by Claire Llewellyn

Institute of Education
These animals lay eggs.

bird snake

butterfly
2
 wasp

lizard

turtle
3
Pink B band
Who Lays Eggs?
Using this book
Developing reading comprehension
This non-fiction report provides information on the ways that animals
keep their eggs safe. This text works in a different way than a story
and has simple captions of the names of the animals. Children need
to be guided to understand that the text refers to generic groups – all
lizards, for example, not just the one in the illustration.
Three language structures are used on each page. Tracking three
lines of text may be challenging for some so rehearsing tracking and
return sweep across three lines of text needs to be secured as part of
introducing the book.
Grammar and sentence structure
• Support the change in vocabulary by attending to letter
information (soil, nest, log).
• Reinforce use of the pronoun ‘it’ to refer to the animal being
discussed.
Word meaning and spelling
• Check knowledge of technical vocabulary lays, soil, log, nest, leaf.
• Rehearse blending easy to hear sounds into familiar words in eggs.
• Reinforce recognition of frequently occurring words are the A.
Curriculum links
The information in this book could be used as part of classroom
activities in science and nature to discuss mammals/non-mammals
or characteristics of egg-laying animals (some are reptiles, some are
birds, some are fish, for example). These animals have developed ways
of keeping their young safe. Children could use other texts to inform
making charts of predators and prey.
Other Pink B texts in this series can be used to develop one-to-one
correspondence and tracking across 2-3 lines of text.
Claire Llewellyn
Learning outcomes
Children can:
• know that print carries meaning and is read from left to right, top
to bottom
• read some high-frequency words and use phonic knowledge to
work out some simple words
• indicate how information can be found in non-fiction text.
A guided reading lesson
Introducing the text
Give a book to each child and read the title.
Orientation
Give a brief orientation to the text: In this book, we find out which
animals lay eggs and where they lay their eggs to keep them safe.
Preparation
P2: Lots of animals lay eggs. Let’s check that we know the names of
the animals in this book.
Provide the names of the animals not known by the children, drawing
attention to the first letter information that will help them check in
the case of bee/wasp and lizard/snake.
P4. Where does the bird lay eggs? Yes, that’s right, in a nest. Put your
finger under the word ‘nest’ – look for the word that will sound like
‘nest’. Can you find another one the same? Do you think the eggs are
safe? Can you find the word that says ‘safe’?
If locating the words is easy for the children, turn through the
pages to draw out responses to support the use of animal names. If
locating the specific words is challenging, continue through the book,
modelling the names of the animals if necessary.