Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes

Tune In: Why is reading magic?

25 minutes

Find Out: Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary

25 minutes

Take Action: A book with two tales

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

experiment with using a factual text to inspire an imaginative text
explore how magic can be used to transform an ordinary day into an extraordinary story.

Success criteria

Students can:

communicate key events in their day in a narrative style
adapt and retell their own story to be a magical story
create a book to communicate their ideas.

Tune In: Why is reading magic?

Step 1

Invite students to share what they already know about Children’s Book Week (e.g. every year students all around Australia spend a week celebrating how amazing books are and why reading is great).

Share the Children’s Book Week 2024 poster with students (available to download here cbca.org.au/cbca-book-week-resources/), explaining that it is about this year’s Children's Book Week. Invite them to share what they think this image is about and what the theme for this year might be:

Through your discussion focus on the double meaning of the theme (i.e. that reading is wonderful and can change the way we think and behave, and that books can contain magical stories).

You could also invite students to share some of the books that have been magical to them - were they books about magic or books that were amazing, interesting or exciting?

Step 2

Finally, suggest to students that one of the amazing things about books is that they can turn the ordinary into something extraordinary! Students will now have the chance to do this themselves.

Find Out: Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary

Step 1

Explain to students that they will now focus on something ordinary - a day in their life.

Each student should record what they would do on a typical, ordinary day in 10 to 15 short paragraphs or sentences (this could be adjusted to suit your students). Each sentence needs to summarise one of the main events of the day and should include some level of description. Students should record their stories in draft form in their workbooks and should number each event, for example:

	An ordinary day
1	I woke up at 7 am to the sound of the dog barking.
2	For breakfast, I ate a boring piece of toast with peanut butter. I also had a cold glass of milk.
3	Dad dropped me off at school in the ute. We were 1 minute late as usual.
4	I played downball at lunch and won the first round but lost all the other rounds.
5	For dinner we had falafels which are OK - my grandma makes the most delicious ones but she lives a long way away.

Step 2

Explain to students that they will now bring a bit of magic to their days! For each of the main events of their day, students will reimagine that event, thinking about how it might be different if there was magic involved. For example:

	An ordinary day	A magical day
1	I woke up at 7 am to the sound of the dog barking.	I woke up at 7 am to the smell of my dragon breathing in my face.
2	For breakfast, I ate a boring piece of toast with peanut butter. I also had a cold glass of milk.	For breakfast, the toast buttered itself and I managed to get three bites before it flew away and out the window. Luckily the unicorn milk was easier to catch.
3	Dad dropped me off at school in the ute. We were 1 minute late as usual.	Dad said I could use his broomstick to get to school this morning so I wouldn’t be late.
4	I played downball at lunch and won the first round but lost all the other rounds.	It was invisibility day at school today so we all played invisible tiggy at lunchtime - it was so much fun even though I ended up with some serious bruises!
5	For dinner we had falafels which are OK - my grandma makes the most delicious ones but she lives a long way away.	We teleported to my grandma’s house for dinner and ate her falafels - the best!

Step 3

Once students have finished their writing, encourage them to check through their work for spelling and grammar before moving on to the next task.

Take Action: A book with two tales

Step 1

Students will now create a book that shares both of their days. You will need as many pages as you have events for one of the days, plus one extra page for the cover.

Students can fill their books in one of the following ways:

Option 1

Start with an ordinary day. Write down each event of the ordinary day on the right-hand page of the book. Include a title and author information on the front cover only.
Flip the book so that all the white sides of the pages are facing up, and the already written pages are facing down (and are upside down - see below). Write down each event of the magical day on the blank pages, and include a title and author information on the blank front cover only.
You should have a book with two stories with the book needing to be turned over to read each of the stories.
Illustrate your book. Students will need to think about how the colours and illustrations they use can help to delineate the two different stories, for example, the events featured in an ordinary day could be coloured green while the events of the extraordinary day could be coloured purple (the colour of magic!).

Option 2

Open your book to the first two pages.
On the left-hand pages, you will write your ordinary day, continuing throughout the whole book.
On the right-hand pages, you will write your magical day, continuing throughout the whole book.
You should have a book with two stories that run alongside each other (see below).
Create a cover page that includes the book title and author information.
Illustrate your book. Students will need to think about how the colours and illustrations they use can help to delineate the two different stories.

Step 2

Students can share their books with their classmates. In addition, these books could be incorporated into your Children’s Book Week celebrations/display.

Reflection

Invite students to work in pairs to think about which magical event in their stories was their favourite and how it could be used to inspire a new story.

Take it further

Students could also design a Children’s Book Week costume for themselves as they are portrayed in their magical day. Students could base their designs on the Book Week Costume template.

Book Week 2024: A (Magical) Day In The Life

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Summary

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