Literacy Year 1: Summer – Weeks 1-2 Narrative: Unit 4B Fantasy Stories: space/aliens

/ Objectives /

Text/Speaking/Listening

/ Word/Sentence / Independent group activities / Outcomes /
/ These plans run alongside a structured synthetic phonics programme. Hamilton Code-Breakers, which fits all the Rose criteria, is available from the English section of the Hamilton website.
/ You will need Beegu by Alexis Deacon, plus I’m Coming to Get You by Tony Ross, Five Little Fiends by Sarah Dyer, and if available Here Come the Aliens by Colin McNaughton and Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort.

Week 1 Monday

/ Main focus: Read a fantasy story/write a matching verse.
9. Find and use new words and phrases including poetic lang.
1. Experiment with new stores of words.
5. Apply phonic knowledge and skills (e.g. rhyming) to help with reading and spelling. / Show chn Here Come the Aliens by Colin McNaughton. What do chn think this is about? Aliens. Where do aliens live? In space. Are aliens real? No, they are fantasy – that means they are made up or ‘let’s pretend’. Read Here Come the Aliens. Ask chn to join in with ‘The aliens are coming!’ on each page. Allow plenty of time as you read so chn can look at and comment on the variety of different aliens, and also enjoy some of the ‘jokes’ (donut planet, fish spacecraft, alien’s dinner party, alien languages…). At the end, discuss what happens. What is it that scares the aliens away? A picture of us! Hand round a mirror. Ask chn to make horrible faces and look at themselves in the mirror! Ask other chn to describe them when they make the face? Scary? Squary! Wiggly, piggly… Brainstorm some rhyming words that we could use to describe either ourselves making a face or an alien! /
Easy/Medium/Hard
Chn work in mixed ability pairs and study photocopied pages from the book and write their own 3 line poem with ‘The aliens are coming!’ at the end, e.g. Some are fat and some are thin, Some have fur and some have skin, Some play games and have to win…! When they have completed their poem, they can draw the aliens they describe!
TD and an adult work with groups to inspire, encourage and scribe where necessary. / Children can:
1. Read and enjoy a fantasy story about space aliens.
2. Write a short poem based on the lines given.
Plenary
Chn who want to read their poems to the rest of the class.

Week 1 Tuesday

/ Main focus: Read and respond to a fantasy story.
3. Take turns in speaking and listening, talk about what to do.
7. Identify main events/characters in stories.
11. Compose and write simple sentences. / Show/read Five Little Fiends by Sarah Dyer. Discuss what sort of book it is. Is it about real people or real animals? No. It is a fantasy, about pretend or imagined creatures. Discuss the story. What do chn think they would like to have taken – the sky, the sun, the moon, the land or the sea? Why did the fiends decide to put them back? / Use sentence cards (resources), one word per card: One day they each decided to take the thing they liked best. Read the sentence tog matching words spoken & read. Chn shut their eyes, you remove a word. Open eyes! Which word is missing? Rept. Muddle the sentence words up. Can chn sort them? Which word should go first? Second? Third? Re-order the words to create the sentence. Repeat this. / Easy
Chn use small word cards and stick these in order to make the sentence. They then write what they would choose to take – it must be something the fiends did not take, e.g. flowers, wild animals, trees, whales & dolphins, big cats…! TD / Medium/Hard
Chn write the f/c sentence & then write their own sentence starting with their name, e.g. Timmy took the trees or Jo took the snakes. Chn draw themselves as a statue with their thing. / Children can:
1. Read and understand a fantasy story.
2. Re-order a sentence to make sense.
2. Relate a story to their own preferences.
Plenary Share the things we each decided to take!

