hello, friend! by rebecca cobb (macmillan)

©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.

Hello, Friend! by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan) A warm and sociable little girl describes how much she enjoys the company of a boy in her class at school. However, the pictures reveal him to be reserved and reluctant to join in and play despite her enthusiasm. Gradually he overcomes his anxieties and their continuing friendship seems assured, enabling them both to extend this to another child who seems lonely and left out. Rebecca Cobb’s illustrations invite reading against the text to appreciate the full meaning of this delightful story about friendship and understanding others.

Overall aims of this teaching sequence:

To think and talk confidently about responses to a book, using prediction, asking questions, making

connections with their own experience

To think about the story meanings conveyed in the illustrations

To enjoy listening to, responding to and using spoken and written language in play and learning

To explore the story through collaborative play, critical thinking, role-play and storytelling

To use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences

To deepen understanding of the world through a fictional text

To develop sustained story making and storytelling

To write for meaning and purpose in a variety of narrative and non-narrative forms

This teaching sequence is for an Early Years Foundation Stage class

Overview of this teaching sequence

This teaching sequence is approximately 2-3 weeks long if spread over a series of sessions. This book is

perfect for those starting a new year of school and exploring how to create and develop a sense of self

and learning how to form friendships with children in the Early Years and would therefore be a good

book to explore at transitional times between home and school or Nursery and school or between

Early Years and Primary.

Activities will support children in talking about themselves, their interests and likes, their friends in

and out of the setting and moments in their lives and as such is an excellent tool for practitioners to

find out more about their children and for children to develop their experience of sharing and telling

personal narratives within the context of a fictional narrative in preparation for thinking about a scene

from a fictional narrative of their own at the end of the sequence.

Throughout the sequence, activities will also focus on talking about and sharing how to express,

recognise and manage emotions, both our own and recognising and responding to the emotional

needs of others using the safety of using a story experience to talk about and explore their own

feelings.




Practitioners will be able to use the text and the associated activities to create a focus on developing

and maintaining relationships, sharing and turn-taking and collaborating effectively in learning

through play.

Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework Outcomes covered by this sequence

Prime Area: Communication and Language

Listening and attention:

Listen attentively in a range of situations

Listen to stories, accurately anticipating

key events and respond to what they

hear with relevant comments, questions

or actions

Give their attention to what others say

and respond appropriately, while

engaged in another activity

Understanding:

Follow instructions involving several

ideas or actions

Answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about

their experiences and in response to

stories or events

Speaking:

Express themselves effectively, showing

awareness of listeners’ needs

Use past, present and future forms

accurately when talking about events

that have happened or are to happen in

the future

Develop their own narratives and

explanations by connecting ideas or

events.

Specific Area: Literacy

Reading: Read and understand simple sentences

Use phonic knowledge to decode

regular words and read them aloud

accurately

Read some common irregular words

Demonstrate understanding when

talking with others about what they

have read.

Writing:

Use phonic knowledge to write words in

ways which match their spoken sounds

Write some irregular common words

Write simple sentences which can be

read by themselves and others

Spell some words correctly and make

phonetically plausible attempts at

others




Cross Curricular Links

Personal, Social and Emotional Development:

The book is a wonderful vehicle for talking about and sharing how to express, recognise and manage

emotions, both our own and recognising and responding to the emotional needs of others. Share

experiences through this text and reading related texts focusing on emotions so that children have the

safety of using a story experience to talk about and explore their own feelings. Discuss and name the

different feelings experienced by the two main characters at different parts of the story and practise

making facial expressions that illustrate these feelings in small safety mirrors. This will support

children to enrich and increase their stock of words to express their feelings, needs and opinions and

develop their sense of self and awareness of the needs of others.

Take photographs of children with their special friends or encourage children to bring in photos of

them with friends from outside of school. Allow time for children to share or write personal narratives

sharing ideas and personal stories about their friends. Display photos alongside children’s scribed talk

and own writing.

Expressive Arts and Design:

To support them in developing their sense of self, provide large mirrors and allow the children to work

on self-portraits, drawing on the simple style of Rebecca Cobb. Support children in looking at

themselves carefully, choosing and mixing tones and shades for hair, skin and eye colours and looking

at the texture of their hair and how to represent this authentically as Rebecca Cobb has by moving

between paints and coloured pencils in her illustrations.

This book is perfect for exploring how to create and develop a sense of self with children in the Early

Years. The children may notice the artwork by the children on the walls by the pegs and be inspired to

create their own drawings of things of personal interest. Create time for talk and activities that allow

children to develop self-confidence in talking about themselves, their likes, families, things of

immediate interest to them and significant personal memories and experiences and representing

these things in their artwork.

Physical Development:

Explore all the physical activities that take place in the school setting, playing with balls, hoops, riding

bikes, building dexterity and motor skills by building bricks into towers, blowing bubbles, making

movements with pom-poms. Have similar activities available in the provision to access and talk with

them about what activities they like doing. If any of the activities make them feel worried or nervous,

support them in building their confidence to try new things and talk about their feelings about

activities and the experiences on offer in the setting.




Ideas for Continuous Provision

Construction:

Inspired by the events in the book, work on using different construction equipment to plan and build

constructions in pairs or groups. This will enable children to practise important social and interaction

skills such as sharing, turn taking, negotiating, communicating clearly, listening, taking on board the

wants, needs and ideas of others and collaborating. Work and play alongside the children modelling

key skills and articulating thoughts and ideas yourself.

