The shy whale, a picture story

Look at the first picture. Where is the little whale?

ArabicAges 2–315 minutes3 pagesInk-light

Being written

This one is planned but not finished yet. Everything below is what it will contain.

Not drawn yet

I can tell the story back using only the pictures.

How the fifteen minutes go

The five steps on this sheet, in the order a child meets them. This is what you will actually be doing, not a description of the method.

Print the one that fits today. Same skill, three depths — and on this sheet they differ like this.

Support

Three pictures. The grown-up starts each sentence and the child finishes it.

Fewer items, more pictures, hints included, parent reads the instructions.

Core

Four pictures, the child tells all of it.

The standard task, recognition, practice and explanation.

Challenge

Tell it as if you were Kogia: 'I was…'

Open-ended. Explain why, make your own example, use it somewhere new.

The same guide that is printed on the back page, so you can read it before you decide to print anything.

The answers

Order: 2, 4, 1, 3. But if their order tells a story that works, accept it and ask them to explain, reasoning beats sequence at this age.

If they get stuck

Point at one picture and ask a single question: who is this? Then the next.

Common mistakes

The adult retelling it for them in the silence. Wait longer than feels comfortable.
Asking 'what did you learn?' instead of 'what happened?'

When they finish early

Ask what happens on a fifth page that is not drawn, and let them draw it.