Half as Big: Teaching Sequence1

Half as Big: Teaching Sequence 1
Objectives
By the end of the lesson, children should be able to:
• Follow and recall the events in a story.
• Order the events in a story correctly.
• Use organisational devices (such as lines and
boxes) to order events.
Skills needed
• The children should be able to make sense of
what they read or what is read to them and
should be able to follow the events in a story
and understand a character’s actions.
• They should be able to follow simple flowcharts.
• The children should have read and enjoyed the
story before beginning the lesson.
Introduction
The focus in this lesson is on storyline. The children
are asked to recall the broad sequence of events
that take place in the story and place them in the
correct order. This requires the ability to sum up or
generalise what happens from memory.
Without recapping on the story, distribute Activity
Sheet 1, ‘Making Links’ and work with the class as
a whole. You might like to enlarge a worksheet or
scan it onto the whiteboard, so that the children
can follow the tasks more easily.
Read the instructions and take the children through
the worked example on the activity sheet. As a class,
find the next link, giving the children ample chance
to make the right connection to the sentence:
‘When he got to the city, Medio Pollito thought
the cook was the king’. (In particular, note if any
children make an arbitrary link to any other box
without taking into account the correct storyline.)
Once the correct link has been made, the children
can draw a connecting line on their worksheets and
number the box. Ensure the children grasp that 3
follows 2 in the story and that the line makes the
link between them. Progress through the activity
sheet with the class, encouraging the children to
think carefully about what the next link is before
they draw the line or number the box. When you
arrive at box 8, with the picture of Medio Pollito
as a weather vane, ask the children to make up a
sentence saying how the story ended. They can do
this as a class and you can record the sentence on
the whiteboard for the children to copy.
point to box 1: ‘Medio Pollito set out for the city to
see the king’ and turn to pp.3–6. Ask the children:
What did his mother think of Medio Pollito’s idea?
(That it was unwise.) What advice did she give him?
(Be helpful and keep away from the king’s cook.).
Encourage the children to recall details, rather
than read the text again. [MG: But I thought we
have been asked to turn to pp.3-6. If not to read,
what for?] If they need prompting. [MG: fragment
sentence. Doesn’t make sense]You can then move
on to the next box, again referring to pages in
the book. Note what the children have difficulty
recalling and whether they have understood
the more subtle aspects of the text (for example,
whether or not Medio Pollito took his mother’s
advice, or why the stream, fire and breeze treated
Medio Pollito harshly).
Next steps
• Ask the children if they think Medio Pollito was
happy at the end of the story and discuss why or
why not.
• The class could think of alternative titles for
the story (for example How the Cathedral Got a
Weathervane or Medio Pollito Goes to the City).
• Explain the function of a weather vane, referring
to p.31 of the story. Find examples of weather
vanes on the Internet that show the traditional
cockerel, and other animals, or draw attention to
any that may exist in your area.
• Ask the class to devise, orally, another story
about Medio Pollito. For example, the weather
vane is broken in a storm and he returns to his
mother. What would Medio Pollito say about
his adventures? You can record the sequence of
events on the whiteboard.
Returning to the text
Once the activity sheet has been completed and
the children have ordered the events correctly, you
can use it to refer back to specific events in the text
and ask the children to provide detail. For example,
White Wolves Teachers’ Resource
for Guided Reading – Year 2
Half as Big
© A & C Black 2010
Activity Sheet 1: Making Links
1 Draw a line from one box to another in the right order
to reproduce what happens in the story. Number the
boxes 1 to 8 as you go. When you get to the final box,
write a sentence to say how the story ended. The first
one has been done for you.
Medio Pollito sets
out for the city to
see the king.
On the way he
met a stream, a
fire and a breeze. When he got to
the city, Medio
Pollito thought the
cook was the king.
So Medio Pollito
jumped from the
cooking pot into
the fire.
Then the breeze
blew him up to
the rooftops!
The cook threw
him in the
cooking pot!
The cook picked Medio Pollito
from the fire and threw him
out of the window.
White Wolves Teachers’ Resource
for Guided Reading – Year 2
Half as Big
© A & C Black 2010
Half as Big: Teaching Sequence 2
Objectives
By the end of the lesson, children should be able to:
• Understand that some words can have similar
meanings.
• Identify synonyms in a text and offer synonyms
of their own.
