During my time as a teacher, I enjoyed doing a Big Write or Big Writing. I’ve gathered all my materials together. I liked it as it kept the children occupied all week, leading to a big write on Friday Mornings. There’s some great ideas and powerpoints in here. I’ve included a lot of Greek Myths stuff as I remember this as the best Big Write. sample : To understand the features of myths Introduce the topic of Myths and Legends. Mind map any ideas about ‘myths’ children already have. Explain that the class will be building up their own myth. With each group working on a different aspect of the myth. Show success criteria – list of features of a myth. Read Theseus and the Minotaur, pick out the different features of the myth, evident in this story. Each group will discuss and write ideas for each section. LA (Supported by Ta) Group 1: Describe the hero of the myth. Group 2: Describe the monster of the myth. Children will write ideas, words on post-it notes. If this was a full lesson: Put together all the different groups’ ideas to build a storyboard for the class myth. As a class, decide on a title for our class ‘myth’. Children can: identify all the features of myths Features of a ‘myth’ · When and where is it set? · A hero/heroine · What is the problem? · Does the hero have special powers? · Fantastical beast · The hero’s journey · The conflict · The solution · How does it end? · Is it interesting? MA (Supported by ta) Group 3: Describe the setting of the myth. Group 4: Describe the journey the hero will make. Children will write ideas, words on post-it notes. HA (Supported by Ta) Group 5: Describe the problem the hero will face. Group 6: Describe the resolution to the problem. Children will write ideas, words on post-it notes.

Literacy plans for year 4. Mainly word doucuments for recounts newspaper book week persuasive texts poetry antibullying week imaginary worlds stories with historical settings stories with imaginative settings stories with historical settings narrative writing and book week creative writing holy week Bits of Roald Dahl the Twits references. Sample planning : What newspapers and magazines can the pupils name? What are the articles usually about? Discuss the purpose of a newspaper. WALT – know the features of a newspaper text. WILF – good expression Read through the opening paragraph of a newspaper article. Children to discuss the features and the structure of the opening paragraph. Newspaper articles have all of the important information in the opening paragraph. The opening paragraph is not overly descriptive. This information includes who, what, when, where, why and how. (It is written this way because most people do not read an entire newspaper article all the way through. So newspaper writers put the most important information at the beginning). Children wrote learn the opening paragraph of a newspaper article. Firstly as a class, followed by group work. Recap the features of an opening paragraph of an article. SW – target group to discuss the features of the article.

Some worksheets to aid spelling. 3 lists

To plan and write a recount text, using appropriate form, features and language. To understand the value of the ‘home front’ during WWII. To discuss and write about the life of children during WWII. Understand the role of the ‘home front’ and the impact of rationing. Explain that this week’s literacy lessons are linked closely to our current history topic. We are moving on to a geography topic after half term. Recap what we have learned recently in history lessons. What were the main causes for WWII? Dates? Political leaders? Axis? Allies? How was the war fought? What was the Blitz? What sort of places did the Germans target? Why? Last lesson I asked you to discuss the posters issued by the British Government. What did you find out? Show the quote: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory.” TTYP – who do you think said this? Come back together and establish that it was part of a speech by Winston Churchill when he became PM in May 1940. At this time, victory seemed a long way off. Show map of the world. Explain that, at the time of this speech, the German forces had already conquered Norway and Denmark. Now, they were sweeping through Belgium and the Netherlands. By 20 May, they reached the English Channel. More than 500 000 British and French troops were trapped on the French coast at Dunkirk. Hundreds of boats, big and small, repeatedly sailed from Britain and brought nearly 340 000 safely back to England. The German advance went on. On 17th June France surrendered. Most of North-West Europe was now in Hitler’s hands. The German leader began to plan the invasion of Britain, only 34 KM away. Britain now stood alone with scarcely anyone to help. The USA had not yet entered the war. The countries of the British Empire such as Australia and Canada were too far away. Churchill encouraged the people of Britain with defiant speeches. “We shall go on to the end,” he said, “we shall never surrender.” What was providing a natural barrier for the British against the Germans? The sea. However, it also caused problems. Britain’s farmers could not grow enough food to feed the population. Large amounts had to be brought in from home by ships. Merchant or goods ships were slow and lightly armed and so were easy targets for German U-boats and bomber aircraft. Between March and May 1941 over 320 merchant ships bound for Britain were sunk. Food such as flour, meat and sugar were in short supply.

