Special Places at School

Teacher EditionAlphaWorldSpecialPlacesat SchoolWritten byLee WangPhotography byMichael Curtain

Published edition© Eleanor CurtainPublishing 2004Text © Kerrie ShanahanPhotographs © EleanorCurtain PublishingFirst published 2004Apart from any fair dealing forthe purposes of study, research,criticism or review, aspermitted under the CopyrightAct of Australia, no part of thisbook may be reproduced byany process, or transmitted inany form, without permissionof the copyright owner. Wherecopies of part or the whole ofthis book are made under PartVB of the Copyright Act, thelaw requires that records ofsuch copying be kept and thecopyright owner is entitled toclaim payment.Developed byEleanor Curtain PublishingText: Kerrie ShanahanConsultant: Susan HillDesigned byAlexander StittProduction byPublishing SolutionsPrinted in ChinaISBN 0 7253 3050 31 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 904 05 06?How to use this bookBefore reading: TalkthroughTalk through the book with the children. Encouragethem to predict the text from the cover and thepictures, and to think about the information provided.Direct the children’s attention to aspects of the textthat may challenge them. Support the children as theydeal with these challenges by asking the Talkthroughquestions on each page.During reading: Observe and supportObserve the children as they read and encourage themto monitor their own reading. Help the children to usereading strategies and cues to respond to readingchallenges that arise in the text. Interruptions to thechild’s reading should be minimal and focused on aspecific learning need.After reading: A range of comprehensionand response activitiesTo develop children’s understanding of the text, selectfrom the activities found on page 12 and the insideback cover. These whole text, sentence and word levelactivities reinforce the teaching focus of this book.Assessment ideas are provided to assist with furtherteaching plans.Selected text features• Text written in the first person• Contents page• Section headings• Conclusion• Colour photographs support andextend the textVocabularyartist, building, chicken, coop, garden, hideand-seek,kitchen, sandpit, secret, special,vegetables

Setting the contextTell the children about your favourite placeat school. Explain why you like it and whatyou do there. Invite the children to describethe places they think are special.Front coverShow the front cover.This book is called Special Places at School.What sort of places might we hear about inthis book?Title pageTurn to the title page.What information does the title page give us?Can you see these things on this title page?1

Special Places at School Pages 2–5?TalkthroughTurn to the contents page.This is the contents page.Read the section headings.Which place sounds the most interesting to you? Why?Turn to pages 4–5Does this school look like our school?What is similar?What are some differences?Observe and supportCan the children identify features of the text?What is this page called?What is the purpose of a contents page?How do you use a contents page?Where is the section heading on this page?How does a section heading help you to read a book like this one?2

Special Places at School Pages 6–9?TalkthroughTurn to pages 6–7Where are these children playing?What sort of things can you do in a sandpit?What toys are these children playing with?Turn to pages 8–9This section is called ‘The garden’. Why might a school have agarden?What things do you think the children grow in their garden?What would you learn by having a garden at school?Observe and supportDo the children use their knowledge of letter-soundrelationships to help solve problems?If any of the children are having difficulty reading a word, youcould say:What letter does it start with? What sound does that make?Look at the ending of the word. What does this tell us about theword?What sort of word are we looking for here?What would make sense?4

Special Places at School Pages 10–13?TalkthroughTurn to pages 10–11This section is called ‘The kitchen’.What things do you think the children make in their kitchen?What would they learn by doing this?Turn to pages 12–13This section is called ‘The secret garden’.What sort of games might the children play in the secret garden?What would you like to play in a secret garden?Observe and supportAsk the children to read aloud to you. Do they read the textfluently?I really like the way you read that. It was clear and it was easy forme to hear every word.If needed, you may like to model fluent reading.Can you have a go now?Try reading so that you sound like you are the girl talking.6

