- Write story with one change
- Character profile of Lila
- Message/note from Lila to her mother
- Retell from Lila’s point of view
- Fact file on Kenya or other location
- Comparison of life in Kenya in a village or in Nairobi
- Thought/speech bubbles at different points in the story
- Weather poem - based on one weather type that they have experience of (Rain!)
- Use story boxes to film story with text or voice and sound included
/ 1. Responding to the Text
- Use picture on front cover - where do you think this story takes place? Why do you think that?
- Picture exploration: look closely at the first double page without text. What do you think is happening? How would you feel if you were living there? Why is the sun so big?
- Read up to the page where Lila has talked to the sky, but there is still no sign of rain. What else could Lila do? Predict the ending.
- Book talk: are there any questions or reminders in the story
- Book talk/visual literacy: How do the pictures help us to understand how the characters feel?
- Book talk: Think about the title. Why is it the secret of rain? Did Lila really make it rain?
- Writer talk: Can we find any information about village life in Kenya?
- Writer talk: Look at the examples of the use of the power of three in the book. Why has the writer done this?
Hook
- Go on a weather walk - observe all the things that we need rain for
- Use first double page of book - see Responding to the Text
2. Capturing Ideas
- Role play area set up with objects from story/ stick puppets etc to enable retelling of story
- Make story boxes for different settings with playdough characters
- Make class story map, annotate with key story language and retell story orally
- Hotseat Lila
- Use an emotions graph to track Lilas’s feelings across the story and create word bank of feeling words
- Paired role play of conversations between characters (Lila and her mother, Lila and her grandfather, two villagers)
- Create own story map with one change - different main character, different “secret”, different setting (if part of the unit is to look at other localities).
- Research Kenya/other localities
- Develop vocabulary around the sun and hot weather and other weather types
- Sentence not a sentence game based on book
- Preposition poem - Above the sun is…, Below the sun is… etc
- Similes game - The sun is like…/The rain is like…
- Improve a sentence - focus on the grammatical elements that need consolidation or review
- Use of similes as in text and developing others
- Using “power of three” sentences in text as a model, create own sentences
- Use of dialogue in a story and how to use inverted commas
- Focus on concept of a sentence as needed.
Guided Reading Possibilities
- Read other stories set in Africa (The Leopard’s Drum, Bringing Rain to Kapiti Plain, Mama Panya’s Pancakes, Handa stories). Look for clues to the setting.
- Non-fiction texts on Kenya and/or other locations
- Identify and discuss features of text type for final written outcome. Level of text can be pitched at each groups’ level, ensuring both access and challenge.
4. Modelled Writing
Shared Writing
Guided Writing
Independent Writing
MAKING LINKS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Geography/Science
• Look at the effects of weather on life
• Habitats - how plants and animals survive
• Study of Kenya or other location / Art
- Create backgrounds in boxes in the style of the story illustrations
- Make clay /playdough figures in the style of the story
PSHE
• Lila had a lot of courage because she did not give up even though she was in a desperate situation. Do you know of anyone like Lila? Reflect on their own experiences of being courageous and of not giving up when things are difficult.
• Could the world ever run out of water? How can we save water? / Useful links
Music/Dance
• Listen and respond to Kenyan music
- Create rain music and a rain dance