The Blue Trail Clue Reading guide

Phonics focus

Lessons 69–70: ue and ew for /oo/ or /yoo/; common vowel teams in longer words

Practise ue and ew; vowel-team review in these words: ue: Sue, blue, clue, glue; ew: Andrew, new, few; review: trees, green, reach, need, rereads, sees, leads, oak, beads; compare longer words: greenest, seaweed, railway, snowman; ai/ay/ow review: trail, lay, tray, way, play, show. Blend practice words using the focus spelling and compare short and long vowel examples where appropriate. Use the programme lessons to introduce new sounds; the story is original.

Bold red vowel letters and bold blue consonant letters show the selected focus spellings. Read each selected vowel spelling as one unit. Vowel y is red; consonant letters within spellings such as igh, ow and ew are blue. Colour is a visual aid, and every letter in a spelling does not represent a separate sound. Read the guide note for each pattern. Help children with other letters and patterns in the word when needed. A highlighted letter does not mean the whole word is independently decodable.

Adult supported words

An adult reads the title with the child. Preview game, follow, ribbons, through, Each, ribbon, marks, next, should, bench, two, benches, looks, under, first, one, There, no, Which, do, asks, finds, scraps, paper, look, each, piece, They’re, from, picnic, says, These, are, their, last, Look, other, tucked, beneath, box, tree, Inside, string, make, bracelets, table, led, us, here, takes, photo, solved, found. Help with other unfamiliar words and with unselected spellings inside focus words. This is supported shared reading; highlighting does not mean every word is independently decodable.

Before reading

Read three practice words and name the selected spelling. Look at the cover, name the setting and predict what might happen.

During reading

Read each sentence aloud together. Point to the highlighted letters, blend the focus words and reread naturally. Use Talk Together to discuss the character, problem, actions and ending.

Narrative structure

Two similar green benches confuse Sue and Andrew’s clue hunt. Picnic scraps are a false lead. Rereading the previous clue helps them spot the blue ribbon and find the craft box.

After reading

Invite the child to retell what happened first, what went wrong, what the character tried and how the story ended. Reread the book to build confidence.

Ue and ew can represent /oo/ or /yoo/. Blue, clue, glue and Sue have /oo/; few has /yoo/. Accept local pronunciation of new and Andrew. Read selected ue vowel letters red; in ew, e is red and consonant letter w blue. The review highlights previously taught ai, ay, ee, ea, oa and long-o ow only where those sounds occur. Rereads here is present tense with long e. Adult-supported bracelets has soft c but is not the focus. Use child-safe glue with adult help, and supervise small beads.