You Will Need
Texts
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Non-fiction
English Year 1 Spring Instructions
Pigeon Books by Mo Willems
Explore the fantastic Mo Willems books about Pigeon. Practise giving/receiving instructions and write/ illustrate their own Pigeon story. Read Hamilton: Boris and Sid are Bad!
The planning and resource documents for each session in this English block are free to all users.
Unit 1 Core: Read, write and discuss rules
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Show and discuss the front cover of Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Read the blurb. Display items associated with going to bed. Identify them and discuss bedtime routines. Select an item and orally prepare a command. Use correct punctuation to write a range of commands on the whiteboard.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs. They discuss a range of commands associated with going to bed. When they have orally prepared and rehearsed a range of ideas they select their favourite and use correct punctuation to write them.
Day 2 Teaching
Read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Notice the pigeon provides a range of excuses about why they cannot sleep. Identify each excuse. Use because to extend each idea, providing a reason for the excuse. Use correct punctuation to write a range of ideas.
Activity
Children work in ability pairs. Together the children discuss a range of excuses to avoid going to bed; they provide a reason for each idea using because. Children record their ideas as complete and correctly punctuated sentences.
Day 3 Teaching
Read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Note the use of speech bubbles. Consider the consequences of letting the pigeon drive the bus! Record ideas as if the pigeon was explaining what went wrong, adding a speech bubble around the sentence when correctly punctuated.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability groups of three. Together they discuss ideas for light-hearted consequences of letting the pigeon drive the bus. Each child selects their favourite idea and uses correct punctuation to write a sentence in the role of the pigeon.
Day 4 Teaching
Read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Notice the pigeon kept the bus driver’s rule (reluctantly!). Consider what rules the pigeon would need to know if they came to school. For each rule, identify a range of suitable commands. Use correct punctuation to write a list of commands.
Activity
Children work in ability pairs. The children identify a range of school or classroom rules. They orally build sentences to convey the rules and then record their ideas as correctly punctuated sentences.
Unit 2 SPAG: Sentence punctuation; following and writing instructions
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Sentence Punctuation
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Display the front covers of Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Say the titles are instructions. Display a set of instructions; identify which are correctly punctuated and which are not. Identify verbs and orally compose instructions.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability teams of three to compose a short dance routine, with three distinct parts. Each child chooses a different section of the dance and writes a punctuated instruction for it. Children read the complete set of instructions to another group to teach them the dance.
Day 2 Teaching
Recap how sentence punctuation made instructions clearer last time. Write a selection of time adverbials on the whiteboard and read them together. Read instructions for how to draw a pigeon. Children follow the instructions with a partner and compare and contrast their images.
Activity
Children work independently. The children listen to/read a set of instructions for how to draw a pigeon. They follow the instructions, discuss the images they produce and then consider what made the instructions easy or difficult to interpret.
Day 3 Teaching
Display a set of instructions. Identify the features and how sentence punctuation supports reading. Read the instructions aloud. Demonstrate how to compose and publish a set of instructions orally to accompany a common procedure.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability groups of four. Each group identifies a familiar procedure where a set of instructions would be useful. Together the children orally compose and rehearse four distinct instructions. Children record their ideas independently as correctly punctuated sentences.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Sentence Punctuation PowerPoint
Play a game, following simple instructions BUT only if they are punctuated correctly!
Unit 3 Comprehension: Read instructions; discuss and apply features
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems
Websites
Binding single sheets into a book from www.wikihow.com
Group Readers
Boris and Sid are Bad!
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Display the front cover of Boris and Sid are Bad. Predict what the story might be about. Read the beginning of the story, but stumble on difficult words. Ask children to suggest strategies to read challenging words. Demonstrate using the strategies to read the beginning of the story.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability groups of three. Give each group a copy of Boris and Sid are Bad. Children read the story, using the strategies from the Input to read challenging words. Children discuss the story.
