Lila and the Secret of Rain by David Conway and Jude Daly
Lila’s Kenyan village is suffering a terrible drought. When Lila hears her mother say that ‘without water there can be no
life’ she sets out on a quest to uncover the secret of rain and so save the village.
This modern folk tale reminds us of how necessary and precious water is for survival and provides opportunity to explore
together some larger themes of conservation.
Overall aims of this teaching sequence
To explore, interpret and respond to a picture book
To explore narrative setting, plot and characters
To broaden understanding and use of well-chosen vocabulary
To sequence events to retell a narrative
To write simple non-chronological reports
This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 1 or Year 2 class.
Overview of this teaching sequence.
This teaching sequence is approximately 4 weeks long if spread out over 20 sessions.
The book supports teachers to teach about character development in narrative fiction. The characters and the setting are
well drawn. This text offers young readers a good stimulus for creative response to text, a model for their own story
writing and stimulus for non-fiction writing.
National Curriculum 2014 Links
Reading: (Word reading / Comprehension)
Writing: (Transcription / Composition)
Increase familiarity with a range of stories
Draft and write by composing and rehearsing
sentences orally
Explain and discuss understanding of books
Sequence sentences to form short narratives
Discuss the sequence of events in books
In narrative create settings, characters and plot
Discuss favourite words and phrases
Write for different purposes including fictional
Be introduced to non-fiction texts that are
narratives and information
structured in different ways
Reread writing to check it makes sense and make
Answer and ask questions
simple revisions
Predict what might happen on the basis of what
Discuss and evaluate what they have written with
has been read
the teacher or other pupils
Draw inferences on the basis of what is being said
Read aloud what they have written with
and done
appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear
Speaking and Listening:
Participate in discussion about what is read, taking turns and listening to what others say
Ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and build vocabulary and knowledge
Listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers
Articulate and justify answers and opinions
Use spoken language to develop understanding
Speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
Participate in performances, role-play and improvisations
Use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas in discussion, role-play and
drama
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
Cross Curricular Links
This text might be linked to the wider theme of Africa, or one such as Around the World.
Re-enactment through play: story props, story boxes, small-world play
At appropriate points during this teaching sequence it will be important to provide lots of ways for children to revisit the
story and retell it independently for themselves and their friends.
Story props
With the children, make a set of magnetic or stick story props to use both in your retelling of the story and to support
children’s own independent retellings.
Story boxes
Make a story box or story boxes for children to use to replay this story or to make up a completely new one. It could
either be made by the children themselves or presented to the children complete and ready for story making. Include
small dressed figures of the villagers for the children to hold and enact their story through.
Small world play
Make a 3D map of the story in a builder’s tray using sand, dried grass and a material such as mod-roc to make the
mountains. Place models of the villagers in it for children to use to encourage oral story making and retelling.
Recreate the role-play area as Lila's home in the Kenyan village. Decide with the children what they would need to put
into it and make time for the children to make these. Create a Kenyan backdrop for a wall frieze and a book box or
display of other stories set in Africa and appropriate non-fiction texts.
Within the writing area, provide additional prompts and writing materials to encourage independent and imaginative
responses for example: art materials to make sketches and puppets of characters or scenes from the story; paper and
envelopes for Lila to write letters to grandfather and mama while she is on her journey; atlases to locate Kenya and blank
maps to plot Lila's journey; a diary or thought bubbles for Lila to record her thoughts while on her adventure. This area
could include digital sound recorders for children to record observations and respond to parts of the story etc.
Computing
Children could be encouraged to produce written outcomes using ICT (see teaching sessions for more detail).
KS1 subject content: use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content.
Art and design
By exploring, responding to and visualising the settings in the narrative, the children will have the opportunity to:
use a range of materials creatively to design and make products;
use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination;
develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.
Music
By creating their own poetry, dance and musical accompaniment, the children will have opportunities to:
use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes;
experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Physical Education
By responding to the text through dance and music, the children will have opportunities to:
perform dances using simple movement patterns.
Geography
KS1 subject content: place knowledge: understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human
and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country;
human and physical geography: use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical features and key human
features.
Science
KS1 programmes of study links: Year 1: Plants and Year 2: Living things and their habitats.
