As a first-year casual teacher , I have realised that some days are a surprise. Literally.
I was recently booked in to teach a Year 4 class. I arrived at school before 8am and set about planning and organising my day. The teacher had said that work would be left and I was surprised to find that it had not been. I raced around - making photocopies, doing a mental rundown of the content of studyladder and sourcing concrete materials. It wasn't until 8:35 when, by chance, another staff member told me I'd been moved - to teach Kindergarten! Normally, this wouldn't be an issue at all but I had only brought my 3-6 folder of lessons and I had the morning duty starting at 8:40.
5 minutes to plan a whole day?!?!
And this is where the magic of Possum Magic comes in.
Possum Magic - inarguably the most famous and most loved Australian Children's Picture Book of all time - is a treasure trove for a teacher and it is my fail-safe backup that I ALWAYS have with me.
I have planned a range of lessons around this book that are suitable for everyone from K-6 and saved them as PowerPoint slides on my usb and on dropbox. I'm going to share them on this blog, as I get the time. This post focuses on a literacy lesson about alliteration.
ES1 - S1:
Read the book. Ask children to comment, focusing on the different food types and the different places Grandma Poss and Hush visit. Lots of kids won't know what scones, mornay or lamingtons are. Re-read the story, interrupting to point out rhymes, how emotions are portrayed by characters, especially beautiful pictures etc.
Re-read the following page, emphasising the alliteration, asking students if they can hear WHY this page is so special.
Eventually, a clever cookie will tell you that they can hear the same sounds and provide an example from the text. Tell children that they are going to 'create their own page' from the book, using the principles of alliteration. Differentiate this lesson to suit your own kids - it's easy to jointly construct one, or encourage older students to independently think of their own alliteration, write a single sentence or a whole paragraph. I normally start off with a brainstorm of locations (in and around the school or local area), choose one and then brainstorm for food types that alliterate with that location.
Real-life Kindy examples:
'They ate carrot cake in the classroom.'
'They ate lovely lollies in the library.'
Spend some time reminding the little ones about the structure of a sentence (full stop, capital, finger spaces, correct handwriting etc.) and then write away! Students should creatively draw a picture to match their sentence - if you have the time it would be great to do an art lesson and then stick the sentences at the bottom.
Click here for a free publication with teaching notes for Possum Magic.
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