Literacy Year 1/2: Summer B – Weeks 1-2 Narrative: Unit 4A Fantasy: Pets

/ 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, and is available from the English section of the Hamilton website. You will need Hamilton Animated Tale (or Poster book) Maisie’s Dragon by Philippa Danvers.
N.B. If your class enjoys learning stories by heart this is a great one to try as it contains lots of repetition and useful story writing language.

Week 1 Monday

/ Main focus:
Introduce story
1/3. Ask and answer questions.
2/11. Compose sentences.
2/11. Use question marks, and use commas to separate items in a list. / Open Animated Tale Maisie’s Dragon and introduce Maisie. Look at cover page. What can chn see in picture? Talk in pairs and give chn 2 min to think of one question they would like to ask Maisie? Share ideas and write 2 or 3 questions on the flip chart without question marks or capital letters. / Read back questions you have written together identifying and reading tricky words. What is missing? Use a different colour to insert Capital letters and question marks. Read next page of Maisie ‘Once upon … to look for him’ (p1). /
Easy
Draw 4 places you think the pet dragon might have gone. Label the places. / Medium
Think of a list of new questions for Maisie. Write the sentences together.
TD /
Hard
Write a list of different questions for Maisie. What would they like to ask now? What games do you play with your dragon? How did you feel when he was gone? What will you do now? Etc. / Children can:
1. Formulate questions as part of a group.
2. Write questions.
3. Punctuate questions correctly.
Plenary
Hard group read out one of their questions each, but don’t answer them yet!

Week 1 Tuesday

/ Main focus: Hot-seat Maisie
1/4. Explore characters through improvisation.
2/4. Adopt appropriate roles in small or large groups.
1&2/6. Recognise spelling patterns. / Hot-seating Maisie. Choose a volunteer to be Maisie and ask different chn to ask her the questions generated during introduction and activities yesterday. Give support to help chn produce some in depth answers. / How did Maisie feel when she found her dragon was gone? Write unhappy on f/c. Explain how prefix un- (which means not) at beginning of word changes the meaning. Write: lucky, do, tie, zip, dress, well, fold on f/c. Read together and ask chn to copy them onto w/bs with un- at the beginning. How have the meanings been changed? (Support for Spelling, p26) /
Easy/Medium
Add –un to the words and draw pictures to illustrate them (plan resource). / Medium/Hard
Write words, and re-write the sentences so they mean the opposite using prefix –un to help (plan resource). TD / Children can:
1. Begin to understand prefixes.
2. Add common prefixes to words.
Plenary
Share answers to sentences. Do they mean the opposite now?

Week 1 Wednesday

/ Main focus: Brainstorm characters
1/9. Find and use new and interesting words.
2/9. Make adventurous word and language choices appropriate to the style and purpose of the text. / Read Maisie’s Dragon with chn joining in with ...and on she ran. Stop where she meets the hairy horse (p10). In pairs chn try and remember how many characters Maisie has met so far (5: a friendly farmer, a tall teacher, a short shopkeeper, a bossy builder and a hairy horse). Did they manage to get them all? List them on f/c demonstrating commas in lists and ending with and. / Underline the first letter of each adjective and noun and remind/ explain about alliteration.
Friendly farmer / Easy/Medium/Hard
Small groups sit in a circle and try and think of as many different characters as they can. They can be real or fantasy. When they have thought of a different one each they draw their character on A4 paper, e.g. park keeper, alien, witch, baker, dancer, astronaut, etc. Write a label (or have it scribed) for their character clearly under their picture. Writing needs to be large and legible as these will form part of a working display. Try not to overlap characters with other groups. TD as required / Children can:
1. Devise a character.
2. Work as part of a group.
3. Understand alliteration.
Plenary As a class try and think of an alliterative adjective for each character e.g. perfect park keeper, super swimmer, wicked wizard, moaning minotaur. Write the adjective in front or above the label on each picture as you all decide what it will be. Underline the first letters. Practise saying alliteration. Make a display (plan resource for heading).

