©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than

educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

The Bee Who Spoke by Al MacCuish, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

(Thames & Hudson)

Parisian Belle holidays with her family in the countryside, which she explores on the bicycle that belonged to

her mother when she was a girl. Following a minor accident, she feels lost as she realises that she doesn’t

know the countryside the way she does her home in the city. She is rescued by a talking bee. The two share

a remarkable adventure discovering the plants and animals that surround them, and Belle is amazed to learn

just how nature works in harmony, whether in the countryside or the city.

This teaching sequence is designed for a KS1 class.

Overall learning aims of this teaching sequence:

To inspire children to engage with literature.

To think and talk confidently about their response to the book, using prediction, asking questions, making

connections with their own experience.

To develop creative responses to the text through drama, storytelling and artwork.

To explore the story through collaborative play, critical thinking, role-play and storytelling.

To use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences.

To think about the story meanings conveyed in the illustrations.

To enrich vocabulary and understanding of the impact of language on readers and audience.

To deepen understanding of the world through a fictional text.

To deepen knowledge of the world through enquiry and cross-curricular research stimulated by a

narrative text.

To write with confidence for real purposes and audiences.

To write for meaning and purpose in a variety of forms.

Overview of this teaching sequence.

This sequence is approximately 4 weeks long if spread over roughly 20 sessions. The book offers a range

of opportunities to work across the curriculum as well as in English sessions, giving children the chance

to work in more depth around the story. Al MacCuish’s gentle narrative and engaging language are

complemented by Rebecca Gibbon’s charming and evocative illustrations that merit close investigation.

The words and pictures combine to invite the reader to look deeply and revisit the book, in turn

deepening reader response and reflection. There is a wealth of opportunities for authentic pieces of

writing for a range of purposes and audiences. The content will also enable teachers to support children

in developing their knowledge and understanding of the natural world and of environmental issues.

Cross-curricular work is integral to the English work and the contextualised curriculum suggested

enables genuine depth in comprehension, in oracy work and in written outcomes. This sequence

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supports teachers to consider when such cross-curricular work might be introduced to maximise the

impact of this learning.

Teaching Approaches Writing Outcomes

Art work

Book Talk

Conscience Alley

Double bubble

Drafting and Editing

Exploring Language

Freeze-Frame

Graph of Emotion

Hotseating

Oral Storytelling

Publishing and Book Making

Reading Aloud

Response to Illustration

Role on the Wall

Shared Writing

Thought tracking

Visualising

Writing in Role

Advisory notes

Annotation

Diary entry

Documentary script

Information booklet or poster

Instructions

List poetry

Persuasive note and letter

Poetry

Questions and suggestions

Recipes

Role on the Wall

Story writing

Speech and Thought Bubbles

Writing in role

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Links to other supporting texts:

Books to Support the Exploration of Themes Inspired by the Text

A Lion in Paris, Beatrice Alemagna (Tate)

A Walk in Paris, Salvatore Rubbino (Walker)

Little Honey Bee, Jane Ormes, (Big Picture Press)

The Boy Who Lost His Bumble, Trudi Esberger (Child’s Play)

Books to Develop Scientific Knowledge and Understanding

A Little Guide to Wild Flowers, Charlotte Voake (Eden Project)

A Little Guide to Trees, Charlotte Voake (Eden Project)

Bee: Nature's Tiny Miracle, Patricia Hegarty illustrated by Britta Teckentrup (Little Tiger)

Bee and Me, Alison Jay (Old Barn Books)

Being a Bee, Jinny Johnson, illustrated by Lucy Davey (Wayland)

The Big Book of Bugs, Yuval Zommer and Barbara Taylor (Thames & Hudson)

The Book of Bees, Piotr Socha, illustrated by Wojciech Grajkowski (Thames & Hudson)

Caterpillar Butterfly, Vivian French, illustrated by Charlotte Voake (Walker)

Insect Detective, Steve Voake, illustrated by Charlotte Voake (Walker)

The Life and Times of a Honey Bee, Charles Micucci (Houghton Mifflin)

Little Honey Bee, Jane Ormes (Big Picture Press)

What on Earth? Bees, Andrea Quigley, illustrated by Pau Morgan (QED)

Websites

- Bee Facts from National Geographic

- http://bit.ly/nationalgeographicbees

- BBC Nature Video (Various)

- http://bit.ly/bbcnaturebees

- Beautiful British Countryside – A Virtual Walk

- http://bit.ly/britishcountrysidevirtualwalk

- Bernard Chevillat, the model for Belle

- http://bit.ly/chevillat

- British Beekeepers Association

- http://bit.ly/b ritishbeekeepersassociation

- CBBC Newsround: Why Are Bees So Amazing?

