Little Answer by Tim Hopgood (Picture Corgi)
Little Answer is a small creature who is looking for a question, a very special question, to which he can supply the appropriate
response. All the animals he speaks to have big questions to which Little Answer can only reply ‘Sausages!’
Owl has many philosophical enquiries while Elephant, Butterfly and Snail have scientific queries (to which answers are provided at the
back of the book). Eventually Little Answer meets a little girl who comes up with the everyday basic question to which he can provide
the perfect answer. The story has a strong structure and the mixed media illustrations have a deceptively child-like appearance.
A picture book which develops children’s thinking skills and opens their minds.
Overall aims of this teaching sequence
 To explore, interpret and respond to a picture book
 To broaden understanding and use of well-chosen vocabulary
 To use a range of grammar structures in context, using appropriate terminology
 To experiment with punctuation choices for purpose and effect
This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 1 or Year 2 class.
Overview of this teaching sequence.
This teaching sequence is approximately 3 weeks long if spread out over 15 sessions.
The sequence supports teachers to teach vocabulary, punctuation and grammar in a rich context. The characters and the
setting are delightfully drawn, promoting enjoyment in the text, and in turn providing access to the children, the posing of
some very big questions and exploring a range of possible answers. This text offers young readers an engaging stimulus
for creative response to text, a model for their own story writing with a focus on dialogue and stimulus for both fiction
and non-fiction writing. The text also offers opportunities to explore kindness, helpfulness and how to behave toward
each other when we are feeling lost or lonely.
National Curriculum 2014 Links
Reading: (Word reading / Comprehension)
 Increase familiarity with a range of stories
 Explain and discuss understanding of books
 Discuss the sequence of events in books
 Discuss favourite words and phrases
 Be introduced to fiction and non-fiction texts that
are structured in different ways
 Answer and ask questions
 Predict what might happen on the basis of what
has been read
 Draw inferences on the basis of what is being said
and done
Writing: (Transcription / Composition)
 Draft and write by composing and rehearsing
sentences orally
 Sequence sentences to form short narratives
 In narrative create settings, characters and plot
 Write for different purposes including fictional
narratives and information
 Reread writing to check it makes sense and make
simple revisions
 Discuss and evaluate what they have written with
the teacher or other pupils
 Read aloud what they have written with
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
Cross Curricular Links
Science:
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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.
This text links well with the Science curriculum in Key Stage 1. Children could learn about the different animals found in
the story, what their characteristics and habitats are and engage in some cross curricular non-chronological report writing
about the animals. They could also explore local natural habitats like Daisy’s garden and see what plants, flowers and
animals they can find in their own environment.
Art:
Create collage and mixed media illustrations mirroring the style of Little Answer author/illustrator Tim Hopgood. More
information about him can be found on his website: http://www.timhopgood.com/
DT:
Children could use felt and a simple template to join and stuff materials to make their own Little Answer as a friend to
look after to reflect on the issues raised about how to treat each other in the story.
Geography:
Investigate the journey Little Answer makes as part of the story. Linked to PSED, look at where they could go on a journey
and who they could ask for help if they needed to. Link this to people who can help us in the local area.
Physical Education:
In Dance, children could extend the movement work around the wind and create their own wind-inspired dances to
perform.
In Dance or Gymnastics, children could explore how to move and travel like the different animals in the text.
Reading Area
This text provides a perfect opportunity to introduce a focus on Non-Fiction texts in the reading area, where children can
research and explore information on topics of interest. Display these texts prominently with questions to lead children’s
interest. Reading these texts aloud will help children to hear the language of information writing and how it sounds
different from fiction writing. A range of high quality information texts can be found in the KS1 Information Collection of
the Core Books Online site at:
http://www.corebooks.org.uk/books/?f%5B0%5D=im_field_key_stage%3A6&f%5B1%5D=im_field_book_type%3A13&sol
rsort=sort_label%20asc (You will need to register free to access this link).
ICT
Children could use technology to help them find the answers to their big questions for their Book of Little Answers.
Children should look at age appropriate content through directed websites and online materials.