Week 1 Thursday

/ Main Focus: Explore story endings
1/7. Make predictions showing an understanding of ideas, events and characters.
2/7. Give some reasons why things happen or characters change. / Read the next page where Maisie finds herself all alone (p11).
Write these 3 questions on the f/c:
1. What are her thoughts?
2. What should she do next?
3. How could the story end?
Talk in 2s or 3s. Have a circle time discussing the issues and reasons she might act in a certain way. / Model answering one in complete sentences, e.g. not just sad but Maisie feels sad.
Discuss connective however (it introduces a contrast) a bit like but.
Maisie feels sad however she hopes she will soon find her dragon. / Easy
Use small world people or puppets to play out some possible story endings for Maisie. Tell chn you want to hear their ideas at the end of the session. / Medium
Use plan resource to write answers to questions discussed in introduction. Must use complete simple sentences correctly punctuated (plan resource). / Hard
As for Medium but can they use the word however at least twice to make a complex sentence?
TD / Children can:
1. Discuss character’s feelings.
2. Predict what might happen next.
3. Write complex sentences.
Plenary
Easy group tell their ideas about how the story ends. Read the last page of the story. Compare with their ideas.

Week 1 Friday

/ Main Focus: Explore fantasy animals/ characters
1/9. Convey information and ideas in simple non-narrative forms.
2/9. Select from different presentational features. / Ask chn what pets they have at home or what they would like to have. Why is Maisie’s pet different to all those. Dragons with wings are imaginary animals (magical, mythical). Look at this website for games about fantasy animals:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120525235251/http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/language-games/paint-the-words/fantasy-animals . Scroll down the page and have fun exploring the games. Try the Make your own animal maker and Spot the dragon. Chn will design and draw their own fantasy pet/friend today. It could be a fantasy animal/character they know (e.g. a unicorn, dragon, mermaid, fairy) or completely made up. /
Easy/Medium
Chn draw/paint their own fantasy pet/friend and label it (plan resource). Provide word bank for support (plan resource). / Medium/Hard
As for other group but fill in fact file about pet (plan resource). TD / Children can:
1. Make up a fantasy pet/character.
2. Describe their pet.
Plenary
Lay out all the pictures of the pets on tables and all have a walk round and look at them.
/ 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, and is available from the English section of the Hamilton website.

Week 2 Monday

/ Main Focus: Explore and create settings
1/9. Find and use new and interesting words and phrases, including story language.
2/9. Make adventurous word and language choices. / Re-read Maisie’s Dragon all together. Can they say any bits by heart? Discuss settings. Is it set in a real world or a fantasy world? A bit of both. Familiar settings, but would Maisie be allowed to run after her dragon? Why not? Why do we know it is not a real setting? / List the Maisie settings down one side of f/c (farm, playground, shop, building site, field). Now list some other settings (fantasy or real) down the other - outer space, underwater, desert, planet, magic forest, tree house, island, city, garden etc. Demonstrate numbered and bullet pointed lists. /
Easy/Medium
Chn draw/paint their own real or fantasy setting and label it. Provide word bank for support (plan resource). TD /
Medium/Hard
As for other group but include adjectives to describe settings (plan resource).
Try and ensure a good range of different settings are included. / Children can:
1. Talk about settings.
2. Think of a setting to use in a story.
3. Begin to use adjectives.
Plenary
Group similar settings and display them on working wall (plan resource for display heading). Read through the vocabulary generated.

Week 2 Tuesday

/ Main Focus: Improvise a story as part of a group
1/4. Act out their own and well-known stories.
2/4. Present part of a story for members of their own class.
1&2/1. Retell real and imagined stories. / Look at enlarged script version of story (plan resource). With class choose an alternative fantasy pet, e.g. a flying rabbit! Choose 5/6 confident chn and model acting out story substituting different characters for those in Maisie’s Dragon. One child is looking for their lost rabbit. The other chn are the people he/she meets (they could be in pairs). Someone is a narrator. Use characters from your display for this (nasty nurse etc. or 2 nasty nurses - it would be good to have some negative adjectives for some acting scope). Give the chn copy of prompt script (plan resource). He/she goes from one to the other asking if they have seen the pet. They say ‘no’ and improvise something the pet was doing (pinch ideas from Maisie story or make up own). / Easy/Medium/Hard
Extra adult help would be good for this although capable Y2s could probably lead a group.
In groups improvise a new Maisie story. Encourage chn to learn their part by heart. When each group is ready they could show their ‘play’. / Children can:
1. Make up a story as part of a group.
2. Take part in an improvisation.
3. Lead a group to make an improvisation.
Plenary
Try and tell the Maisie story from the story map on the last page (plan resource for whole story).

