QUEEN MAB’S SECRET
by Pauline Cartwright
Early Level 7
Teacher guide by Joy Allcock and Ursula Leggett
Phonemic Awareness
1. Rhyming
A number of one-syllable words in Queen Mab’s Secret can be used to generate rhyme.
Choose any of those from the following list and ask students to think of words that rhyme
with each one.
old
fold, told, mould, cold, sold, bold, hold
throw
show, bow, know, no, crow, though, sew
that
cat, fat, hat, that, sat, mat
passed
last, fast, blast, cast, mast
made
blade, fade, glade, shade, played, spade
2. Two-syllable words
How many two-syllable words can we find in the story? Clap the words to check how many
syllables are in each one?
very, away, couldn’t, something, many, quickly, picking, stories, snuggled, childhood, ever,
secret, dresses, began
Listen for other multisyllabic words in the text and clap them to find the number of syllables
(memory, grandchildren, remembered, idea, quietly).
3. Swapping Sounds
What new word do we make if we swap the ‘k’ in came for …
‘l’ – lame
‘s’ – same
‘g’ – game
‘n’ – name
‘t’ – tame
What new word do we make if we swap the ‘p’ in patch for …
‘l’ – latch
‘k’ – catch
‘m’ – match
‘h’ – hatch
What new word do we make if we swap the ‘t’ in told for …
‘k’– cold
‘b’ – bold
‘s’ – sold
‘m’ – mould
‘f’ – fold
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
What new word do we make if we swap the ‘b’ in bed for …
‘s’ – said
‘f’ – fed
‘l’ – lead
‘r’ – read
‘sh’ – shed
4. Adding sounds
A number of new words can be generated by adding sounds to the beginning or end of
existing words.
What new words do we make if we add these sounds to the start of and…
‘s’ – sand
‘h’ – hand
‘l’ – land
‘b’ – band
What new words do we make if we add these sounds to the start of it …
‘h’ – hit
‘s’ – sit
‘b’ – bit
‘l’ – lit
‘f’ – fit
‘qu’ – quit
5. Hearing sounds in words
Brainstorm words that begin with ‘qu’ (quick, quilt, quit, quiver, quill, quiet). Can you think
of any words that have ‘qu’ inside the word? Give a clue – words that start with ‘s’ ‘qu’
(square, squash, squeeze, squint, squiggle).
As the students read the book, ask them to find all the words they can hear that begin with
‘qu’.
Page 2 –queen
Page 4 – quite, quietly
Page 5 – queen
Page 6 – queen
Page 9 – quickly, queen
Page 10 – queen, quilt
Page 11 – queen
Page 12 – queen
Page 14 – quilt
Page 15 – quite, queen
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
6. Hearing syllables in words
Call out the words listed below, mixing up the order of words with one, two or three
syllables. For each word, students clap the syllables and say how many syllables they can
hear.
One-syllable words
queen
Mab
cross
room
hang
dress
quite
throw
Two-syllable words
very
away
couldn’t
something
began
many
quickly
snuggled
Three-syllable words
grandchildren
memory
idea
remembered
quietly
Phonics
NOTE
When the letters qu are together in a word they represent two sounds ‘k’ and ‘w’.
Because the qu spelling pattern almost always sounds like ‘kw’ it is easier to teach it
as if ‘k’ and ‘w’ are a single sound. Young students are very unlikely to meet this
spelling pattern representing other sounds.
It is important to tell students that there are two sounds they can hear in ‘qu’ but if
they hear the ‘k’ and ‘w’ sounds together like this, they should write them qu.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
1. Introduce the ‘qu’ sounds
Practise saying ‘qu’. Ask students what sounds they can hear. They should be able to say ‘k’
and ‘w’. Explain that some words begin with ‘k’ ‘w’. Ask students to repeat the words,
quick, quiet, queen and to listen to the ‘qu’ sounds at the beginning of these words.
2. Brainstorm other words that contain the ‘qu’ sounds
Brainstorm words that begin with ‘qu’. There are not many!
quick, quickly, quiet, quietly, quiz, queen, quail, quite, quality
3. Learn to write the ‘qu’ sounds
Write the words students have brainstormed on the board. Show that although the first
sound is ‘k’, the words do not start with k or c. The next sound is ‘w’ and there is no w in
these words. Circle or colour-code the qu spelling pattern in the first word and explain that
these two letters are used to write the ‘k’ ‘w’ sounds when they are together like this in
words.
Invite students to come up to the board and circle or colour-code the ‘qu’ spelling pattern in
the other words.
4. Find the words that contain ‘qu’ in Queen Mab’s Secret
As students read Queen Mab’s Secret, ask them to listen for words that contain ‘qu’.
