The Waterfall Treasure Reading guide

Phonics focus

Lesson 90: vowel teams, silent letters and syllable division review

Practise advanced spelling review in these words: boat, bird, crown, beneath, reads, fly, wooden, hook, key, windmill, cabin, ribbon, paper, cake, ground. 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 spelling or syllable in context. Vowel y is red. Silent letters may be blue although they do not represent a sound. Apostrophes remain dark. Read compound words in meaningful parts. 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 follow, trail, waterfall, tumbles, beyond, fence, find, box, dry, bench, little, lock, keeps, shut, Three, picture, cards, lie, beside, One, shows, one, Which, will, help, notices, note, Find, what, wings, but, cannot, points, card, But, look, along, safe, garden, path, turns, Its, turn, stays, here, leads, Behind, small, key, red, lifts, from, return, together, Inside, are, picnic, put, share, Mum’s, found, treasure, never, left. Also support unfamiliar parts of focus words. These are shared-reading narratives, not a claim that 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

Grace and Jack solve a riddle about wings that cannot fly, find a key behind a wooden windmill and open a picnic treasure 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.

Review taught vowel teams and split digraphs; read wooden and hook with short oo. Key is an adult-supported alternative spelling ey. In Grace select split a_e and soft c; the final e serves both patterns. Do not highlight unrelated vowel occurrences. Mum supervises on dry fenced paths away from the waterfall.