- http://bit.ly/newsroundbees

- Drone Flights over French Countryside

- http://bit.ly/droneflightbordeaux

- http://bit.ly/droneflightburgundy

- BBC Two Hive Alive (episodes can be found on youtube)

- http://bit.ly/bbchivealive

- Free Seeds for Bees

- http://bit.ly/freebeeseeds

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- Friends of the Earth bee-cause, including free resource pack

- http://bit.ly/FoEbeecause

- Guerrilla Gardening and Seed Bombs

- http://bit.ly/guerrillagardening

- http://bit.ly/guerrillagardeninglondon

- Frère Jacques

- http://bit.ly/frere_jacques

- Michael Rosen’s Lost

- https://www.clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poems/lost

- Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee

- http://bit.ly/rimskykorsakov

- Soil Association on bees in organic gardening/farming and danger of neonics

- http://bit.ly/soilassociationbeeorganic

- http://bit.ly/soilassociationneonics

- Solitary Bee House

- http://bit.ly/growwildbeehouse1

- http://bit.ly/growwildbeehouse2

- Sounds of the French Countryside

- http://bit.ly/frenchcountrysidesounds

- The Hive, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

- http://bit.ly/kew_hive

- http://bit.ly/kewhivewolfgandbuttress

- http://bit.ly/kewhivemusic

- http://bit.ly/kewhivecomposer

- Waggle Dance PE/dance lesson

- http://bit.ly/bbcwaggledance

- William Whiskerson finds out how honey is made and collected

- http://bit.ly/williamwhiskerson

- Wolves in Yellowstone National Park

- http://bit.ly/yellowstone_wolves

Origins of the book The Bee Who Spoke was commissioned by the French organic skincare brand Melvita, who asked creative agency Sunshine to create a new communications platform ahead of its 30th anniversary. The Bee Who Spoke is an original children's book, written by Sunshine’s Chief Creative Officer Al MacCuish, which brings to life the inspirational story of Melvita’s founder, French beekeeper Bernard Chevillat.

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Teaching sessions

Before beginning the book

In order for the sequence to work effectively you will need to ‘keep back’ the text from the children initially, including the cover of the book and its title. The story will need to unfold slowly and it is best for the children not to know the ending until you are at the culmination of the teaching sessions. Once the whole story has been shared, however, ensure that there are opportunities for the story to be read and reread aloud in its entirety, and for children to reread and pore over the text and illustrations independently.

To reinforce the children’s learning and their enjoyment of the text, plan to provide as many experiences as possible of the natural and urban environment, working outside the classroom. This may take the form of a visit to a city, woodland or rural setting, or simply ensuring there are chances to explore urban and natural features in the school or local setting.

You will need to collect resources for the journey backpack activity in Session 4. Look at this spread and source a similar backpack, penknife (remembering to keep this in your control and not in access of the children at all times), five sharp pencils and a metal sharpener, a magnifying glass, a camera, a croissant and a writing journal. If you cannot source the actual items, laminated photographs of each in a backpack will suffice.

Create a display of books that can be drawn on for sharing, reference and research to support key aspects of this sequence of work. This display should comprise a range of texts that fall under the following categories (see lists above): - Books to Support the Exploration of Themes Inspired by the Text - Books to Develop Scientific Knowledge and Understanding

Over the course of this sequence of work allow time for children to read similar stories, and to use a variety of books, including information texts, to research the culture and geography of France; you might wish to display some titles to get them started.

It would be helpful to share with parents that their children will be studying France, bees and natural ecosystems, without sharing the title of the book that will inspire their writing.

