Greek Mythology (2)

I spent some time debating how much detail we wanted to go into Greek mythology at this point in time... I didn't feel the girls would enjoy the violence aspect of the adventures at their current age... And Ancient Greek culture is a good topic base for Art, Geography and History lessons, so I'd rather have the time to plan a unit in enough detail to do it justice rather than do a rushed job now. 😶

With that in mind, I decided to use this week just to focus on the myths we've already covered in the form of another shadow puppet theatre (subtly revising work on light and shadows at the same time!).

The girls chose to do the story of King Midas and the Golden Touch.

Before they could do their play, first I had them rewrite the story in their own words in script format. This sounds a bit daunting for a 6 year old but MashaAllah they managed with some structured help!

After rereading the version in the book and comparing it with a version online (ideally we would go to the library but unfortunately we're without a car atm!), I had the girls tell me what they thought were the main parts to the story. We wrote these on scrap paper so we could then rearrange them into chronological order when they were done (this also helped them see if they had missed any key events out when summarising the story).

I gave the girls a storyboard template so they could translate the bullet point version into a storyboard. This was also useful in getting them to think about what might be on stage at that point during their shadow play.

Next, I had them write out the text in their storyboards on a new piece of paper but adding more detail, paragraphs and direct speech so it flowed like a story - and made them think about what their narrator and characters might say during the play. I had them do this pretty much independently as I wanted them to come up with different versions - a good lesson in how even though we might have the same thing to start with (we all read the same stories), they wrote them again in different ways. Maybe this could be why many different versions of the same story exist? Considering how many thousands of years old the stories are and how many times they must have been retold and passed down!

When they were finished, we recapped editing skills (we had done work that week on conjunctions and fronted adverbials, so they were looking out for those in particular!) and they made changes in a different colour.

(They wrote the words "everything" and "excitedly" at the end as spelling practise since they had misspelt them in their writing. Just chose one for them to do.😗)

Finally, I challenged them to work together on the laptop to turn their stories into one playscript. They needed to think about the layout themselves and talk together to agree on which wording to use! I created them a file on Google Docs for this so I could help with editing on my new laptop (gift from my husband, MashaAllah 😁) - they were amazed how we could all edit the same file at the same time! But it was really convenient so I think from now on we'll continue using Google Docs over Microsoft Word, inshaAllah.

The above was done over three consecutive days.

For their shadow puppets, we talked about how they could show the things turning into gold - how could they make the shadows change colour? I prompted them to think about layering - as we had previously layered blue and yellow cellophane to create a green shadow for grass - which materials could they layer to turn an opaque shadow into yellow?

When they were done and had practised it a few times, we recorded the show (each scene as a separate clip) and edited it on the laptop using Shotcut into one long video.

Fables

Continuing the theme from their shadow puppet theatre, and referring to the NC for Year 3, I decided to move on to looking at fables in more detail as our next Literacy topic.

We read examples from some of the books in this collection (I bought a few many years ago for £1 each from The Works!) and I left the others in their book box for this term for them to explore at their leisure.

We talked briefly about who Aesop was - where and when he was from - but I plan to go through this in more detail in the coming weeks as we move on to look at Greek mythology InshaAllah.

Another day, we read through some more examples of fables and I left several books open as visual reminders. We discussed what they all had in common - i.e. how do we know they're fables? What features do they have?

As the girls came up with ideas, and I prompted for others, we came up with a list of features:

- Short and simple
- Only a few characters, usually 2
- Often animal characters
- One learns a lesson
- The characters are in the title
- Contains direct speech
- Contains time connectives
- Contains connectives to show cause and effect
- The moral is written at the end

The following day, I printed out the following sheet as a template for the girls to have a go at planning and writing their own short fable.

You can download the worksheet here.

Because we had just covered Al-Mutakabbir as one of Allah's names, I gave the girls the moral "Don't be arrogant".