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
Teaching Approaches
Reading aloud and rereading
Book talk
Visualising
Drawing and annotating
Story mapping
Drama and role-play
Writing in role
Shared writing
Book making
Links to other texts and resources
Wilson-Max K: Furaha Means happy: a book of Swahili Words
Chamberlin R, Chamberlin, Cairns: Mama Panya’s Pancakes
Faundez A: The Day the Rains Fell
Browne E: Handa’s Surprise and Handa’s Hen
Ardeena V: Bringing the rain to Kapiti Plain
Scott J: Mara Serengeti: A Photographer's Paradise
Conway D, Littlewood K: The Most Important Gift of All
Writing Outcomes
Short narrative descriptions
Thought bubbles/ speech bubbles/ direct speech
Story maps
Narratives based on known text
Poems
Fact files
Non-chronological reports/ information texts
Signs with captions
CBBC Introduction to Kenya video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/an-introduction-to-kenya/4496.html
CBBC Life in rural Kenya video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/life-in-rural-kenya/4499.html
National Geographic Kids: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find/kenya/
Artwork by Kenyan artists such as Martin Bulinya, Millie Mildred and Robert Aswani
[Websites accessed 7th November 2013.]
Teaching Sessions
Session 1: Responding to illustration
Learning Objectives:
Children link reading and responding to illustration to their own experience.
Children make simple inferences based on an illustration.
Show the children images of different weather. Ask them to select which type of weather they like best and
explain why. You may wish to use sentence prompts to support the children in orally forming their answers into
sentences for example: I like it when the weather is... because...
Invite the children to consider: I wonder what would happen if the sun shone every day and it never
rained? Some children may have experience of living in countries where they have experienced the more
destructive aspects of the sun.
Display the first double-page spread of the book with the text removed on the interactive whiteboard (IWB) and
in pairs, ask the children to talk about what they notice. (Alternatively you might give it to small groups on tables
and get them to note down their first thoughts and responses around the picture.) As a class share first
impressions and explore the setting, possible characters and the weather. Where necessary, provide the children
with necessary vocabulary. List any questions that arise on a flipchart to return to later.
Explain that the story is set in Kenya, Africa and show children where this is using Google Earth.
Session 2: Responding to images, shared writing
Learning Objectives
Children use descriptive language to portray a scene.
Children compose sentences orally before writing.
Children reread writing to check it makes sense.
Display images of Kenya and Kenyan villages for the children to see. You may wish to use photographs or African
art. Ask the children to identify what they see (the nouns) and annotate the images. Using one image, invite
children to expand on what they can see by describing it and so making noun phrases for example: what colours
do you notice? Describe the people's clothes? Describe the houses and landscape. Encourage use of descriptive
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
language and annotate the class image with good examples.
Encourage the children to look really closely and when taking ideas encourage oral expansion for example: can
you see an orange sun or a gleaming orange sun?
Have images of rural African scenes for children to select and ask them to describe and annotate these in pairs or
individually.
Invite the children to help you compose sentences to describe the scene displayed on the IWB. Model how to do
this, orally rehearsing before writing. Explicitly demonstrate how to begin your sentence and how to use the
descriptive language gathered by the class.
Expect children to write their own sentence or sentences about their image (you may decide that the children will
all use the class image). Following writing, demonstrate how to reread writing to check for errors. You may do
this using your own modelled writing or an example of the children's work. Encourage the children to return to
their sentences to check that it makes sense, the meaning is clear and it is punctuated.
Return to the first double-page spread from the story and remind the children that all of the images they have
explored show the same country: Kenya.
Session 3: Reading, book talk
Learning Objective:
Children make simple inferences about a character's feelings.
Share the front cover of the book on the IWB and read the title of the book. Ask the children to describe what
they think the story might be about.
Read the story to the children. Whilst reading discuss unfamiliar and descriptive vocabulary, clarifying meaning.
Identify the main characters. What are their names? Ask the children: how do you think you would be feeling if
you were one of the children in the village?
Reread the story and stop at key points. Ask the children to identify how Lila is feeling, for example when Lila
overhears her mama talking about the well to the other villagers and when Lila sets off on her journey. You may
wish to give the children feelings written on cards or displayed on the IWB and ask them to select the most
appropriate for example: worried, determined, brave, strong. Invite children to expand on their answers by
asking: tell me why you think that...
Attach the children's feeling words to images in the book or on a display to demonstrate how Lila's feelings
change as she goes on her quest.
Session 4: Reading, book talk, shared writing
Learning Objectives:
Children express simple views of a story, giving reasons for their answers.
Children make simple inferences based on knowledge of the text.
Reread the story. Identify vocabulary used by the author to describe the setting and add this to your annotated
scenes of Africa. Explain unfamiliar vocabulary.
