Faculty of Education
Assignment Cover Sheet
Unit Co-ord./Lecturer Sharon Pittaway
OFFICE USE ONLY
Assignment received:
Tutor:(if applicable) Lauren Johnson
Student ID 093831
Student Name Jessica Saward
Unit Code
EPC452
Unit Name Children’s Literature Studies
Assignment
Assignment 2 – Teacher Notes
Title/Number
Word Count 2504
I declare that all material in this assignment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement or reference to
the work of others and I have complied and agreed to the University statement on Plagiarism and Academic Integrity on the
University website at www.utas.edu.au/plagiarism *
Signed
Jessica Saward
Date 22/05/11
*By submitting this assignment and cover sheet electronically, in whatever form, you are deemed to have made the declaration
set out above.
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Dated:
EPC452 Children’s Literature Studies
Jessica Saward 093831
Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
Children's Literature
Teacher Notes for Early Childhood
Justification:
The books We’re going on a bear hunt (Rosen, 2006) and Where is the green sheep?
(Fox, 2004) are both excellent reading material for children in early childhood
education. Both of these books have illustrations that support the text (assimilation).
Having illustrations that assimilate with the text of the story is very helpful for young
students who are just beginning to develop reading skills as it enables them to use the
pictures as clues
to predict what might be about to happen in the story (Winch,
Johnston, March, Ljungdahl, Holliday, 2010). Research suggests that the ability to
predict what is going to happen is an important skill (Winch et al., 2010). Both these
books use a lot of repetition which enables students more of an opportunity to predict
what is going to happen next. Repetition within the text also allows students the chance
to develop sight word knowledge from the sight words repeated and these two books use
them on almost every page, providing plenty of opportunity for development of the
ability to recognise these words in context.
Students in this age group are also still learning letter sound relationships
(phonemic awareness). Winch et al. (2010) believe “Early readers need to become
increasingly phonemically aware. They need to learn how the alphabetic system codes
the language and how letters represent the sounds in words” (p.179).These two books, in
particular where is the green sheep (Fox, 2004), use many simple words that can be used
to for the introduction of or continual practice of phonemic awareness. Once students
have developed this skill, these books can be used to introduce or practice other
phonological skills such as onset and rime as well as many other reading skills that
competent readers use (Winch et al., 2010).
These two books have also been nominated for and won many different awards.
We’re going on a bear hunt (Rosen, 2006) won the Horn book fanfare title in 1990,
school library journal best book of the year in 1990, Boston Globe-Horn book honour
award in 1990, Smarties best children’s book of the year award in 1990 and Japanese
picture book award in 1991 (Rosen, n.d). Where is the green sheep? (Fox, 2004) won
the “Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year 2005 – Early Childhood
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
and Speech Pathology Australia Award 2005 – Young Children category” (Horacek,
n.d).
Cohort: These teaching notes are designed for prep students at a Catholic primary in a
high socio-economic area. There are twenty two students with fourteen girls and eight
boys. Within this class there is a vast range of learning abilities with one English as a
Second Language (ESL) student, one special needs student, four students who have
auditory processing difficulties and seven students with speech issues. Students in this
class have a reading ability around the emergent phase and have regular exposure to
children's literature during shared reading time, where a different book is focused upon
each week.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (2006).
Introduction: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Rosen, 2006) is an adventure story about a
family who venture off on a bear hunt with a strong feeling of bravery. During their
journey, they come across different obstacles which they must overcome. As they get
closer to finding the bear their facial expressions and body language begin to change,
symbolising that they are beginning to get scared. When they do find the bear they
become overcome with fear and run home.
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EPC452 Children’s Literature Studies
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
Key Ideas/themes:
Bears, hunts, environment and feelings are the key ideas/themes explored in this story.
Activities
1. As a class research different types of bears such as grizzly and polar. Focus on
students developing an understanding of the habitat, food and lifecycle of each
bear. Students will then draw a picture and write a factual sentence about one
type of bear.
2. Discuss with students different types of hunts they could go on (such as a frog
hunt) and then discuss obstacles that they might encounter (such as a steep
slippery bank). Discussion questions: What other types of hunt could you go on?
What are some obstacles you might come across?
Language and literacy features:
Language and literacy features within this story are repetition, sight words,
onomatopoeia, emotive language, ‘w’ words, ‘s’ words, and alliteration.
Activities
1. Sight words are used frequently throughout this story. To help students begin to
recognise these words ask individual students to point to a particular sight word.
Students then verbally create different sentences using these sight words.
2. The phrase “we’re going on a bear hunt” is repeated throughout the story. To
help students recognise the words in this phrase, they will be given a sheet that
has these words on it in the incorrect order. Students have to cut out the words
and re-stick them in the correct order.
3. ‘W’ and ‘s’ words make up the majority of this text. Discuss how these letters
look and sound. Ask individual students to find ‘w’ and ‘s’ words in the story
then make a list of all these words then think of others to add to it. Discussion
questions: What does the ‘s’ sound look like? What other words start with this
sound?