Creative Area:

Drawing on the inspirations from the text, like the animal gallery by the coat pegs and the girl’s

interest in drawing, shared in the illustrations, provide a range of different media and materials for

children to create representations of things that are of interest to them and to explore and

experiment with different media.

Music Area:

Provide a range of musical instruments to allow children to explore and experiment with instrumental

sounds, as the children do in the text. Through working alongside the children and engaging in pole-

bridging talk, explore how instruments can be played in different ways, exploring pitch, dynamics and

tempo. Children can work together to create shared compositions, exploring what sounds are

complementary together and how to work in harmony. Other children could be encouraged to create

dance routines to perform alongside compositions created. Inspired by the illustrations in the text and

talk around these, encourage the children to look for and take into account the reactions of others as

they play, to gauge when their work is being enjoyed by others and when they may need to change

the way they play if others are not enjoying it.

Reading area:

This book is a wonderful way of sharing a story that relates directly to children and their own

experiences at school. Provide children with other books that revolve around feelings and experiences

that mirror their own lives, such as The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb

(Macmillan), Anna Hibiscus’ Song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia (Walker), Alfie Gets in First by Shirley

Hughes (Red Fox), Astrogirl by Ken Wilson-Max (Otter-Barry Books), I will not ever NEVER eat a

Tomato by Lauren Child (Orchard), Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival (Bloomsbury). See the associated

booklists below for further titles.




Teaching Approaches

Response to illustration

Reading aloud

Re-reading

Responding to reading through booktalk and

questioning

Learning through play

Writing in Role

Shared writing

Illustrating characters

Independent writing

Booktalk

Writing Outcomes Name labels and labels for classroom areas and equipment Drawings to communicate likes and interests Speech bubbles Personal introductions Greetings/goodbye board Anecdotes about friends Sentences to share ways to collaborate Display to focus on sharing Thought bubbles from the boy’s perspective Letters Artwork to share character’s emotional responses Personal narratives about special friends Own story scenes in words and pictures

Links to other texts and resources:

Books focused on friendships:

Meesha Makes Friends,Tom Percival (Bloomsbury)

On Sudden Hill, Linda Sarah and Benji Davies (Simon and Schuster)

Leon and Bob, Simon James (Walker)

Want to Play Trucks? Ann Stott and Bob Graham (Walker)

Friends, Kim Lewis (Walker)

Lost and Found, Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins)

Iris and Isaac, Catherine Rayner (Little Tiger)

A Splendid Friend, Indeed! Suzanne Bloom (Alanna Max)

Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel (HarperCollins)

My Friend is Sad, Mo Willems (Walker)

Hector and Hummingbird, Nicholas John Frith (Alison Green)

Colin and Lee Carrot and Pea, Morag Hood (Two Hoots)

The Girl with the Parrot on her Head, Daisy Hirst (Walker)

Making Friends: A Book About First Friendships, Amanda McCardie and Coleen Larmour (Walker)

Books about School:

Lulu’s First Day, Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw (Alanna Max)

Starting School, Janet and Allan Ahlberg (Puffin)

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, Lauren Child (Orchard)

Never Take a Bear to School, Mark Sperring and Britta Teckentrup (Orchard)

Lucy and Tom Go to School, Shirley Hughes (Red Fox)

Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School, Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds (Puffin)

Chu’s First Day at School, Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex (Bloomsbury)




Come to School Too, Blue Kangaroo! Emma Chichester-Clark (HarperCollins)

Books focused on the concept of sharing:

Mine! Rachel Bright (Puffin)

Norris the Bear who Shared, Catherine Rayner (Orchard)

The Rainbow Fish, Marcus Pfister (North-South Books)

Sharing a Shell, Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan)

The Squirrels who Squabbled, Rachel Bright and Jim Field (Orchard)

The New Small Person, Lauren Child (Puffin)

Books that explore emotions:

Ruby’s Worry, Tom Percival (Bloomsbury)

Ravi’s Roar, Tom Percival (Bloomsbury)

Sweep, Louise Greig and Júlia Sardà (Egmont)

Silly Billy, Anthony Browne (Walker)

Owl Babies, Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson (Walker)

Dogger, Shirley Hughes (Red Fox)

A Book of Feelings, Amanda McCardie and Salvatore Rubbino (Walker)

Happy, Mies Van Hout (Leminscaat)

Feelings: Inside my heart and in my head, Libby Walden and Richard Jones (Caterpillar Books)

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears, Emily Gravett (Macmillan)

Grumpy Frog, Ed Vere (Puffin)

Glad Monster, Sad Monster, Ed Emberley (Little, Brown)

The Colour Monster, Anna Llenas (Templar)

Pom Pom Gets the Grumps, Sophy Henn (Puffin)

The New Small Person, Lauren Child (Puffin)

A Great Big Cuddle, Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell (Walker)

Children may know and be aware of the CBeebies show, Feeling Better, which explores sharing

feelings and emotions. The show has a web page at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/feeling-

better

Teaching Sessions:

Before Beginning the Sequence:

For the first few sessions, you will need to hold back from sharing the front cover illustration

and title of the text with the children. Covering the book cover loosely with wrapping paper

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/feeling-better

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/feeling-better




and masking tape will support this, and then when the cover is finally revealed you are

revealing this like a gift to the children, making the experience of sharing books more special

and pleasurable.

Throughout the sequence, activities will focus on children getting to know more about the

classroom environment and what they can do within the Early Years setting. You will need to

have available: name cards and labels, blank word cards and sentence strips ready to develop

signs, labels and captions that help the children engage and interact with their learning

environment.