Special Places at School Pages 14–17?TalkthroughTurn to pages 14–15What is the girl doing here?What can you learn by looking after animals?Turn to pages 16–17Look at the cones the children are hiding behind. How do youthink these have been made?What do you think the children are playing?Observe and supportCan the children use information in the photographs and thetext to understand new vocabulary?What is a coop?What helped you to work this out?If any of the children do not understand the meaning of theword, you might say:Look at the photo. What does it show us?What is the section heading?Does this give you a clue what a coop is used for?8

Special Places at School Pages 18–20?TalkthroughTurn to pages 18–19These children have a market at their school.What sorts of things are at the market?Why might a school have a market?Turn to page 20This is the conclusion. What is the purpose of the conclusion in abook?Do you think the girl looks happy about her school?Observe and supportCan the children understand the inferences in the text?Who tells us this story? How do you know this?What words and phrases tell you that it is written from the girl’spoint of view?Does the girl like going to school? Why do you think this?Why have lots of people helped make the school better?Would you like to go to this school? Why or why not?10

Special Places at SchoolAfter readingBeing a meaning makerEncourage the children to supporttheir answers to these questions withevidence from the book:Where is the girl’s school?What are some of the girl’s favouriteplaces at her school?Who helped to make the school a betterplace?What do the children grow in theirgarden?What sort of things do the childrenmake in the school kitchen?Where do the children play hide-andseek?Being a code breakerExplore the following languagefeatures:• Use of verbs: build, grow, hide,make, play, sell, stuck• Apostrophes for contractions: that’s• Hearing sounds: words that end withthe /s/ sound – chickens, cones, eggs,finds, parents, patterns, things, us• Words that have three syllables:gardener, hide-and-seek, necklaces• Compound words: hide-and-seek,necklaces, sandpit, someone,somethingBeing a text userWhat things did you learn by readingthis book?Is this a factual book? How do you knowthis?Who tells the story? How do you knowthis?Being a text criticDo all schools have the things that thisschool has?Do all children like to go to a school likethis one?Would all the children at this schoollike doing the same things that the girllikes doing?How would the author have found outabout the school?12

Responding to textThe children could work in groups todraw a map of what they think theschool might be like. They could label thespecial places the girl described. Encouragethem to use the information they gained byreading the book.The children could draw their ownspecial place. They could write aboutthe place and explain why they enjoy goingthere.The children could write a list of theactivities the girl liked doing (examplesinclude playing in the sandpit, working in thegarden, cooking, playing hide-and-seek, goingto the market). They could then list some ofthe things that they like to do at school.Writing linksDiscuss with the children the use of verbs inthe book. With help from the children,identify and list the verbs (build, grow, hide,make, play, sell). You could then use thechildren’s ideas to innovate on the text bywriting about special places that the childrenenjoy. Use verbs to describe what the childrenlike to do at their special places. After writing,you could ask the children to identify theverbs you used.Ask the children to write a response to thequestion: Would you like to go to this school?Why or why not? Encourage the children towrite from their point of view as in the text.Possible assessment focusCan the children:• explain from whose point of view the book is written?• identify verbs used in the text?• share a personal response to the text?whole text activity sentence activity word activity

Special Places at SchoolTopic: School/ Community/ EnvironmentCurriculum link: Study of SocietyText type: Recount/ DescriptionReading level: 15Word count: 329Vocabulary: artist, building, chicken, coop,garden, hide-and-seek, kitchen, sandpit,secret, special, vegetablesPossible literacy focus:• Identifying words to show that the text iswritten in the first person.• Identifying verbs in the text: we can ‘build’bridges and ‘make’ tunnels.• Giving a personal response to the book:Would you like to go to this school? Why orwhy not?ESL possibilities:• Find compound words in the text.• After reading, refer back to the text andmake a summary of why the girl likes herschool.SummaryIn this book, a girl tells us about the specialplaces at her school. There are many excitingthings to do at her school, such as visit thesecret garden, play hide-and-seek behind thecones and feed the chickens.AlphaWorldISBN 0- 7253- 3050- 39 780725 330507