Oral Language: Understanding: LO 5 (vocabulary – acquire new vocabulary).
Remind the children that ‘tired words’ are words that are overused in stories. The story could be made more exciting and appealing if alternative words were used.
Challenge the children to come up with a list of words that could be used instead of ‘nice’ to describe the fireman from the story, for example: kind, friendly, helpful, brave.
Structure and Components of the Genre
Reading: Exploring and Using: LO 7 (purpose, genre and voice – explore the components of a narrative). Using the cards (see downloadable materials for Unit 8), encourage the children to discuss the problems and match them to the solutions. Discuss alternative solutions to each of the problems.
Book Talk and Critical Thinking Oral Language: Understanding: LO 5 (vocabulary – use context clues to infer meaning of new phrases).
Idioms
There are examples of idioms in the story. The teacher can re-read the idioms in context while explaining to the children that idioms are phrases that do not mean exactly what the words say. The idioms could then be presented as ‘I wonder’ statements to encourage critical thinking and generate discussion.
• I wonder what ‘squealed with delight’ means. • I wonder what ‘that was a close call’ means.
The children take turns giving their opinions about the meaning of the phrases.