They will also focus on getting to know each other and on forming friendships, focusing on

how to get on with others, how to recognise, respond to and respect the emotions of others

and learning how to overcome challenges faced in negotiating relationships with others.

Response to illustration: Encouraging personal connections with a text and reading for

meaning

With the front cover of the text hidden from the children, reveal the illustration on the front

endpapers on the inside cover of the text. This should be displayed large enough for all the

children to see clearly, perhaps on the IWB.

Ask the children to talk about their initial responses to the scene they can see in the

illustration:

o Where do you think this is? How do you know?

o Do you know somewhere like this? What happens here?

o What do you think a story that begins here might be about?

Now, tune the children into looking more closely at the smaller details in the illustration and

using these to make simple inferences:

o What can you see on the walls? Who do you think did these drawings? What makes

you think this? What animals can you see? What are your favourite animals? Who do

you think put the drawings up here? Why do you think they did this?

o What objects can you see on and around the pegs? What do these tell you about the

weather? What time of year might this be? How can you tell?

o Why do you think only one coat is hanging up?

Now, tune in even more closely by looking carefully at the really small details. Count the

wellies, underneath the pegs. Depending on the children’s stage of development, you could

introduce or consolidate the concept of counting in twos:

o What do you notice about the light green wellies?

o What objects might not belong in this space? What makes you think this? Where do

you think they should go?

Link this to an exploration of how we look after our things when we are at school. How we

take responsibility for our own things and things that belong to others and how the

environment helps us to do this.




o How do you think these children know where to hang their things? What else might

help them?

o How can we stop our things getting lost?

o How can we help if we find something that looks lost?

o What can we do to help someone who has lost something?

Look at how labels can help us know where things go in our environment. Explore which labels

you already have in your environment and what they help us to do. You may already have

name labels next to pegs, so that children know where to hang their coats, or store their

boots. If you don’t, this is a great opportunity for creating these alongside the children,

supporting them in recognising or writing their own names, depending on their stage of

development and in choosing a visual signifier that helps them to recognise that this peg is

theirs. This could be a photo or drawing of the child, or a special symbol that connects to one

of their interests or fascinations.

Follow this through with a wider focus on name recognition and in the importance of naming

items to label them, creating meaningful opportunities for name reading and writing. Have

multiple sets of large name cards available for each child, encouraging them to write their own

as they become developmentally ready. Create small name labels and make these available to

the children, so that they can use these to label artwork, constructions and other work they

create. Label cubby holes, special books, trays and other places where children can store or

display their work or things. Have name cards available for self-registration. Follow this

through to home, encouraging parents and carers to clearly label objects that belong to the

children, such as clothing, lunchboxes and water bottles as shared in the illustration.

In linked phonics sessions, tune children into the sounds, shapes and patterns in their names,

looking at how to break children’s names down into syllables through clapping, e.g. Da/ri/us,

Fo/la/sha/de, Li/ly, Sam. Encourage the children to listen to the initial sounds in their names

and in the names of others, listening for names that start with the same sound and then

connecting these to the visual letter representations when the children are ready.

When introducing phonemes and graphemes to the children, always connect a new

phoneme/grapheme correspondence to a child’s name, if there is one, and look for names

that don’t align with common representations, e.g. Charlotte which starts with the /sh/ sound

represented by ch, not sh, or Abed that starts with the /ar/ sound represented by a, not ar.

Continue to look at the importance of labels around the classroom and the outdoor area,

making sure labels are accessible to the children, as well as the adults, to enable them to take

responsibility for equipment. Label trays, pots and other storage items so that children can get

out and put away what they want to use across the day, using photographs as well as words to

support pre-readers. Encourage children to read and use the labels to share responsibility in

caring for the space and to make their own labels to support them in their ownership of the

space, linking their knowledge of words, letters and sounds to support them as they read and

write independently.

Think about how they can share their learning by displaying their work in and around the

setting, like the artwork displayed in the cloakroom in this illustration. In the creative area,




they may wish to draw, paint, or construct their own creations for a gallery somewhere in the

classroom, inspired by the illustration they saw. If they were to create something, what would

it be? Would it be an animal, like these children have done? Or something else? This will

provide you with an opportunity to find out more about the children and their interests and

fascinations. Allow the children to access a range of media, including coloured pencils if they

want to replicate the style of the drawings in the text (these are excellent for children in the

Early Years: https://www.tts-group.co.uk/lyra-ferby-colouring-pencils-assorted-

96pk/1000181.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7Nj5BRCZARIsABwxDKIDlSo8iFvdU2eGfJVT4g0v2SpmCvL

U4k6C8lOgSCNAEN2Mh0pOOZMaAq2kEALw_wcB), but also paints (poster and watercolour),

felt tips, collage, junk modelling etc. and provide space to display the children’s creations

prominently and time to talk about their own creations and those of others.

Response to illustration: Exploring character and identity

For this session, focus on the inside title page of the text and the opposite page which

contains the dedication and publication details. In a picture book, every spread tells a part of

the story, so it is vitally important that these pages are explored as part of the learning and

not skimmed over to get to the page where the story text begins.

Look first at the illustration of the girl:

o Who do you think this girl is?

o What does she look like?

o What is she doing?

o What do you want to know about her?

o Now, take time to read the speech bubble together:

o Can the children recognise and read any of the words she is saying?

o Who do you think she is talking to? What makes you think this?

o Do you think she would make a good friend? Why or why not?

o Next, look at the illustration on the opposite page:

o What can you see here? What might this tell us about the girl? What do you think she

likes doing?

