half as big: teaching sequence 1

White Wolves Teachers’ Resource for Guided Reading – Year 2

Half as Big: Teaching Sequence 1

ObjectivesBy 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.

IntroductionThe 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.

Returning to the textOnce 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,

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.

Half as Big© A & C Black 2010

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.


Activity Sheet 1: Making Links


Onthewayhe

metastream,a

fireandabreeze.

Whenhegotto

thecity,Medio

Pollitothoughtthe

cookwastheking.ThecookpickedMedioPollito

fromthefireandthrewhim

outofthewindow.

Thenthebreeze

blewhimupto

therooftops!

MedioPollitosets

outforthecityto

seetheking.

Thecookthrew

himinthe

cookingpot!

SoMedioPollito

jumpedfromthe

cookingpotinto

thefire.


Half as Big: Teaching Sequence 2

ObjectivesBy 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.

IntroductionThe 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 textRefer 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.

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.

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.



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 Meansthesame

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.

Inthecityallthepeople________________________thiswayandthat.

The___________quickly___________MedioPollitouptotherooftops.

The________________badly________________MedioPollito’sfeathers.


half as big: teaching sequence 1

Documents