The First Slodge - Teaching Resource

Teaching and Reading Guide
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The First Slodge
by Jeanne Willis & Jenni Desmond
Synopsis
The First Slodge is a wonderfully original
story about some curious creatures who
don’t know how to share. By the end of
this funny fable they learn some valuable
lessons.
•Format: PAPERBACK
•ISBN: 9781848690394
•Size: 280 x 245mm
•Price: £6.99
About Jeanne Willis:
Jeanne Willis is an internationally acclaimed author of children’s books. To date
she has written over 250 books for children of all ages, from toddlers to teens. Her
work has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Red House Children’s Book
Award, the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize and the Silver Smarties Prize. She was also
shortlisted for the Whitbread Award in 2004. She lives in London with her husband
and two children.
About Jenni Desmond:
A graduate from the renowned MA Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge
School of Art (ARU), Jenni works from her studio in London. She uses collage, paint
and pencil crayons to create her artwork, which she then scans and edits by computer.
Jenni strives to make her illustrations entertaining, beautiful and funny in equal
measure. Her first picture book won the Cambridgeshire ‘Read it Again’ Picture
Book Award 2013.
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Activity 1: Design a New Imaginary Creature
EYFS Link: Exploring and Using Media and Materials. Being Imaginative.
Learning Objective: We are learning to use different materials to create
a brand new creature.
Read The First Slodge to the class. Ask the children if they have ever seen a Slodge
or a Snawk. Then describe another new creature called a “Hobblescritch”. You might
say that it has five big goggly eyes, a huge round nose, spikes all over its head and a
super-long, slimy tongue. While doing so, you can model drawing and making the
creature on the board. Next, explain that the children are going to create their own
creatures. They can go wild – the more imaginative, the better! You should
model drawing the creature first then demonstrate sticking the different
materials to it. Show the variety of things the children can use: wool,
goggly eyes, foil, paper, material scraps, feathers, etc.
Plenary
The children should think of a funny
name for their creature – like “Slodge”
or “Snawk” – then write it on their
picture using phonics.
Resources
• Paper on which the children can draw their creatures
• A variety of materials: paper, feathers, wool,
scraps of fabric, foil, goggly eyes, etc
• Glue
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Activity 2: The Missing Creatures!
EYFS Link: Writing
Learning Objective: We are learning to write a description
using phonics to help us spell new words.
You’ll need to do a little acting to make this fun.
Explain that the children’s new creatures
have gone missing (use some of their
made up names).
In order to find them, the children must
write a missing person sheet. You will have
imported the images of the children’s
creatures onto the missing person sheets.
Give these out to the appropriate children.
They should each write a description to
help people find their missing creature.
You can model writing sentences using the
image of the Hobblescritch.
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Activity 2: The Missing Creatures!
Differentiation
• Less able children to describe their creatures with an adult scribing for them.
The adult should encourage children to segment words as they are writing.
• Middle ability children to have the beginning of sentences already on the sheets
and a word bank to support them. An adult could support these children too.
• More able children to have a word bank to support them.
Plenary
Read the children’s missing person sheets. Praise their good writing and hard work.
Reunite the children with their drawings of the creatures and stick these around the
edges of a display board with the Slodge and the Snawk characters. Leave a space in
the middle of the board for the planet you will put in place during Activity 3.
Resources
• Differentiated missing person sheets
• Word bank to print out
• Images of the two Slodges and the Snawk to cut out and put on display
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Activity 3: Wonderful World
EYFS Link: Literacy, Writing
Learning Objective: We are learning to write sentences using phonics.
Re-read The First Slodge. Ask the class why the two Slodges were fighting when they
first met. Then ask how the Slodges reacted when they met the Snawk. The aim of this
discussion is to encourage the children to think about the themes of the book: sharing
the world, and looking after it so everyone can enjoy it. Next, show the children the
Slodge and the Snawk characters and all their made up creatures on display. You can
then show the planet (see Resources) that all these creatures live on and stick it in
the middle of the display. As a class, can the children think of a name for the planet?
Now ask the children what rules they would like to have on their planet to make
sure everyone gets along and lives in harmony. Take the children’s ideas and model
writing them on the board, blending and segmenting the words to support phonic use.
To round off the activity, the children can write their rules on sheets of paper, to be
mounted above the planet on the display board.
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Activity 3: Wonderful World
Differentiation
• Less able children to record their rules orally on a sound button recorder to be
placed next to the display
• Middle ability children to complete sentences using phonics. The first part of the
sentence should be written for them. For example: To make our planet fair everyone
will . . .
• More able children to write the sentences using a phonics sheet to help them. An
adult could support these children with blending and segmenting.
Plenary
Read out the children’s rules. Ask them if they would like to live on the planet with all
the new creatures. Encourage the children to explain their answers.
Resources
• A3-sized brightly-coloured planet drawn by teacher
and put in centre of display
• Differentiated writing sheets
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Design your own creature!
Name:
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Missing
Describe your missing creature:
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Name:
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Missing
Describe your missing creature:
My creature’s head is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
My creature’s body is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
He has _ _ _ _ _ arms and _ _ _ _ _ _ legs.
Name:
www.littletiger.co.uk
Missing
Describe your missing creature:
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______________________
Name:
www.littletiger.co.uk
Our Planet
To make our planet fair everyone will _ _
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Our planet will be safe because _ _ _ _ _ _
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We will care for our planet by _ _ _ _ _ _
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Name:
www.littletiger.co.uk
Our Planet
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