• Understand that some everyday expressions can
have similar meanings.
Skills needed
• The children should be able to infer meaning
•
from a text and be reading with some fluency.
They should also be developing their vocabulary
and creating sentences.
For this lesson, the children should have read
and enjoyed the story.
Introduction
The focus in this lesson is on encouraging the
children to extend their vocabulary so that they
recognise synonyms and learn that similar ideas or
feelings can be expressed using different words.
Write ‘small’ on the whiteboard and say to the class:
Medio Pollito was so small I could have carried him in
my pocket. Ask the class if they can think of other
words that mean the same as ‘small’. Record correct
answers next to ‘small’ and say the sentence to the
children again, this time replacing ‘small’ with the
synonyms they suggested. Explain that sometimes
we can use different words with similar meanings to
say the same thing.
Returning to the text
Refer to the title of the story, Half as Big, and record
‘big’ on the whiteboard. Turn to p.18 and read
aloud: ‘There, he caught sight of the cook wearing
a great, high snow-white hat.’ Ask the children:
What was the cook’s hat like? Can you show me?
Encourage them to indicate the size of the hat.
Then ask: Can you tell me the word in the sentence that
means the same as ‘big’? (Great.) Can you think of any
more words that mean the same as ‘big’ to describe the
cook’s hat? Record correct suggestions and also point
to ‘large’ on p.4.
When they have finished, go through the answers
to question 1, then focusing on question 2,
compare the children’s choice of words (For
example: The breeze quickly threw Medio Pollito
up to the rooftops/ The wind quickly tossed
Medio Pollito up to the rooftops.) Again emphasise
that we can say the same thing in different ways.
Now explain that sometimes we can also use
different expressions to say the same thing. Refer
to p.9 of the text and read the sentences beginning,
’I’m too important…’ [to] ’…own mess!’ Ask the
children: What does Medito Pollito mean when he says
to the stream: ’Clear up your own mess!’? Encourage
the children to explain in their own way, then read
aloud p.24 and ask them to find the expression that
is similar in meaning to ’Clear up your own mess!’
(’Get yourself out of this pickle.’) Next ask: Can
you think of any other way to say these expressions?
(‘Sort out your own problem.’, ‘Tidy-up your own
muddle.’) If needed, offer synonyms such as: ‘sort’,
‘tidy’ ‘muddle’ and ‘problem’, to prompt ideas.
Note what kind of contemporary expressions the
children use.
Next steps
• Share simple idioms (‘Let’s go!’, ‘I’m fed-up!’,
•
•
•
‘What a carry on!’) or similes (‘Nice as pie’,
‘Pleased as punch’) with the class. Ask the
children to contribute their own playground
idioms and explain what they mean.
Ask the class to offer synonyms for the
following: ‘stream’, p.8, ‘cooking pot’, p.20,
‘jump’, p.23, ‘old’, p.31, ‘glad’, p.32.
Refer to polysyllabic words in the text, some of
which are repeated and ask the children to give
synonyms where possible. (See: ‘important’ p.5,
‘enormous’ p. 23, ‘advice’, ‘polite’ p.6)
Introduce antonyms. Refer to ‘small’ and ‘big’
discussed above, and the expression, ‘a big fish
in a small pond’, which occurs on p.3.
Distribute Activity Sheet 2, ‘Matching Words’
and go through the instructions and example for
question 1. The children should try to complete the
task on their own, but if any child finds it difficult,
read the words to them. (Please note that all the
words except ‘noisy’ occur in the text.)
Read the instructions for question 2, which the
children should then complete on their own.
White Wolves Teachers’ Resource
for Guided Reading – Year 2
Half as Big
© A & C Black 2010
Activity Sheet 2: Matching Words
1 Draw a string to match the words that have the
same meaning. The first one has been done for you.
Word
Means the same
happy
wind
noisy
flames
breeze
tossed
rushed
cheerful
threw
burnt
fire
loudly
scorched
hurried
2 Choose suitable words from the list above to fill in the
gaps in the sentences.
In the city all the people ________________________ this way and that.
The ___________ quickly ___________ Medio Pollito up to the rooftops.
The ________________ badly ________________ Medio Pollito’s feathers. White Wolves Teachers’ Resource
for Guided Reading – Year 2
Half as Big
© A & C Black 2010