Animal Quiz

Oxford level 2 More A

Author: Julia Donaldson

Teaching notes author: Clare Kirtley
Focus phonics Skills – Blend sounds together Example phonic words
Revision of phonics to read words; Segment words gull will
from Stages 1+ into their individual sounds puffin
and 2 for writing buzz
Concepts – Words consist of dish
The sound made by:
sounds; A sound in a word can which chicks chips chickens
ll zz sh ch th ff wh
be represented by one letter this
ng ck x qu
or more than one letter; There wing long sing ducklings
can be more than one way to duck quack pocket Mick
represent a sound ox fox vixen
Knowledge – Focus phonics High frequency tricky words Challenge words
the of have she their They she’s or give
do to into
Letters and Sounds = Language comprehension
Phase 3
Phoneme-grapheme = Word recognition
correspondences from
sets 1–7

Revisit, review and teach the phonics

Write quick sounds
Give children individual whiteboards. Say the sound made by letter patterns already learnt
(e.g. th, sh, ch, qu, ng, j, d, h) and ask the children to write the letter pattern. Model correct
letter formation as you write the letter pattern for children to check their work.
Spot the difference
Say pairs of three-phoneme words which differ only in one letter pattern (e. g. will quill, fax wax,
fish dish, which rich, thick chick, ten when, sing thing, shack quack, less chess, ruff cuff). Sound out
the first word and model writing it down on a whiteboard. Underline the letter patterns where two
letters make one sound and add a sound button under the letter patterns where one letter makes
one sound. Ask the children to sound out the second word and change one letter pattern to write it
down on their whiteboard.
Reading words
Display pictures of animal names which are written using phonics already learnt (e.g. cat, yak, fish,
panda, duck, robin, heron, bat, chicken, ox, gull, vixen, rat, wombat, pig). Write word cards to match
the pictures. Show one card at a time. Ask the children to read each word by sounding out and
blending. Leave the cards for children to read and match to the pictures independently.

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 Group or guided reading
Before reading: strategy check
Ask the children to tell you the sound made by each letter pattern in the box on the back cover of
their books. Remind them that double letters like bb in rubbish make one sound. Tell the children
that some of the words in this book use these letter patterns so they should look out for them as
they read, remembering to sound out and blend words they do not recognise. If they find longer
words that they do not recognise, they can read them by breaking the word up into smaller parts or
syllables (e.g. parrot, parr – ot), then sounding out and blending the parts (e.g. p – a – rr, parr,
o – t, ot, parrot).
Explain that it is important when blending the sounds in a word together to check to see if it sounds
like a real word as some words are less regular. Introduce the children to the context words (see
inside the back cover of the story book) by writing them on a board. Read these words and point
out the letter patterns which make the usual sound in each word (e.g. th in they). This will help the
children to remember these words.

Independent reading: applying strategies

Encourage each of the children to read the whole book, sounding out and blending words that they
do not recognise. Listen in to each child reading and provide lots of praise and support.
Observe the children to check that they can:
• confidently give the sound for the focus letter patterns
• on page 8 and 9, successfully read the multi-syllabic words vixen and robin by breaking them up into
smaller parts and sounding them out.
Emphasise and model these skills for any child who needs help.

Returning to the text: practice

Ask the children to:
(Questioning, Summarising) Recall the names of all the animals that appear in the story (bat, camel,
chicks, gull, fox cubs, vixen, robin, wombat, rabbit, ducklings).
Write the words chicks, gull, fox, wombat on individual whiteboards. Remind the children to segment
each word into its separate sounds, write the letter patterns that make those sounds then blend
them together to read what they have written. Look in the book to check.
Observe the children to check that they can:
• follow the meaning of the text recalling significant events in sequence
• segment words into their separate sounds for writing, remembering the letter patterns which
represent those sounds.
Model the appropriate responses for children who need help. Follow this up with further practice
using the Stage 2 activities on the eSongbirds CD-ROM.

Where next?
Further practice
Ask the children to find all the words for animal noises in the book (quack, sing, buzz, tap). Tell
the children to shut the book and write the words in speech bubbles by sounding out. Remind the
children to blend the sounds together again to read the words and find them in the book to check.
Then ask the children to draw pictures of animals which make these noises and add the appropriate
speech bubble.

2 © Oxford University Press 2014

 Extension work
Display the pictures of animal names which are written using phonics already learnt (e.g. cat, yak,
fish, panda, duck, robin, heron, bat, chicken, ox, gull, vixen, rat, wombat, pig). Tell the children to work
together in pairs. One child in each pair hides a picture. The other child writes what could be hidden using
the sentence structure from the story, Is it a _ _ _? The hider then has to read the sentence, by sounding
out and blending, and write the answer either Yes or No it is a _ _ _. The children then swap roles.

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