They could video their book reviews of Little Answer to show to the class or present to a wider audience as can be seen
presented by children on Tim Hopgood’s website: http://www.timhopgood.com/#/little-answer/ (scroll to bottom of
page).
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
Writing Outcomes
Questions and answers
Short narrative descriptions
Thought bubbles and speech bubbles
Sentences using direct speech
Story maps
Narratives based on known text
Poems
Fact files
Non-chronological reports and information texts
Letters
Links to other texts and resources
‘Wind’ by Shirley Hughes (published in Out and About: A First Book of Poems by Shirley Hughes)
A range of non-fiction texts to support the answering of the big questions that the animals ask.
Other books by Tim Hopgood:
Big! (Picture Corgi, 2013)
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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.
What a Wonderful World (OUP, 2014)
Wow! Said the Owl (Macmillan, 2013)
Ping and Pong and Best Friends (Mostly) (Simon and Schuster 2013)
Tip Tap Went the Crab (Macmillan 2013)
Hooray for Hoppy (Macmillan, 2014)
UnPOPpable (Macmillan, 2012)
Thank You for Looking After Our Pets (Simon and Schuster 2011)
Here Comes Frankie! (Macmillan 2015)
Web resources [All accessed March 2015]
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQf1vRJfDLg (Wind swirl and Autumn Leaves)
• http://youtu.be/lNk1B8H4wmQ (18 Minutes of Wind Blowing through Trees)
• http://youtu.be/ltdnP2_bmAU (TimeLapse - Strong Winds Blowing Rain Clouds [HD])
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12DsNQlMTS8 (Wind (music by Sylvain Guinet)
Teaching Sessions
Session 1: Responding to illustration and role on the wall
The high quality illustrations in this text work with and beyond the text, creating and enhancing meaning for the reader.
Children will need time to explore the pictures that accompany the text and to respond to them, to talk together about
what they add to their understanding of the text.
Role on the wall is a technique that uses a displayed outline of the character to record feelings (inside the outline) and
outward appearances (outside the outline) at various stopping points across the story. Using a different colour at each of
the stopping points allows you to track changes in the character’s emotional journey.
 Look at the illustration on the title page of the text, ensuring that you do not reveal the title of the text or the
author/illustrator’s name. It would be good to enlarge the illustration on the IWB or on individual images for the
children to see clearly.
 Invite the children to respond to the illustration, you might ask them some key questions to prompt their
thinking, e.g. Who is this character? What are they like? What is the character doing? How do they feel? How do
you know?
 Have the children explain, with reference to the illustration, why they have chosen the vocabulary they have.
 Investigate children’s choices, and whether the vocabulary could be extended by modelling. Develop thinking
around the judicious choices of vocabulary, e.g. if children have selected a word like sad, are there better or more
precise words for this related to what they can see in the illustration?
 Prepare a role on the wall of an outline of the shape of the character to show what they look like on the outside
and how the character might be feeling on the inside. Use the suggested words to extend children’s thinking
around the character through model writing sentences to describe the character and what it is doing. Through
this modelled writing, you may wish to explore accurate nouns and adjectives to name and describe the
character, e.g. This character is a small, blue blob with short legs; verbs and adverbs and prepositions to explore
what the character is doing, how and where, e.g. The small, blue blob, looked sadly at the ground.
 The children could then go on to write their own descriptive sentences or passages about the key character,
showing how they can predict and infer meaning through the illustration. This could be supported by the children
making their own Little Answer from blue play dough with googly eyes and blue pipe cleaners, to enable them to
interact with the character and see his size, shape, expression in their own models, providing them with time and
space to clarify their vocabulary through thinking before writing.
Session 2: Reading Aloud and role on the wall
Reading aloud slows written language down so that children can hear and absorb the words, tunes and patterns. It
enables children to experience and enjoy stories they might otherwise not meet, enlarging their reading interests and
providing access to texts beyond their level of independence as readers.
 Read aloud the first page of the text to the children.
 Discuss the character’s name ‘Little Answer’ – how do we know this is his name? Why do you think this is his
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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.
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name?
Discuss what else we find out about him on this page and add this to the role on the wall from yesterday’s session
in a different colour, to show how our knowledge of the character has progressed through the reading.
