Session 1 - Deciphering new or unfamiliar words.

Introduce Sebastian's Waddle to the class. Discuss the cover of the book, author and title. Talk about what the book might be about. Read through the book together, talk about what Sebastian might have found on each page and then click on the question marks to find out. Make sure you have the volume on your speakers turned up as some of the pages have sound!

Choose one of the pages from Sebastian's Waddle, print out the text and enlarge it on a photocopier to A3. Use post-it notes to cover words within the sentence. Read through with the class by reading on, leaving a gap and re-reading. Ask the children for ideas and re-read the sentence with the new words to see if they might be correct. Alternatively ask the children to come up with some nonsense words which would make a silly sentence! (All the text from Sebastian's Waddle can be found under "Big Book Text" in the first page of Literacy Links. There are also instructions of how to transfer this text to Microsoft Word and Talking Textease in order to print them out.)

Choose one of the pages from Sebastian's Waddle, remove some of the words and print out the sentences. Ask the children to put in the words where appropriate. Click here to print out an activity sheet - it will need to be enlarged on a photocopier. Once you have printed the sheet, click on the "back" button to return to this page.

Children to read out their sentences individually, have they placed the words in the right places?

Grammar and Punctuation 2) to use awareness of the grammar of a sentence to decipher new or unfamiliar words, e.g. predict text from the grammar read on, leave a gap and re-read. Comprehension and Composition 19) to predict what a given book might be about from a brief look at the cover and title; to discuss what it might tell in advance of reading and check to see if it does.

Session 2 - Using full stops in sentences.

Re-read the story as above. Encourage the children to acknowledge a full stop by nodding their heads whilst they pause! Point out how a letter is always changed into a capital at the beginning on a new sentence, after the full stops.

Choose one of the pages from Sebastian's Waddle, print out the text, delete the full stops and change all the capitals at the beginnings of sentences to lower case. Enlarge the text on a photocopier to to A3. Read through the sentence and demonstrate how silly it sounds if there are no pauses in the text. Read through the sentence as a class and encourage the children to nod and pause where they feel a full stop should be placed. Ask individuals to come up and mark on where they think a full stop should go. Ask what need to happen to the letters at the beginning of each sentence. (All the text from Sebastian's Waddle can be found under "Big Book Text" in the first page of Literacy Links. There are also instructions of how to transfer this text to Microsoft Word and Talking Textease in order to print them out.) Alternatively place the text into Talking First Word or Talking Textease, remove the full stops and get the computer to read through the sentences. Then add in the full stops and discuss the differences.

Choose one of the pages from Sebastian's Waddle, remove some of the full stops and print out the sentences. Ask the children to put in the fullstops where appropriate. Click here to print out an activity sheet - it will need to be enlarged on a photocopier. Once you have printed the sheet, click on the "back" button to return to this page.

Children to read their sentences nodding and pausing where they feel the full stops should be placed.

Grammar and Punctuation 4) to recognise full stops and capital letters when reading and understand how they effect the way the passage is read. 5) to continue to demarcate sentences in writing ending a sentence with a full stop.