The Forest Den Reading guide

Phonics focus

Lessons 43–44: add -ing without changing the base; double a final consonant before -ing

Practise -ing and doubled consonants in these words: building, camping, pulling, holding, slipping, clipping, fitting, sitting, singing. Compare each practice word with its base and discuss how the meaning or spelling changes. 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 endings and word parts in context. Colours identify vowel and consonant letters, not their pronunciation. Compare each focus word with its base; the selected extra consonant is also bold where doubling occurs. 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 and help with: Lily, den, shady, place, game, cloth, low, branch, other, keeps, off, we, need, something, says, Dad, brings, pegs, tries, each, now, stays, roof, hear, birds, peeps, there, room, me. Review other words as needed. This is supported shared reading, not a fully decodable text.

Before reading

Read three practice words and compare their base words and endings. 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

Tom and Lily make a den at a family campsite. Their cloth roof keeps slipping. They try large pegs, secure the cloth and sit in their finished den as Dad peeps in.

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.

Build → building, camp → camping, pull → pulling, hold → holding and sing → singing keep the base unchanged. Slip → slipping, clip → clipping, fit → fitting and sit → sitting double the final consonant before -ing. In those words the extra consonant and -ing are highlighted; compare the base word first. Do not teach that every final consonant doubles: these are short one-syllable words ending in one vowel letter and one consonant letter. The spelling change keeps the short vowel. Pegs are handled with adult help.