Lesson One: ‘Wh’ Question Vocabulary in News Time
Date:
KLA: K-6 English Syllabus
Stage:
Grade:
Duration:
Early Stage 1
Kindergarten
½ to 1 hr
Aim of lesson:
 To increase awareness and use of ‘wh’ questions during News Time
Outcomes and Indicators:
Learning to Talk and Listen — Talking and Listening TES1.1
• makes simple requests
• listens to brief concrete descriptions
• describes an object of interest to the class, eg toy or pet
• recounts a personal or shared experience
• interprets a simple instruction from teacher or peer
• carries out instructions involving one step
• understands simple classroom routines
• listens for and responds to information in class
• listens to simple explanations and makes appropriate responses
• provides simple explanations
• listens to and reports on peer opinions
• expresses a personal opinion
• understands the difference between a question and a statement
• presents news to class
• talks to whole class about a topic of personal interest
Learning to Talk and Listen — Skills and Strategies TES1.2
• demonstrates attentive listening
• listens while others present news and asks relevant questions
• listens and follows one-step instructions
• with encouragement, contributes to class discussions
• makes requests appropriately, eg asks to borrow a pencil
• uses relevant questions to ask for specific information
• uses appropriate word order when asking questions or making statements
• responds to simple questions
Resources:
 Question vocabulary poster with removable velcro word cards
(see Appendix 1)
Assessment:
 Photo of board being used by the
children
Lesson evaluation:
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Time:
Introduction:
5-10 minutes
Body:
20-30 minutes
Task engagement:
Introduction:
 Introduce children to ‘wh’ questions using
the vocabulary poster and removable
word cards
 Discussion about the importance of
asking questions
Teacher’s notes:
Body:
Activity
Following the introducing of the ‘wh’
vocabulary:
1. Model news using a second person
(colleague or student)
2. Remove the coloured ‘wh’ word cards
from the vocabulary poster
3. Prompt the class to ask ‘wh’ questions
using the selected ‘wh’ removable word
cards
4. Display one ‘wh’ card at a time to the
class and ask if anyone can think of an
appropriate question using that word
5. As each ‘wh’ question is asked, instruct
the child to place the appropriate ‘wh’
word card onto the vocabulary poster
News Time
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 during Kindergarten
News Time
Note:
If additional questions are asked the
appropriate word card should also be placed
on the vocabulary poster
Closure:
Closure:
Reiterate the importance of asking a range
of ‘wh’ questions in News Time
5-10 minutes
Extensions:
Increase difficulty: Less prompting for target vocabulary words and encouragement
of additional question vocabulary
Decrease difficulty: Provide more examples and prompting for the class.
See Appendix 2 for other extension activities.
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Values:
Cooperation, Participation, Fairness
Lesson Two: Additional Question vocabulary in News Time
Date:
KLA: K-6 English Syllabus
Stage:
Grade:
Duration:
Early Stage 1
Kindergarten
½ to 1 hr
Aim of lesson:
 To increase awareness and use of a range of question vocabulary
Outcomes and Indicators:
Learning to Talk and Listen — Talking and Listening TES1.1
• makes simple requests
• listens to brief concrete descriptions
• describes an object of interest to the class, eg toy or pet
• recounts a personal or shared experience
• interprets a simple instruction from teacher or peer
• carries out instructions involving one step
• understands simple classroom routines
• listens for and responds to information in class
• listens to simple explanations and makes appropriate responses
• provides simple explanations
• listens to and reports on peer opinions
• expresses a personal opinion
• understands the difference between a question and a statement
• presents news to class
• talks to whole class about a topic of personal interest
Learning to Talk and Listen — Skills and Strategies TES1.2
• demonstrates attentive listening
• listens while others present news and asks relevant questions
• listens and follows one-step instructions
• with encouragement, contributes to class discussions
• makes requests appropriately, eg asks to borrow a pencil
• uses relevant questions to ask for specific information
• uses appropriate word order when asking questions or making statements
• responds to simple questions
Resources:
 Question vocabulary poster with removable word cards (See Appendix 1)
 Large word dice with velcro strips
Assessment:
 Photo of board being used by the
children.
Lesson evaluation:
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Time:
Introduction:
5-10 minutes
Task engagement:
Teacher’s notes:
Introduction:
 Introduce the remaining words on
the vocabulary poster
 Children seated on the floor in a
semi circle
Body:
Body:
Activity
1. Select six word cards from the
vocabulary poster
Note: The four coloured ‘wh’
word cards should be used
initially for reinforcement
2. Introduce each word card and
place it on the word dice
3. Model news using a second
person. News should not be
complete to encourage question
asking (e.g “We went to the
park”)
4. Select a child to ask a question
5. Instruct the child to (gently) role
the dice along the ground
6. Prompt the child to form a
question using the word which
landed on the top of the dice
7. As each question is asked,
instruct the child to place the
used word card onto the
vocabulary poster
8. Select another word card to
place on the word dice and
repeat steps 4-7
20 minutes
News Time
9. Repeat activity above during
Kindergarten News Time
Extensions:
Increase difficulty: Increase the range and difficultly of the words selected
Decrease difficulty: Provide further examples of possible questions that could be
asked with the word card selected.
See Appendix 2 for other extension activities
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Values:
 Cooperation, Participation, Fairness
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Appendix 1
WHO
WHO
WHO
WHO
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
WHERE
WHERE
WHERE
WHERE
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
WHEN
WHEN
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
WHEN
WHEN
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
DOES
WERE
WHY
HOW
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
DO
CAN
MAY
WILL
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
IS
WAS
ARE
DID
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
Example of colour coded poster
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.
APPENDIX 2
EXTENSION TASKS FOR RESOURCES PROVIDED
These are some ideas that could be utilised using the ‘question words,’ ‘poster’ and dice resources.
Please note that these are only a guide, and you can be creative as you like!!!
Big book reading
Teacher reads allocated book and selects and places words that are appropriate to the book on the dice. The
teacher talks to the students about the various story elements of the book that they read.
The teacher asks a student to roll the dice and gets the student to ask questions. Such as:
Who: Who were the characters in the story?
What: What happened in the story? What was the message from the
author? (Ask this question at the end of the story.)
When: When (time period) did the story take place?
Where: Where (location) did the story take place?
Why: Why did the characters behave the way they did?
How: How did the problem get resolved?
Snakes and Ladders Board Game
Pair the question dice with a normal dice.
The students play snakes and ladders Board game. They would role both dice and if it comes up with a ‘what’
and ‘4’ they have to ask someone a what question and they have to move ahead 4 spaces.
The question race
The classroom teacher uses the dice as supplied. The classroom teacher divides the class into pairs or groups.
One student rolls a dice. Whatever word and number value appears on the top surface, the students need to
make up a sentence starting with that vocabulary.
Each group writes down the number value of the die and play moves to the
next person.
The teacher sets a number value for students to race to. If the number is 50 , the first group to 50 wins that
round.
Story starter
Form small groups or leave as a whole.
Give the group/s the dice and have each person reach into a paper bag to
select a picture.
The person rolls a dice and whatever word appears on the top surface of
the dice- the child must supply information answering that question.
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2008.