Week 1 Wednesday

/ Main focus: Re-tell a fantasy story.
b. Retell stories, ordering events.
7. Make predictions, understand events.
9. Use key features of narrative in own writing. / Read I’m Coming to Get You! By Tony Ross. Pause halfway and discuss what chn think might happen! Read on – are chn surprised at the ending? Do they realise that the monster/ alien is really little?! Discuss why we thought he was HUGE! (He ate up planets, chewed up mountains, etc.) But he was tiny compared to us! Discuss what Tommy should do about the monster? Look at the last page – what do chn think happened to the monster? (It flew back off into space!) If we want to retell the story, what do we have to remember? What happened at the beginning, middle & end of story? / Easy
Chn use copied pages from the book and sequence these to help them re-tell the story. Can they put the events in the right order? / Medium
Chn re-read the book in 3s/4s or with the teacher. They then practice re-telling the story. They sequence the events not missing any out! TD / Hard
Chn use the writing frame provided (plan resources) and write the events in the story in sequence. / Children can:
1. Sequence a story recalling key events.
2. Understand that stories have a structure.
Plenary Show the story sequence (see resources) and compare with chn’s work. Look at how the story is structured.
/ You will need at least 3 copies of each of the books (Five Little Fiends, I’m Coming to Get you, Here Come the Aliens, Aliens Love Underpants) for Thursday’s lesson.

Week 1 Thursday

/ Main focus: Compare and contrast fantasy stories.
3. Explain their views to others in a small group, decide how to report the group’s views to the class.
1. Interpret a text by reading aloud with some variety in pace/emphasis.
3. Ask & answer questions and make contributions and take turns.
7. Recognise the main elements that shape texts. / Show and read Aliens Love Underpants by Freedman and Cort. Discuss the story. What sort of a story is it? Another space fantasy story. Compare this to Here Come the Aliens. In what ways are these two books the same? How do they differ? Which do chn prefer? Why? Ask chn to give reasons relating to the text. / Shared reading. Enlarge the book or just the text. Use enlarged text to read aloud together. Pause on unusual words, and encourage chn to remember repeated words and to use rhyme to help them to guess at the last word in each verse. Choose groups of chn to read each verse with you. / Easy
Chn read either story (Aliens Love Under-pants or Here Come the Aliens) again in a group with teacher…
Use appropriate word attack skills in guided reading. TD / Medium/Hard
Chn work in groups. They read each of the stories again and then discuss which is their favourite. They agree on one book to recommend to the class. What persuasive reasons can they give for this book being the best! The group should discuss their reasons and elect one or two spokespersons! / Children can:
1. Compare and contrast space fantasy stories.
2. Listen to others and discuss preferences.
3. Read parts or all of simple fantasy story books independently.
Plenary
Have a debate about the four books. Which one will each group recommend? Go round the groups and give each group a chance to speak about their chosen ‘best book’. When everyone has reported back, take a class vote. Which book wins?!
/ It will be very helpful to have watched the film Monsters Inc before Friday’s lesson. Then simply watch the start of the film to remind chn of it in Friday’s lesson.

Week 1 Friday

/ Main focus: Watch part of a fantasy film and identify characters.
2. Listen to/watch videos and express views about how a story has been presented.
4. Discuss why they like a performance.
7. Identify the main characters in stories.
10. Group written sentences tog in chunks of meaning.
11. Use capital letters & full stops when punctuating sentences. / Watch the first part of Monsters Inc. Discuss the film. What type of film is this? Are the monsters real? Do they actually exist or are they ‘made up’? Explain that this film is a fantasy film – it is part of the ‘let’s pretend’ imaginary world. Refer back to the stories we have read this week, and recap the features of fantasy world stories or films, listing these on f/c.
Discuss each one with chn:
·  A way of playing ‘Let’s pretend…!’
·  Contains events that could not happen in real life.
·  Has a ‘pretend’ element, e.g. a fantasy object, creature or person.
·  May be set in an imaginary setting (e.g. outer space, an imagined star or planet…).
·  Often involves a problem being solved in an unusual way or a way we cannot really use (e.g. flying, or visiting another planet…).
·  Allows us to use our imaginations and create or live in a world that is not the ‘real’ world! / Easy/Medium
Chn choose their favourite character from Monsters Inc, and draw that character. They then write 1/2/3 sentences about that character, including sentence punctuation. TD / Hard
Chn draw pictures of two monsters and collect information about them. Use a sheet with prompt questions (plan resources) to stimulate ideas about what these characters are like. Chn write a few sentences about each monster. / Children can:
1. Watch a fantasy film with attention.
2. Recap on key features of fantasy.
3. Identify and describe fantasy characters.
Plenary
Chn share the descriptions they have written about their monster characters.
Objectives /