Talk about Little Answer being lost. Is he lost, or does he just feel lost? To allow them to empathise with the
character, ask if any of the children ever been or felt lost before? How did it make them feel? Be sensitive to
children for whom this may be an uncomfortable experience.
Ask the children what Little Answer might need to stop him feeling lost. Explore the concept of questions and
answers, what questions might he be the answer to? Take suggestions around a copy of the illustration from this
page, discuss how questions are punctuated with a question mark and start with an initial interrogative pronoun,
e.g. ‘What colour is the sky?’, a subject verb inversion, e.g. ‘Is this a balloon?’ or a correctly punctuated question
tag, e.g.’ This is blue, isn’t it’
Give time for children to predict questions that Little Answer is the answer to and write these down. They can
then display possible questions alongside their playdough models.
Session 3: Re-reading and exploring vocabulary
Opportunities for re-reading a book that they have previously listened to, or read for themselves, helps all children to
engage more deeply with it. Reading and re-reading known texts is important for all readers, but particularly so for less
experienced
readers or those for whom English is an additional language. Re-reading helps to make the text more familiar and enables
children to read it more confidently, fluently and with greater attention to the meaning.
Before the session, prepare laminated copies of the illustrations of Snail, the elephant, the butterfly, the ladybird, Owl,
Rabbit and Daisy.
 Re-read the first page of the text from the previous session. Ask the children what they think Little Answer should do
to help himself?
 Read the next two pages of the text, where Little Answer meets Snail. Why do you think Little Answer says
‘Sausages’? Does this make sense when Snail asks, ‘Now, where shall we start?’
 Look at the illustration and think of words and phrases that could describe the snail. This could be as a ‘Pass the ball
activity’ where the children come up with words that describe him and what he is doing. Each child takes a turn to
pass a ball, or a picture of Snail, to trigger their thinking, and when they get the picture they say one word about the
snail, e.g. shell, red, spiral, eyes, slithered, friendly.
 Help the children to classify the words they have used:
o nouns which label him and his body parts
o adjectives that describe him
o verbs that tell us what he is doing
 Look at how to use the vocabulary to build expanded noun phrases about the elephant, e.g. The friendly snail
slithered.
 Explore how to add further description by using adverbs to describe how he was moving and prepositions to describe
where, e.g. The friendly snail slithered slowly along the path. Look at how to further expand by adding more detail,
e.g. The friendly snail with the red shell slithered along the path towards Little Answer. Talk about the three
sentences you’ve written. Which do the children think sounds best? Why?
 Show the children the other animal characters that Snail and Little Answer will meet as the story develops. Have each
group work on composing a descriptive sentence for one of the characters in the text. They could work on coming up
with words to describe the character first, as in the shared activity, and then work on a number of sentences to
describe the character. Have the children read back their sentences and decide which one they think best describes
their character. Look at the types of words that the children have used to make their sentences. Which add detail for
the reader?
 Come back together as a group, read the sentences out loud and evaluate them. Stick examples of effective
sentences with the character illustrations, on the working wall.
Session 4: Re-reading, responding to reading, developing empathy
Discussion about books forms the foundations for working with books. Children need frequent, regular and sustained
opportunities to talk together about the books that they are reading as a whole class. The more experience they have of
talking together like this the better they get at making explicit the meaning that a text holds for them: a child quoted in
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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.
Aidan Chambers' book Tell Me: Children, Reading & Talk with The Reading Environment Thimble Press, 2011 says 'we
don't know what we think about a book until we've talked about it'.
 Re-read the text so far and on to ‘”Sausages”, said Little Answer hopefully.’ This section has a number of
examples of the apostrophe being used for contraction. Look at these words with the children: he’s, don’t, it’s,
let’s. Explore the full forms and investigate how the apostrophe contracts the two words, with the apostrophe
taking the place of the letter that has been omitted.
 Talk about Elephant’s question and Little Answer’s answer. Is it the right one? Do you think the elephant will be
happy with Little Answer’s response?
 Share the next two pages, exploring the elephant’s reaction to Little Answer. How do you think Little Answer will
feel now? What did elephant say that makes him feel like that? Investigate the shades of intensity in the word
‘silliest’ How does ‘That’s the silliest answer I’ve ever heard’ sound different to ‘That’s a silly answer?’