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
4. Onomatopoeia is used to describe what it sounds like when walking through each
obstacle (for example splash splosh). Students will complete a matching
worksheet where they must match the correct onomatopoeia sound with the
correct obstacle (idea adapted from Urban Education Exchange, 2010).
Visual Literacy
Visual literacy features used in this text are assimilation, large bold text, line, black and
white and colour.
Activities
1. Discuss with students why they think the illustrator used some colour pages and
some black and white pages. Students can then recreate one of the black and
white pictures using shading (technique will need to be taught). Then give
students a photocopy of the picture they chose from the book and get them to add
colour to it using watercolour pencils.
2. Discuss with students how they think the characters may be feeling on each page.
Encourage them to justify their ideas by looking at facial expressions, body
language and colour. Guiding questions: How do you think this character is
feeling in this picture? What makes you think that?
Curriculum Exploration:
Other areas of the curriculum that could be explored using this story are music, drama,
art, SOSE and science.
Music – In small groups students will choose different percussion instruments to
represent the sound of each different obstacle. Students will re-tell the story to their
classmates using their instruments where necessary.
Author:
Michael Rosen is a popular and well-known author of children's books. Born in 1946 in
North London, Michael has worked as a poet, performer, broadcaster, scriptwriter, and
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
now teaches about children's literature, reading and writing in universities. Michael also
spends time visiting schools with the aim of encouraging and enthusing children to have
a love for literature like he himself (Rosen, 2009). Michael has been described as "one
of the most significant figures in contemporary children's poetry... he was one of the first
poets to draw closely on his own childhood experiences ... and to 'tell it as it was' in the
ordinary language children actually use" (Styles, cited in Rosen, 2009).
Illustrator:
Helen Oxenbury is a popular and highly acclaimed illustrator of children's books. Many
of the books she has illustrated, including We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Rosen, 2006),
have won prizes for the exceptional work done on illustrations. Helen was born in
England and spent a lot of her time in her childhood years drawing, however it wasn't
until she married and had her first child that she started illustrating children's books
(Walker, 2008).
Where is the Green Sheep?
Written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek (2004)
Introduction: Where is the green sheep? (Fox, 2004) is a picture book about looking for
the green sheep. There is a blue sheep and red sheep, a bath sheep and a bed sheep and
numerous other sheep but the green sheep cannot be found.
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EPC452 Children’s Literature Studies
Jessica Saward 093831
Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
Key Ideas/Themes:
Key ideas and themes explored in this story are sheep, colours and opposites.
Activities
1. Discuss with students how sheep are portrayed in this story. Read another story
that has a sheep as the main character (for example Russell the sheep). Discuss
differences and similarities about how the sheep are portrayed by using a Venn
diagram. Guiding questions: What was something that was the same in these
books? What was something that was different in these books?
2. Discuss what opposites are and list all the opposites in this story. Read other
stories that look at opposites and add these to the list. Students will then be given
a word card and must find their classmate who has the opposite word to them
(for example cold and hot or nasty and nice). Discussion questions: What does
opposite mean? What were some opposites in this book?
Language and literacy features:
Language and literacy features used within this story are rhyme, repetition, simple
sentences, adjectives, one syllable words and ‘ee’ words.
Activities
1. Explain what adjectives are. Ask students to think of other adjectives that could
have been used to describe the sheep in this book. Encourage students to think of
what the opposite to their suggestion would be (for example tired and awake).
2. Explain to students what simple sentences are. Students will then write a simple
sentence about one of the other sheep in the story on pages 25 and 26 (for
example, here is the sad sheep).
3. To help students identify words that rhyme, ask them to identify all the words in
the story that rhyme and make a list of them. Ask students to think of some other
words that rhyme with these words. Encourage real and made up words to further
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
develop the understanding of rhyme and ask them to think of a meaning to words
they make up (idea adapted from Pittaway, 2011).
4. One syllable words make up the majority of the text in this story. Explain to
students what syllable means and how to work out how many syllables in words.
Ask each student to try and work out how many syllables in their name.
Discussion questions: How many syllables in your name?
Visual Literacy:
Visual literacy features used in this text are assimilation, simple pictures, directional
lines and large bold text.
Activities
1. Create their own picture for the sentence they wrote about the sheep on pages 25
and 26. Discuss with students what materials they could use to make their
pictures look like the ones in the real book. Guiding Questions: What could we
use for the sheep’s legs? What could we use for the sheep’s wool? (idea adapted
from Byatt, 2011)
2. Discuss with students what part lines play in this text. Guiding Questions: How
do the lines used in some pictures of this book help give us more information?
(for example – the clown sheep pictures uses lines to show the clown is moving
towards the left of the page and lines to show the balls he is juggling are
moving), what do you think these lines mean?
Curriculum Exploration:
Other areas of the curriculum that could be explored using this story are drama, science,
art, and numeracy.