What do you like doing best?

Come back to the phrase in the speech bubble, ‘Hello, Friend!’ Why do you think she is saying

hello to us? Do you think she wants you to be her friend? Use this question to open up a wider

discussion with the children, based around the questions: What does it mean to be someone’s

friend? and What do you have to do to make friends with someone? Allow time for the

children to share ideas. Scribe some of the suggestions on speech bubbles and display these in

the classroom to support children in learning to form and maintain friendships in the class.

Ask the children to imagine that they are going to introduce themselves to this girl. What

might they say to her to make friends with her? Investigate ways of introducing yourselves.

They could say ‘hello’, like the girl does, or are there any other greetings they might use?

What could they tell this girl about themselves? Talk about some of the common things you

https://www.tts-group.co.uk/lyra-ferby-colouring-pencils-assorted-96pk/1000181.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7Nj5BRCZARIsABwxDKIDlSo8iFvdU2eGfJVT4g0v2SpmCvLU4k6C8lOgSCNAEN2Mh0pOOZMaAq2kEALw_wcB






might tell people as you get to know them, for example: your name, what you like doing,

whether you have any pets or whether you have siblings, your favourite things to eat and

drink, your favourite colour, your favourite songs, rhymes, stories, games or TV shows or when

your birthday is.

Encourage the children to prepare to introduce themselves to the girl by greeting her, telling

her their name and something about themselves. You could display the illustration from the

text large scale on the IWB and invite a few children who would like to, to come up to the

screen and deliver their introduction to the girl.

You could then go on to film each child making their introduction and play them for the

children to watch back. Talk about what they have learnt about other children in the class

from their introductions and what they have in common with each other, e.g. some children

might say that they like drawing, like the girl in the picture, more than one child might talk

about pets they have, or siblings. This is a fantastic way of finding out more about your

children and their needs and interests to support you in developing your relationships and

planning to meet the needs and interests of the children.

You could follow up from this by creating a welcome board in the classroom, containing

different greetings that children can use to welcome each other every day. Write out the word

Hello, as seen in the text, in the middle of the board and then ask the children for other words

that could be added as greetings that they use with their friends and families. Extend this

invitation to parents and carers, asking them to contribute greetings that they use at home in

English and in other first languages spoken. Pick a different greeting to welcome the children

with each day, sharing the meaning and origin of the word chosen with the children. You could

also create a second display of words to say to children as they leave at the end of the day.

Reading Aloud and Response to illustration: Exploring Story Events

Turn to the first page of the story text, where we see the girl from the title page saying ‘Hello,

friend!’ to the boy. Do the children remember what the words in the speech bubble say? Re-

read these, encouraging the children to chime in with you.

Read the text aloud, I love to play with my friend. Look at the illustration together. How do you

think the girl is feeling here? How do you know? The children might concentrate first on the

girl’s facial expression. In the Early Years, as children are building and developing relationships

beyond their immediate family, it is important that they learn to look at and recognise

different facial expressions. Give the children small safety mirrors and encourage them to try

to create the same expression as the girl. What does the way her face looks suggest to us

about how she is feeling? The children may immediately use ‘happy’ but encourage them to

explore other words, such as excited.

They may also look at what the illustration suggests about the movement of the girl towards

her ‘friend’. The way her plaits fly out behind her, the position of her arms and legs and the

sketchy lines drawn behind her figure all suggest she is moving at speed towards him.




Come back to look at the words in the speech bubble, ‘Hello, friend!’ How do you think the girl

is saying this? Explore different ways of saying this phrase in a way that conveys the emotion

they think the girl is feeling. Pass the phrase around the circle so that each child can have a

turn.

Now, return to the illustration and look carefully at the boy. How does his expression compare

to the girl’s? Do you think he is feeling the same way as the girl or differently? What is

different about the way his face looks and the way he holds his body? Come back to the

mirrors and encourage them to copy the expression on the boy’s face. What does this

expression suggest about his feelings? How would you describe the way he feels?

Ask the children to talk about what they think might happen next. What kinds of things might

friends do together at school? Give the children the chance to talk about their own

experiences of who their friends are and the things they do with their friends at school to

allow them to connect with the themes and experiences that may be shared as part of the

story.

Children may wish for their thoughts and ideas to be recorded. This can either be done by

filming oral compositions, recording ideas through drawing, mark making and writing. Adults

should talk to the children about the things they choose to record, listening to the meanings

they ascribe to the marks they make and scribing where appropriate.

Reading Aloud and responding to story events:

In preparation for this session have ready a selection of photos of the children engaged in

learning with others in different areas of the setting, indoors and out.

Re-read the story so far and turn to the next page, which begins We play all sorts of things.

Read the text aloud and then take time to explore the illustrations. If you can share these with

the children under a visualiser, they will be able to see the small details in the illustrations

clearly.

Ask the children what is happening here. Where are the children? What are they doing? Are

these experiences familiar to them? What do they like to do when they are at school?

Allow the children to talk about what they have on offer in the learning environment at your

setting and what activities they like to engage in and with who. Share some of the photos you

have selected, to stimulate ideas and encourage them to share their thinking with others.

You could record children’s observations and responses alongside the photos, or encourage

them to draw their own representations of what they like to do and with who.