A working wall would be an excellent way to record the various steps that - Provide the opportunity to discuss and reflect upon common themes and patterns across stories

they have read. - Encourage children to identify favourites and give them the opportunity to retell and record

these orally. The Bee Who Spoke is inspired by the personal experience of Bernard Chevillat (see

http://bit.ly/chevillat). It would therefore be helpful to provide opportunities for sharing and developing the personal narratives of the children.

As well as creating an audio collection you might provide children with the opportunities to publish their own retellings as story cards, individual publications or as a class anthology.

A multi-sensory approach to this text will embed and enrich the learning for all pupils, so consider

decorating the class with artefacts and materials that evoke France and the outdoors, and using

music, sound effects (of field and woodland) and smells (of flowers, honey, French food) to engage

all learners. Be careful to take into account any allergies or known dislikes when giving the learners

food to taste. To avoid sensory overload, present one smell or taste at a time!

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Session 1: Response to Illustration The picturebooks featured on Corebooks have been chosen because of the quality of the illustrations they contain and the ways in which the illustrations work with the text to create meaning for the reader. Children will need time and opportunities to enjoy and respond to the pictures, and to talk together about what the illustrations contribute to their understanding of the text. Children can develop their responses to the book by drawing or painting in a similar style to the illustrations.

The quality of the illustrations demands that the children be provided with the time and opportunity

to enjoy and respond to the pictures, and to talk together about what the illustrations contribute to their

understanding of the text. Such discussions can support the development of inference skills and deepen

and enrich reader engagement and response.

Images can be presented using an Interactive White Board or as an enlarged colour photocopy. For

group work it is helpful to have laminated colour copies of the illustration.

“I always say to children that I spend an awful lot of time staring out of the window – I mean it literally and metaphorically because that staring into space can be very rewarding, you begin to see things. Sometimes you’re consciously looking and sometimes not.” Lauren Child, tenth Children’s Laureate. In Japanese the noun boketto describes the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without really thinking about anything specific.

Share with children the first image from the book, of Belle looking out of her window, explaining that, like the girl with her binoculars, they are going to be looking carefully at what is going on outside the window. Begin by asking them to look carefully, and identify what draws their attention.

In pairs ask them to identify ten things they notice about the picture, then be prepared to share these with the class. The teacher can then scribe these around a large scale copy of the illustration to be displayed on the working wall or in the shared journal.

Reduce the number of items to three; discuss which points the children most wish to make about the picture, and give them an opportunity to justify their choice.

Finally, ask the children to share the one thing they think is most interesting about the picture. The children could then write these or the teacher can scribe these onto sentence strips and arrange these to make a ‘Five Minutes at the Window’ list poem (cf Norman MacCaig), responding to and editing the writing as they craft the piece e.g.,

I look out of my window, and what do I see? Washing hanging, dancing in the breeze, The gentle flutter of the wings of a bee. People rushing here and there, Traffic bustling by. The grocer calling, “Come and buy some wonderful apples!” All the wonders of the town catch my eye.

The children could then be inspired to go off and write their own ‘Five Minutes at the Window’ poems, either in groups, using the process explored together, or individually if they have their own ideas for a complete piece.

This activity could be extended and given personal meaning by taking the children outside, or to the window of another classroom or part of the school, as a stimulus for a ‘Five Minutes at the Window’ poem that reflects their own reality.

Give the time for children to have their poems responded to, either by an enabling adult or supportive peer, and then give time for them to write these up for presentation on a class display around a copy of the illustration. Allow time for the children to read and respond to each other’s

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work, noting the similarities and differences in what they all noticed and what they liked about each other’s observations.

Session 2: Role on the Wall Role on the wall is a technique that uses a displayed outline of the character to record feelings (inside the outline) and outward appearances (outside the outline) at various stopping points across the story. Using a different colour at each of the stopping points allows you to track changes in the character’s emotional journey. You can include known facts such as physical appearance, age, gender, location and occupation, as well as subjective ideas such as likes/dislikes, friends/enemies, attitudes, motivations, secrets and dreams.

Read the text accompanying the first illustration, from “Once upon a time…” to “…a very special journey.”