Science - Research information about sheep using different media productions. Look at
where sheep live, lifecycle, shearing process, what happens to the wool after shearing
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
and what part do sheep dogs play. Students can keep a journal using simple sentences or
visual pictures, about what they have learnt.
Author:
Mem Fox is a well-known Australian children’s book author. Mem was born in
Melbourne in 1946 but grew up in Africa with her parents who were missionaries. In the
mid-1960s Mem moved to London to study drama but in her late thirties started studying
children’s literature instead. During this course Mem wrote her first book Possum
Magic, which has become one of the best-selling childrens books in Australia. Since this
book Mem has written over thirty childrens books and spent time teaching Literacy
Studies but now spends her time writing books and presentations for teachers and
parents about the importance of reading aloud to children under five (Fox, n.d).
Illustrator:
Judy Horacek is an Australian writer, illustrator and cartoonist. Judy spent her childhood
and adolescent years writing poems and short stories, but in her mid-twenties started
cartooning. Judy now has had thousands of cartoons published in newspapers and
magazines as well as on aprons and t-shirts. It wasn’t until Mem Fox approached her
about creating Where is the Green Sheep? (Fox, 2004) that Judy started working with
children’s books. Judy now writes and illustrates her own children’s books (Horacek,
n.d).
Will I/ Won’t I?
I believe children’s literature is literature created for children which is creative,
imaginative, engaging and entertaining but is still suitable and understandable for the
intended audience. The purpose of children’s literature can be for enjoyment but it can
also be intended to provide insight to children about different skills, ideas or issues that
they may or may not face in their childhood life such as counting, emotions, different
cultures, bullying, family and friendship.
I believe children’s literature is an important part of any classroom, especially
within the literacy program and is even more important in an early childhood classroom.
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
Children’s literature is especially important in a literacy program firstly because
examining literature is a part of literacy and secondly because it can be used to help with
development of literacy skills such as onset and rime and print concepts. I believe it is
even more important in an early childhood classroom because it is in these years
children are introduced to important literacy skills such as rhyme and phonetics. I
believe the learning of these skills can be enhanced through the use of children’s
literature because it provides students with a visual representation of these skills and
allows them to identify these literacy concepts in an interesting and exciting context
such as a picture book or nursery rhyme. Children’s literature in the early childhood
classroom can also be a way for teachers to address and explore any problems or issues
within the classroom at any time such as bullying, friendship and difference.
Children’s literature can be used in a classroom for many different purposes, all
in which I believe further develop a child’s understanding of a particular topic. For this
reason children's literature will be a major part of my classroom especially within my
literacy program. I intend to use a large variety of children's literature that will introduce
my student's to different authors, genres and text types. It is my believe reading to and
with children can have a major impact on their language development as well as social
and emotional development. Children's literature will be a gateway for my students to
learn about different language and literacy features, as well as a variety of social issues
such as friendship and differences.
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
References
Byatt, C. (2011. May 9). Re: Visual Literacy [Web log comment. Retrieved 10 May,
from https://mylo.utas.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20934.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Fox, M. (2004). Where is the green sheep? Melbourne, Australia: Penguin Group
Fox, M. (n.d). Life Story. Retrieved 3 May, from
http://www.memfox.com/life-story.html
Horacek, J. (n.d). About Judy. Retrieved 3 May, from http://horacek.com.au/about-judy/
Pittaway, S. (2011). Assessment task 2: Proceedings of ESH486 web conference, May 3,
2011. Retrieved May 3, from
https://mylo.utas.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20934.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Rosen, M. (2006). We’re going on a bear hunt. London, England: Walker Books
Rosen, M. (2009).For adults: Biography. Retrieved 3 May, from
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/
Urban Education Exchange. (2010). Unit overview: Concepts of comprehension.
Retrieved from,
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:29kEiu7IMA4J:www.ueexchange.
org/null/Figurative%2BLanguage%2BUnit%2BOverview%2B%2BK%3Fexclusive%3Dfilemgr.download%26file_id%3D122215%26showthu
mb%3D0+onomatopoeia+activities+for+kindergarten&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&sr
cid=ADGEESjxc5ECyQ5UwV5KtxyAFNxJ4Day48l5GnggjAySniAfM2Rou6AuqNehA8YIdRWtH4OjXWj4jZ114_3m9a749TY7eHIqy
Ho-eFNEdXog6nVgjI_y1NWVONhsFZW68jb7wNMUpL&sig=AHIEtbSpNXlMnOgesP_mTv58bj2_oOSW0w
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Assignment #2- Teacher Notes
Walker Books. (2008). Helen Oxenbury. Retrieved 3 May, from
http://www.walker.co.uk/contributors/Helen-Oxenbury-3152.aspx
We’re going on a bear hunt [Image]. (2009). Retrieved from
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/books.html
Where is the green sheep [Image]. (). Retrieved from
http://horacek.com.au/books/where-is-the-green-sheep/
Winch, G., Johnston, R. R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy:
Reading writing and children’s literature (4th ed.). South Melbourne, Victoria:
Oxford University Press.
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