4 main weeks’s work. Plus powerpoints and resorces. Great for year 6. Sample planning. Learning/Writing outcome: To plan, draft, write and improve an engaging short story in a particular genre using appropriate language and organisational features. Introduce the words ‘fiction’ and ‘genre’. TTYP and discuss the meaning of the word ‘genre’. At this point, introduce the new and improved writing journals where children can make notes during lessons, can jot down words they wish to magpie, jot words that they have generated but which aren’t suitable for the task in hand and can jot questions/things they are unsure about. Explain that I will prompt to use these for the first couple of days but then children need to become more independent. Prizes for most effective use! Ensure the children understand the difference between fiction ‘narrative’ and non fiction ‘non narrative’. Activity One Come back together and do class mind map for working wall. Ask children to think of any titles of books which could fit with any of these genres. Ask children to discuss their preferences and discuss our preferences with them. Activity Two Talk about how they sorted the books in activity two. What clues were you looking for? Talk about words which suggest different genres. Explain activity three. Activity One In lit books complete quick mind map of different types of fiction genre. Activity Two Children to work in table groups. Children to be given a wide range of fiction books from class/school library. Children to sort the books into fantasy, historical, science fiction and mystery by scanning the book, looking at the front cover and reading the blurb. Activity Three Children to have a selection of pictures from books (front covers and insides) and blurbs from a variety of fiction books. Ch to decide which genre they think they book comes from and justify their opinion by highlighting the key words or annotating the pictures. SEN: () to work as a group on this task. MA: In pairs. With teacher to work with ‘Quality Question Marks’ (both groups). HA: Independently. Plenary: What have we learned? What is narrative? Non narrative? What is a genre? Name some genres of narrative? What is your favourite? Why? Least favourite? Why? Does this link to visual literacy (i.e. do films and TV programs split into genres?)

4 planning sheets. Plenty of ideas. Year 6. Literacy. Sample : Set up plenary clip at beginning of lesson to be played in plenary Imagination starter: display front cover of the Iron man on IWB – Tell pupils that we have a new topic surrounding the novel The Iron Man, and tell them we will find out more about the author and the story as the unit continues. Round Robin: Can you write down describing words about the character you see? Place pupils into A/B and give 2 minutes to write down ideas on wipeboards in pairs. Feedback with lollypop sticks to follow. Draw out discussion as to what genre the book might be/ if the character is good/evil. Read the first two pages to the class: Hands up: Does the opening make them want to read on? Why? Collect ideas on IWB- What is the effect of opening the story with questions? Explain that the author Ted Hughes was primarily a poet rather than author-so he plays with his words/sentence length a lot more. Note any important features of the text, which build up atmosphere and note on IWB. Choose an OPENERS card and set the class a challenge. As core, but once they have completed highlighting, pupils are to label similes, metaphors, alliteration, repetition, rhetorical questions, short sentences… Can I analyse the features of a good story opening and find poetic devices? Children are given a copy of the first 2 pages of The Iron Man to annotate. They highlight what parts of the text build up the atmosphere to make a good opening –and how this contributes to he overall style. Can I analyse the features of a good story opening? Support lower going over each section of the text together. Read through again if necessary. Can I analyse the features of a good story opening, with support?

