ge at the end of a word.
Read the words together and add your own examples. Then read the story Badger (see resources). Ask the chn to raise their hands every time they hear the /j/ phoneme. Highlight the graphemes.
Word reading / Transcription 2 / Today the chn will write the first part of their story. Watch this clip at http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/writing-story-openings/4471.html first. Introduce/ remind chn about some useful story telling language for opening a story and moving the story along. Decode and read examples aloud together and add to them if you want to (see resource). Look at and read suitable examples of first paragraphs in story books. Encourage chn to decide which ones they think would make them want to read a story. Encourage them to ‘pinch’ and adapt ideas for their own stories.
Word reading / Transcription 3 / Read some examples of first paragraphs written and copied out by the chn. Have they written an exciting start to their story?
Remind them how to continue using their story plan remembering to use capital letters and full stops. Will there be any questions in their stories so they can show they know how to use a question mark? Will they be able to use an exclamation mark? Perhaps they could write a word in capital letters to emphasise something and finish the sentence with an exclamation mark. The table fell over with a huge CRASH! Talk about how they could end their story and read a couple of examples.