Text/Speaking/Listening

/
Word/Sentence
/

Independent group activities

/ Outcomes
These plans run alongside a structured synthetic phonics programme. Hamilton Code-Breakers, which fits all the Rose criteria, is available from the English section of the Hamilton website.

Week 2 Monday

/ Main focus: Sequence a story; know about plot and character.
7. Recognise the main elements that shape texts.
4. Explore familiar themes and characters through improvisation and discussion.
9. Plan what to write about.
8. Visualise events and characters and make imaginative links to own experience. / Read Beegu by Alex Deacon. Discuss the story. Who liked Beegu? Who was horrid to her? Talk about the structure of this story – Beginning, Middle 1st half, Middle 2nd half, and End. Show the summary (plan resources) and recap what happened. Explain that we will be planning and writing our own fantasy stories. We will word-process and also illustrate these. We shall then mount each one on a separate page to create our own class anthology of fantasy stories. Recap on the features of fantasy, that we discussed on Friday:
·  A way of playing ‘Let’s pretend…!’
·  Contains events that could not happen in real life.
·  Has a ‘pretend’ element, e.g. a fantasy object, creature or person.
·  Maybe set in an imaginary setting, e.g. outer space, an imagined star or planet.
·  Often involves a problem being solved in an unusual way or a way we cannot really use (e.g. flying, or visiting another planet…).
·  Allows us to use our imaginations and create or live in a world that is not the ‘real’ world!
Say that today we shall discuss in groups a plot for our own story. Show chn a structure (plan resources). Discuss how we shall draw or write what is to happen in each part of the structure in our own stories. Brainstorm ideas. / Easy
Chn work with the teacher to create a good plot for a story using the structure shown. Once they have a plot, each child can personalise it by inventing their own alien(s). TD /
Medium/Hard
Put chn in small groups to discuss and plan their stories. Their alien could be good or bad, friendly or fierce and scary. There could be one alien or many. Having each decided these questions, chn then discuss what happens in their story. What is the problem? How does it get worse? What happens in the end? How is everything made alright again? Do they have a happy ending? / Children can:
1. Understand that stories have a structure.
2. Create an alien character for a fantasy story.
3. Begin to plan the plot of a story.
Plenary
Chn share some of their ideas for their main alien character in their story. What are their aliens like? Are they nice and cuddly or scary?

Week 2 Tuesday

/ Main focus: Plan oral fantasy story.
9. Use key features of narrative in own writing.
11. Compose and write simple sentences independently to communicate meaning.
11. Use capital letters & full stops in sentences.
12 . Write legibly, forming most letters correctly, with spaces between words. / Remind chn of story structure:
·  Beginning: Where they introduce their alien or aliens! What do we need to know about them?
·  Middle (1): Where a danger or problem occurs.
·  Middle (2): Where things get worse!
·  End: Where the danger or problem is sorted out.
Stress that chn will write their story in two parts. The beginning and the first half of the middle today, and the next part tomorrow. / Remind chn how we write in complete sentences. Each sentence needs to start with a capital letter, and end with a full stop. Remind chn about careful letter formation and neat, legible handwriting. / Easy/Medium/Hard
Chn work in their groups. They write the first two parts of their story. First they must describe their alien, letting the reader know what this (or these) is (or are) like. Then they should write about the problem. Keep referring back to the story structure, and encourage chn to keep it simple. Remind chn about capital letters and full stops. Support chn in leaving spaces between words to keep their writing legible.