You Will Need
Texts
What You Shouldn’t Do at School by Joshua McManus
Group Readers
What You Shouldn’t Do Before School (provided below)
Non-fiction
English Year 1 Autumn Commands and Requests
Commands: What You Shouldn't Do at School
Using humorous texts (You Can’t Take an Elephant on a Bus) study different sentence types; punctuate correctly. Focus on commands and ‘bossy’ language. Write commands.
Start with the core unit to introduce key texts. Then select from comprehension, SPAG and composition units.
Unit 1 Core Unit: Introduction to commands and other sentence types
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce Hamilton group reader - What You Shouldn’t Do Before School. Look at the title and front page, then share read. Discuss the naughty things happening in the story. How many events can they remember? In pairs children discuss what they don’t like about getting ready for school.
Activity
Children write something they sometimes do before school that is naughty. More able children to write their sentence as in the same style as the story e.g. ‘You shouldn’t ….’ They write two naughty things.
Day 2 Teaching
Introduce What You Shouldn’t Do At School: Role-play being a teacher from the school and pretend to be cross at what the children are doing in each picture. Ask some questions to find out why they are behaving that way using question prompts. Model writing each question using appropriate punctuation.
Activity
Children discuss pictures from the book in pairs then orally compose questions. They write three of these questions using appropriate punctuation. More able children write six questions.
Day 3 Teaching
Show questions composed in session 2. Role-play answering the questions in full sentences. Explain this is a statement. Model writing children’s replies on f/c with appropriate punctuation.
Activity
Children compose oral replies to the questions and then write these as a statement with appropriate punctuation. Less able children have the questions read to them and the replies scribed. They then copy these.
Day 4 Teaching
Together re-read What You Shouldn’t Do Before school. Introduce commands to tell someone what to do or what not to do. Explain that these need to be kept short. Children give commands to the child in the story and model writing these on the f/c.
Activity
Children discuss the pictures from the story. They pick one and make up verbal commands for the child in the picture. They write these down, keeping them short and to the point. Less able children to make up commands with prompt words and teacher records their ideas.
Group Readers
What You Shouldn't Do Before School
What you Shouldn’t Do Before School, by Ruth Merttens, is funny account of all the things you shouldn’t do when getting ready for school. Children will enjoy the humour and apt illustrations, as well as relating to the mischief!
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 2 SPAG: Write and punctuate questions and commands
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus by Patricia Cleveland Peck
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. Children think of their own animal and what it might travel on. More able think of a sentence that rhymes e.g. You can’t take a shark on a ferry/The other passengers think its way too scary.
Activity
Children write a sentence about their new animal as above. Remind them to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. More able write more than one sentence and explain why their animal shouldn’t be on that mode of transport.
Day 2 Teaching
Look at You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus and identify things you can’t do e.g. take a tiger on a train. Discuss commands relating to the picture e.g. ‘Don’t bring a tiger on here!’ and the use of the exclamation mark. Children come up with their own commands.
Activity
Children look at pages from the book and make up their own commands. They write a command on a strip of paper using an exclamation mark. Less able children to work with an adult in a group to make up commands. The adult scribes and children punctuate.
Day 3 Teaching
Revisit animals from day 1. Write a command in relation to an animal e.g. Don’t bring sharks on the ferry! Now reply with a question e.g. May I bring a dolphin on a ferry? Talk about the punctuation and the difference between questions and commands.
Activity
Children turn their animal sentences from Day 1 into short funny commands e.g. Don’t sit a squirrel in a pram. They then write a question about a similar creature e.g. Can a rabbit sit in the pram? Less able children to work as a group.
Unit 3 Comprehension: Respond to stories, compare and relate to commands
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus by Patricia Cleveland Peck
Group Readers
What You Shouldn’t Do Before School
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce What You Shouldn’t Do Before School. Ask children for suggestions of activities they shouldn’t do before school e.g. pull the cat’s tail. Consider the effects of each, e.g. The cat may scratch and you will be sad. Read rest of book together, stumbling on words and discuss reading strategies that might help (see resource).
