Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes

Tune In: The magic in reading

25 minutes

Find Out: Words have magic

25 minutes

Take Action: Turning a story into a book

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore how magic-themed words can be used to inspire literary texts.

Success criteria

Students can:

respond to word prompts when creating literary texts
map out story ideas
create a short story that includes magic-themed words.

Tune In: The magic in reading

Step 1

Begin by writing the following on the board:

Reading is magic

Invite students to share how they interpret this statement. Through your class discussion, lead students to the idea that this statement can have a double meaning; that reading is wonderful and can change the way we think and behave, and that by reading we can come across stories that are about magic or are exciting or adventurous. These can be either fiction or non-fiction books.

You could also invite students to suggest books they have read that they have found to be magical, in either sense of the word.

Step 2

Explain to students that the theme for this year’s Children’s Book Week is ‘Reading is Magic’. Share this year’s Children’s Book Week poster with students (available to download here cbca.org.au/cbca-book-week-resources/).

Invite students to suggest how well they think this poster conveys the message that Reading Is Magic.

Step 3

Explain to students that one of the things about stories is that anyone can create one for others to read and enjoy. This means we all have the opportunity to create a little bit of magic through the stories we tell. We can do this through the stories we share, the words we use, the ways that we use the words, and the illustrations we include. In the rest of this activity, students will explore how words can help us to make magic.

Find Out: Words have magic

Step 1

Students will now work in pairs or small groups to come up with as many words as they can think of that could be used to tell a story in a magical way. Explain that they need to be thinking of ‘magic’ not just in terms of spells and broomsticks, but also how we can create a sense of wonder, excitement or intrigue through the words we use: those are the words we are looking for!

One notetaker in each group should record the words their group comes up with.

Each group can share their words with the class. You can use this list of magic-themed words to compare and add to what students came up with.

Step 2

Take a look at all the words you have to work with and ask students to consider whether there are any words that are new or unfamiliar to them. Are there any that they don’t know the meaning of? Can other students in the class provide a definition and an example of how it might be used in a sentence? If not, invite students to take a few moments to research definitions for some or all of these words, and to establish how they might be used.

Step 3

Break the class into small groups and give each group a piece of butcher's paper. Explain that they will be working together to develop a plan for a story. The story will be based on the following prompt (they can write this at the top of the butcher’s paper):

A student is sitting at their desk in the classroom on a sleepy Tuesday afternoon. Suddenly a …

At this point, the teacher will read aloud one word from the list of magical words, crossing it out once it has been read. Students need to incorporate this word into their stories and use it to inspire the next part of the story. The teacher can then continue to read out one word per minute while students continue with their stories, incorporating these words as they go. You can continue for as long as is appropriate for your students.

When you get close to the end of your time, give students some warnings that the story will need to come to a close soon. For example, ‘This is your second last word, you’ll need to start thinking about how your story will end.’

Take a moment to check that all the words that were read out were incorporated into student stories.

Step 4

At the end of the story creation time, allow students some time to clarify and refine what happens in their stories, including the main events, characters, setting and ending.

Take Action: Turning a story into a book

Step 1

Students will now work independently to rewrite and refine the story they created with their classmates. They need to make sure all the magical words that were read out are included in their stories.

Students could include the following elements in their stories (adjust according to the age and ability of students):

meaning
a storyline that includes a start, middle and end
characters
setting
literary devices such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, or personification.

Step 2

If time permits, students could create a book out of their stories that could include imagery to enhance meaning.

Step 3

Students can share their stories/books with the classmates they completed the story planning task with - how similar and how different did the stories turn out to be? If illustrations were created for the stories, how do these compare?

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following:

Which is your favourite magical word and why?
How would you use this word in your everyday life? Give an example of how you might use it tomorrow.

Take it further

Students could also design a Children’s Book Week costume for a character in their stories. Students could base their designs on the Book Week Costume template.

Book Week 2024: There’s Magic In Words

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

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