Great planning for year 6. Two weeks worth. Nice powerpoints. Sample : Introduce the new unit and writing outcome. Read the poem ‘Fog’ by Carl Sandberg together. Write ‘personification’ on the board and discuss what this means. TTYP – what might it mean? Agree on a definition for the working wall: Giving human traits to non-human or abstract things. Or making a non-human thing do things that only a human can do. Explain the phrase ‘inanimate object’. Give out copies of ‘Two Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room’ by William Blake. Discuss how the sunflowers are given human characteristics – they talk, they feel tired, they want a room with a view! Return to the poem Fog. In this, it is almost as if Fog is alive – either human or possibly feline (cat-like). Look again at ‘Two Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room. ’Underline the words ‘topaz tortoises’. Ask children what these last lines mean? Discuss whether it matters if we are not sure of the exact meaning of all the words in a poem. Why might it not matter? Because it is the sound and the rhythm of the words which is as important as their meaning in a poem. Look up topaz to find its meaning. Does this help us understand what the last two lines mean?

Planning for year one I’ve gathered from my log career. Mainly Maths and English but other stuff too. Zip has loads. I’ve put a sample in general download. Read the story ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ Talk about the main events and make a list of the characters on the IWB. Introduce the term setting and discuss what a setting is. Identify all the different settings in the story and make a list on the IWB. Make links with the children’s own experiences eg who has walked through long grass? Diamond/ Ruby H/A (Ind) Children to complete worksheet identifying main characters, setting and event (HA sheet) Children to complete worksheet drawing favourite setting, identifying main characters, and explaining what happened. (SD to support) Children to complete worksheet drawing favourite setting, identifying main characters, and explaining what happened. (BM to support)

Gathered together a lot of my teaching material. Packed full of stuff that you can use for Spag, Grammar, homework =, reading session etc. Everthing is in the zip. I have put a few examples in the general upload. Sample ideas : • Pick a descriptive word from the text, write it down and, using a thesaurus, write down five synonyms and antonyms for that word. • Re-read a chapter – pick out X number of words that you feel are powerful words and that you could use in your own writing • How does the story hook you in at the beginning? Make a list of words and phrases that you feel are effective in making you want to read on. • Draw and label a character or a setting from a description in the book. • Choose a descriptive passage and make a list of examples of vivid imagery – similes, metaphors, alliteration, noun phrases etc. • Choose a key moment in the book and change the event. Re-write the following chapter… • Rewrite a chapter as a playscript. • Think of 5 questions you would like to ask one of the characters. Swap these with someone else in your group and write the answers as if you were that character. • List the words and phrases used to create an atmosphere, such as ‘scary’ or ‘spookiness’ ‘tension’ ‘relaxed’ • Write about what a character might be thinking or feeling at different stages of the story. You could write it in the first person, or in a speech bubble. • Predict what might happen when you are about halfway through a book. Write your prediction in the form of a story plan in boxes

Did a lot of work in my career with year 5 and 6 in the aspect of PSHE SEAL etc. Gathered together my planning. Some good powerpoints in here. There’s planning for a Multi Faith week that covers the whole school. Well being week covers the whole school too. Topics tackeld include : healthy eating feelings new beginnings getting on and falling out going for goals relationships problem solving going for goals sample planning Objectives • I know that my relationships are all different and that different ways of behaving are appropriate to different types of relationships. • I can accept and appreciate people’s friendship and try not to demand more than they are able or wish to give. Activities Ask the children to think of as many different friends as they can (in and out of school), then to think about the following questions for a few moments, then to share their thoughts in pairs for 2 minutes. Do you like all your friends in the same way? • Do you like doing the same thing with all of your friends? • Do you tend to see some friends only in certain situations? • Would you want to see all of your friends all the time? Take feedback, and hold these ideas. Teacher to demonstrate Levels of Friendship circles on the board, starting in the centre with close friends and family, second circle –good friends/cousins etc, third circle, third circle –people in school/relatives you see rarely, fourth circle –people who are acquaintances or know slightly –postman, doctor etc. Give out copies of the Levels of friendship resource sheet and ask children to complete the sheet for themselves. They will not need to share it with anyone. Plenary When the children have finished, or the allocated time has elapsed, facilitate a brief discussion as a class, drawing out the point that we all tend to have friendships at different levels, and this is OK. We do not want to be best friends with all of our friends. Some of us have many friends, some prefer to have one close friend. Outcomes Children will recognise the different relationships that they have with people that they know, and recognise that these differing relationships are fine to have.