 Through modelled writing, write in role as Little Answer to explain how he feels after the elephant speaks to him
in this way. This could be in a thought or speech bubble to display with their model, to enhance the children’s
empathy with the character.
Session 5: Shared Writing – Seeing alternative viewpoints
Shared writing is one of the most important ways a teacher can show children how writing works and what it’s like to be a
writer. Acting as scribe, the teacher works with a small or large group of children to create a text together, enabling them
to concentrate on their ideas and composition. Teacher and children work as active partners, talking together to share
ideas and while the teacher guides the children through all the decisions that writers need to make and helps them shape
their thoughts on paper.
 Before the session, prepare an oversized letter in an oversized envelope from the elephant to the children. The
text might read something like: (In brackets you can see where grammatical knowledge from the Y1/2 VGaP NC
2014 expectations can be applied)
Dear children,
Please can you help me? (question) I am trying to find out the answer to a question. (statement) Little Answer said
he could help me but (conjunction) he gave me the silliest (superlative: suffix -est) answer I have EVER heard.
I would like to know what makes the world go round because (conjunction) it certainly (adverb) isn’t sausages.
How ridiculous! (exclamation)
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
Elephant
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How do we feel about the elephant after reading his letter? Why do you think he was so rude to Little Answer?
Was this the right thing to do?
How could we find out the right answer to elephant’s question? Visit the school library to find non-fiction texts
that might help, such as Usborne Beginners Sun, Moon and Stars or The Solar System or National Geographic’s
Little Kids First Big Book of Space, explore web pages such as: http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0018the-rotation-of-the-earth.php or watch a video such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDed5eXmngE
Model writing a letter back to the elephant, helping him with his question, but also to encourage him to think
about the way he behaved towards Little Answer.
Have children write their own letter back to the elephant. You might post these into a class postbox and after
reading them send a reply back from the elephant.
Sessions 6 & 7: Reading aloud, performance poetry and writing poetry
Poetry performance can be a fruitful way of working with poetry, both in terms of encouraging and eliciting responses
from children to the poems they read, and also in providing opportunities for poems to be lifted 'off the page' and brought
to life
 Read aloud ‘Wind’ by Shirley Hughes from the Out and About: A First Book of Poems (Walker Books).
 How does she feel about the wind? How do we know? What words tell us this? Look at the words that the poet
has used to describe the wind and the way she has used commas to separate these in a list. Clarify any words
with the children that they don’t know the meaning of, such as wilful.
 Take the children outside to experience the wind first hand, to deepen both their understanding or how it
behaves and their own responses to how it makes them feel. What does the wind look like? What does it feel
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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.
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like? Take a small, child’s umbrella outside and open it into the wind, or hold up plastic bags or light pieces of
fabric and let them go. Feel the strength and force of the wind pushing you or moving the plastic bags or fabric.
How does it feel when you run into it? Away from it? Collect ideas for use later when back in the classroom.
If it is not a windy day, you can watch Wind swirl and autumn leaves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQf1vRJfDLg [Accessed March 2015] Talk and build vocabulary around how
the leaves move. Gather more ideas, words and descriptive phrases onto the working wall or flip chart.
Look at the poem again and discuss the ways the poem can be read aloud with the children, taking note of the
punctuation contained within it.
Allow the children time to re-read the poem in small groups, rehearsing lines and deciding on how the poem
should be performed, enhanced by their own experiences of the wind.
The children can then perform their interpretations to other groups in the class.
Look at the image of Little Answer watching the wind blow. How do you think he feels about the wind? What
clues are there in the illustration? Record the children’s suggestions around a copy of the illustration.
Watch and listen to Wind (music by Sylvain Guinet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12DsNQlMTS8
Move like leaves in the wind. Are they fast or slow moving? Is it a gentle breeze or a wild gale? Collect adjectives,
verbs and adverbs to describe the wind and how it blows the leaves. You could also extend the children by getting
them to describe the movement in similes – As gentle as a whisper, etc. Display the language on the working wall.
