Understanding Sunday Chutney

Year 4 English – 25 Minute Lesson

Focus Text: Sunday Chutney by Aaron Blabey
Group Size: 5 students
Lesson Duration: 25 minutes

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🧭 Australian Curriculum Alignment

Learning Area: English
Strand: Literature
Sub-Strands:

• Literature and Context (ACELT1607)
• Responding to Literature (ACELT1603)
• Examining Literature (ACELT1601)
• Creating Literature (ACELT1794)

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🔍 Learning Intentions

WALT (We Are Learning To):

• Identify key characters and their traits in Sunday Chutney
• Describe who did what and why in the story
• Sequence events to show when key moments occurred
• Spell topic vocabulary correctly

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✅ Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
✔ Identify the main character and describe her feelings and actions
✔ Explain when and why certain things happened in the story
✔ Answer comprehension questions using evidence from the text
✔ Accurately spell core vocabulary words from the story

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📚 Lesson Sequence

1. Welcome & Warm-Up (3 minutes)

• Greeting & roll call
• "Character Charades" Quick Game: Teacher acts out Sunday Chutney doing something (e.g., eating Vegemite, being the “new girl”), students guess what she’s doing and how she might feel.

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2. Shared Reading & Guided Questions (10 minutes)

(Whole group, with visuals on display – e.g. large picture book or visualiser)

• Read selected pages from Sunday Chutney, focussing particularly on parts showing her likes/dislikes and feeling out of place at school.
• Pause regularly to check understanding:
  • Who is speaking here?
  • Why do you think Sunday feels this way?
  • What did Sunday do when she arrived at the new school?
  • Can anyone tell us when that happened — before or after we met her dog?

Dyslexia-Friendly Considerations:
Offer copies of a printed scaffolded version of the text on tinted paper, using a dyslexia-friendly font such as OpenDyslexic. Pre-highlight key words with symbols.

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3. Spelling and Vocabulary Spotlight (5 minutes)

Key Vocabulary: Chutney, unusual, favourite, lonely, special, different

• Flashcard Match-Up (pairs game): One set with the words, another with student-friendly definitions or a visual icon.
• Students take turns matching the words with visual or verbal clues.
• Teacher models segmenting and blending of words, using Elkonin boxes on a small whiteboard.

Examples:

• “Chut-ney” — two syllables.
• Write "favourite" and tap it out as a class.

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4. Who, When, Why Sorting Activity (5 minutes)

Materials: Mini sentence strips with events from the story

Task:
In pairs (or small group, depending on support needs), students sort strips into:

• WHO did it
• WHEN it happened
• WHY it happened

Example strips:

• Sunday Chutney introduced herself to the class.
• Sunday felt different.
• She showed her favourite things.

Stick strips on a mini sorting board or table mat labelled Who, When, Why.

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5. Reflection & Closure (2 minutes)

• Group recap: What makes Sunday Chutney special?
• Quick-fire “Popcorn” style review: Each student shares one thing they learned
• Teacher awards "Chutney Champion!" badges (stickers or verbal praise) for great listening or teamwork.

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🔁 Differentiation Strategies

🌟 Diverse Learners

Support Options:

• Use of visuals and icons with words
• Tinted overlays or coloured rulers for reading
• Choice to answer orally or in writing
• Partner work to allow peer support
• Sentence starters provided to scaffold longer answers (e.g., “Sunday felt ___ because…”)

🚀 Extension Activities for Advanced Learners

• Write a diary entry from Sunday’s perspective
• Compare themselves to Sunday: “I am like Sunday because…”
• Create a timeline of Sunday Chutney’s day from memory
• Invent a new character that joins Sunday at school and list how they differ or relate

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📝 Assessment Opportunities

Formative Assessment:

• Observation during reading discussion and sorting activity
• Responses to guided questions
• Vocabulary matching accuracy
• Use of key words in oral or written tasks

Teacher Note:
Use anecdotal notes to record contributions from each student. This can help build toward moderation samples for the Literature strand.

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📦 Materials Required

• Class copy of Sunday Chutney (or printed/tinted excerpts)
• Flashcards (vocabulary + images/definitions)
• Sentence sorting strips (Who, When, Why)
• Elkonin boxes on whiteboard or paper
• Tinted overlays or dyslexia-friendly fonts
• Mini whiteboards and markers
• “Chutney Champion” stickers or tokens
• Optional: soft music for concentration, visuals on smartboard

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💡 Teacher Tip

Thinking outside the box: Try using a dress-up item (e.g. a polka-dotted scarf or quirky pair of glasses) as a fun visual whenever someone is “Sunday” during tasks. This brings play into the literacy and encourages engagement — especially effective in small group settings.