Little Book: A Circus Family Objectives * to read for the main idea Vocabulary nouns: acrobat, aunt, brother, cartwheels, circus, clown, costumes, electrician, father, grandfather, grandmother, juggler, lights, tailor, trapeze artist, uncle, work * to read for details * to recognise predictable patterns * to use context for meaning s verbs: control, fly, jump, laugh, make, sew, swing, wear, wo! * torelate the story to students’ lives adjectives: beautiful, exciting, hard, special adverbs: high, very Materials Summary * cassette or A girl named Natasha CD player describes her family . members who work in the circus: a trapeze artist, an acrobat, a tailor, an electrician, a clown and a juggler. Natasha explains that working in the circus is hard work, but it’ fun. Before Reading 1. Ask students to take out pages 95-96 from the back of their Workbooks. Model how to make a Little Book by folding the pages in half, Make sure all the books are ready before continuing. 2. Create interest by sticking a picture of a clown’ face on the board. Ask students where they can go to see clowns. Ask students to call out all the words associated with clowns, and write them on the board around the clown’s face. Ask who has seen clowns at the circus and what else they have seen, Direct their attention to the title of the story, A Circus Family. Ask them what they think the story will be about. 3. Encourage students to look at the pictures and name a few words they think they will find in the story. Write the words on the board so that students can check their predictions later. During Reading I. Invite students to relax and listen quietly as you play the audio or read the story aloud to them. As you read, use gestures and point to the pictures to help convey meaning, especially for new words such as sew, costumes, lights, swings, trapeze, juggler. Remind students that they can ask questions and talk about the story when you read it for the second time 2. Guide students through a “visual and physical” reading of the story. Once again use gestures and point to pictures, but LCT ED this gestures and point with you, Students may also track the print in their books as they follow along. If students interrupt frequently with questions about meaning, help them realise it is not necessary to know every single word in a text to understand the main idea. At the same time, encourage them to seek meaning from context, from accompanying pictures and from ich othe df (hgh {hh gn pn gh gn ome oe me oe amy am oa on oom ow3. ‘To check students’ arlier predictions about story vocabulary, review the list of Nords and ask students to search for them in the text. At this time, ask students to ask questions about the story and text. ‘Echo read. To help each student develop oral reading skills, echo read the stor with them. Please see page T10 for an explanation of this technique. 5. Choral read. ‘lo help students develop flueney in their oral reading, ask the class to read the story aloud with you, Read expressively as you emphasise key words, Keep a pace that is comfortable for students. Ask students to track the print as they read and listen for words they don't know, Above all, have fun! (SS ASSEN TS After Reading 1. To check reading comprehension, ask questions such as the following about each of the story characters. Accept any words or phrases that students say as long as the answer shows students under: the content. rand What does Natasha’s grandmother do? What does she sew? Who uses machines for their jobs? What does Natasha do? 2. ‘Then ask students to talk about the story. Put students in groups of four. Give each one a different page. Ask each student to point to the characters on the page and talk about each one. Tell students that itis not important to repeat what they read on the page. It is more important for them to say in their own words what they understand and know from what they read. Encourage them to include their reactions to the different kinds of jobs. 3. Ask students to relate A Circus Family to themselves. Name each job from the story and get students to say if they would or would not like to do that particular job. Next, talk about how strong the circus people are. Have a contest to find out who the strongest student is (who can hold the most books) or who can jump the furthest. 4. Encourage students to take their Little Books home and share A Circus Family with their families and friends. If you feel that some students will want to read the story but will need more support to do this successfully, record the story on audio for them. To help students of all abilities, record the story: 1) sentence by sentence, pausing for students to repeat each sentence; 2) one page at a time, pausing for students to repeat each page; 3) in its entirety without pausing. [wis Workbook page 17 may be given now. Answers are on page T2D. Extension Numbers and time. Tell students that being strong and having balance are important to people in the circus. Get students to test their strength and balance as a class or in small groups. Use a large clock to time the students while they do activities such as the following: balance on one foot until their other foot touches the floors balance books on their heads until a book falls; hold many books with one hand until the books fall. As the second hand on the clock moves, count the seconds aloud with the class. Record the time in minutes and seconds for each activity. You may want to make a chart and record the activities and the times. Ask students to draw pictures of the activities and paste them on the chart. 2a Ba Hi. I’m Natasha, and I work with my family in the circus. We all work very hard, but every day in the circus world is exciting!ov My grandfather is an electrician. He controls all the special lights for the circus. My grandmother is a tailor. She sews beautiful costumes for people to wear.My father is a trapeze artist. He swings on a trapeze and flies through the air. My brother is an acrobat. He can turn cartwheels and jump very high.My ‘ : ¢ clown. He makes people laugh. My aunt is a juggler. She can keep many things al in the air at the same time. m4.) ZuUN ‘€ 400g squepnig Being a circus family is hard work — and fun. $007 uoneanp3 uoseay o =