Planning Template for a Big Book

Story “The Gruffalo”

Author Julia Donaldson

Class Senior Infants

Areas of Focus

Sight Vocabulary Language Experience Approach

saw, look(ed), good This, Gruffalo, brown, with, black, tongue I am the… I live… I eat…

Letter/Sound Recognition

Whatever letter(s)/blend(s) is being taught at the time can be consolidated through this unit of work, for example, sn/ake, gr/uffalo, ow/l

Phonological Awareness

• Syllabic Awareness- Gruff/ al /o, un/der/ground, fav/our/ite, snake, log/pile …

• Rhyming oral cloze – wood/good, house/mouse and so on.

• Phonemic Awareness – blending 2/3 sounds n/u/t, sn/a/ke

Shared Writing Writing Genres: Report Procedural

• Children composing a wall story. Teacher scribes where necessary, but approximate spelling should be encouraged.

• Report based on an animal in the story for example, the snake, fox, and so on.

• Procedure based on Gruffalo Crumble text

Concept of Print Letter, word, space, sentence, full stop

Book Knowledge Front cover, title, author, illustration, left-right and top to bottom orientation

Comprehension

Predicting Retelling Sequencing events Character analysis – identifying main characters. Character descriptions – physical and personality Character comparison.

Emotional and Imaginative Response

Oral response Visual arts – drawing & painting, márla ( or clay) Drama, role play, mime and improvisation.

Day One:

• Tell children they are going to hear a story about a scary monster. Ask if they have

heard any other monster stories. Talk about what they think monsters look like.

Introduce the big book version of The Gruffalo. Introduce the term title, point out and

read title. Perhaps invite individual children to point to and ‘read’ the title for the

class. Tell them it is a special story by a writer called Julia (Donaldson)

• Encourage children to look at cover illustrations and predict what the story will be

about. Can they describe all the cover? Encourage some predictions about the

setting (time and place) and characters in the story.

• Read story as naturally as possible, pointing to words as you read. Encourage the

children to participate and predict.

• After reading, question the children on the story. Ensure you ask a variety of

question types:

General Questions – did you enjoy the story? What was your favourite part and so on?

Recall Questions (Literal) – Name the characters. Where did the fox live? Where did

the snake live? What colour was the Gruffalo’s tongue?

Inferential Questions – Why do you think the mouse was going for a stroll? How do you

think he was feeling when he spotted the fox? Why do you think he told the fox about the

Gruffalo?

Evaluative Questions – If you needed to go for a stroll, where would you go? Do you

think it’s a good idea to stroll in the woods by yourself? Were you ever scared of

something bigger than you?

Questions formulated by children:

Can you ask me a who? question based on the story? Similarly they can be asked to

compose what? where ? why? and when? questions based on the story.

• Oral Cloze - Reread the story, encouraging the children to join in.

Pause before key words, enabling children to supply them, for example, It’s terribly kind

of you fox, but no, I’m going to have lunch with a ……………

Day Two:

• Revise title and author of story. Reread as before.

• Talk about the Gruffalo - encourage the children to use the descriptive language from

the text, for example,

He has terrible tusks and terrible claws,

And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes

And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose

His eyes are orange

His tongue is black

He has purple prickles all over his back

• Develop the children’s vocabulary here – tusks, claws, wart, prickles. Name other

animals with tusks - look at pictures of elephants, rhinos, and so on. Do likewise for

claws and prickles.

• Movement, Drama and mime: Ask children to change themselves into frozen statues

of the Gruffalo. On the count of 3 or other arranged signal ask them to come alive

and walk like the Gruffalo. Could you make the sounds a Gruffalo would make? This

would be a suitable activity for the Halla.

• Provide A3 Paper and crayons. Ask the children to draw a picture of the scariest

Gruffalo they can think of. As they work, encourage them to write a sentence on their

pictures for example The Gruffalo is scary. My Gruffalo has huge tusks. Look at the

Gruffalo’s wart and so on. These drawings would make a lovely Gruffalo display or

could be stapled together to make Our Book of Gruffalo Drawings!

Day Three:

• Letter cloze activity: Cover the letters upon which you intend to focus on during the

week with masking tape. Explain that Mrs. Sound Snatcher took the letters – what

letter did she take? Examples: ran, till, hear, and fled.

• Initial Sound Substitution: Identify words from the story that you intend to focus on

during the week and ask the children to sit in a circle. Teacher demonstrates by

skipping around the circle while all sing the following to the tune of ‘London Bridge’.

Change the first sound in your word, in your word, in your word,

Change the first sound in your word,

What’s your new new word?

When the verse is over, ‘swap’ the initial sound of the word of the child behind whom

you are now standing and say your new word, for example, fox and Margaret swap

initial sounds and become mox and Fargaret!).