You get 48 files. Include a dozen powerpoints. All in zip. Some in the genr=eral upload. Some nice free bonus stuff on History, jewellery and ship making. Sample L.O. To use knowledge of quest myths and the Vikings to create a character profile for the main character and hero of our own Viking quest myth story. I can use my knowledge of quest myths and the Vikings to create a character profile for the main character and hero for my own Viking quest myth story. Beowulf Lesson 4 STARTER – adjectives Look at text and highlight in pairs adjectives that describe Beowulf, then using post –it notes in pairs, begin to generate more words form pictures displayed on the IWB of Beowulf in various positions/battles and write some of their own powerful adjectives. These can then be ‘magpied’ by the children during the independent work. Main activity Hot seating – Beowulf and the King Use the questions generated on Wednesday as interview questions. Choose children that would like to play those parts – use a sword and shield if we have one This will hopefully give the children an idea as to what these main characters are like, their personality and how they think and react to different situations that happen in the story. Teacher to explain/demonstrate how the profile needs to be complete. Discuss what the words – appearance and personality mean and how they are different. Independent work Character profile – Beowulf the hero of their quest myths Using ‘My Viking Quest Myth Ideas Planning Booklet’ create a character profile for their Beowulf hero by labeling the picture, answering the questions in detail and adding descriptive words and phrases to describe his personality and appearance. Plenary Discuss the difference between appearance and personality of a character and what does it mean by special qualities? Because he isn’t a super hero!

Lots of powerpoints and planning for this Classic poem. Sample planning : Genre: Poetry Unit 2 – Classic/Narrative poems. Focus Texts: ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes. ‘Maggie and the Dinosaur’ by Dave Ward. ‘The Works’ (poetry anthology) by Paul Cookson. ‘The Puffin book of utterly brilliant poetry’ (Anthology) edited by Brian Patten. Objectives Primary Framework 7. Make notes on and use evidence from across a text to explain events or ideas 7. Compare different types of narrative and information texts and identify how they are structured 7. Explore how writers use language for comic and dramatic effects 8. Compare the usefulness of techniques such as visualisation, prediction and empathy in exploring the meaning of texts 3. Understand the process of decision making Learning/Writing outcome: Investigate the structure of narrative poetry. Compose an extra verse to a classic poem. Work as part of a group to perform a poem and to evaluate performances. LO: Whole Class Shared Learning Guided and Independent Activities: Plenary: T Read and investigate a narrative poem. Prepare to share a narrative poem from an anthology: Maggie & the Dinosaur, p463 in The Works by Paul Cookson. Explain that an Anthology is a collection of poems specially chosen by a person: an anthologist. Highlight that Narrative poems are poems which tell a story. Point out that not all narrative poems have the same structure although each poem will probably have its own! They often have many verses just like a song, with each verse telling the next part of the story. Ask the children to respond to the narrative poem we shared. Which parts, lines & words did they enjoy the most? Did they like the way that the poem was read? Narrative poems are often long so they need to be read in a way that keeps the audience interested from start to finish. Just like a good story reader would make a story sound interesting. Children to be split into mixed ability groups of four and given copies of two poems:

Two great powerpoints and some planning. Nice powerpoint on Epiphany. Sample : Share the new targets with the children and explain that this is a short unit – two double lessons. Read the story of Jesus’ birth from Matthew’s Gospel – Mt 1: 18-2: 23. Who are the main characters in this story? Concentrate on Mary, Joseph and King Herod. Talk through the story. God had promised a saviour to free us all from our sins and he sent His only son into the world for us. Talk about the priorities for any family when a baby is expected. (safety and comfort of the mother) . Activity One Come back together and watch scene featuring King Herod. Fear gripped King Herod, his mighty power was threatened. He gathered all the chief priests and scribes to see what they knew – they confirmed that Bethlehem had been foretold by the prophets. Herod launched his plan to locate the baby so that he could destroy him. What was Herod’s mistake? (look for the children to understand that Herod thought that Jesus would be an earthly King with a throne and a crown who was overthrow Herod). What were Mary and Joseph’s feelings about the birth of the baby? Do you think they were scared? Happy? Relieved? Children to TTYP and discuss – What does the birth of Jesus mean for us? Jesus truly God and truly human has come down to Earth. He brings peace, love and true freedom to those who seek him. He opens the way to heaven for us. He has come to save all people. What does the birth of Jesus teach us? God seeks those with an open heart to receive him. If you truly seek God, He will find you. It’s not money, wealth or knowledge that matters because God seeks the lowly and the humble who are looking for Him.

Gathered together my lessons for year 5 Maths and English for a particular year. There’s about a year’s worth in there. Plenty of great ideas. the zip has the lot. the general download a few to have a look at. Sample planning : Start by showing the word ‘Instructions’ – TTYP what does this mean? Come back together and establish that instructions are a set of commands given to help someone do or create something. Show the children a recipe and the instructions as to how to play Sevens using cards. Look at the instructions. What do children notice about how these are laid out? They are given in an order. They are bullet-pointed. Each sentence is fairly short. There are many ‘bossy’ verbs: ‘place’, ‘play’, ‘turn’ etc. Explain that we call these ‘imperative’ verbs – an imperative is a command. Discuss why it is helpful to have ‘bossy’ verbs and short clear sentences. There is a title which tells you what is to be achieved. Numbers or time connectives used e.g. 1, 2, 3 or later, next - are used to show chronological order. Create a features list on the working wall by sticking post it notes onto a piece of sugar paper –these can be used throughout the unit as a game to start the lesson. Divide the class into three teams. Deal out seven cards to each team and the teacher! Play a little of the game of sevens, following the instructions. Demonstrate how we can follow the instructions to play. Return to features of instructions displayed on working wall. What can you remember about these? Children turn to a partner and tell them 3 different features. Report back & discuss. Show children the instructions checklist (working wall). Have we mentioned all of these features? Ask children to think of a new idea for a card game. Use a talking partner & brainstorm a game idea on whiteboards. Gather everyone’s ideas/discuss the concepts. Pick one idea. Decide how many players we will need & how to play it. Allow children time with talking partners to practice playing the game. Ask some children to demonstrate. How will we write the instructions? What comes first? (Title, subheading.) What is our first instruction? Repeat for a few more sentences.

Gathered my lessons for year 2 together. Mainly Literacy and Maths plus bits and bobs. In the zip you find the lot. Included some examples in general upload. Sample planning : Read the traditional tale LRRH, recap ‘good’ central character/villain. Concentrate on the attitude, not words. What would happen if we reversed the characteristics? S&L Children discuss how a ‘good’ wolf might behave towards LRRH/Granny. Teacher draw children back together. Model how to ‘tell’ story of wolf from new pictures. Word/Sentence Activities IWB available for quick phonic session. YEAR 2 LITERACY LESSON PLAN WEDNESDAY Whole Class Shared Learning Return to the traditional tale of LRRH. Remind children about their previous day’s pictures. What did they do? How did they change the Wolf? Is he still the villain? S&L Ask the children to look at their pictures as you read story extracts with his dialogue. Encourage them to discuss dialogue with a partner. Do the pictures and words make sense together? As a class, agree that the Wolf needs new words. Discuss what he might say. Model how to write words for a speech bubble. Word/Sentence Activities Rehearse spellings for Word Wall words. Challenge children to find other words with same phonemes