Week 2 Wednesday

/ Main Focus: Plan a story based on a known structure
1/9. Independently choose what to write about, plan and follow it through.
2/9. Draw on knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write. / Look again at story map from Maisie and tell the story together. Look at story planner (plan resource) and tell chn they will plan their own story based on Maisie’s Dragon but choosing new characters and settings. Explain that all writers build on other people’s ideas. Look at the wall displays and remind chn of all their brilliant ideas. Stress they can use any of the ideas for characters and settings. / Teach this first:
Read sentence openers together (plan resource). Can they find the ones used in this story? (After a while, However). Explain how using different sentence openers can help create interest in stories and move them along. /
Easy/Medium
Work through the planner, box-by-box, giving chn a few minutes to draw settings and characters each time (plan resource). The drawings can be very rough as long as the child knows what they are, e.g. Everyone draws their character and pet. Then move on together to box 2. Those who can, label characters and settings. TD /
Medium/Hard
Plan own story independently. Draw what is going to happen first. Then add key words, labels, etc. Do not write at this stage. They can use the Maisie structure and also their own ideas. Decide on some good openers and write them as a reminder at the bottom of their plan, plus any other useful vocabulary (plan resource). / Children can:
1. Plan a story with support.
2. Plan a story independently.
3. Build on other people’s ideas.
4. Plan some sentence openers.
Plenary
Discuss progress. Hard group share some of their ideas.

Week 2 Thursday

/ Main Focus: Writing their own story
1/10. Group written sentences together in chunks of meaning.
2/10. Use planning to establish clear sections for writing.
2/10. Use appropriate language to make sections hang together. / Over the next 2 days the chn will write a story about their lost fantasy pet and who they meet when they are looking for it. First, using their plan, they tell the story out loud to themselves, a partner or a puppet. Can they say it all through? Which are the bits they got stuck on? Stress that as they write, if a better idea occurs to them, they should use it. The plans are to help but not to tie them down. / Go through sentence openers again. Show Hard group how you can also use some of these words to link 2 short sentences into one long one - Jack gave his pet a bath because it was so muddy. Ask chn to share any sentence openers they have written on their plans as prompts. / Easy
Chn rehearse the words for their first sentence counting them out on fingers. Remember a space between each word (like the space between their fingers). They use their sounds to have a go at spelling. Careful handwriting. / Medium
Chn use structure of Maisie’s Dragon to write own story with different characters and settings as on their plan. Careful handwriting. / Hard
Chn can use structure of Maisie’s Dragon to write own story or change and adapt it. Careful handwriting. / Children can:
1. Plan and write simple sentences.
2. Sustain a longer piece of writing.
3. Write legibly.
Plenary
Chn report their progress & volunteers read out one of their sentences.

Week 2 Friday

/ Main Focus: Finishing and illustrating a story
1/12. Write most letters correctly with spaces.
2/12. Write legibly, using upper and lower case letters appropriately use the four basic handwriting joins. / Read out some of the stories so far. Do they make sense? Which characters and settings have people used? Are they easy to read (legible)? Remind how important it is to read through work and make corrections or redraft and put in better words, demonstrate using upside down ‘v’ to insert new words.
How are they going to end their story? Revisit some of the plans and share ideas. Will it be like Maisie or will they find their pet in a different place or way (or not find it al all)?
Look back at some of the illustrations in Maisie’s Dragon. How have they been done? Drawings and paintings on a colourful background. Which is their favourite? Why? Discuss with a partner. / Teach this first:
Demonstrate how to add question marks (and if your chn are ready), speech marks to a sentence (plan resource). / Easy/Medium/Hard
Chn continue to work on their stories at their own pace. Early finishers could start to do some illustrations, perhaps using rainbow paper created in a previous art session as a background then working on top with felt tip pens!
If time allows stories could be written or typed out to make small individual books or a class book. / Children can:
1. Discuss and defend preferences.
2. Finish their story.
3. Redraft and improve their story.
Plenary
Read and celebrate each other’s stories. Practice making constructive comments about what they liked and why.

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