Through shared writing, create a collaborative class or group poem in role as Little Answer, to reflect on how he
feels about the wind. You can use the structure of the original poem as a scaffold if needed or break off into a
free write. Model how to use the vocabulary generated to build into the poem, and reflect on punctuation for
effect or to demarcate adjectives in a list.
The children can then go on to write their own poems about the wind and how it made them feel when they were
out in it or when they watched the video. These can be displayed on a wall display or put into a class anthology to
display in a prominent area in the classroom or school such as the book corner, library or in the reception area for
visitors to see.
Session 8: Reading Aloud, responding to reading and writing in role
When children have explored a fictional situation through talk or role-play, they may be ready to write in role as a
character in the story. Taking the role of a particular character enables young writers to see events from a different view
point and involves them writing in a different voice.
 Re-read the story so far and on until ‘So off they went to find Owl.’
 Reflect on how the three animals, the elephant, the butterfly and the ladybird have treated Little Answer. Is this a
good way to treat someone who is feeling lost?
 Look at the illustration of Little Answer under the clouds. Give time for the children to look at and reflect on this
illustration. You may want to discuss the idiom: Under a cloud... What does it mean to be under a cloud? What
colour is the cloud Little Answer is under? What do you think this means about the way he is feeling?
 Use collage paper, pastels and pens to recreate the illustration. Have the children annotate the illustration with
what Little Answer might be thinking at this point in the story, either as separate thought bubbles or words and
phrases to extend into a paragraph in role to accompany the illustration. Encourage the children to use
conjunctions such as and, but, so and because to extend ideas as to how and why he might be feeling like this.
Session 9: Re-reading, responding to reading and creating questions
Shared writing gives children a model for their own independent writing and can introduce them to unfamiliar genre or
style of writing. Children can then present their written work in a range of literary outcomes such as a poster, big book or
poem for everyone to enjoy.
 Re-read the book so far and on until you reach ‘...perhaps Little Answer wasn’t the answer to anything!’
 How does Owl behave differently to the other animals? Reflect on this from a personal perspective, how should
be respond when people are feeling, lost, lonely or uncertain?
 Look at all the different questions that Owl stays awake asking Little Answer. Look at the way they are presented
in the question marks. If you could ask a big question, what would you ask? Think of questions that you really
want to find out and write these in pre-prepared question mark templates.
 Stick these on the wall and read some out. Are there any we could answer for each other? If not, how could we
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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.
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find out the answer to these?
Have a variety of non-fiction texts available and child-friendly websites to research some of the answers to the
children’s questions. Children could continue to research possible answers as part of home learning.
Session 10: Publishing a book of Little Answers
Publishing their work for an audience helps children to write more purposefully. Bookmaking provides a motivating
context within which children can bring together their developing understanding of what written language is like; making
written language meaningful as they construct their own texts.
 Revisit some of the questions from the previous session and the answers that have been found out. Ask children
to pick four questions that they are really interested in and have the answers to.
 Show the children how to make a simple flap book, by creating a zig-zag book and cutting along the inside vertical
folds only.
 This can then be made into individual ‘My Book of Little Answers’
 Allow time for the children to write their big questions, using question marks appropriately to punctuate on the
outside of the flaps, and then lift the flaps to write the answers and illustrate alongside their writing.
 Look at the way that books are published and allow time for the children to design a front cover, a back cover,
with a blurb, barcode, price and publisher, to make their made books authentic.
 Display these prominently in the classroom and allow time for children to read each other’s books.
Session 11: Reading Aloud and exploring vocabulary and punctuation
Conversations about books help children to explore and reflect on texts in ways that are made meaningful, personal and
pleasurable.
 Re-read the story so far, and on until, ‘...as Little Answer wandered off on his own.’
 Look at the powerful verbs, adverbs and adverbial phrases and conjunctions to add detail used throughout the
story in relation to Little Answer’s reactions; squeaked Little Answer hopefully, said Little Answer, trying to sound
clever, but Little Answer wasn’t laughing, wandered off on his own, Little Answer nodded but it wasn’t an up-anddown yes kind of nod, it was a sideways NO kind of nod, Little Answer wandered off on his own.
 Discuss how these words and phrases make us feel about Little Answer. Which are particularly powerful?