• Listening Activity: (Discrete Oral Language Lesson)

Distribute a photocopied line drawing of the Gruffalo. (You could trace this!)

Ask the children to listen very carefully as you are going to give them instructions. Tell

them you will pause between each instruction to give them enough time to carry them

out, for example.

Colour the Gruffalo’s eyes orange.

Put a green wart on nose.

Colour his prickles purple.

Colour his tongue black.

Draw a mouse in front of the Gruffalo

Draw grass under the Gruffalo

Draw the sun over the Gruffalo.

• Encourage the children to retell the story, using the illustrations as prompts.

Encourage them to use storytelling language, such as, words and phrases such as

once upon a time, then, next, after that etc.

• Using photographed pictures of the story, revise the sequence of the story and

encourage sequencing with one group as another group reads small versions of the

book. If possible, ask children to work in pairs, small groups to sequence the

pictures.

Day Four:

• Re-read the story - teacher makes mistakes for children to spot.

• Introduce the sentence A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good or This

Gruffalo is brown with a black tongue on a strip.

• Read it with the children, pointing to each word. Invite individual children to point the

words as the others read.

• Invite the children to point out the Gruffalo’s name on front cover. Look at it in

isolation on a flashcard. Draw attention to interesting features of the word, such as

the capital G, (if there are children whose names begin with G, write these on a list of

G names). Ask the children to look for it elsewhere in the classroom.

• Introduce the little words ‘saw, looked, good’ or ‘this, with’. Talk about their size. Look

for other examples around the class.

Day Five:

• Silent reading of the story.

• Play rhyming games with names and objects from story as before.

• Use words from the story for syllabication activities.

• Help the children to isolate the first sound in Gruffalo, and collect other words and

names beginning with that sound. These could be scribed if wished.

• Revise sight words: A fox saw a mouse and the mouse looked good or This Gruffalo

is brown with a black tongue in and out of context.

• Writing Genre (Report)

Tell the children we will write a report about an animal in the story, and through

questioning introduce this structure ‘Here is a ….. It is … (appearance) It lives in …. It

likes to eat… (What it does) … (Something special about the animal)’. Spell each word

as you write it, draw children’s attention informally to spaces and full stops. Children

could be invited up to write the full stops, spell the words, find the words in the print

environment in the classroom and so on.

• In circle time formation, encourage the children to orally construct sentences about

the Gruffalo, using the starter This Gruffalo is….

Day Six:

• Rereading, retelling, sequencing, phonological awareness (syllabication and rhyming

as before )

• Begin teaching The Gruffalo song, to be found on inside back cover of big book if

wished.

• Reread report written on Day 4 “This is a snake. It is a reptile. It has scaly skin. It

eats mice and bugs. It lives in the ground. It sheds its skin every month.” Isolate the

sight words. Help the children to begin to identify the phrase in the pages of the

homemade book and also around the classroom.

• Encourage them to make new sentences with Here is by adding another card to

finish the sentence ( for example, their own names )

• At this point it would be invaluable to introduce little books (teacher made) with a

photocopy of each animal and the appropriate sentences on each page that

reinforce the sight words. These could also be sent home for shared reading.

Day Seven/Eight/Nine/Ten:

• Whole class retelling/phonological awareness as before.

• Practice of Gruffalo song as before.

• Dramatisation of story would also be appropriate here, with a narrating group and

individual children taking parts.

• Work with groups and alternate appropriate activities, for example,

o Group one – handwriting of capital letter G

o Group two – making Gruffalo and the other animals in márla

o Group three - Collaborative reading with the teacher. It is important that

each group gets a chance to participate in this. It would be ideal if there

were a set of small books for the children to use. If this is not possible, it

is fine to use the big book.

• Reading in a small group like this allows for more opportunities to zone in on the

sight words and any letters that have been taught.

• Writing Genre: Procedural Writing: Gruffalo Crumble.

Record the recipe – “Title, Ingredients, Method”. Perhaps you could record the steps

using digital photographs – these could be used to enhance the text.

• Continue practising the Gruffalo song and Drama. Perform it for the next-door class

or teacher!

• Allow the children to read the homemade books as well as the big books during

silent reading.

• If possible photocopy the homemade books to A4 size and send home for shared

reading.

• Independent Writing:

Link with L.E.A (Language Experience Activity)

o Use the following structure(orally) to help the children think about the

characters –

o Teacher records on class chart which then becomes the text for reading,

moving on to independent construction.

I am the Gruffalo/mouse/fox/snake .etc.

I live…………………..

I eat…………………

I love………………….

I hate…………………

I wish…………………….

This structure could also be used to make very entertaining homemade big books, as it

would provide a very useful framework for scaffolded independent writing.