We discussed ideas together as a group and they each came up with their own plot. They wrote their first draft, listened to each other's to give constructive criticism, edited their work then wrote up their final drafts below:

Famous Five storywriting

Thu 7th Nov 2019

After the diary entries we did together, F was feeling inspired and wrote her own mini Famous Five adventure in one of her notebooks. 😍

So I decided to take advantage of this as a learning opportunity. 😂

While the other three were busy playing, I spoke to M by herself to see if she wanted to write a Famous Five story too... We talked about a possible plot: Where could they be? What could the problem be? How do they solve it? Then I gave her some time to write her own story as F started typing hers up on the laptop (the opportunity to type on the laptop if she wrote a story was a good incentive for M!) - Alhamdulillah once she started she got really into it. At this moment, they've both handwritten around 3 A5 sides in the past two days (F's written 6 including her original adventure! She's now doing chapter 2. 😁

The plan is for them to practise typing in MS Word and then practise editing their work. I'll use this opportunity to cover paragraphs, connectives and expanded noun phrases - the only targets they have left from the Year 2 Literacy NC - by going through each concept in turn and giving them the chance to see where they can include each thing in their stories, insha'Allah.

Fri 15th Nov 2019

MashaAllah, their typing has really improved over the last week, both in speed and accuracy. They're only allowed on the laptop in half an hour chunks and maximum of twice a day, so I think keeping the time limited helps to retain the novelty factor and so their motivation.

They're both really into their stories now too, getting their notebooks out and writing in them every chance they get! I'm not at all fussed about story structure at this stage, so the pacing and content isn't entirely there - I'm just happy to see them both loving to write and being able to write continuously for extended periods of time! Their writing style has definitely been influenced (in a good way!) by Enid Blyton's and their sentence structures, punctuation and spelling have naturally improved the more they write, as they reread their work or ask me how to spell something after they've tried and it's not come out looking right.

This week I wanted to recap editing skills and focus on paragraphs. Both girls had typed up a good chunk on the laptop, so I increased the font size and line spacing then printed out what they'd done so far.

First, I asked them to choose a highlighter and to read through their work highlighting any errors (spelling, grammar, punctuation) they may have made.

Next, I talked to them about adding more detail to make their descriptions more interesting. How? Adjectives and adverbs! I had them highlight all the interesting descriptive words they'd used in a different colour. M discovered she hadn't many at all and F thought she should have used more too, so individually I talked to them about where they might add more description in a way that adds to the story (trying not to fall into the trap of writing to tick off boxes, which can lead to awkward sounding phrases which although grammatically correct spoil the story's flow!) and we jotted down words they could insert next to highlighted nouns of their choice.

Finally, we talked about paragraphs again. We reread half a page from the current Famous Five book we're on and discussed where the new paragraphs began - when the topic changed or when someone different started speaking. With a different coloured highlighter, I helped them mark onto their paper where they thought they should start a new line in their writing.

To finish, they took it in turns to edit the highlighted parts onto the laptop. With the rest of their half an hour time slot they were able to continue copy typing the rest of their story - but now they were expected to edit as they typed rather than just copy the mistakes! Most importantly, I wanted them to focus on paragraphs, which is what I would be checking for when I saved their work. MashaAllah they quickly picked up this skill and all their typing since has had new lines in the correct places.

Wed 20th Nov 2019

This week I wanted to focus on expanded noun phrases. Their paragraphs are fine when copy typing - they remember to add them in with no prompting from myself - but when writing in their notebooks they become so absorbed in their ideas that they forget to put them in! At the very least, I've told them I expect to see a new line everytime someone new speaks... So we'll see how that goes InshaAllah!

On the whiteboard I wrote the simple sentence "The sun shone." and had the girls label the noun and verb. I explained to them what a phrase was, highlighting it in a different colour, and what the word expanded means, i.e. to get bigger. So an expanded noun phrase is making the noun phrase bigger. How? By adding more detail? How? By using adjectives!

I had them come up with some suitable adjectives for our simple sentence :

The shining sun shone.
The bright sun shone.
The burning sun shone.

We talked about the effect changing the adjective had on us as the reader and why the first example wasn't very good, even though it made sense. It didn't add anything to the description! So they needed to think about what their adjective adds in helping the reader imagine what you want them to imagine...

The girls then continued to take turns typing their stories (and writing their stories!) and I told them I would be checking to see which interesting adjectives (or maybe adverbs) they would be using to help improve their stories.

Tue 3rd Dec

They've been writing their stories for almost a month now and not showing any signs of stopping! MashaAllah!

The plots are long and convoluted, making sense but not refined, with a lot of random subplots and unresolved ideas throughout... But the point is both stories flow, have been a great vehicle for teaching grammar and sentence level work, and the girls are enjoying themselves doing it!