 Think about Little Answer’s exclamation, ‘Sausages!’ how do the words the author has used affect the way we
read this word in the book? Practise reading the word ‘Sausages!’ in different ways, starting by mirroring Little
Answer’s responses, such as: squeaked Little Answer hopefully or said Little Answer, trying to sound clever. Then
think of other ways we could reply to expand children’s knowledge of adverbs and adverb phrases, e.g. sadly,
angrily, trying to sound confident, quietly. You could look at Ed Vere’s book Banana here to look at how the two
monkeys in the story might be saying the word Banana! throughout, linked to how they feel at the time.
 Think about what Snail says to Little Answer; ‘You’ll find your question, I’m sure of it’. What could his question be?
 Use sentence strips to think of possible questions that match Little Answer’s answer ‘Sausages!’
 You could display these on the working wall around the illustration of Little Answer with the big speech bubble
exclaiming ‘Sausages!’
Session 12: Reading Aloud and Booktalk
Once they have heard a book read aloud, the class can begin to explore their responses to it with the help of what
Chambers calls 'the four basic questions'. These questions give children accessible starting points for discussion:
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Tell me…was there anything you liked about this book?
Was there anything that you particularly disliked…?
Was there anything that puzzled you?
Were there any patterns…any connections that you noticed…?
The openness of these questions unlike the more interrogative 'Why?' question encourages every child to feel that they
have something to say. It allows everyone to take part in arriving at a shared view without the fear of the 'wrong' answer.
 Read the whole story from beginning to end. Was the ending as they expected?
 Discuss the story on a wider level, collecting children’s responses at a deeper level. You could use the following
prompts for discussion:
Tell me...
- Is this what you thought would happen? Why/Why not?
- Is there anything you particularly like/dislike about this text?
- Do you have any questions about the text?
- Does it remind you of anything else in real life or in stories?
 What do we learn about Little Answer from the story? How does he change from the start to the end of the story?
Add these thoughts, in a different colour, to the role on the wall.
 Talk about the main series of events in the story. Alongside each event, make collections of words to describe his
emotions at each major point in the story, exploring different and better words than the standard; shy, embarrassed.
This would be a good opportunity to explore the use of a good infant thesaurus, such as the Oxford First Thesaurus or
the Collins Junior Illustrated Thesaurus.
 Use the discussions to create a ‘Graph of emotion’. You may want to use illustrations from the text to map out events,
e.g:
Delighted
Excited
Hopeful
Curious
Shy
Lonely
Anxious
Embarrassed
Devastated
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Have the children discuss which of the emotion words best describes Little Answer at each part of the story. Track his
emotional journey – is it a smooth route to happiness or is his story full of ups and downs?
Session 13: Storymapping.
Making a story map is a way of retelling the story. It is a graphic means of breaking a story down into episodes and
sequencing its events. This kind of graphic representation helps children to hold on to the shape of the story more
confidently so they can re-tell it orally or in writing. Children can also make story maps as a form of planning, to prepare
for their own writing.
Re-read the whole story.
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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
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Get the children to summarise the main events, which animals did Little Answer meet? What did they ask him?
Model how to begin a storymap with the children, through pictures, words and phrases to map the key events of the
story.
Allow time for the children to create their own storymaps on large paper either individually, in pairs or in groups.
Allow time for the children to discuss their storymaps with others, looking at similarities and differences, give time to edit
storymaps with any events that have been left out.
Re-read the story and allow time for children to add key words and phrases around their maps.
Session 14 and 15: Creating own stories
Shared writing is one of the most important ways a teacher can show children how writing works and what it’s like to be a
writer. Acting as scribe, the teacher works with a small or large group of children to create a text together, enabling them
to concentrate on their ideas and composition. Teacher and children work as active partners, talking together to share
ideas and while the teacher guides the children through all the decisions that writers need to make and helps them shape
their thoughts on paper.
 Give time for the children to draw or make from plasticene or playdough their own Little Answer. How are they
different from the Little Answer in the story? What is your own Little Answer’s answer? Write this on a speech bubble
to display with their character.
 Get the children to draw an alternative storymap for their character’s story. Who will they meet? What will they ask?