Talk briefly with the children about their first responses to the story. What did they like and/ or dislike?
Through modelling, describe your favourite part of the story. Provide the children with an oral scaffold for
example: the most memorable part of the story was... because...; my top moment in the story was... because...
and in pairs ask them to identify their favourite part of the narrative. Encourage children to give reasons for their
choices and invite some children to share these.
Invite the children to draw and describe their favourite part of the story. Model how to do this, orally rehearsing
before writing, considering spelling and punctuation.
Encourage children to revisit writing to check that it makes sense, the meaning is clear and it is punctuated.
Ask the class to consider what the author might be trying to tell us. Through shared writing, write one or two
sentences to capture the children's ideas and display these.
Session 5: Reading, book talk, story mapping, retelling and sequencing events
Learning Objective:
Children can retell a known story in sequence, using story language.
Revisit the children's reactions to the story, focusing on the aspects that they found most interesting or
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
surprising. Reread the story, encouraging children to join in.
Explain that the main events are the main things which happen in a story and they must be told in the right order
for the story to make sense. Through paired talk, hold up the opening phrase of the story: for weeks and weeks
and ask the children to consider what happened first in the story. Collect feedback and remodel answers into
sentences if necessary. Hold up a suitable adverbial for example then, and ask the children to say what happened
next. Again, remodel answers into sentences if necessary. Encourage the children to retell the story in stages
providing them with suitable adverbials to order their retelling for example: after some time, then, next, after
that, finally.
Swiftly demonstrate how to map the story horizontally to demonstrate the journey Lila and her village have
undertaken. Label the story map with suitable adverbials used in the oral retelling.
In pairs, invite the children to draw a map of the story. If possible use wall paper.
When completed, encourage the children to retell the story using their story maps.
Sessions 6 and 7: Role-play, shared writing, writing in role, story telling
Learning Objectives:
Children draw inferences about a character's feelings.
Children compose sentences orally before writing.
Children reread writing to check it makes sense.
Children compose sentences using inverted commas to mark direct speech.
Using the class story map, place images of Lila and the feelings they identified at the appropriate points on the
story map.
Explain to the children that they are going to work in role as Lila. In a suitable space, retell the story to the
children stopping at key points and asking them to work in role as the young girl. Model this for the children.
Ask: how is Lila feeling? What is she thinking? How will she show this through her body language and facial
expressions? As the children work in role, take digital photographs for later use. Tap individuals on the shoulder
and ask them to reveal their thoughts. Capture these in thought bubbles.
Use the digital images of the children in role and add these to the class story map with the collected feelings and
ideas gathered during the drama.
Explain that the children are going to write thought bubbles for their own characters, adding them to their story
maps. Demonstrate how to write sentences in a thought bubble focusing explicitly on phonics application,
punctuation and sentence structure. Model verbalising sentences before writing. Expect the children to orally
rehearse their sentences before writing and support as appropriate. Expect children to write their own thought
bubbles as Lila at different points in the story. The children should add these to the correct places in their story
maps.
If appropriate you may wish to extend this activity so that the children write sentences using direct speech.
During the drama activity, ask the children to identify what Lila might say at different points in the narrative. For
example, when she reaches the top of the mountain, when it finally begins to rain. Make a note of good
examples and in class discuss how the speech might be said and ask children to role-play examples. Jot down
suitable speech verbs and through modelled and shared writing create sentences which include direct speech
marked with inverted commas. Engage children in punctuating the speech using large versions of inverted
commas.
Encourage children to write these sentences using speech marks and add these to the correct place on the story
map.
Sit the children down in a large circle and ‘pass the story round’. Use the class story map and pause occasionally
for children to come into the middle of the circle and act out significant parts from the story.
Sessions 8 and 9: Shared and independent writing, book making
Lesson Objectives:
Children are able to sequence sentences to form a short narrative.
Children are able to write a narrative following a chronological structure.
Children draft and write by composing and rehearsing sentences orally.
Children reread writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions.
Children read writing aloud with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear.
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
Explain to the class that they are going to write their own version of Lila and the Secret of Rain. These narratives
will take the form of zigzag books and might be placed in the school library, sent home or become part of the
classroom library.
Use your story map to orally tell your story. Demonstrate how you use story language and ideas taken from
activities throughout the teaching sequence to compose parts of the narrative. Explicitly demonstrate use of
adverbials (for weeks and weeks, then, finally) and orally rehearse sentences before writing.