Yesterday we spent the whole day outside - football in the morning then Thinktank with friends in the afternoon - the latter being a little spur of the moment compared to what I originally had planned to do... So I commented that the girls had spent that day not really doing any "work". But actually, they'd spent the time I was getting dinner ready writing their stories in their notebooks, so I corrected myself to say they'd spent a day playing and the only work they'd done was Literacy - to which M said, no, they hadn't done any work because writing their stories was still playing to them! Well, they do it whenever they feel like it without any prompting from myself so I suppose she's right. 😂

As a result of their story writing, the twins can now write in paragraphs confidently and are familiar with the different grammar patterns of direct speech (at the start of a sentence, end of a sentence, new line new speaker), understand the editing process and are aware of the need to include interesting descriptions to make their writing more compelling.

I think I might look at clauses and subclauses next with them, InshaAllah, as they've used some in their writing naturally so there's no harm in labelling what they are? 🙃

All About Plays

We went to the theatre to watch Pinocchio as part of a Home Education group (school rate, i.e. discount tickets!) - this was the girls' first proper experience watching a play (I took them to a small performance at the MAC a couple of years ago which they don't remember!) so I decided to make plays the focus of our Literacy work for a few weeks. Before going to see the play, I showed the girls what a script looked like (I had bought the book Play Time by Julia Donaldson secondhand online with this theme in mind!) and we read through some together, dividing the parts between us. We talked about the layout differing from the stories they were used to reading, the focus on characters' dialogue and the use of stage directions to set the scene. Whilst reading through, I encouraged the girls to try and get into character by putting on an appropriate voice, too!

The Old Rep emailed us an educational pack when we booked the tickets, so after we had seen the play I chose the activities I thought relevant and printed them into an A4 booklet along with a couple of activities of my own. 😄 We then worked through the booklet together in the weeks following the performance.

1) We talked about the meaning of the words plot and synopsis and recapped the meanings of the words character and setting, linking the latter to the words location and scene. Then we read through the synopsis provided and underlined all the character names with one colour and the different locations (i.e. scene changes) with another.

It worked out that each paragraph in the synopsis equated to a new scene, so once we'd finished reading through (I read through at a steady pace while they concentrated on underlining!) we checked to see if any settings hadn't been mentioned where a scene change had taken place, then they wrote (e.g. "toy shop") next to the corresponding paragraph.

2) We completed this task verbally and had a discussion about the themes behind the play and what we liked/disliked about it.

3) They wrote the word actor/actress next to the pictures of the main cast members, and we discussed the differences between "cast", "character" and "actor/actress" in a play.

Because Pinocchio (a boy!) was played by an actress, the girls were confused over whether she was an actor or actress! Which sparked an interesting conversation into gender. 👌

They also learnt what an understudy was, since one was listed in the cast list.

4) One of the given activities was to make up nonsense words by rolling a dice. (This was a good introduction to possibility and chance - a topic we've not yet covered in Numeracy!) So the task was to make up a definition to a two-syllable nonsense word. When they were done creating 3 words, I asked them to then write a sentence or two using their made up words in context.

5) We talked about how costumes and props are used to help tell the story and make the audience feel like they're really there without needing to use their imagination. Then they had a go at designing their own costumes for two of the characters.

6) I modified our book review sheet to a review specifically for plays for the girls to fill in. I summarised the play again for them by skim reading through the synopsis and we went through each box in turn together so we could discuss the keywords and check they understood their meanings.

You can download a copy of the worksheet here.

7) Using the activity sheet as a scaffold, the girls made up their own outline to a story based in the world of Pinocchio. Once all the components were in place, they took it in turns to dictate their story to me as I wrote it down (I was more interested in their creative writing abilities than handwriting/spelling/etc. for this task) and prompted them with vocabulary choices when they became stuck.

8) Using their stories above, I helped each twin in turn to turn what they had created into a script for a play. So they read through their individual story and I prompted them with what the characters would say at each point and how the audience could know what the character was thinking... I did the typing and formatting for them because, again, this wasn't the focus of the task.

Once they were both done, we read through another play by Julia Donaldson from her book, Play Time. When we had finished, I asked the girls if there was anything missing from their scripts compared to the one we had just read - and they both correctly identified the answer to be stage directions! So, again in turns, I helped them both add the extra detail needed to complete their plays.

9) We watched the film The Wizard of Oz (we happened to have the free Amazon Prime trial at the time and this film was included on Prime Video) and talked about the similarities to the Pinocchio play we watched: cast members, costumes, props, backdrops, scene changes, singing and dancing, etc. So some films are similar to theatre productions (not all have songs!) except they're filmed to watch later, rather than live (i.e. happening at the time), so they can add special effects and they can retake a scene and try again if they make a mistake or to make it the best they can.