How will their Little Answer respond to show how they are feeling?
 How will they find their question?
 Draw out the sequence of events for their own stories in words and pictures.
 Supported by shared writing, have the children write their own Little Answer story, following the pattern of the
original story. Use the storymap plans to build up sentences and on to paragraphs that lead the reader through
the story. Focus on descriptive language, drawing from the original text, such as powerful verbs, questions,
exclamations and commands and adjectives and adverbs to add description.
 At points throughout the writing process, model how to use appropriate sentence openers to lead the story on,
re-read for sense and meaning, expand upon and edit writing.
 Give plenty of time for the children to get to the finished writing outcome.
Session 16: Bookmaking and Publishing
Publishing their work for an audience helps children to write more purposefully. Bookmaking provides a motivating
context within which children can bring together their developing understanding of what written language is like; making
written language meaningful as they construct their own texts.
 Re-read the final draft of your writing; focus on checking with an editing partner for correct spelling and
punctuation.
 Model how to make simple books, either an origami book or a simple sewn book and have each child make their
own.
 Spend time writing up the story in the published book, focussing on best handwriting for presentation and plenty
of time for illustrating their stories.
 Have these on prominent display for the class and school community to read.
Use and Application of Phonics and Spelling:
The following words could be used to exemplify learning at phonic phases:
Phase 2: but, lost, help, sun, had, nod, sat, his, not, off, as
Phase 3: was, he, owl, moon, sure
Phase 4: little, said, come, have, when
Phase 5: /ai/ alternatives: snail, Daisy
/igh/ alternatives: night, right, by
/ee/ alternatives, squeaked, needs, me, he, any, only, Daisy, tea
Split digraphs: hope, piped, like, awake, makes, made, came.
High Frequency Words: Use examples from throughout the text
©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.
Spelling: ‘ed’ endings: pondered, suggested, squeaked, stomped, shared, halved, asked, muttered, stayed, unanswered,
insisted, wandered
double consonant ‘+ ed’: nodded, hopped
‘-e’ then ‘+ed’: agreed, halved, piped
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ then ‘+ed’: scurried
‘ing’ endings: talking, answering, trying, laughing, starting, pondering, looking
‘-e’ then ‘+ing’
‘+s’ plurals: sausages, makes, needs, clouds, questions, remains
‘ly’ endings: probably, sadly
‘-er’ endings: (explore language leading to silliest – silly, sillier - also big, bigger, biggest, etc)
‘-est’ endings: silliest
compound words: something, butterfly, overheard, ladybird, sideways, anything, everyone
Use and Application of Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation:
The following words could be used to exemplify learning in the areas of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation:
Word:
Sentences:
Text:
Punctuation:
Year 1 Regular plural noun suffixes –s and –es, including the effects of these suffixes on the meaning of
the noun
Suffixes that can be added to verbs where no change is needed in the spelling root words
How the prefix un- changes the meaning of verbs and adjectives
(Examples include: unanswered)
Year 2 Formation of nouns by compounding
Use of the suffixes –er, -est in adjectives and the use of –ly to turn adjectives into adverbs.
Year 1 Simple sentences, joining words, and joining clauses using and
Year 2 Subordination (using when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (using or, and, but)
Expanded noun phrases (big questions) and grammatical patterns (statement, question,
exclamation or command)
Year 1 Sequencing sentences into short narratives
Year 2 Correct choice and consistent use of present and past tenses in writing
Use of the progressive forms of verbs in present and past tenses to mark actions in progress
Year 1 Introduce capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate
sentences
Capital letters for names and for personal pronouns
Year 2 Capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences
Commas to separate items in a list
Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing and to mark singular possession nouns
(Examples include: didn’t, don’t, I’ll, let’s, he’s, it’s, that’s, I’ve, what’s, here’s, wasn’t, there’s,
you’ll, I’m, mustn’t, you’re)
Terminology for pupils:
Year 1 letter, capital letter, word, singular, plural, sentence, punctuation, full stop, question
mark, exclamation mark
Year 2 noun, noun phrase, statement, questions, exclamation, command, compound, suffix,
adjective, adverb, verb, tense (past, present), apostrophe, comma
©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.