Show the children a video of what daily life is like in Paris, such as this day in the life timelapse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqQO3h9B_wg Allow them time to make comparisons and contrasts with other cities they know.

Sharing a text like Salvatore Rubbino’s A Walk in Paris alongside this will help children to identify some of the famous landmarks and everyday occurrences in the city. You could use the map from the endpapers (see resources) and re-watch the video, to see which the children can recognise alongside the map and in a separate Geography or MFL session, use the book to find out more about this rich city.

“Belle loved the city and the city loved her” - Why do you think that Belle loved the city? - What does it mean that “Belle loved the city and the city loved her”? - How long is a minute? (The clock shows one minute past nine.) - What happens as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer? - Can you name the seasons and say what the day length and weather are like in each?

On the working wall, prepare an outlined Role on the Wall for the character of Belle, still not revealing the book or anything else about her, and scribe the children’s ideas: outward appearance, behaviour and facts on the outside; ideas about personality, characteristics, thoughts and feelings on the inside. - Who is this? What do you think you know about her? How do you know this? - How is she feeling? How can you tell? What do you think others would think of her? - Encourage children to justify their ideas, relating back to facial expression, body positioning and

items on her desk and shelves. Treat this as detective work. Now, invite the children to think about the story they think she will be part of, drawing on their

experiences of other texts and life experiences. They could go on to write a character description of Belle, drawing on the illustration and the discussions had and including a prediction on the story they think she may unfold.

Session 3: Annotating setting All kinds of graphic representations help to make stories more accessible to children, especially to less experienced readers or bilingual learners. Opportunities to draw, both before and during writing, increase children's motivation to write, and can help them to think. Drawing can help all writers to plan their writing, develop their ideas and use vivid description. Drawing story settings prompts children to imagine what a scene looks like, or visualise it from a particular viewpoint. Like drama, it enables children to enter the world of the story and provides support for writing.

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Discuss the street outside and its architecture and vibrant comings and goings. Share some high quality images of French streets and buildings, and use streetview in Google Earth

to explore the area around rue Saint-Rustique, e.g., https://www.flickr.com/photos/lastingimages/6006676940/in/faves-gweedopuss/

- What can you see in the street outside? - What is the same as you would see in your own high street, and what is different? - Have you ever been to a French village, town or city? How was it different from home, and how

was it the same? - Are the buildings that you see the same as ours, or different? How?

To deepen the children’s understanding of French life and culture, the children could make a class street, where each child makes a building that is in the street, which is then collated in a row to make their own rue Saint-Rustique. This would be well-linked to work in MFL and children could use this exercise to learn the names of French shops, such as boulangerie, pâtisserie, charcuterie, boucherie, fleuriste, café, restaurant, librairie, and so on.

Return to the illustration and discuss the people you can see on the street. - Who are these people? - What can you say about them? - How do they know each other?

Add the children’s ideas to the copy of the illustration, eliciting, clarifying and extending children’s vocabulary and understanding from their initial responses.

If your children are learning French as a Modern Foreign Language in KS1, you could also use this opportunity to add speech bubble annotations to the figures on the large copy of the illustration on the Working Wall or Shared Journal, reflecting their activities and feelings, to revise concepts that may have been taught such as: - Quel beau jour! What a lovely day! - J’ai faim. I’m hungry. - Comment allez-vous? How are you? - Bonjour! Salut! Au revoir! Hello! Hi! Good bye! - Il fait chaud. It’s hot. - J’ai soif. I’m thirsty.

Session 4: Reading Aloud, Looking at Language, Book-making Reading aloud slows written language down so that children can hear and absorb the words, tunes and patterns. It enables children to experience and enjoy stories they might otherwise not meet, enlarging their reading interests and providing access to texts beyond their level of independence as readers. Reading aloud helps children to broaden their repertoire as readers, becoming familiar with a wider range of genres and the work and voice of particular authors. By reading well-chosen books aloud, teachers also help classes to become communities of readers, sharing in the rich experience of a growing range of books they enjoy, get to know well and talk about. Making word collections is a way of focussing on the language of a text. Children can make collections of words that describe a particular character, their feelings, a place, and event or a situation. Collecting words in this way helps children to have a more focussed awareness of the ways language affects our perceptions and understandings and the ways in which the author creates the readers' response. Publishing their work for an audience helps children to write more purposefully. Bookmaking provides a motivating context within which children can bring together their developing understanding of what written language is like; making written language meaningful as they construct their own texts.