10) So now we had two play scripts, it made sense to put on a performance of our own! First, we read through the plays and made a list of props/costumes we'd need to make or find (a top hat & stick, masks for the animals, a magic wand, a boat prop & paintbrush, blue fairy's cloak). Then they divided up the parts between them (and their younger sister for the Blue Fairy!) and practised reading through their lines for each play in turn. We decided to do both plays because they were only short and it wouldn't be fair otherwise. 😂 After a few rehearsals and a dress rehearsal (we talked about learning lines, how difficult it was and the extra pressure of theatre performances since they were live!), we recorded their performance for them to watch back (like a film!) and so they could self-critique what they did well and how they could improve. Finally, they put on their two mini plays for my parents (since they were visiting) and then Papa (who came home later) to watch live. 😁😁

And that brought us to the end of the topic! 👏👏👏

If I can find and familiarise myself with a suitable program (maybe Movie Maker?) then we might use their play recordings to add background music and special effects as a way of incorporating ICT to the topic... We'll see, insha'Allah!

Fairytale Picture Summary

The question I wrote on their Target Poster for Literacy this week was "Can you tell a story without words?" The twins' initial reaction was, "NO!" lol 😂

First, we looked at a picture from one of their comprehension books and talked about what they thought was happening... Who is in the picture? What are they doing? Where are they? Why? How are they feeling? What time of day is it? What might happen next? etc. etc. After we'd talked in depth about the picture, I summarised their thoughts into a story structure... "It was the afternoon and everyone had gathered in the field for a big race. Poggo and Zap were going to race around the track and everyone was there to cheer them on. Poggo's hat blew off because he was going so fast! But Zap was the winner, crossing the finish line just before Poggo. Zap was really happy he won! Poggo was upset he lost but happy for his friend." Then we talked about how we understood a whole story just from looking carefully at one picture - the picture was able to tell a story without words!

Next, we read the story of Little Red Riding Hood in storyboard format. When we were done, we talked about how this version of the fairytale was different to other versions they'd read or heard... Then we "read" through the story again, but this time just using the pictures as prompts.

Finally, we talked about how pictures can summarise a lot of words; remember how in the first picture we looked at, we were able to get a whole story out of just one picture? And when we looked at the storyboard, how many words were written underneath each picture? Then we chose a fairytale to summarise ourselves - reminding the girls of a story structure (split into three parts: beginning, middle and ending) and which were the main parts...

The girls both wanted to do The Gingerbread Man. They summarised it as:
1) Someone baked The Gingerbread Man.
2) The Gingerbread Man ran away from everyone: people and animals.
3) The Gingerbread Man was eaten by a fox.

Then they drew corresponding pictures into a pre-made template:

After they were done, I asked them to tell the story using the pictures they'd drawn. One of them ended up changing the story's ending so The Gingerbread Man wasn't eaten by the fox! I said that was fine, since fairytales can be told any way we want to... That's part of what makes them a fairytale. 😁😁

You can download our simple template here.

Fairytales

We're going to use fairytales as the scaffold for our next few Literacy targets, as is common for children of this age!

To build up to this topic, we've been reading in books and watching on YouTube a variety of different fairytales and also different versions of the same story. So for our first task, I gave them some pictures with characters from the fairytales the girls are familiar with...

I asked them which stories they were from... What were the stories' titles? I asked them who the main characters were and if they had anything in common. They noticed the characters were often animals and that the animals could do things animals can't really do, such as speak! There were also made up creatures such as witches, giants and trolls.

What was the setting for each story? Where did it take place? They said it was usually a forest, not in a big city. When was the setting - nowadays, in modern times, or in the past? They realised they all took place in the past, before things we have nowadays such as TVs and computers. Why might that be? Because the stories were all written in the past!

So because a common setting was a forest, on a piece of A3 sugar paper the girls had a go at painting a forest background - we played this video on YouTube as inspiration and for background sound. The 2 year old joined in too! I only gave them red, blue, yellow, green and white paint - so they needed to mix any other colours/shades they wanted.

While waiting for their paintings to dry, they coloured in and cut out the fairytale characters from before. Then they stuck these down on top using PVA glue. Finally, the twins wrote the word "fairytales" somewhere in their forest using glitter gel pens.

You can download the pictures we used (from http://images.google.com) here.