Come back to the illustration and encourage the children to look really carefully at the

illustrations and think about these when you read the words to them again. Do you think both

of the children love to jump around and go fast on the bike? What makes you think this? Who

do you really think loves to do these things? Do you think the girl’s friend is really doing very

well at building tall towers? Look closely at how the other pairs of children who are building

together are working together and reacting to each other. Do you think the girl is looking at




how her friend is engaging in the tasks, how he is reacting and how he might be feeling? Why

is this important when you are playing with someone? Use this as an opportunity to explore

more widely what play means and how to play alongside each other and collaborate in play

activities. This would be a good way to explore positive examples of collaboration that you

have observed in the setting and to talk through any issues that children may need to work

through in maintaining and developing relationships in play.

Set up different activities that the children could engage in collaboratively, such as those

described in this spread. Give the children choice over what activities they would like to be

involved with and encourage them to learn and play together with others. Each task could

have a set goal for the children to work towards, that actively encourages collaboration, e.g.

o Put on a show for others to watch using pom-poms and streamers.

o Use washing up liquid and water to create the best bubble mix. How many bubbles

can you blow?

o Drive a whole circuit of the outdoor area on a bike, then let your partner do the same.

o Build a castle using the construction blocks.

Explain to the children that they will have to look at, talk to and listen to each other to work

on the activities. Observe the children as they work together, looking for which groupings are

successful at working together to achieve desired outcomes and why this might be.

Come back together to talk about the successes and challenges of working with others. How

did they achieve the tasks? What helped them to work together? What made things difficult?

Did they manage to overcome these challenges? How? Take some of these ideas and scribe

them onto sentence strips to display in the environment, to remind each other of ways to

work well together.

Reading aloud and encouraging empathy:

Re-read the story so far and on to Especially at lunchtimes. Talk together about the concept of

sharing. What does this mean to the children?

You can explore this concept further by reading aloud other books that focus on sharing. For

example: Mine! by Rachel Bright, which you can see being read aloud as a CBeebies bedtime

story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYjvrxfyHo, Norris the Bear who Shared by

Catherine Rayner, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson and

Lydia Monks, The Squirrels who Squabbled by Rachel Bright and Jim Field and The New Small

Person by Lauren Child.

Look back at the two illustrations from these spreads. Do the children think these are good

examples of sharing? Why or why not? How should sharing make all the people involved feel?

Do they think both of the children feel good about the experience? Encourage the children to

look carefully at the boy in these spreads. How would you describe how he feels in each

spread? Use this as an opportunity to explore new vocabulary with the children, to take them

beyond common words like sad, such as overwhelmed, confused, upset, wary, uncomfortable

exploring what these words mean by relating these to real life experiences and situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYjvrxfyHo




Now, look back at the two spreads again and think about the events from the girl’s

perspective. Talk with the children to interpret the situations together. What is she trying to

do? Do you think this is the right way to share? Do you think she will be successful in making

friends with the boy like this?

Encourage the children to be reflective about what they have seen, and to be a good friend to

the girl, by helping her to reflect on her actions in these scenes. What would you say to the girl

as you look at these scenes? Record the children’s ideas in a speech bubble around each of the

illustrations.

Set up activities in the setting that encourage sharing and turn taking. This might be group

games where the children have to co-operate rather than compete, doing jigsaw puzzles

together, building with blocks, working together in the role-play area, engaging in play with

favourite toys, eating together at snack times, engaging with popular toys such as bikes and

carts. Talk alongside the children as you play, saying things like, ‘Now it’s my turn to build the

tower, then it’s your turn. You share the red blocks with me, and I’ll share the green blocks

with you’.

Take photos of the children when you see them engaging in good sharing. Show these photos

at group times, talking positively about the behaviours children were exhibiting. Set up a

display of these photos in the classroom so that children can come back to these examples

and talk about them. Share examples with parents on a class blog, newsletter or through other

communications you have with them, and ask parents to share examples from home of when

their children have engaged in sharing outside of the setting.

Continue a focus on sharing, modelling what this looks like in practice with children and other

adults in the setting, supporting children to recognise each other’s emotions, problem solve

when things don’t work out as planned or when children feel upset or overwhelmed.

Writing in Role:

Re-read the story so far and on to the next spread, up until We would stay out all day if we

could.

Reflect on the story so far. Do they think both the children are happy in their friendship? How

can they tell?

Support the children in noticing the details in the illustrations that share the differences in the

relationship from the girl’s and the boy’s perspective. How, in the first double spread, they are

separated by the page gutter and the boy is facing away from the girl running towards him;

her arms outstretched and his by his sides. Note the differences between their facial

expressions and discuss what this tells us about how each child is feeling.

Continue to look at how each child feels on the subsequent spreads and the differences

between the way each of them is feeling as they engage in the different activities. What do

the children think will happen as the story continues?

Give the children time to consider whose feelings we are hearing about in the words of the

story. Look again at what the illustrations tell us about the feelings of the boy. Look back at




each spread and work together to flip back through the section of the book you have read so

far and consider what the boy might be thinking in each of the images.

Come back to look again at this new spread. Talk about what is happening here. How do you

think the boy ended up on the floor? Do you think he is really excited to go outside? Do you

think he wants to stay out all day long? Cover up the text on this spread, with post-it notes.

Then, ask the children to look at each image again, focusing on the boy. If we heard his version

of the story, what might the words on the page say?

If the children find this difficult, you could encourage the children to freeze frame the

different scenes and think carefully about what it feels to be the boy in each snapshot. Think

together about sentences that could accompany the text that share the story from the boy’s

perspective, e.g.:

I want to put my coat on by myself.

I’m not really sure if I want to go outside.

I think I want to be indoors!

Discuss and pull out ideas together that can be scribed and written as alternative sentences on

the spread.

