Year 6, Spring Term, Week 16

The Cake Catastrophe (Part 1)

Anna Humphrey

Text Outline
The narrator of the story, and her friends, are preparing for her little sister Anjali’s 4th birthday party. But a storm
is causing the local area to flood and it begins to look unlikely that the party will take place. Eventually, they are
told to evacuate the house and head for shelter. Everyone prepares to leave, packing the essentials, but where has
Anjali gone? Children will speculate on how the characters might be feeling about evacuating their home, and offer
predictions for what might happen next in the story.

Day 1 Activity Comprehension Strategies

Children familiarise themselves with the following words by completing the

activities in their workbooks: Clarifying
dashed, average, relatively, essentials, breached, demanded, remarked, disappointment

Day 2 Activity Comprehension Strategies

Children pre-read the text for the week’s work (either independently, in pairs,
or by having the text read to them by a TA or using the eBook narration). Using
Summarising
their workbooks, children write their thoughts about the three key questions and
generate their own questions. The three key questions are: Connecting
How were the characters preparing for the party? Activating Prior Knowledge
Questioning
What does Anjali think the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs” means?
How do you think the characters feel about evacuating their home?

Day 3 Teacher discussion: see reverse of card.

Day 4 Activity Comprehension Strategies

In pairs, children revisit the questions discussed on Day 3 and reflect on how
their thinking has developed. They write notes in their workbooks using the
following prompts: Activating Prior Knowledge
• Explain how you would prepare your home for evacuation. Visualising
• Describe what you would take with you and why.
• Discuss what it might feel like to evacuate your home.

Day 5 Activity Comprehension Strategies

Children complete a writing activity in their workbooks. Children predict what will
happen next in the story.
• Support: Children complete the original activity but are given a summary of the Predicting
text so far, as a reminder.
• Extend: Children complete the original activity and justify their prediction.
 Year 6, Spring Term, Week 16
The Cake Catastrophe (Part 1)
Anna Humphrey

Day 3 Summarising

Ask children to discuss the text in pairs. What type of text is it? Who are the main characters? Where is the story
set? What are the key events? Can children summarise the story so far in five key points?
Clarifying

Ask children if there were any words they found confusing while reading and help to clarify these words for them
by asking questions. For example: How many synonyms can you think of for the word “remarked”? Can you think
of an antonym for the word “essential”? Discuss the different meanings of the word “dashed”.

Looking Question Comprehension Strategies to Observe

How were the characters preparing for the party? Summarising: Can children identify the theme of the
Questions to develop dialogue further: birthday party and the reason for this?
• What is the party theme? Why? Summarising: Can children skim the text to find what
Dad and the children are making for the party?
• What are the characters making?
Linked Resources on ActiveLearn Primary
Use this resource to help children comprehend the text.
• Images of people evacuating their homes during floods

Clue Question Comprehension Strategies to Observe

What does Anjali think the expression “it’s raining
cats and dogs” means?
Questions to develop dialogue further:
• Why did Anjali dash to the window? What did she
expect to see and why?
• How did Anjali feel when she saw the raindrops?
• Do you know any other expressions?
Thinking Question
Connecting: Can children make connections between
Anjali’s age (naivety) and the reason she ran to the
window?
Summarising: Can children identify that Anjali felt
disappointed?
Activating Prior Knowledge: Can children share any
examples of well-known expressions?
Comprehension Strategies to Observe

How do you think the characters feel about
evacuating their home?
Questions to develop dialogue further:
• How does each of the characters behave when they
hear about the flooding?
• How do you think the children are feeling?
• Is Dad worried? Why does he take electronics and photo
albums to the attic?
• What would you take if you had to evacuate your home?
Questioning
Summarising: Can children summarise what Dad and
the children do when they are told to evacuate?
Connecting: Can children make connections between
the characters’ actions and their possible feelings?
Connecting: Can children make connections between
Dad’s behaviour and his feelings? Can they recognise
that valuable items will be safer in the attic?
Activating Prior Knowledge: Can children share which
items are important to them or what would be useful?

Ask children if they wrote down any questions on Day 2 in their workbooks that have not been answered. Discuss
these questions as a group.
Predicting

At the end of the discussion, ask children to predict what they think will happen next in the story by prompting
them with the following question: What do you think has happened to Anjali?

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