The Hilltop Kite Game Reading guide

Phonics focus

Lessons 46–47: -er for a person or comparison; -est for three or more

Practise -er and -est in these words: helper, longer, longest, shorter, higher, runner, biggest. 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: Ella, Luke, kite, hill, string, lift, dips, spins, cloth, tail, short, let’s, try, says, Dad, brings, three, strips, blue, yellow, ties, too, heavy, checks, knot, now, flies, they, swap, turns, always, best. 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

Ella and Luke’s kite keeps spinning. They compare three tail strips and try the longest, but it weighs the kite down. The middle strip helps the kite fly steadily and the friends take turns.

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.

Compare long → longer → longest, short → shorter and high → higher. -er compares two; -est identifies an extreme among three or more. Help → helper and run → runner name a person; runner doubles n, so the extra n plus -er are highlighted. Big → biggest doubles g, likewise highlighted. Er in these unstressed endings is often pronounced /ə/ in New Zealand English; explain that the red e belongs to an ending rather than insisting on a short /e/ sound. Preview additional lesson examples tall/taller/tallest and small/smaller/smallest. The three tail strips must visibly differ in length; the longest is not necessarily the most useful.