Continue a focus on recognising and reacting to emotions across the setting. There are lots of

different texts that support children in understanding how to recognise and respond to

emotions. Use some of those suggested in the booklist at the start of this sequence to explore

the names and expressions of different emotions, such as A Book of Feelings by Amanda

McCardie and Salvatore Rubbino (Walker), Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley (Little,

Brown), The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas (Templar).

Support the children in recognising, talking about and managing their own emotions and in

recognising and responding to the emotions of others as they engage with each other in the

setting.

Shared Writing: Letters

Re-read the story so far, and on to and sometimes we do noisy things. Talk to the children

about what they can see here in this new spread. Do you think the boy likes to do the same

things as the girl? What makes you think this? Encourage the children to look carefully at the

details in the images. What do they notice about the boy’s paper? How is this different from

the place where the girl has been drawing? What is the boy doing while the other children are

playing music and dancing? Why might he be doing this?

Think again about how the boy might be feeling here. For the first time, in the illustration

showing the children with drawing equipment, we can’t see the boy’s face at all. Encourage

the children to think about how his face might look if we could see it from the front. Can they

make this expression on their own face? You could give the children small safety mirrors to try




out their ideas before they share these together. Encourage the children to talk about how

they think the boy feels and why he might be feeling this way.

Now, look at the illustration where the children are playing music. What do they notice about

the difference between the boy and the girl? What do they think will happen next in the

story? Note the children’s ideas around a copy of this spread.

Look at the way in which the girl is shown with her eyes closed. She literally cannot see the

boy here. Use this to discuss what she is not seeing, even when her eyes are open. Do you

think the boy will want to be her friend?

Tell the children that we are going to write a letter to the girl, offering her some advice about

how she could improve her friendship with the boy. Talk about some of the things that she

might be seeing differently from the boy and what she might need to think about in the

future.

Look at how to put some of their ideas into writing, for example:

Hello, friend!

We have seen you playing with your friend. We think you might need to look more closely at

him when you play together. This will help you to see when he likes things and when things

might make him sad or worried. We don’t think he likes it when you play the tambourine

loudly. He had his hands over his ears. Maybe you could play more quietly?

We’re not sure that he wants to draw, build towers or play outside either. Perhaps you could

ask him what he likes to do, and do that with him instead.

We hope this will help you and your friend to be happy together!

Love from,

Nursery

Talk to the children about the purpose of a letter, and how it gets to the person it is written

for. Put the letter in an envelope, address the envelope and take the children to a postbox to

post it.

Continue to support the children, encouraging them to problem solve as they negotiate their

friendships together.

Set up a message centre where the children can write messages to each other. A shoe

organiser with each child’s photo on one of the pockets is really easy to set up. Hang this

somewhere prominently so that the children can write, draw and make things for their friends

to post in their pocket. Ensure you and other adults monitor the use as enabling adults,




writing to any children who haven’t got any post, ensuring everyone has a chance to be

involved.

Response to illustration and illustrating characters: Understanding characters’ actions and

motivations

Re-read the book so far, and on until I hope he misses me? Think about what you have seen

here and reflect on the change in emotions of the girl. How would you describe the way she is

feeling here? How is this different from the way she has felt in the rest of the story? Use this

as an opportunity to look back over the text as a whole, tracking and tracing her emotional

journey across the narrative.

Starting back from the inside title page, where the girl introduces herself to us, by saying

Hello, friend!, talk together to decide on a word to describe more specifically how the girl is

feeling in the different scenes depicted. This is an opportunity to have a much more nuanced

exploration around vocabulary to explore specific emotions and talk about the nuances

between similar states, such as happy, content, excited, joyful and glad.

As you revisit the spreads, talk about the girl’s intentions – do you think she is aware that she

might be overwhelming the boy? Do you think she means to do this? What do you think she is

trying to do all the way through?

Pause at the spread Other times we do nothing at all to explore the difference in their

relationship in this particular spread. What do you notice about their facial expressions, their

body positions and what is going on around them? How is this different to other scenes in the

book? Some astute observers might notice the visual link between the two children and the

two birds they are watching on the grass, and talk about the companionship they can see

mirrored here. They may notice the very subtle change in the boy’s facial expression,

particularly his mouth, of which the corners are very slightly upturned. Sharing this spread

large on the IWB or providing copies of the illustration for children to explore with a large

magnifying glass may help the children tune into the smaller details. Then turn to the next

page and talk about the very immediate response the girl has to having to say goodbye to the

boy at the end of the day. Why do you think she feels this way?

Look at the final illustration. What do you notice about the girl here? Look carefully at how she

is placed on the page, as well as her facial expression and body position. How do the children

feel about the girl here? What makes them feel this way? Look at the way that the final

sentence is posed as a question: I hope he misses me? Why do they think she might not be

sure if he’ll miss her or not? Do you think the boy will miss her in the same way? Why or why

not?

This is another spread in which there are scenes in which we can’t see the emotional response

from the boy and we have to infer and deduce this for ourselves by empathising with his

emotions. Ask the children to put themselves in the shoes of the boy, and to imagine how he

might be feeling as he leaves the girl at the end of the day. Ask the children to share their




thoughts and the reasons behind these, noting these down around a copy of this illustration as

a record of their thinking.

Using a visualiser if you have one, or alternatively on a flipchart, share with children ways of

sharing emotion through drawing using simple shapes, like Rebecca Cobb does in the book.