Short Chapter Book Recommendations for 4-6 Year Olds

An ongoing list of books we've read throughout the year, so I can remember them in future for younger siblings, insha'Allah! I found it a little difficult finding chapter books for the twins at a level that's a suitable challenge in terms of introducing new vocabulary, but also featuring content they could understand and relate to at Reception age. So this is a list of books I read to them which they enjoyed, sifting out the duds we borrowed from the library. 😂

Just in the order we've read them rather than anything else, but with a rating out of 10 included. 😊

1) The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (Roald Dahl)
Join a young boy as he meets a trio of animal window cleaners and the adventures they get up to. A classic Roald Dahl tale, I chose this one to start with as it's relatively short, has interesting characters and the songs I could sing to my own made-up tunes. My girls liked the poetry sections the best, though I feel some of the content was lost a little on them so definitely one to revisit in later years. They didn't really like the robbery part, but overall it was a nice introduction to Dahl. [7/10]

2) The Magic Finger (Roald Dahl)
A young girl lives next door to a family of hunters, which makes her so angry she accidentally puts "the magic finger" on them! Another short story by Dahl, with a moral against hunting for sport. The length of it was perfect for my girls and they found the idea of ducks swapping places with humans funny. Not sure if they fully got the moral but a good read nonetheless. [7/10]

3) The Snake Who Came to Stay (Julia Donaldson)
A young girl named Polly opens a summer holiday home for pets in her house, much to the despair of her mum! Especially when the snake escapes and there are guinea pigs on the loose... My girls really enjoyed this humorous tale and the chapters often end on a cliffhanger, perfect for comprehension questions and something to look forward to the next day. [9/10]

4) Flat Stanley (Jeff Brown)
When a large bulletin board falls on Stanley during the night, he wakes up the next morning unhurt but completely flat! The story features him dealing with a variety of funny situations, his younger brother's jealousy and even helping catch a pair of famous art thieves. Again, my girls appreciated the humour and could relate to the feelings of the sibling. There were quite a few new words to explain the meanings of, as the book was first published in 1964, but the exposure to new vocabulary is definitely a positive. [8/10]

5) The Iron Man (Ted Hughes)
When a giant metal man appears from nowhere and begins eating all the metal in the countryside, the farmers need to come up with a plan to save themselves... despite a young boy named Hogarth's reluctance. Little do they know a mysterious being from space is on its way and the Iron Man might be their only hope in saving the world! I wasn't sure how my girls would like this, though the writing is definitely at a suitable level, but they actually enjoyed it far more than I thought they would! There's a lot of description in the first chapter, which I acted out for them as we read, but the way the atmosphere is set is done really well and they were able to appreciate the suspense and cliffhangers. I felt the story escalated quite quickly in the latter chapters and the grand moral of world peace passes by too quickly, but overall the girls think it's the best book we've read together so far! [9/10]

6) Little Animal Ark - The Midnight Mouse (Lucy Daniels)
Mandy, a girl who lives in Animal Ark with her veterinarian parents, helps her friend Amy choose a new pet mouse. They have trouble thinking of a name... until that night during a sleepover when they hear strange noises coming from the mouse's cage... I chose this book because I thought my girls would enjoy the animal element, but personally upon reading it I found the writing tedious and the descriptions (although educational in how to look after a mouse) too long and dull. That said, the twins said they liked the book overall, and found the intended funny parts funny, so I may end up borrowing more from this series if we come across them at the library! [5/10]

7) Willow Valley - Birthday Fun (Tracey Corderoy)
It's Riley the mouse's birthday; a charming tale of friendships and parties. I love the descriptions and choice of vocabulary in this book - such a rich reading experience! The plot is nothing amazing, though my girls enjoyed its gentle pace and small adventures, but I would definitely get more from this series for the writing style alone. [8/10]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

I thought it'd be a nice short-term project for the twins to rewrite a well-loved book which follows a simple pattern, as part of their work on fiction texts and their structures. My 2 year old was obsessed with The Hungry Caterpillar at the time (along with this animated rendition on YouTube!) so we decided to go with that. 😁

We began by re-reading the book together and identifying the key features, e.g. beginning, middle, ending, setting, characters. Then we came up with a simple plan outline together by looking at each page in turn:

On coloured A4 just because. 😊 Then they needed to fill in the gaps in the plan individually, making sure the foods on Mon-Fri were all either fruits or vegetables, as per the book, and the foods on Saturday a mixture of anything. They did this independently, including practising spelling using phonics knowledge, and then I went through their work and showed the correct spellings (along with plenty of praise for trying!)

