Lesson by Sarah Williams
Learning Intentions:
- To retell a familiar story.
- To start to develop understanding of characters in stories.
- To develop fine motor skills.
Step 1: Activity overview for parent, carers and pupils
This well-known story provides children with a great opportunity to explore rhyme and develop their vocabulary by describing some interesting characters. They will be encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics (letter sounds) to write a few sentences.
The story is about seven minutes long.
The main activity can be completed offline.
Step 2: Introduction to the activity and additional information
Let’s see what happens when a mouse goes for a walk in a deep, dark forest.
Start by listening to the story of the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. Click on the link below.
Don’t forget to join in where you can.
Now talk about the story with your parent/carer.
- Can you retell the story in your own words?
- Try to remember all the animals that the mouse meets on his journey.
- The mouse pretends to be ‘the scariest creature’ in the wood. What other ‘scary’ animals can you think of? Why are they scary?
- Now retell the story again, but this time can you think of more animals that the mouse might meet?
- Did your Gruffalo look the same as the one in the story you listened to or did you give him some more scary features?
Step 3: Tasks to carry out for this activity
Activity 1
Choose a character from the book or from your own made up story.
- Draw a picture of the character you have chosen.
- What words would you use to describe the character in your picture?
Now encourage your child to try to write some word or some simple sentences to describe their character.
N.B. Encourage them to use their phonics (letter sounds) to help them spell the words they want to write. Ask them to say the word aloud as they write the letters down. Do not worry if they do not spell all the words correctly, as long as they have chosen the right sound then praise them. E.g. You can write the correct spelling underneath their writing and talk about the graphemes (letter that are used to make the sounds).
Once you have completed the task you can email anything you create (photos, documents, screenshots etc.) directly to your teacher or directly upload it to any of the available places in Step 6.
Step 4: Look over the success criteria for this activity:
Success criteria #1: I can retell the story of the Gruffalo in my own words.
Success criteria #2: I can know who the main characters are in the Gruffalo story.
Look at the learning intentions ‘how well do you think you have done?’
Step 5: Extension and follow on activities/challenges (optional)
Activity 2
Create your own Gruffalo.
- You could use some recyclable materials such as empty cereal boxes, cardboard tubes etc to make your own model of the Gruffalo.
Or
- You could try and make a Gruffalo headband like in the picture below.
Step 6: Upload your work
Click on the relevant link below if you have any work to upload to your online areas J2e Google Drive OneDrive Seesaw