Example of literacy planning and resourcing 15

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories

Related Early Learning Goals

• Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences (CLL)
• Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group (PSED)

Possible contexts

• Use books, story boards and puppetry.
• Provide collections of favourite books for rereading.
• Engage in imaginative and role-play.
• Use music, songs and rhymes.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with objects, books, tapes and CD-ROMs.
• Make listening stations with microphones and story/song props.
• Exploit areas of children's experience within the setting, for example 'small world' play, construction, malleable materials and the creative area.
• Provide story cards (pictures/clip art from storybooks that can be arranged and rearranged on a story board).
• Scan pictures into interactive whiteboard software or a computer to be made into talking books.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Book (Mr Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham)

Scan in pictures of the main objects and characters from Mr Gumpy's Outing, for example house, river, boat, animals. Or use these on a story board. Print/photocopy and cut out the main characters and objects, laminate them and prepare them for a felt or magnetic board.

Take photographs of the children and do the same with them (taking photographs of the whole of each child works best).

Model telling the story using the children's photographs. Put the children in the boat with or instead of the animals. Model the language patterns in the story.

Add to a collection for story-boarding. Encourage the children to retell the story using themselves or friends in the story. Add a microphone and tape recorder for the children to tell their stories into and share together.

Adult role

• Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects, listening to tapes together.
• Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and videos.
• Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
• Record children's own storytelling.
• Use puppets to sequence stories and model using the language of books.
• Make collections of favourite stories, songs and rhymes with the children for regularly returning to.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Extend stories into role-play and puppetry. Make a stage inside or outside. Help children to identify the main events in a story and to enact stories as the basis for further imaginative play. Encourage children's planning in small groups. Record the process with photographs and/or video. Look back at these with the children.
• Provide story boards and props that encourage children to talk about the sequence of events and characters in a story.
• Provide story sacks and boxes for use in the setting and at home.
• Share books, rhymes and songs, and encourage children to remember while playing, for example use familiar rhymes and parts of stories during play.
• Regularly make books that involve sequencing, for example instructions for washing hands, planting bulbs, recipes.

Adult role

• Give opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books.
• Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects, listening to tapes together.
• Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and videos.
• Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
• Use puppets to sequence stories and model using the language of books.
• Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory.
• Make collections of favourite stories, songs and rhymes with the children for regularly returning to.
• Provide plenty of opportunities for rereading and sequencing stories through listening stations, story boards, etc.

Look, listen and note

• Do children understand the elements of stories? For example: Mehmet refers to the 'beginning' and 'end' of a story. He says, 'I don't like that ending; I think he should've run away and been happy ever after.'
• Do they return to favourite books, songs and rhymes to be reread and enjoyed?

Assessment opportunities

• Observe children recreating familiar roles in play.
• Observe children retelling stories and see if they are able to sequence, for example in a story board, and if they pick out main features, for example what happened in the beginning, who the main characters are, etc.
• Are children returning to or asking for familiar texts?

Related Profile scale points

R 7

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 14

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main character, sequence of events, and openings, and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how

Related Early Learning Goals

• Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments (CD)
• Ask questions about why things happen and how things work (KUW)

Possible contexts

• Use books, story boards and puppetry.
• Use the Internet and CD-ROMs.
• Engage in imaginative and role-play.
• Use music, songs and rhymes.
• Exploit areas of children's experience within the setting, for example 'small world' play, construction, malleable materials and the creative area.
• Find out about people from the local environment, for example a shopkeeper or policewoman.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Storybook leading to non-fiction (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle)

Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Become familiar with the text. Share the book in different ways (scanned into interactive whiteboard software, on tape, in a PowerPoint, with objects in a story sack).

Discuss who or what is the most important in the book, who the book is about, who the main character is. Ask what happens to the main character, and play out the story with the objects from the story sack as the children lead you through. Prompt them when needed: 'What happens in the very beginning?'

Research into caterpillars and their cycle. Encourage children to find pictures in non-fiction texts that show what happens to a caterpillar: 'Is it the same as the caterpillar in the storybook? Do you think it ate the same foods? Does the book tell us what caterpillars really like to eat?'

Look up the author on the Internet: www.eric-carle.com. Use the site to see if there are more books by Eric Carle that they would like to read or have read, and to see how he creates his pictures, then copy his technique to make their own caterpillar pictures using pictures found in non-fiction texts.

Adult role

• Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Bring favourite and well-known characters into play.
• Pay attention to all details of a book, including front and back covers, who the author is, what the text on the spine is, why we have page numbers, where we start to read etc. Use a 'silly puppet' to read incorrectly and be corrected by children.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Encourage shared contexts, through the use of stories, songs and rhymes, to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in 'small world' play, role-play, puppetry, construction, etc.
• Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and video.
• Model uses and follow up children's lines of enquiry by referring to non-fiction texts, CD-ROMs and the Internet.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Extend stories inside and outside. Provide props in a number of areas, for example add a making basket of cloths, tape, string, clothes pegs, etc. to construction, and make a story trail of objects from a favourite book or fairy tale that can be found and used by the children.
• Make sharing stories, songs, rhymes and poems part of everyday experience. Make collections of favourites for rereading and learning some off by heart. Make story/rhyme sacks, including props, make story/rhyme/song tapes and CD-ROMs readily available. Use talking books on the computer or make your own. Make props that can be used on story boards or with the interactive whiteboard. Encourage retelling by providing microphones, listening back to stories or scribing children's own stories.
• Follow children's lines of enquiry and interests by showing them how to find further information and pictures from non-fiction texts and websites. For example, a child fascinated by car badges and who knew many by heart was helped to make a collection by finding them on the Internet, printing them out, putting them into a scrapbook and adding it as an information book for others to learn from.