Gathered my lessons for year 3 together. Mainly Literacy and Maths plus bits and bobs. In the zip you find the lot. Included some examples in general upload. Sample planning : Introduction Explain will be looking at different ways of writing poetry using special words and shapes as stimulus. ‘calligram’ means beautiful writing. Show examples. S&L Children discuss with response partner why they think words are presented in these ways. Teacher draw children back together. After discussion, ask children to choose most effective calligram, justifying choice. Draw out understanding that the meaning of words inspires the shapes in a calligram. Teacher demonstrate use of ICT programs to produce calligrams and own drawing as alternative. Draw up a list of suitable words for choices. Word/Sentence Activities Use IWB store range of suitable words for calligrams. Can children classify word types: nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc. YEAR 3 LITERACY LESSON PLAN 16th Monday Whole Class Shared Learning Before reading; ask the children what they think ‘Autumn’ poem will look like. Show poem. Ask them to decide where you should begin reading and then read the poem. Read two more examples of shape poems. Add appropriate actions. Class repeat. S&L Encourage the children to say how similar and different the three poems are. Invite them to say which poem is most effective visually. Which poem do they prefer? Discuss why the poets have chosen these shapes, and how the shape affects the content of the poems. Practice with RP saying preferred poem aloud. Word/Sentence Activities Rehearse spellings for Word Wall words. Challenge children to find other words with same phonemes

Gathered together my planning for year 4. Mainly Literacy and Maths. Spread over a number of years. You get 690 files. The zip has the lot. I’ve put some in the general download to give yoiu a flavour. Sample planning : Explain to chn that this work for this unit will be based on stories set in imaginary worlds. The Borrowers by Mary Norton is set in a miniature world under the floorboards in an old house. Have chn read any other books (or seen films) set in imaginary worlds, eg Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, etc. These are fantasy settings that authors have created in their minds, as maps or as drawings, etc. Tolkien drew maps for The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Mary Norton used small everyday objects as furniture and tools, and J K Rowling had the idea for Harry Potter when on a long & boring train journey. Read 2 versions of the same setting one without some details, description & adjectives and the other in full. After the first reading ask chn if they can picture the classroom clearly in their heads, then ask the same question after the full extract and compare answers. How is the light described? Dim & crimson. How would the atmosphere in the room change if the adjectives used were yellow and bright? Word sentence level Remind chn that an adjective is a word that describes somebody/thing. They come before nouns or after verbs such as: be, get, seem, look, eg the frail old woman or she looked old and frail. Overuse of adjectives is as bad as not using any! Show class a passage which adjectives could be removed from this passage? Which are most effective adjectives to be left in the passage?

Planning for the year. Literacy Year 6 I particularly like the 4 week sats revision block. Zip file contains loads. sample planning ; Full range of punctuation used accurately to demarcate sentences, including speech punctuation • Syntax and punctuation within the sentence generally accurate including commas to mark clauses. To revise and produce a piece of journalistic writing. Revise formal & persuasive writing. Whole Class Shared Learning Explain that the next four weeks are important revision sessions. Define the word ‘revision’ and display on the working wall. In their new groups, children to define the following words, definitions on post it notes: Journalist Communication Bias Balanced Come back together and discuss, agree definitions. Would we find journalistic writing anywhere else other than in a newspaper report? Recap that we may find it in magazines or journals as well as scripts for radio and TV news broadcasts. How does journalistic writing differ from ‘personal’ writing? Formal tone, 3rd person, balanced, in journalistic writing a person puts the main points in the first sentence of the first paragraph – what will grab a person’s attention. This is followed by the rest of the details and written so that the article can easily be edited from the bottom up, if the article needs shortening. Sources are mentioned within the text and sentences and paragraphs can be short. Read the ‘Total Eclipse’ article from Essential Non-fiction and discuss. Draw out the 5 Ws. Now read ‘Packaging: The Big Cover Up’ also from Essential non-fiction. Activity One Come back together and discuss activity. What did the children find about the two articles? What are the similarities? Differences? How have the writers used language to report/persuade?