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Re-read the first page of the book, leading to Belle and her parents’ annual special journey: - Have you ever made a special journey? - Where do you think Belle and her parents might be going? - What kind of place do you think they might be visiting? - What will Belle be hoping to see or do when she gets there?

Prepare a rucksack with the same items as are shown on the gingham cloth illustration, then unpack this in front of the children, inviting them to describe each one or say why it might have been packed. - Where do you think Belle might be going, now that you have seen what she has packed in her

rucksack? - What in her rucksack makes you think that? - Why do you think she packed them?

Show the page with the picture of Belle’s most treasured possessions on the gingham backcloth, and read the description of each item. - What are your most treasured possessions? - Can you list five to seven things that you would take, and explain why you would take each one? - Would you have taken the same things as Belle? What would have taken instead? You may

choose to model this by packing a bag of your own special journey items. As a class scribe five to seven items and a reason for packing each one, modelling the formula of the

book, where a noun is complemented by an adjective or adjectival phrase. Ask the children to write their own list of five to seven items, with a noun and adjectival phrase, to

produce a list poem, reading aloud to make sure the list makes sense and sounds right. Consider making a suitcase book as shown in Paul Johnson’s Making Books (see resources), writing

each item on a page, drawing a picture to accompany it. The page concludes “Ah! Belle sees it all!” So she did – and it was all recorded in her journals. Introduce the idea that they will be keeping a journal throughout the sequence, where they will

make observations and record ideas. They may wish to use their journal in a free writing session following this activity to write about a special journey they have been on before.

Session 5: Singing Songs and Memory Games Singing songs, reciting chants and rhymes and following beats and rhythms play an essential role in laying the foundation for reading readiness and the success of systematic phonics teaching, and developing children’s early phonological awareness. Other benefits include improved confidence, self-esteem, increased enjoyment in school life, deeper engagement in class and enhanced social skills.

- Show children the illustration of Belle and her family arriving in the countryside, and read the accompanying text.

- Have you ever been on a long car journey? - What do you do to pass the time? - Do you know any songs or games that help the time to pass? - Share a selection of simple repetitive songs, with some of which the children may already be

familiar, such as Ten Green Bottles, If You’re Happy and You Know it, One Man Went to Mow, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?

- You could take this opportunity to revise French songs taught as part of MFL sessions if these take place or to learn a French song, such as Frère Jacques, which the children can enjoy as a simple song, or — after practice — as a round.

Frère Jacques, frère Jacques, Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?

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Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

- Discuss memory games you might have played: - What games might you play in the car?

- I-Spy? - The Number Plate game (making words or phrases from the letters of a number plate)

RPA 181R repeat PPG 429R pugs prefer grapes GF06 WVU Greek fishermen waved violet umbrellas

- I Love My Love with a [insert letter here]… I love my love with an A: her name is Ann, she comes from Aberdeen, and she is

awesome I love my love with a B: his name is Bernard, he comes from Brighton, and he is

brainy I love my love with a C: her name is Cleopatra, she comes from Cambridge, and

she is cuddly… Play the games together to gain an idea of how they work, then ask the children if they could now

explain one of the games to someone who has never played it before. These could then be written into the children’s journals in the form of instructions, with the teacher modelling how to compose and organise these through shared writing.

Session 6: Debate and Argument; Persuasive Writing Talking together about books using the 'Tell me' questions is a very powerful way to explore and reflect on emotional response to a story and what It means for us as individuals. In contrast, debating ideas calls for a more formal and objective response to the story and helps children begin to analyse how the writer has made us feel this way. Teachers can structure debates inviting 'for' and 'against' arguments around particular statements arising from a book.