Supported through modelled, shared and guided writing the children write their narrative using their story maps.
At regular intervals, encourage children to reread sections of their text to check it makes sense and make simple
revisions. Expect children to apply their phonic skills and knowledge. Support them in doing this through
demonstrating how to reread and check writing and ask children to work in pairs to read their finished draft to a
partner. They can then illustrate their individual zigzag books.
Sessions 10 - 13: Drama and role-play, visualisation, shared and independent writing, performance and dance
Learning Objectives:
Children use descriptive language to compose a poem.
Children plan and rehearse a sentence orally before writing.
Children compose a poem.
Children recite their poem by heart.
Explain to the children that when it starts to rain the whole village celebrates with music and dancing. Explain
that you are going to write a poem or song together to celebrate the coming of the rain. Use a call and response
pattern that characterises the singing of some Kenya peoples. This poetry form will provide a strong supportive
pattern for the children to work within.
Return to the part of the story where it starts to rain. Revisit Lila's feelings at this point. Ask the children to
imagine they are Lila on the top of the mountain. Ask them to close their eyes and describe the scene to them.
Use language from the text for example: the crying sky; each raindrop felt like mama's kisses, and play sound
effects of rain drops or music to help them to imagine they are Lila feeling the rain on her skin for the first time.
Encourage the children to run down the mountain in happiness to the villagers who are celebrating and discuss
with the children what they can see, what they hear, how the rain feels, what they might smell. Gather their
ideas on a flipchart.
Through modelled and shared writing demonstrate how to write a call and response. Focus on using the
children's ideas and language from the story. Model how to orally rehearse your sentence before writing. For
example:
o A: Thank you for the rain
o B: It feels like kisses on our cheeks
o A: Thank you for the rain
o B: It feels tingly and loving
o A: Thank you for the rain
o B: It makes out crops grow tall and green
Expect the children to orally rehearse their response to the call before writing and support as appropriate. Expect
children to write their own response and share these to form a class song.
The song could be illustrated and collected together into a laminated song card. Children might also enjoy
recording their work onto tape for others to listen to as they read along with the book.
When the class or individual songs have been composed, place the children into small groups to read it through
together and prepare it for performance. Each group might be given the whole poem (depending on how long it
is) or a section of it. Ask children to decide how they might choose to perform it - in unison; in parts or as
individuals; loudly or softly.
Using pitched and unpitched instruments, improvise a short piece of music to convey the coming of the storm.
Each group of children could work with a different set of instruments for example: rain sticks, chime bars or
drums, or use body music such as clapping and clicking.
When completed, record the piece and work with the children to create a dance to depict the villagers’ response
to the arrival of the rains.
Finished poems, musical compositions and dances might be performed or recorded for a real audience.
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
Sessions 14 - 18: Reading, text marking, book talk, shared and independent writing
Learning Objectives:
Children retrieve information from a text to answer questions.
Children plan and orally rehearse a sentence before writing.
Children write a simple non-chronological report.
Children use carefully chosen vocabulary in their non-fiction writing.
Children proof-read to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Ask the children: what do you think it would be like to grow up in Kenya? Do you think all of the country is like the
Kenya in the book?
Using the internet, show the children where Kenya is on maps and sites such as Google Earth. Explain to them
that this book portrays only one aspect of life in Kenya. They are going to do some research to find out some
things about what it would be like to be a child in both the town and the country.
Show some images of Kenyan towns and villages on the IWB and ask the children to talk to a partner and identify
what they might like to find out about Kenyan life. (It might be useful to refer back to the list of questions that
came out of the first session when children were looking at the initial double-page spread from the book.)
Support the children in composing questions by modelling your own. Orally rehearse your question before
writing. Explicitly demonstrate how to use question words and punctuate questions. Individually or in pairs,
expect the children to compose questions and display.
Prepare a large poster-size comparison chart onto which the information can be collected. For example, they
might want to know:
Country
Town
What do children
eat?
What do the
children do?
Where do children
live?
What do children
wear?
Introduce the writing task: to create a fact file and non-chronological report (page for an information book) on life
in Kenya. Identify an audience for the writing; perhaps the information books and fact files will form a class
display in a communal area of the school or library, or published on the school website. The chosen writing
outcome will depend on the ability of the writers.
Investigate aspects of Kenyan life. Demonstrate how to skim and scan for information by playing simple games
and setting challenges. For example: before watching short video clips, give pairs of children a specific question
to answer; ask children to find key information when using images of Kenya and reading information texts.