Great planning for year 5. Plenty to keep you going for three solid weeks. Powerpoints, planning, worksheets etc etc The zip has the lot. I have put up some on the ordinary download so you can look. Sample planning : Genre: Narrative Unit 3 – ‘Stories from other cultures’ Focus Texts: ‘Abela’ by Berlie Doherty (class reader), ‘The day of Ahmed’s secret’ by Florence Parry Heide, ‘Stories from around the world’ Usborne books. Objectives Primary Framework Phase 1 • Create roles showing how behaviour can be interpreted from different viewpoints • Know and apply common spelling rules • Infer writers’ perspectives from what is written and from what is implied • Compare different types of narrative and information texts and identify how they are structured • Experiment with different narrative form and styles to write their own stories Adapt sentence construction to different text-types, purposes and readers Punctuate sentences accurately, including using speech marks and apostrophes. Learning/Writing outcome for unit: Write a story from a different character’s point of view. Reflect on writing critically and edit it against success criteria. LO: Whole Class Shared Learning Guided and Independent Activities: Plenary: M Understand and use the word ‘culture’. Begin to recognise the features of a story from another culture. Show the words ‘narrative’ and ‘fiction’. Children to TTYP and talk about what they mean. Come back together and elicit that they are words for ‘story’. We are going to be studying a narrative unit for two weeks. Briefly recap the five structural features of a story. What types of stories have we studied so far? (Myths, legends and stories by a significant author). Show the word ‘culture’. Children to TTYP and discuss. Come back together and explain that a culture refers to “the attitudes and behaviour that are characteristic of a particular social group.” Emphasise that we are not necessarily talking about different religions or even other countries – there are a lot of different cultures even within one country. Lead to class discussion. Provide children with copies of ‘The Day of Ahmed’s Secret’ – explain that this story is from Africa. Ahmed lives in a city called Cairo – the capital of Egypt. Show on a map. Have we heard anything about Cairo in the news recently? Read half of the story and then challenge children to discuss on their tables: The features of the story. Their predictions about Ahmed’s secret. Come back together, read the rest of the story and discuss. How is Ahmed’s life different from your lives? In his culture it is perfectly normal for children to be working very hard and taking over the family business from his Father. What does his pride at being able to write his own name suggest about his level of education? About his place in society? Create a working wall list of features to include: Capital letters used at the start of each sentence and full stops at the end.

Plans for lessons in English and Maths/ Plenty to choose from. You may wish to merge a few together in your own lesson planning. Cut and paste and ease your planning load. Plus a bit of things like RE, ICT and Geograpghy. The zip file has the lot. I’ve included some in the general download to give you a flavour. sample : L.O. To read stories about other cultures and identify differences in place and customs. Explain to the chn that today we are going to continue to look/share stories from a different culture. Can they find clues that will help them to work out what country/culture the stories are about? Read an extract from ‘Gregory Cool’ [up to when Gregory stomps off on the beach] without showing the chn the cover or title. Where is it set? When? Through whose eyes is the story told? Mood? H/A • Give chn a copy of the text for the first part of the book. Chn to discuss in groups and write each clue they find onto a separate slip of paper e.g. his cousin had to look after the goats. • Ext. Are there any details e.g. characters’ feelings which seem familiar? • Each group to be given an opportunity to present their findings to the class and state where they think the story is set • A.R. to support Milne group Show chn the cover of the book and read to end of story. Where is Tobago? Look at map. Do the chn know anything about the Caribbean? M/A Success Criteria • To read stories about other cultures and be able to identify differences in place and customs.