Share the words and pictures of the page about grandfather’s gifts, covering up the final sentence, which will be read at the end of the session. - Have you ever been given a special gift? - What makes it special? - Which of Belle’s gifts from her grandfather would you have liked best? - What reason did Belle’s grandfather have for each gift? What would it enable Belle to do that she

could not do before she had it? Organise a debate to decide which would be the class’s favourite gift:

- Vote first (show of hands) to see which gift would be most popular; - Make a short speech persuading the class by sharing why their preferred gift is the best, and what

advantages it brings; - Allow the class to question the child advocating each gift, and challenging their championing of

that gift; - Vote again (secret ballot) at the end of the debate to see which gift is most popular.

Children could make a poster for their favourite gift, extolling its benefits. Teachers should model first how to write about one of the gifts persuasively, e.g.,

A tree house gives Belle her own sense of freedom and independence. It allows her to have time alone, away from her family to do the things she likes to do in her own space. She could decorate the tree house and make it cosy and comfortable with cushions and blankets. It’s a place where

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she can watch the world from on high in her binoculars, draw, write and have special drawers and boxes to keep her treasure collections.

Re-read the page, this time uncovering the final sentence. Can the children predict what Belle

might be given this year? Use Polaroid photo frame templates as in the book (e.g.,

http://bit.ly/polaroidtemplate) and get the children to draw their ideas to add to the display on

the working wall.

Session 7: Read Aloud and Prediction; Freeze-frame and Thought Tracking Reading aloud is one of the most important ways that children are motivated and supported to become readers. It is essential that children experience hearing texts read aloud in the classroom as a regular part of each school day.

Freeze-frames are still images or tableaux. They can be used to enable groups of children to examine a key event or situation from a story and decide in detail how it could be represented. When presenting the freeze-frame, one of the group could act as a commentator to talk through what is happening in their version of the scene, or individual characters can be asked to speak their thoughts out loud.

Thought-tracking is often used in conjunction with freeze-frame. Individuals are invited to voice their thoughts or feelings aloud using just a few words. This can be done by tapping each person on the shoulder or holding a cardboard 'thought-bubble' above their head. Alternatively, thought tracking can involve other members of the class speaking a chosen character's thoughts aloud for them.

Reread from the start to the end of the bicycle page (“…her feet would pedal.”). - Did anyone predict that Belle would be given a bicycle? - What is special about a bicycle, what does it bring Belle? - What is special about this bicycle? [It was her mother’s, and she had longed for it.] - What do you predict Belle will be able to do?

- How will having a bicycle affect Belle’s holiday?

Read the page that shows Belle pedalling away from her grandparents’ house, and discuss what is called after her as she leaves. - What do the different characters’ shouts tell us about their personalities? - What would your parents or grandparents shout? - What would you shout to Belle?

Divide the class in two, then half of the class act out the scene, then freeze; either take photographs and annotate, or use thought-tracking, where the half of the class that is watching provides the words that are being said or thought by the half that are acting, when each is tapped on the shoulder.

Change over so the half of the class that watched is now acting, and vice versa. Update the Role on the Wall in a different colour to show the change in Belle’s fortunes and outlook

now she has a bicycle. Add annotated photographs of the tableaux to the working wall.

Session 8: Visualisation; Annotation Asking children to picture or visualise a character or a place from a story is a powerful way of encouraging them to move into a fictional world. Children can be asked to picture the scene in their mind's eye or walk round it in their imaginations. They can bring it to life by describing it in words or recreating it in drawing or painting. They can also be encouraged to draw on the language of the text in making annotations around the drawings. Drawing story settings prompts children to imagine what a

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scene looks like, or visualise it from a particular viewpoint. Like drama, it enables children to enter the world of the story and provides support for writing.

Without showing the illustration, read the children the text from “The first thing…” to “…swaying in the wind.” Take care not to read the final sentence!

Ask the children to draw what they see in their mind’s eye, and reread the text as often as necessary to enable the children to compose their own landscape with Belle in its midst.

Encourage the children to use all their senses to imagine what Belle would feel and think, and use both near focus and long focus to take in details and the big picture.