Activity
Give children copies of What You Shouldn’t Do Before School (see resource) With an adult, read the book using strategies. Children continue in pairs and circulate to test comprehension. Less able children read command cards (see resource)
Day 2 Teaching
Read You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus and look back at What You Shouldn’t Do Before School. Discuss what the stories have in common e.g. they both tell us what we shouldn’t do. Discuss how they are different e.g. one written in rhyme, one is about one context the other is about many. Which did they prefer? Give reasons.
Activity
Choose a favourite page from one of the books and write about why they like that page. Ask children to then write a sentence saying why they prefer one of the stories to the other. They use sentence starters to help (see resource). More able don’t use sentence starters.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss when they might be told they should/shouldn’t do, e.g. at bedtime, meal time. Brainstorm statements: ‘You shouldn’t eat sweets after brushing your teeth.’ Turn some into commands: ‘Don’t eat sweets!’ Point out the short command, bossy verbs and exclamation mark. Children turn other statements into commands.
Activity
In pairs discuss commands their parents might give them. They write this using correct punctuation. Less able children role-play being their parents giving commands. Write one command altogether.
Group Readers
What You Shouldn't Do Before School
What you Shouldn’t Do Before School, by Ruth Merttens, is funny account of all the things you shouldn’t do when getting ready for school. Children will enjoy the humour and apt illustrations, as well as relating to the mischief!
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 4 SPAG: Draw on own experience to write commands and requests
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus by Patricia Cleveland Peck
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus (skim read if you have done unit 3). What might have happened if the elephant had requested politely. Model writing ‘Please may I come on your bus?’ A request of a polite way of asking a question. Discuss making requests as part of a journey.
Activity
Role-play making a journey on public transport e.g. a plane, train, bus or coach. They act out a scene with a partner, one asking polite requests and the other responding e.g. May I sit there?
Day 2 Teaching
Show children the last page of You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus with animals on the rollercoaster. Discuss their experiences of fairgrounds and how they often have commands to help people keep safe, e.g. Hold onto the front rail! Point out the ‘bossy’ verbs, look at examples (see resource) and make a class list.
Activity
Children pretend they are in charge of keeping people safe at a fairground. They write commands on strips of paper using the fairground ride pictures for ideas (see resource). Remind children to use bossy verbs to start their commands. More able children can write several commands using a variety of bossy verbs.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss who has been to a fair. Explain that they probably had to ask their parents if they could go on a ride or have another turn and they were probably more likely to get the answer ‘yes’ if they asked very politely! Model how to write a request using a question mark.
Activity
Ask children to imagine they are asking their parents/carers politely if they can have a go on one of the rides e.g. Please may I have just one more go at the Ferris Wheel? They write down their request with a question mark. More able children to write their parent/carer’s answer to their request.
Unit 5 Composition: Identify and write commands and requests
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Resources
List of dos and don't examples, a blank table to write in and sentences to sort (see resources)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Discuss special places and toys the children might have. How would they feel if someone ruined these? How would they want people to behave? Discuss tricky situations and plan role play.
Activity
In mixed ability pairs, children brainstorm possible bad experiences about sharing a toy or a space. Role-play this situation with a partner.
Day 2 Teaching
Think back to day 1 role-plays and discuss what nice requests we could ask to resolve the situations. Model writing some requests e.g. Please can you be gentle with my best teddy? Please can you take turns on the swing?
Activity
Children think of polite requests. They say this orally and then write it down using a capital letter and question mark. More able children write more than one request.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss the role-plays from day 1 again. Discuss with children how it might be useful to have a list of dos and don’ts. Look at the examples (see resource).
Activity
Children work in small groups to create a list of dos and don’ts on large sheets of paper. They write ideas in draft form today. Less able children can work in a small group and the adult scribes their ideas.
Day 4 Teaching
Children tell their partner as many bossy verbs as they can in 30 seconds then swap. Look at the dos and don’ts list (see resource) and discuss punctuation of commands.
Activity
Children use the drafts from day 3 to write up a do and don’t list on the table in best (see resource). They use appropriate punctuation and re-read sentences. Some children work with an adult. Each child writes a do or don’t and sort on a table.