Start by drawing the simple head shape, talking through the shapes you are composing as you

draw. The head shape is not perfectly round, it’s more oval. Add the ears at the side and the

short, textured hair she has given the boy, exploring the way she has used her pencil to do

this. Look at the way she draws eyes, as two black ovals, looking at where these are

positioned to express emotion. Go back to a couple of the prominent spreads to see examples

of this. Then add a small ‘flat u-shaped’ nose and then use a light pencil and rubber to

experiment with different mouth shapes – this is where the majority of the emotion is

conveyed - curved up, curved down, oval shaped, straight. Think also about how changing the

size also shifts the emotion. Allow the children to draw alongside you, on clipboards or

whiteboards if this matches their stage of physical development. Talk as you draw about the

emotions you have created and how simply changing the eyes and mouth can change the

emotions the character is showing. Ask them to decide on a final composition that they think

represents what the boy’s face might look like at this time. Display these prominently for all to

see and share and talk about the similarities and differences in their compositions, and why

they think the boy is feeling the way he is shown in their drawing.

In the wider provision allow time and provide resources for children to experiment with this in

their own drawing or painting or by cutting and sticking different eye, nose and mouth shapes

as collage work in the creative area. Engage the children in talk about the emotions they are

creating as they work, encouraging them to make personal connections with feelings of their

own.

You could also provide card making materials so that the children could choose to make their

own cards as part of the wider provision. Share different ideas about why they might send

cards. They could write I miss you cards or friendship cards to each other or cards for people

at home expressing feelings about them.

Developing reader response: making personal connections with texts and exploring

personal narratives

Re-read the book from the beginning, and on to I can’t wait until tomorrow… Talk to the

children about their reaction to the page turn. Are they surprised by the boy’s reaction? Is this

what they expected? Look back at the drawings they produced in the previous session. Were

any of these similar to the expressions they can see in the book? Why do they think he might

be smiling here?

Now turn to the next spreads, read the text aloud, up to …my friend loves to play with me and

give time for the children to look closely at and explore the illustrations. Focus in on the boy’s

expressions in this new section of the text. Do you think he feels the same way he did before?

What do you think has changed? How would you describe his feelings now?




Ask the children what they think the boy might be saying or thinking now and scribe ideas in

speech or thought bubbles around a copy of the illustration on the working display or in the

shared journal.

Reflect on the story together, turning back to specific spreads to support the children in

exploring and developing their ideas. Do you think they were really friends at the beginning?

How did their friendship develop? How do we know they are friends now?

Ask the children to think about a special friend they have in their lives. This might be a friend

in from the Nursery or Reception setting, like you have seen in the book, or a friend from their

life outside the setting. Give the children time to think about their special friend, providing

prompts to support their thinking, such as:

o Where did you first meet?

o How did you become friends?

o What do you like to do together?

o How do you feel when you are with your friend?

Give time for the children to share these personal narratives in a range of different ways. This

might be through an audio or video recording, they may want to find and share photographs

of them and their friend together to support their talk, or to use these to write about their

friend. They may want to make their own home-made books that they can illustrate with

pictures of them and their friend and write about their friendship in. Instructions for

bookmaking can be found at: https://clpe.org.uk/powerofreading/teaching-

approaches/bookmaking-journals

Share and display the work produced to give audience to children’s compositions via a

communal display, sharing work with parents and carers via the schools e-communication

channels or making presentations to each other or others in the setting.

Composing own writing: developing a new story idea

Read the book all the way through to the end, sharing the final scene, where the boy and the

girl meet the new character in the final spread. Prompt the children to consider what they

know about how the girl is feeling by drawing attention to her body position, gaze and facial

expression, using further questions, such as:

o How do you think the girl is feeling?

o How do you know?

o What tells you this?

o Why do you think she might be feeling this way?

Go on to explore children’s personal connections with the text, by asking:

o Have you ever felt like this?

o When?

o Why was this?

o How did you feel on your first day in Nursery/Reception? Were you excited like the

boy and girl are now, or were you sad, worried or lonely, like this girl?

https://clpe.org.uk/powerofreading/teaching-approaches/bookmaking-journals

https://clpe.org.uk/powerofreading/teaching-approaches/bookmaking-journals




Take time to listen to the personal narratives shared, recording these by scribing them down

to display around a copy of the illustration; these are important first steps into understanding

and constructing fictional narratives.

Come back to this new spread and compare it with the first spread, where the girl is running

towards the boy. Copy and display these alongside each other so that the children can see

both at the same time. Look together and discuss the circular nature of the story coming back

to a similar scene from where it started:

o How are these two spreads similar?

o What happened next in the first part of this book? If the children struggle to

remember, turn back to key scenes and events to support their recall.

o What do you think will happen next, as the boy and girl try to make friends with this

new girl?

o What do you think they will do together? What can you use from your own experience

of being with your friends here to help you think of ideas?

o Do you think the girl and they boy will learn anything from their first experience?

What might this be?

When the children have had a chance to talk through and explore ideas, give them each a

piece of A3 drawing paper that they can use to compose a new spread for the book, to share

how these three negotiate and build their new friendship. Have copies of the book and

selected spreads available so that the children can look at the original illustrations together to

inspire their ideas. Support the children in putting their ideas together and translating these

onto the page through modelling and demonstrating this yourself alongside the children.

Model the process of coming up with an idea, translating this to a drawing on the page and

then thinking of the words that might accompany the image, modelling how to transcribe

these in ways that match the children’s current level of development, e.g. through modelling

how to segment words into constituent phonemes, drawing on high frequency words

displayed in the setting or in scribing children’s reading of their work alongside their mark

making as they ascribe meaning to the marks they have made.