Share the illustrator’s image, with the words covered, stressing that their interpretation is as valid as hers, both are responses to the author’s text. - What does your picture have in common with the illustrator’s? - What differences are there? Why do you think you all and the illustrator may have seen things

differently? (The idea of this is for the children to see that all their experiences feed into their interpretations and that there is no right or wrong answer to how this should be drawn as we all view the world in different ways).

Create a shared word bank on the working wall that draws on both the children’s and the illustrator’s images to describe the setting and its features drawing on all the senses, and captures how Belle might be feeling.

Discuss the layout of the spread, which shows Belle small on the left-hand page in a vast expanse of countryside and sky. Add to the Role on the Wall in the light of the ensuing discussion. - How does the illustrator show Belle in this scene? - What do you think it feels like to be Belle in this picture? - Where do you think she is heading, and where will she end up?

You could also update the role on the wall in a different colour at this point to describe her at this point of the story.

Use post-it notes to write what Belle might be thinking or saying at the start of the journey, deciding after whether the text needs to be framed in a thought or speech bubble, depending on whether they think she is thinking a thought to herself or saying her thoughts aloud. When they are happy with their idea, encourage the children to add this to their illustration.

The children’s artwork, comparison with the illustrator’s image and discussion could lead to an extended piece of writing focussing on Belle’s emotions and sensations as she embarks on her journey. This could be modelled by the teacher and presented as a piece of diary writing in role as Belle in their writing journals.

Session 9: Conscience Alley; Note of Advice and Response in Role Conscience Alley is a useful technique for exploring any kind of dilemma faced by a character, providing an opportunity to analyse a decisive moment in greater detail. The class forms two lines facing each other. One person (the teacher or a participant) takes the role of the protagonist and walks between the lines as each member of the group speaks their advice. It can be organised so that those on one side give opposing advice to those on the other. When the protagonist reaches the end of the alley, they make their decision.

Read the final sentence and the next page, and show the picture of Belle after she has crashed, from “What she didn’t see…” on the previous page, to “…didn’t know her.” - Have you ever been lost? - What did it feel like? What emotions did you experience? - What did you do to stop being lost?

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Ask the children what they notice about the sentence “Belle didn’t know the country and the country didn’t know her.” Do they remember the contrasting sentence “Belle loved the city and the city loved her.” at the start of the story? How does this feel different this time? How do you think Belle feels about being in the country compared with being back in the city?

You may also want to share the poem ‘Lost’ by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Chris Riddell, in A Great Big Cuddle and on the CLPE poetryline website (https://www.clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poems/lost) to explore the issues in this page, and enable children to access and empathise with Belle’s experience and emotions more deeply.

Her father’s parting words were “Don’t get lost!” - How can she find out where she is? - Who could she turn to for help to get back home? - What will she say to her parents and grandparents? - What can she do to stop her knee hurting?

Facilitate a discussion around the answers to the issues raised by these questions, and support children in orally formulating pieces of advice to give to Belle.

Arrange the children in two lines facing each other. In the role of Belle walk between the lines as each member of the class speaks their advice. At the end of the alley, prepare to make Belle’s decision.

Before voicing the decision, support the children in using their oral responses to Belle’s conflicting emotions to prepare a piece of advice to give Belle about what she should do. Through modelled writing explore how to write a note of advice to Belle, being supportive of her situation and feelings and providing helpful ideas of how to remedy her current situation. Then give the children time and space to write their own notes with their own support and recommendations.

Extend this piece of writing by sharing with a classmate — the notes could be passed between them so that the children receive the advice in role as Belle, and they could then respond in role as Belle to the advice they have been offered.

Session 10: Non-fiction Writing Narrative texts often give excellent opportunities to work across genres, providing purpose, audience and context for such writing. As part of non-fiction writing, children will need to hear and see lots of high-quality examples of non-fiction writing as an example of what they will be writing to pick up on the differing structure, organisation and use of language, before writing in the style themselves.

Read the next page, where Belle meets the bee, up to “You just have to know how to listen.” and

the first sentence of the next page “Belle has come top in her class in biology but at no time has

anyone ever mentioned that bees can talk.” covering the rest of the text on the page

Tell the children that they are going to write fact files to give Belle more information about bees so she can expand her knowledge. Ask the children what they already know about bees and anything they want to find out. You might record this on a large table on the working wall, e.g.,

What we already know about bees What we want to find out about bees What we’ve learned about bees

Now ask the children how they think they might be able to find out how to confirm what they know is correct or how they can find out the answers to the questions they want to know.

