Henry’s Storm Sounds

Reading together

Reading age 6–7 describes the audience for this adult-led Shared Reading book, not an independent reading-level assessment. This is a read-aloud story for Year 2 children aged 6–7, 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: thunder, instruments, steady, fades, silence. 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

Make a short weather soundscape with comfortable sound levels. Plan a quiet beginning, a middle and an ending. Agree on a visible cue; children may play, signal, move or listen. 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 music for a storm

Beginning

Henry and Lily are making music for a storm in their class story. Henry chooses a hand drum for thunder. Lily turns a rain stick slowly. They listen to its soft rushing sound before they begin.

Problem

Both instruments are loud from the start

Exploration

They begin quietly and build up before fading

Review and response

They move their chairs to see the hand cue

Try together

Make a short weather soundscape with comfortable sound levels. Plan a quiet beginning, a middle and an ending. Agree on a visible cue; children may play, signal, move or listen.

Adult support

Prepare age-appropriate materials and a comfortable space. Read aloud, invite noticing and accept different artistic responses. Children may speak, gesture, sign, draw, act or observe.

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.