Susan’s Pocket Museum

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: museum, journey, objects, panel, explore. 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

Choose a few safe objects, drawings or photographs to represent a familiar journey. Arrange them for someone else to follow. Ask what they notice before explaining, then revise the display. 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 tiny museum of her weekend walk

Beginning

Susan opens a small box of things from her weekend walk. There is a smooth pebble, a dry leaf and a scrap of the map Dad drew. She wants to make a tiny museum that tells the journey.

Problem

A row of objects does not show the journey’s order

Exploration

She arranges a wool stream and places objects along it

Review and response

She adds a starting arrow after Adam begins at the leaf

Try together

Choose a few safe objects, drawings or photographs to represent a familiar journey. Arrange them for someone else to follow. Ask what they notice before explaining, then revise the display.

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.