Strategy check

Ask the children to tell you the long vowel sound made by each letter pattern in the box on the back
cover of their books. Tell the children that some of the words in this book use these letter patterns
so they should look out for them as they read, remembering to sound out and blend words they do

Where Were You, Bert? not recognise.

Independent reading
Encourage each of the children to read the whole book at his or her own pace, sounding out and
Oxford Level 6
blending words they do not recognise. Listen in to each child reading and provide lots of praise
and support.
Author: Julia Donaldson
Teaching notes authors: Clare Kirtley and Liz Miles
• Praise the children for sounding out and blending sounds to read words they do not recognise, and
for recognising familiar words.
Focus phonics Skills, concepts and knowledge Example phonic words • Praise the children if they read with appropriate expression.
Long vowel sound covered by the Teaching Notes Bert her caterpillar mermaid Sir girl thirsty birthday bird
circus purse furry nurse turtle earth pearl early
Observe the children to check that they can:
ur (as in fur) made Skills – Hear and identify long
by er ir ur ear vowel sounds in words; High frequency tricky words Challenge words • confidently give the sound for all the focus letter patterns
Blend sound together to read
words with long vowel sounds;
some was were you you’re
• successfully blend together the sounds of the words girl and purse
Letters and sounds
Segment words with long vowel
Phase 5
= Language comprehension
• successfully blend together all the sounds for the multi-syllabic word caterpillar by blending the
sounds into their individual sounds in each syllable together first.
A sound in a word can be = Word recognition
sounds for writing
Concepts – A sound in a word
represented by one letter or by Emphasise and model these skills for any child who needs help.
more than one letter;
can be represented by one letter
or by more than one letter;
There can be more than one Returning to the text
way to represent a sound;
There can be more than one way Ask the children to:
The same spelling pattern
to represent a sound;
can represent more than (Clarifying) Describe Bert’s character. Tell you if he is always truthful. Find some evidence in the story
The same spelling pattern can
one sound
represent more than one sound to support their view.
Knowledge – Focus phonics
Write a list of all the animals Bert helped. (caterpillar, dog, bird, worm, turtle) Look and find the
words in the text to check.
Introducing the phonics Underline the letter patterns in each word which make the long vowel sound ur.
Robot Talk Find another word in the text where the letter pattern or makes an ur sound after the letter w as in
Write words that contain the focus long vowel sound ur as in fur on cards and place them in a bag worm (work).
(shirt, fur, fern, first, verb, squirm, earth, burn, kerb, purple, third). Take a card from the bag and read Observe the children to check that they can:
it in a robotic way, saying all the sounds in the word separately. Ask the children to blend the sounds
together to tell you what word is on the card. Ask the children to take turns to be the robot.
• follow the meaning of the text, going beyond the literal and locating evidence
• remember the letter patterns which make the long vowel sound ur when writing
Word Sort
• analyse the letter patterns used to write the long vowel sound ur.
Use the word cards from Robot Talk. Make three columns, each labelled with a different common
Model the appropriate responses for children who need help. Follow this up with further practice
spelling pattern for the long vowel sound ur as in fur (er, ir, ur). Label a fourth column unusual.
using the Blending Activity, Letter Pattern Activity and Segmenting Activity for Where Were You, Bert?
Sort the words on the cards into the right column. Tell the children to look out for new words to
on the eSongbirds CD-ROM, as well as additional practice reading Where Were You, Bert? using the
add to the columns.
Talking Story version.

Group or guided reading Where next?

Before reading Further phonic practice
Explain that it is important when blending together the sounds in a word, to check to see if it
Ask the children to find other words in the story, with the long vowel sound ur as in fur.
sounds like a real word as some words are less regular. Remind the children of the context words
(see page 4, or the inside back cover of Where Were You, Bert?) by writing them on a whiteboard. Ask the children to shut the book. Write the ur words on cards, by segmenting the words into
Read these words and point out the letters that make the usual sound in each word (e.g. the s in separate sounds. Add the cards to the set created in Word Sort.
some). This will help the children to remember these words.

1 © Oxford University Press 2014 2 © Oxford University Press 2014

 Extension phonic work
(Clarifying) Ask the children to discuss what is the same about all the text. (It is all speech.)
Ask the children to draw a cartoon strip showing some of Bert’s excuses and write what each character
is saying in speech bubbles instead of speech marks.

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