Wombat Tales Start

Overview

Students are introduced to Wombat Stew through read-aloud, picture discussion, and a short retell. They will practise identifying key story features—main character(s), setting, and the story’s main idea—so they can later retell and adapt events across the unit.

Learning intentions

WALT:

• Sum up the story’s main idea
• Share the main characters and setting using story evidence

Success criteria

Students can:

• Tell who the main character(s) is/are
• Describe where and when the story happens (setting)
• Say the main idea in one or two sentences

Curriculum links

• Literature: discuss plot, character and setting, which are features of stories
• Literacy: use comprehension strategies (visualising, predicting, questioning, summarising) when listening to build literal and inferred meaning
• Literature: orally retell or adapt a familiar story using plot and characters, language features and structure of a familiar text
• Literature: share responses by making connections with students’ own experiences (e.g. “Have you ever made something by accident?”)

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook (Activate prior knowledge). Teacher displays the cover/front illustration of Wombat Stew and says the title aloud. Students do a quick think–pair–share: “What might the story be about?” and “Who do you think will be in it?”

2. 5–12 min · Predict & question (Explicit comprehension strategy). Teacher models a “First, I’ll look at the pictures” routine, then asks: “Who is the story about? Where are we?” and records student answers on a class chart: Characters / Setting. Students point to one clue in the picture (e.g. animal, home, landscape) and answer using sentence starters: “I think the character is… because…”

3. 12–22 min · Interactive read-aloud (Model main idea tracking). Teacher reads the first part carefully, pausing at 2–3 key moments to model summarising: “So far, the problem is… The main idea is starting to be…” Students use dyslexia-friendly options: choose a “listen-only” copy from the teacher-led audio, or follow along with a large-print page and highlighted key words (e.g. wombat, stew, pot, hungry, dinner). They answer teacher questions using quick gestures (thumbs up/down/point).

4. 22–32 min · Story features sorting (Hands-on). Teacher gives each group a small set of picture cards and word cards (characters/places). Students work in pairs to match cards to the class chart: Main characters and Setting. Teacher circulates to prompt: “Where is it?” “When do you think it is?” “What tells us?”

5. 32–38 min · Main idea recap (Whole class summarising). Teacher writes a simple main-idea frame on the board: “The story is mainly about…”. Students share a one-sentence summary using a talk move: “The story is mainly about ___, because ___.” Teacher selects and refines responses into a class main-idea sentence.

6. 38–45 min · Exit check (Quick assessment). Students complete an exit ticket:

• Draw or circle the main character
• Write/dictate one word for setting (e.g. forest, burrow, home)
• One sentence: “The story is mainly about…” (teacher supports with a sentence starter strip)

Resources

• Front cover and selected illustrations from Wombat Stew (print or display)
• Large-print story pages or teacher-provided read-along copies
• Highlighted-key-word strips (teacher-created) for key terms
• Picture cards and word cards for Characters and Setting
• Sentence starter strips: “I think… because…”, “The story is mainly about…”
• Class chart paper for Characters / Setting / Main idea
• Exit tickets with drawing box and sentence starter
• Pencils/whiteboards and markers

Assessment

• Formative during interactive read-aloud: listen for accurate character/setting clues using teacher prompts
• Group sorting check: observe whether students correctly match cards to characters and setting
• Exit ticket: confirm students can (1) identify main character(s), (2) describe setting using one or two ideas, (3) produce a main-idea sentence with support

Differentiation

• Support:
• Provide sentence starter strips and a word bank for characters and setting
• Offer highlighted keywords and large-print follow-along pages
• Allow students to respond orally or via pointing/circling for the exit ticket (teacher records)
• Extension (advanced learners):
• Ask students to add a “problem/solution” hint to their main-idea sentence (e.g. “because something goes wrong / is fixed”)
• Challenge them to use two setting details (place + time: in the forest at dinner time)
• EAL/SEN:
• Pre-teach two or three essential terms using images (wombat, pot, stew)
• Use visual supports for each pause in the read-aloud (character close-up, place illustration)
• Keep partner roles (Reader/Pointer/Answer) to reduce cognitive load

Extension

• Advanced learners: draw their favourite character from the story and label one character trait (e.g. “hungry”, “curious”) using highlighted words.