Day 2 Teaching
Read and enjoy Boris and Sid are Bad. Say Boris and Sid need some new games to play. Select and display the instructions for two playground games. Read the instructions aloud and help children to interpret them correctly. Identify the features of each text.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability groups of five or six. Give each group a set of instructions for a playground game. Children read and interpret the instructions. The children identify the features of the text and consider how they would improve them.
Day 3 Teaching
Read and enjoy Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Discuss how the children prepare for bedtime. Write ideas on the whiteboard. Use time adverbials to convert the ideas orally into a set of sequenced instructions. Write ideas as correctly punctuated sentences.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs with a set of jumbled instructions. Children cut out and read each sentence, then sequence them correctly. Two pairs of children join together to form a group of four and compare and contrast the sequence of their instructions.
Day 4 Teaching
Re-read Boris and Sid are Bad! together. Discuss how the characters felt strong emotions and ask children to think of situations which make them feel cross and discuss the strategies the children use to calm down. Record as a vertical list of instructions.
Activity
Children work independently to compose four instructions to help someone stay calm and avoid a potential conflict. They take care to punctuate the sentences correctly and leave spaces between words. Differentiated writing frames are available in the resources.
Group Readers
Boris and Sid are Bad!
The tale of two naughty children. There is not a child on the planet who won’t empathise with these two in this little story about a very familiar domestic situation! The book is very simple for those just starting on their reading journey.
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 4 SPAG: Sentence building: giving reasons using because
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read and enjoy Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Discuss how the children feel about bedtime and consider their bedtime routines. Identify the excuses the pigeon uses to persuade the reader to let them stay up late. Compose alternative ideas and model writing them as correctly punctuated sentences.
Activity
Children work in ability pairs to compose a range of reasons orally why they should be allowed to stay up past their bedtime. Children select their favourite idea and write it as a correctly punctuated sentence.
Day 2 Teaching
Read and enjoy Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Notice the pigeon is keen to drive the bus. Identify a range of commands, necessary for road and travel safety. For each suggestion help the children to extend the sentence, using because to provide a reason why it is an important rule. Write a selection of ideas as correctly punctuated sentences.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs to discuss and identify a range of commands associated with road and travel safety. Help the children to extend each idea using because to explain how it will guarantee safety. Children write a selection of their ideas as correctly punctuated sentences.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Say that rules are necessary to help everyone know what is suitable and safe behaviour. Identify a range of situations/scenarios where rules are important. Discuss a range of ideas associated with each. Use because to extend each idea. Use correct punctuation to demonstrate writing a selection of the children’s ideas.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability groups of three. Each group discusses a range of rules, associated with a familiar situation or scenario. For each suggestion, the children use because to extend the sentence and justify their opinion. Children write a selection of their ideas as correctly punctuated sentences.
Unit 5 Composition: Write a book about a rule-bending pigeon
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Tell children they will plan an alternative story, to teach the pigeon how to behave well. Discuss possible titles for the story. Select one and model writing it.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs. They discuss a range of potential titles for an alternative story, select one and design an appropriate front cover for the story including a title which gives an instruction.
Day 2 Teaching
Invite children to share their story titles. For each suggestion, discuss a range of appropriate further commands, generating both practical and creative ideas. Help children to prepare and improve their ideas orally. Demonstrate how to use correct punctuation.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs. Together children discuss the title of their story and a range of further suitable commands. Children help each other to rehearse and refine each idea orally. They select their favourite six ideas and use correct punctuation to record them.
Day 3 Teaching
Remind the children of the commands written in Day 2. Explain that you will use because to extend each idea to include additional information. Select a command and orally explore how to extend it. Use correct punctuation to write a range of extended sentences.
Activity
Children work independently to extend their commands using because orally. When they are confidently able to say their ideas aloud, they use correct punctuation to write them, each on a different page of their storybook.
Day 4 Teaching
Display Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Read it badly. Read it again with confidence, fluency and expression. Discuss and record the features of an effective performance. Model using to read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! effectively.
Activity
Children work in ability pairs. The children support each other to use the strategies from the Input to rehearse reading their story aloud. When the children can read fluently, they share their story with an audience.