Encourage the children to identify interesting information they have learned from the different sources: the most
interesting fact I've learned today... Return to the displayed questions and attach answers as appropriate.
Use modelled and shared approaches to teach the children how to orally rehearse and write factual sentences.
For example: demonstrate the use of technical vocabulary; present tense; use of coordinating and subordinating
connectives to add extra information.
Link this teaching and learning to teaching of grammar for example: use of capital letters for proper nouns;
extending clauses using coordinating connectives; consistent use of tense; subordination of sentences.
As a class display and organise factual information on a spidergram.
Interview an 'expert traveller' (an adult in role) and find out more about Kenya and answer the children's
questions.
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
Encourage children to represent the facts they have learned in different ways: labelled diagrams, did you know
facts, simple fact files.
Encourage the children to use appropriate vocabulary by providing them with alternatives for example: people or
tribe?
Talk to the children about design and organisational features.
Explore the design and layout of real information texts: what type of words are there? What type of images are
there? How is the page organised? How does the author make it easier for the reader to understand?
Invite children to plan the design and layout of their information text. What images will they use? Where will the
images be? What will the title be?
Through shared and modelled writing, compose an information text. This might be a fact file or a nonchronological report. Use the class spidergram as a plan for writing. As before, use shared approaches to teach
the children how to orally rehearse and writing sentences in the style of the text type.
At regular intervals, encourage children to reread sections of their text to check it makes sense and make simple
revisions. Expect children to apply their phonic skills and knowledge. Support them in doing this through
demonstrating how to reread and check writing and ask children to work in pairs to read their finished draft to a
partner.
Information texts may be published using IT.
The following resources may be helpful:
National Geographic Kids magazine: http://kids.nationalgeographic.co.uk/kids/ [Accessed November 2013]
Aquila magazine: http://www.aquila.co.uk/ [Accessed November 2013]
Sessions 19 and 20: Debate and discussion, shared writing
Learning Objectives:
Children plan and orally rehearse a sentence before writing.
Children write a caption.
Children proof-read to check for errors in spelling and punctuation.
Lila’s mum says that ‘without water there can be no life’ so Lila is afraid that the village will not survive the
drought.
Discuss as a class: do the children think water is an equally precious thing here in England? Should we be more
careful how we use it?
Share information posters and signs with the children and discuss their purpose and audience. Give the children
time to talk in pairs and identify what the message of these texts is and annotate them. Then ask children to talk
to a partner to consider: what sorts of things could we do in school to conserve water?
Collect the children's ideas and display on the IWB.
Explain that the children are going to create signs for the school to help children and adults to think about the
water that is used. Take one of the suggestions for example: turn off the tap. What might the image be? What
would the caption be? Demonstrate how to plan and write the caption.
Expect the children to write captions applying phonic knowledge, punctuation and grammar skills. Support them
in proof-reading their work for errors in spelling and punctuation.
Share good examples with the class and discuss why they are effective.
Completed signs could be laminated and displayed around the school.
Use and Application of Phonics and Spelling:
The following words could be used to exemplify learning at phonic phases:
Phase 2: sick, sun, hot, did, not, man, met, cut, leg
Phase 3: weeks, down, too, weed, gather, night, well, cook, cow, food,
Phase 4: milk, crops, stop, dust, flocks,
Phase 5: /ai/ alternatives: rain, day, failing, stayed, away, say, rays, remained.
/igh/ alternatives: night, sky, white, dried, life, time, while, sign, brightly, cry, I, firewood, dry, lightning, smile.
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.
/ee/ weeks, beat, very, weed, evening, story, secret, carefully, asleep, reached, ebony, joyfully, relieved.
Split digraphs: life, time, white, while, smile.
High Frequency Words: lived, brother, to, the, even, one, water, come.
Spelling: ‘ed’ endings: stayed, wanted, walked, reached, looked, remained, burned
double consonant ‘+ ed’: hugged
‘-e’ then ‘+ed’: lived, chased, relieved
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ then ‘+ed’: dried
‘ing’ endings: burning, talking, failing, weeping, blocking, scorching, filling, crying, knowing
‘-e’ then ‘+ing’: shining, celebrating, dancing
‘+s’ plurals: ships, waves, caves, stars,
‘ly’ endings: carefully, joyfully, suddenly
‘-er’ endings: higher, darker
‘-est’ endings: highest, saddest
compound words: firewood, without, grandfather, everything, mountaintop, raindrop
©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes
without the express permission of CLPE.