Eleanor’s Paper Hills

Reading together

Reading age 7–8 describes the audience for this adult-led Shared Reading book, not an independent reading-level assessment. This is a read-aloud story for Year 3 children aged 7–8, not an independent reading-level text. Read at the child’s pace. Children can listen, point, gesture, sign or join in with familiar words. Joining in is optional.

Before reading

Look at the title and cover. Introduce the characters and setting. Explore these five words with pictures, actions and familiar examples: landscape, foreground, background, tab, ridge. Invite a prediction about what might happen.

During reading

Use Talk Together for a prompt on each page. Talk about the marks, colours, sounds, space, movement and materials the characters explore. Notice their choices and how the artwork or performance changes. Compare what the characters expected with what they noticed. Invite children to join in with repeated words or gestures.

After reading

Arrange overlapping paper shapes before gluing. With adult support, try folded paper tabs and compare shadows. Use different sizes or colours to suggest near and far; explain what you leave out. Describe what the characters noticed and how their ideas changed. Invite different experiences and respect a child’s choice not to share.

Explore and play

Arts idea

Make a layered paper landscape

Beginning

From the picnic table, Eleanor can see one hill behind another. The nearest slope is dark green; the farthest looks pale blue. She draws the outlines, then takes her sketch home to make a landscape from paper.

Problem or question

Flat separate hills do not suggest distance

Exploration

She overlaps hills and raises the front one on folded tabs

Review and response

They test the view in changing light and leave out extra clouds

Try together

Arrange overlapping paper shapes before gluing. With adult support, try folded paper tabs and compare shadows. Use different sizes or colours to suggest near and far; explain what you leave out.

Adult support

Prepare suitable materials and a comfortable space. Invite observations, comparisons and different interpretations. Children may talk, sign, gesture, draw, move or observe. Participation is optional.

Activities with an adult

The eleven separate question cards include recall, word meaning, observation, “why”, inference and evidence questions and discussion. Read the questions and choices aloud and offer picture support. Explore five vocabulary words, build them from movable letters and order three story pictures. Model a vocabulary word for the child to copy; letter recognition and independent decoding are not required. Mouse dragging, finger dragging, tap controls and keyboard controls are available. Use the light green and red feedback as a chance to look at the story again.

Choose a few activities that suit the child’s interest. Offer pictures, drawings, gestures or spoken answers, and model word building when useful. Activities are optional.