When the book has been read, go back and re-read it, a page at a time. Ask students to
identify the ‘qu’ words on each page and write them on the board. Ask students to identify
the spelling patterns for the ‘qu’ sound in each word. Highlight these spelling patterns in a
different colour as students identify them.
Vocabulary Development
1. Verbs and synonyms
Queen Mab’s Secret contains a number of verbs. Tell the students verbs are “doing” words
that show an action. As you read, identify each of these words and list them (hang, throw,
sew, cut, worked, passed, finished, made, stay, snuggled, picking, took, looked, remembered,
told, loved).
Choose some of these words and ask the students to suggest some substitutes for them
looked – stared, watched, viewed; throw – chuck, pitch, bowl, heave, lob; finished – ended,
completed, done). Try reading the sentence the verb came from with the new word to see if
it changes the meaning. Discuss how words can be similar but not really have the same
meaning in a sentence.
2. Adjectives and antonyms
Queen Mab’s Secret contains some adjectives. Tell the students that adjectives are
“describing” words that often describe a noun or “naming word”. As you read the story,
identify these words and list them (new, old, best).
Choose some of the adjectives you have listed and ask the students to suggest words that
are opposite in meaning (best – worst, new – old).
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
3. Word meanings
Quilt
What is a quilt? What is it made from? What is it used for? Where would you find one?
Extension:
What part of speech is the word quilt? (noun)
Snuggled
What does this mean? Describe some places where you would snuggle. How does the word
make you feel?
Extension:
What part of speech is the word snuggle? (verb)
Memory
What is a memory? What does it do? What might you use it for? What is a memory quilt?
Extension:
What part of speech is the word memory? (noun, or adjective in memory
quilt – describes quilt)
Secret
What is a secret? Who might have a secret? What sort of things might be secrets?
Extension:
What part of speech is a secret? (noun)
Comprehension
This is an opportunity for children to predict what might happen in the story and for the
teacher to introduce some of the important vocabulary in the text before and during
reading.
1. Before reading
Introduce the book, look at the cover picture and the title and ask “What do you expect this
book to be about?”
Explore further with questions such as:
What is a queen?
What sort of clothes do you think a queen might wear?
What do you think she might be doing in the picture?
Why do you think she is doing this?
2. During reading
Ask questions to check the students’ understanding and to access and develop their
background knowledge.
Page 2
How does Queen Mab look in the picture?
Pages 3–4
What is happening in this picture?
Page 5
How does Queen Mab look here? What is she holding in her hands?
Why do you think she might look like this?
Page 6
What is Queen Mab doing here? How can we work out what she is
thinking about?
Page 7
Why is Queen Mab cutting up her old dresses? What do you think she is
going to make?
Page 8
What do the words in the picture tell us? (Teacher may need to read this
because the t is obscured in secret.)
What can we see through the keyhole?
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14–15
The people in the picture are holding something. How do they look?
What do you think they might be holding?
What is a quilt? Why this quilt called a memory quilt?
What do you think Queen Mab used to make this quilt?
Why has she made it?
What are the children doing with Queen Mab? How do the children feel?
What is Queen Mab telling the children on this page?
Why is she pointing to the picture on the wall?
Who is the person in this picture? What is she doing?
Why do you think the children love the memory quilt?
Would you like a quilt like this on your bed?
3. After reading: visualisation
In the pictures throughout the story, we see the queen with her magnificent dresses. Why
are all these dresses important in the story? How do we know that Mab is a queen? What
does she wear on her head? What sorts of dresses do you think a queen might wear?
Photocopy the cut-out shape of Queen Mab onto card, colour the figure and cut it out.
Students could have their own Queen Mab cut-out or share one in their group. Photocopy
the shapes of the dresses – one for each student. Students colour them to make a range of
coloured, decorated gowns for Queen Mab. When they are coloured, the dresses can be
cut out and put onto the Queen Mab cut-out. If the cutting out is too difficult for young
students, ask older students in the school to do this part of the activity, once the dresses
have been coloured and decorated. You could use glitter or stick on sequins and ribbons for
added interest.
Students then describe the dresses they have created, using interesting adjectives
(beautiful, lovely, pretty, fabulous, glamorous, sparkly, glittery, rainbow colours, decorative,
queenly etc).
Introduce a simple thesaurus to help with generating words that have similar meanings.
Fluency
1. From story to play
Use the story for a play. There is one main character – the queen. She has a maid and a male
servant, possibly a footman, and assorted grandchildren. There are three speaking parts in
the story but more characters with speaking lines could be added. Create a script from the
book but add new lines for the existing and new characters. The children could make a large
colourful quilt out of heavy paper or scraps of material to use as the focus prop in the play.
2. Retelling and sequencing
Photocopy the pictures from the story. Glue them onto cards for the students to sequence
and use to re-tell the story. This can be a group activity or an individual task.
