Planning and Activities
Fiction
English Year 2 Spring Traditional Tales and Fables
Traditional Tales from Other Cultures
Read and listen to different versions of Baba Yaga and Hansel and Gretel. Identify different types of sentence and study subordination and coordination. Write a traditional tale.
Start with the core unit to introduce key texts. Then select from comprehension, SPAG and composition units.
Unit 1 Core: Story-telling Baba Yaga and Hansel and Gretel
(suggested as 4 days)
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
There is no spelling and grammar presentation for this unit.
You Will Need
Websites
Russian animation of a Baba Yaga story (from 3:15 to 4:28) from YouTube.com
Story of Baba Yaga told by Wilf Merttens from YouTube.com
German song about Hansel and Gretel from YouTube.com
Group Readers
Why not me?
This story plays with the genre of traditional stories. A woodpecker wants to know why she is not in any tale. This story draws children’s attention to a wide range of tales and then challenges the reader to write a story with a woodpecker in it!
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 2 SPaG: Subordination and Coordination
(suggested as 3 days)
Planning and Activities
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
You Will Need
Group Reader
Why not Me? by Ruth Merttens
Group Readers
Why not me?
This story plays with the genre of traditional stories. A woodpecker wants to know why she is not in any tale. This story draws children’s attention to a wide range of tales and then challenges the reader to write a story with a woodpecker in it!
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 3 Comprehension: Books about ‘Baba Yaga’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
There is no spelling and grammar presentation for this unit.
You Will Need
Texts
Hansel and Gretel by Anthony Browne
Baba Yaga by Tony Bradman
Group Reader
Hansel and Gretel by Ruth Merttens
Additional texts
You do not need these texts to teach this unit, but children may enjoy reading them after Day 4.
Hansel and Gretel by Josephine Collins
Hansel and Gretel by Bethan Woollvin
Hansel and Gretel by Michael Morpurgo
Babushaka Baba Yaga by Patricia Polacco
Group Readers
Hansel and Gretel
This is a great new version of the traditional tale. Hansel is a dog and Gretel is a cat and the story has all the usual excitement plus an added twist of the animal characters to entertain. Suitable for beginning readers.
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 4 SPaG: Identify different types of sentence and use each type in own writing
(suggested as 3 days)
Planning and Activities
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
You Will Need
Essential texts
Hansel and Gretel by Anthony Browne
Baba Yaga by Tony Bradman
Unit 5 Composition: Writing stories using a traditional-tale structure
(suggested as 4 days)
