Real Writing Year 2 - Unit 20
Model text: How to Make a Hand Puppet by Dan Smith
Curriculum links: Design technology
Unit overview
This writing unit for Year 2 is built around an original text by Dan Smith - instructions on how to make a sock puppet. The example text is available as a PDF in three versions (plain, illustrated and annotated); annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations are also included.
It would be beneficial for pupils to follow the instructions to make their own hand puppet as part of their work in design technology so that they can then write their own instructions at the end of the two-week unit. They will learn the features of instructional texts and investigate how the author has used an informal style, including the use of contracted words. Pupils will identify words in different word classes, learning terminology from appendix 2, and will identify the four different sentence types with the opportunity to write examples of each. In the final task, pupils are asked to write their own instructions for making a hand puppet. Alternatively, pupils could write instructions to make a different product linked to your topic in design technology.
Key curriculum skills
Three fully-resourced lessons are included for the following Year 1 English objectives, which can form part of the unit or be taught discretely:
1. Vocabulary: To identify nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs
Pupils will: learn to identify which word class different words belong to, focusing on nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Pupils will organise words according to their word class and identify different classes of words within sentences. There is also the opportunity to discuss words that could be in more than one word class.
2. Punctuation: To use an apostrophe to punctuate contracted words
Pupils will: learn how the apostrophe is used to mark where letters are missing in contracted words. They will match contracted words with their full written form, rewrite words in their contracted form and identify where apostrophes should be added in contracted words.
3. Grammar: To use sentences with different forms: statements, questions, exclamations and commands
Pupils will: learn the grammatical patterns of different sentence types, identifying whether they are a statement, question, exclamation or command. They will write different sentence types using images provided as inspiration.
Additional teaching points to teach or revisit:
- using expanded noun phrases
- using commas to punctuate a list
- using apostrophes for possession
- writing using the present tense
- rereading writing to check that it makes sense
- proof-reading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation
- read aloud what they have written
Year 2 words: featured vocabulary
Common exception words: hold after should could would sure even fasten
Tier 2 words: distance, flip, heel, oval
Tier 3 words: attach, fabric, fasten, felt, glue gun, join, materials, needle, scissors, sew, thread, tools