Share and display the work produced to give audience to children’s compositions via a

communal display, sharing work with parents and carers via the schools e-communication

channels or by binding all the spreads together in a class Hello, friend! book that can be

displayed in the reading corner, with the final spread from the book as the first page.

Booktalk:

Re-read the book in its entirety, without stopping, so the children can hear the full text.

Talk with children about their initial responses to this story, using ‘Book Talk’. What did you

like about it? What didn’t you like? Did anything puzzle you? What connections did you make

with the text?




Scribe their comments as shared writing into a ‘Book Talk’ chart in a class journal, discussing

potential answers to any of the questions children came up with, modelling how to go back to

different parts of the text and illustrations to consider their thoughts and look for answers.

Go on to some more in-depth, specific questions to develop the children’s reader response,

such as:

o How do you think the boy felt at the start of the story? Why do you think he might

have felt that way at the start?

o How did he feel by the end of the book? Why do you think his feelings changed?

o What do you think the girl might have learnt about making friends?

o Do you think she will respond differently with the new girl or other new friends she

meets in the future?

Talk in more depth about children’s personal connections with the text, for example if they

want to talk more about themselves, their friends or their families, settling in at Nursery or in

Reception, a time when they’ve been overwhelmed, nervous or feeling a certain way, about

making friends or about other books they might have read that this book reminds them of.

Display the book prominently in the book corner where children can revisit and re-read again

themselves, alongside other books by Rebecca Cobb or that centre around making friends,

sharing or recognising and sharing emotions from the linked texts list.

Create a friendship board in the indoor and outdoor environment to highlight and celebrate

moments of friendship observed in the setting, Use this to inspire the children to be able to be

confident in negotiating and developing friendships throughout the year. Change the content

regularly. This may constitute photographs, drawings, reflections from the children or adults in

the setting, or from parents and carers. Highlight positive examples of relationship building

regularly for children to feel proud of and support children in negotiating difficulties they

experience in managing relationships with others in the setting.

Vocabulary Development:

Word collections:

Collect and explore a variety of words that encourage and enable the children to talk about their feelings

openly and confidently. To explore and enrich the range of language used, regularly read aloud books

exploring emotions in the ‘Links to other texts and resources’ section at the start of this sequence.

Draw attention to and make collections of the verbs in the text that describe the different things that the

children do, such as: play, jump, go, show, build, put, stay, do. Use and model these words and other

verbs to describe actions or activity in the context of different activities in the setting and encourage

children to use verbs and talk in complete utterances when they are describing what they are doing

whilst engaged in play or when recounting experiences.

Language of story and text:




Focus on the words and phrases used at the beginning of some of the sentences in the story that

are used to move the story forwards, e.g. Sometimes, Other times. Encourage the children to use

words like this in their personal narratives and in the fictional narratives they create about the

children in the story to expand on ideas, make their stories interesting for those listening and to

move their stories on.

Early Phonological Development:

Environmental sounds:

Tune in to the sounds of the setting. What can they hear in the indoor and outdoor environments? What

do these sounds signal? What does it sound like when everyone is engaged in activities? What does it

sound like when it is rest time? Talk to the children about the sounds of the environment. Which sounds

are loud? Which sounds are quiet? Do they prefer it when it is loud or quiet?

Instrumental Sounds:

Look at the spread where the children are playing different instruments. Do they know what these

instruments are called? Provide a range of tuned and untuned instruments, including those shown in the

spread (tambourine, maraca, recorder) for the children to explore. How is each instrument played? Does

it need to be shaken, blown, or beaten? Talk about the sounds the instruments make. Are they loud or

quiet? Do they rattle, shake, whistle or tap? Pass an instrument around the group and explore the

different sounds that can be made with it. Can they make a loud sound? A quiet sound? A short sound? A

long sound? Explore with the children whether they play any musical instruments in or outside of the

setting. How are these instruments played? Do they have a teacher for this?

Encourage children to work together with the instruments, creating their own compositions that can be

sung or danced to, as you see in the spread. Think about how these can be recorded, so that they can be

played again, either by simple notation or with audio recording equipment so that children can listen to

and play back their work.

Voice Sounds:

Explore different voice sounds associated with different emotions with the children. What sound might

they make if they are happy? Sad? Angry? Surprised? etc.

Oral blending and segmenting:

Look at words in the text and illustrations that could be collected as objects to practise oral blending and

segmenting in early phonological awareness, e.g. a building b-r-i-ck¸ a school b-a-g, an outdoor c-oa-t.

Use and Application of Phonics and Spelling:

Basic code:

and, thing(s), well, good, at, coat(s), sad, miss, might, wait, tower(s), long

Consonant clusters:




sorts, jump

Opportunities to introduce the complex code:

The text contains examples of ay used to represent the sound /ai/ at the end of words. You can draw

children’s attention to this as a spelling pattern in words in the text like: play and stay and in words of

personal significance such as day, away, may, way, today, spray, stray, delay, hooray.

High Frequency Words:

so and go can be explored together, focusing on the similarities in their spellings and contrasted

with to and do.

he, me and we can be explored together, focusing on the similarities in their spellings and

contrasted with the

like and bike can be explored together focusing on the similarities in their spellings, along with

time(s), outside and sometimes

Other HFW explored: Hello, I, love, to, play, with, my, friend, all, of, around, I’m, our, we, other,

when, home, because.

hello, friend! by rebecca cobb (macmillan)

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