Alternatively, photocopy a sheet of pictures for each student and they can cut them out and
glue them into their books and either re-tell the story or write a caption for each picture that
tells what is happening in the story.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Working from text
Photocopy the text segments from the story (Activity sheet 1). Ask the students to draw
their own pictures to go with them.
Use Activity sheet 2 and photocopy the captions of text from the story that have spaces
where the ‘qu’ words would go. Using the phonics focus word cards, students choose the
appropriate words to fill the gaps.
Word Cards
Photocopy the word cards onto cardboard and cut them up.
High-frequency words
The high-frequency cards are grouped into decidable and non-decodable words.
Students can read the cards as an independent activity in pairs or in groups. One approach
is for one student to hold up each card and the other student(s) read the word.
Alternatively, “deal” out the cards to students in the group. Each student places their words
face down. In turn, students turn over one card at a time and have a try at reading it. If a
student can’t read their word, someone else in the group has a try at it.
To prepare for a game of snap, make duplicate sets of the cards. Shuffle the cards and deal
them out to a pair or group of three students. Each student reads the word as they place it
in a pile. All students aim to “snap” any pair of words that appears on the pile.
Phonics focus cards
Colour-code the qu spelling pattern blue. Students can read these words like sight-words, or
they can spread them out and match them to the words in the text as they re-read the story.
These word cards can be stuck to a board or poster and new cards made with words
students find that contain the qu spelling pattern.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Activity Sheet 1: Sequencing text
Queen Mab was cross. There was no room to
hang up her new dress.
Queen Mab loved to sew. She had an idea.
That night she cut up her old dresses and began
to sew something new.
Queen Mab made a Memory Quilt.
When Queen Mab’s grandchildren came to stay
they snuggled into her bed and took turns at
picking a patch.
Queen Mab looked at the patch and remembered
the dress it had come from. She told her
grandchildren stories about her childhood.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Activity Sheet 2: Replacing words
_______ Mab was cross. There was no room
to hang up her new dress.
“You have _____ a lot of very old dresses,”
said her maid ________. “Should we throw
them away?”
“Throw them away!” cried the _______.
“I couldn’t do that!”
_______ Mab loved to sew. She had an idea.
That night she cut up her old dresses and
began to sew something new.
She worked for many nights. Time passed
_________ and one day, _________ Mab was
finished.
_______ Mab had made a Memory _______.
When _______ Mab’s grandchildren came to
stay they snuggled into her bed and took turns
at picking a patch.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
_______ Mab looked at the patch and
remembered the dress it had come from. She
told her grandchildren stories about her
childhood.
The children loved the Memory ________.
They thought it was _______ the best thing
that _________ Mab had ever made.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Decodable high-frequency words
was
up
lot
we
the
that
an
time
came
no
new
very
them
I
she
night
day
stay
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
to
a
old
away
do
had
began
made
they
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
took
at
into
bed looked
it
remembered
from
told
thing children ever
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Non-decodable high-frequency words
have
of
said
her couldn’t for
one something many
when worked turns
come thought there
you about
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Phonics focus words
Queen quite quietly
quickly quilt
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
Reading Running Record
Name……………………………….
Age…………………………………
Date………………………………..
Text Title Queen Mab’s Secret
Level
7
Seen / Unseen (circle)
Recorder:………………………………
Analysis:
Error rate 1:…………Accuracy……………(%) Self-correction rate
1:……………
Level (circle)
Easy
Instructional
Difficult
Analysis:
Information Used (Meaning M) (Structure/Syntax S) (Visual V)
When decoding successfully
When decoding an unknown word
When attempting self-correction
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pg
E
SC E
SC
Title Queen Mab's Secret
MSV MSV
2
Queen Mab was cross. There was
no
room to hang up her new dress.
4
“You have quite a lot of very old
dresses," said her maid quietly.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
"Should we throw them away?"
5
"Throw them away!" cried the
Queen.
"I couldn't do that!"
6
Queen Mab loved to sew. She had
an idea.
7
That night she cut up her old
dresses and began to sew
something
new.
8
She worked for many nights.
9
Time passed quickly and one day
Queen Mab was finished.
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
10
Queen Mab had made a Memory
Quilt.
11
When Queen Mab's grandchildren
came to stay, they snuggled into
her bed and took turns at picking
a
patch.
12
Queen Mab looked at the patch
and
remembered the dress it had
come
from.
13
She told her grandchildren stories
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009
about her childhood.
14
15
The children loved the Memory
Quilt.
They thought it was quite the
best
thing that Queen Mab had ever
made.
Running word count: 150 (including title)
Queen Mab’s Secret by Pauline Cartwright
Word-level Readers
Teacher notes written by Ursula Leggett and Joy Allcock
Gilt Edge Publishing 2009