I made the booklet simply by folding 3 sheets of plain A4 paper in half and stapling them together in the centre. I also got out a pack of "special" gel pens, which they could only use for this project and not their other everyday work/play, which added a little extra excitement and motivation. 😂

We then completed the book over the next couple of weeks or so, so it didn't feel so daunting or like a chore at all.

For the front cover, they copied the title from the book, wrote their own name as the author at the bottom and drew a picture of the caterpillar in the centre:

For the first page, I cut out a couple of leaf shapes each and another small rectangle of plain paper to act as a flap. You'll notice they needed to rewrite the story in their own words; they weren't allowed to just copy the book! On the first leaf they drew an egg - this was then stuck on the rectangle flap and they drew the sun in the corner. On the second leaf, which went underneath, they drew the caterpillar in place of the egg and the moon in the corner:

We then went on the laptop (part of their ICT studies lol) and used Google Images to search for clipart of the foods in their plans for the days Mon-Fri. I showed them how to copy pictures from the internet and paste them into a Word file. In my own time, I then rearranged, duplicated and printed the pictures for them: these fit onto 2 A4 sheets each.

They coloured their foods in, cut them out, then I helped them use a hole punch to put holes in the centre of each one - just like the food in the original book!

They then glued their pictures down, one page for each day, and spent a couple of days writing the captions for each day:

We repeated this process for the foods on Saturday, first going on the laptop together then colouring, cutting, hole punching, gluing and writing (over a couple of days):

I split the page for Sunday in half:

I drew the outline of a cocoon on the page (at their request - maybe your kids would like to draw their own!) for them to colour in and glue some sequins onto:

Finally, we used a separate piece of plain A4 to do some symmetry art using paint for the butterfly. Again, I drew the outline and they coloured it in. We discussed what symmetrical meant and then they glued sequins on in a symmetrical manner too. When it was dry, I glued this to the back of their booklet to make the last page.

Because we keep all our work in an A4 ringbinder, I then glued their booklet onto a piece of coloured A4 card so it could be holepunched and kept with the rest of their work.

Parts of a Story: Beginning, Middle, Ending

Following on from the previous post wherein they learnt what an ending was, this time we combined learning about "beginning" and "middle" together.

This time, I asked the girls to choose two books each - again, ones they were familiar with. Funnily enough, the one pictured above chose the same books as last time. 😂 Rather than read through the books again, I asked them to summarise what each story was about (another skill in itself!) which we did together verbally.

Then I got some Post-It notes, 3 for each book, and wrote a summary of the beginning, middle and ending for each book on the bottom of the Post-Its (based on our discussion) while the girls wrote the headings on their A4 paper - copying from the whiteboard.

Because they chose different books, they needed to do the work individually. Simply, they needed to put the Post-Its in the correct order and then place them underneath the correct heading. I checked with them when they thought they were done and then they glued them down. When they were finished, they could then draw a picture to represent each part.

We clarified that the beginning goes at the start, the ending finishes the story off and the middle is all the rest that happens in between! To be honest, the concept wasn't difficult since we use this as everyday vocabulary anyway. 👍

When they're older we can then expand this into the standard "story mountain" model, splitting up the main components further. This level of detail is fine for now, though, with "middle" being the main chunk of the story. 😀

What's the Story's Ending?

Like most 4 year olds, the girls have been having stories read to them for years so they're well aware of what a story is. I explained to them that all stories have the same 3 parts to them: a beginning, a middle and an ending.

For some reason I thought the ending was the easiest to explain, so we started by exploring those. 😂

Together, we picked out 4 books from their book box. They chose Tappity-Tap! What Was That?, The Star of the Zoo, Where's Spot? and Squirrel's Autumn Search. These are all books they had read often and so were familiar with.

I wrote the title at the top of an A4 piece of paper and split each side in half. Then the girls wrote the title of the first book at the top (handwriting practise and a copying exercise!)

Since the books were all so short I decided to read the book, discuss what they thought the ending was, help them write the ending's summary on their paper, then repeat the process with the next book. For the first two, they took turns to dictate to me what they wanted to write. For the last two, I wrote the title and they had to summarise the ending themselves (with help, of course!). I decided to let them try spelling everything themselves, then read through their work with them and showed them the correct spelling - with praise for trying even if they didn't quite get it right! Finally, they had the option to draw a picture at the bottom. They got bored after the first two so I didn't force them to draw pictures for the final two. 😛