Adult role

• Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
• Give opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books.
• Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Bring favourite and well-known characters into play.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Encourage shared contexts, through the use of stories, songs and rhymes, to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in 'small world' play, role-play, puppetry, construction, etc.
• Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and videos.
• Encourage story play by making story trails of objects from books.
• Model uses and follow up children's lines of enquiry by referring to non-fiction texts, CD-ROMs and the Internet.

Look, listen and note

• Do children understand the elements of stories? For example: Mehmet refers to the 'beginning' and 'end' of a story. He says, 'I don't like that ending; I think he should've run away and been happy ever after.'
• How do they use non-fiction books?
• Observe how they use language in their pretend and imaginary play.

Assessment opportunities

• Observe children recreating familiar roles in play.
• Observe children retelling stories and see if they are able to sequence, for example in a story board, and if they pick out main features, for example what happened in the beginning and who the main characters are.
• Do children ask who, what, why, when questions when sharing non-fiction texts?

Related Profile scale points

• R 5

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 13

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

• Know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom
• Attempt writing for different purposes, using features of different forms such as lists, stories and instructions

Related Early Learning Goals

• Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems (MD)

Possible contexts

• Use books, rhymes, music, songs and poetry.
• Provide stimuli for writing: visits, collections, pictures, communications with home.
• Provide collections of favourite stories/rhymes for regular re-reading and getting to know.
• Use a variety of texts in the environment inside and outside.
• Play games involving word recognition, for example matching words to pictures.
• Make books and displays.
• Use children's name cards, for example for self-registration, copying to write onto own pictures, copying for sending notes and messages.
• Use signs and labels purposefully.
• Use word banks and collections of words.
• Provide clipboards and writing tools inside and outside.
• Use wooden or magnetic letters for play in the environment, for example on boards, in water - they float and can be fished out - or buried in sand to find.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Reading a book (Kipper's Birthday by Mick Inkpen) and writing invitations

Share the book with the children until it becomes familiar. One day pay particular attention to the features of the book: 'What is on the front cover?' 'What is on the back?' 'Can we find the author's name?' Have a puppet that tries to read the book from the back and from the bottom of pages. Let the children correct the puppet and show the puppet how to handle the book and how and where to start reading.

Discuss the meaning of Kipper's invitation: 'How had his guests got so muddled up?' Unravel the time problem with the children, using a calendar or class timetable to emphasise today and tomorrow, when Kipper wrote the invitations and when he actually delivered them. The 'silly puppet' needs help from the children to explain this.

Make an invitation for an open day for families. Work out how to make one together first. The 'silly puppet' wants to do it but is not sure where to start. Encourage the children to tell the puppet what it needs to do, for example 'Draw your picture on the front. Don't write on the back. Write on that page and don't write at the bottom. Write one simple sentence with the day and date.'

Ask the children to make their own to take home using card or the computer (using software that has a card template like 2Publish). Some children might like to make a shared one at the computer and print off enough copies for each of them.

Adult role

• Pay attention to all details of a book, including front and back covers, who the author is, what the text on the spine is, why we have page numbers, where we start to read, etc. Use a puppet to read incorrectly and be corrected by the children.
• Make reading strategies overt when reading.
• Model writing in everyday experience, for example shopping lists, address cards, phone numbers in role-play, notes to remember things, notes to others, labels and signs.
• Make writing strategies overt when writing.
• Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory. Use as a basis for writing own books.
• Model using ICT as a form of recording.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Make books and other printed materials available in many areas for the children to look at and 'read', not just in a 'book' area.
• Add captions, labels and speech bubbles to photographs used for display. Make these with the children, scribing for them and modelling writing.
• Add posters, calendars and noticeboards at children's height in book and role-play areas. Model using the noticeboard for memos, shopping lists, recipes, addresses, phone numbers, etc.
• Encourage mark-making for a purpose by making clipboards, mark-making tools and word banks available in many areas. Model uses, for example when children are waiting for a turn support them in making a register.
• Make sharing stories, songs, rhymes and poems part of everyday experience. Make collections of favourites for re-reading and learning some off by heart. Instruct and model how to handle books appropriately. Point out features of books and run your finger under the text when reading.

Adult role

• Make reading strategies overt when reading throughout the daily experience, for example signs, notes, books, songs and addresses.
• Make writing strategies overt when writing text throughout the day, for example shopping lists, address cards, phone numbers in role-play, notes to remember things, notes to others, labels and signs.
• Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory. Use as a basis for writing own books.
• Make a variety of texts available in the environment inside and outside, for example short sentences under laminated photographs displayed outdoors to celebrate physical achievements.
• Provide writing tools, sticky notes, cards, clipboards, etc. across the setting, for example tool belts for construction role-play outside with pens, pencils, notebooks etc., easy-to-make books in a book area or a noticeboard in a role-play area.
• Make regular use of ICT for recoding in a variety of forms, for example word processing, emailing, digital photographs/video and sound recorders.

Look, listen and note

• How do children use strategies to read?
• Observe instances of writing for different purposes, such as when Rosie experiments with labelling the contents on the outside of a bag.

Assessment opportunities

• Observe children adopting the behaviour of a reader, for example holding a book, turning the pages, using the language of texts or intonation in retelling.
• Look at children using print in the environment. Are they following simple written instructions with picture cues, for example in cooking?
• Observe children mark-making in play; are they using marks to represent meanings, are they able to identify and write some letters, do they leave spaces showing a recognition of words, etc.
• Do children readily turn to writing as a means of recoding in their play, for example lists, notices, book making, etc.?
• Are children using word banks, cards, labels, books, lists, etc. to copy words they need?
• Observe children breaking sounds down for writing.
• Observe children beginning to write some words from memory.

Related Profile scale points

W 6 R4, 5