Read aloud selected spreads to children from high quality non-fiction texts such as Being a Bee by Jinny Johnson, illustrated by Lucy Davey (Wayland) and What on Earth? Bees by Andrea Quigley,

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illustrated by Pau Morgan (QED) that confirm prior knowledge, answer questions and activate new questions and learning.

You could also watch quality video texts such as ‘My Pet and Me: Honey Bees’: http://bit.ly/meandmypetbee, selections of BBC Nature videos: http://bit.ly/bbcnaturebees; or this Newsround resource page including films about bees http://bit.ly/newsroundbees.

Collect examples of information the children have found out from their research on the ‘What we’ve learned about bees’ section of the grid. Talk about how to organise the information so that facts are categorised to help the reader. Do some sentences relate to what bees look like? What they do? Where they live? How to keep them? Display the strips on the working wall for children to reference whilst writing.

Give children time to compile their own fact files. This could be an individual, paired or group writing task. Give the children a variety of materials and choices about how they might want to present their fact files. Some may want to create large, interactive posters, others may want to use ICT to create a PowerPoint, a movie maker documentary, or poster, and some may want to write a more traditional report. Provide ideas for formats through looking at a wide variety of ways that information texts can be presented. Model the process of thinking about how to present and organise information and the style, language and formality of non-fiction writing through Shared Writing. Give plenty of time for the children to draft their writing before reading aloud to check for sense and meaning, editing for spelling and punctuation and then write up for presentation in their chosen format.

Come back to the knowledge grid completed near the beginning of the sequence. Were any of the things we thought about bees at the beginning true? Have we found out any new information since? Are there any more things we want to find out? How could we do this? This could link to an extended study in Science or a home learning activity.

Children may also want to use their journals to write about a different insect or creature other than a bee, but using the same processes as underpin this piece of writing.

One of the things children may have found out is that bees perform a dance to communicate where a nectar source is found; a PE session could be used to learn the bee’s waggle dance (http:/bit.ly/bbcwaggledance) to communicate to other team members the location of nectar.

Session 11: Visualisation Asking children to picture or visualise a character or a place from a story is a powerful way of encouraging them to move into a fictional world. Children can be asked to picture the scene in their mind's eye or walk round it in their imaginations. Finally, they can bring it to life by describing it in words or recreating it in drawing or painting.

Re-read the page where Belle first meets the bee, from “’Hello?!’ she called out, in her smallest voice” and on to the next page up to “The bee’s voice was wise, thoughtful and kind. It made the bee seem much bigger than it was.” Ask the children how they would describe the voice of a bee. Use the opportunity to talk about words that represent a sound (onomatopoeia) in words such as buzz.

Explain to the children that in this session, they are going to do some careful listening to bees, just as they did some careful looking out of Belle’s window.

Ask the children if they have ever been near a hive of if they have listened carefully to bees before. Introduce them to a 360 degree view of a hive through a video and they are going to listen to the bees and consider, using their new knowledge about bees, what the bees might be saying. Watch the video: http://bit.ly/insideahive using the controls to rotate around the hive and give children

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time and space to think about what the bees’ talk might be, and how this is influenced by what they now know about them.

Show the children pictures or short videos of The Hive at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and explain what the installation is and why it was built, in language that is accessible for your children. They may watch some of the videos directly or you may wish to talk about and summarise these. For your own subject knowledge, Wolfgang Buttress’s installation The Hive at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is a unique, multi-sensory experience designed to highlight the extraordinary life of bees. A feat of British engineering, it stands 17 metres tall, set in a wildflower meadow. It is an immersive sound and visual experience: the lights you see and the sounds you hear inside The Hive are triggered by bee activity in a real beehive at Kew, the intensity of the sounds and light changing constantly, to echo that of the real beehive. The multi award-winning Hive was inspired by scientific research into the health of honeybees. It is a visual symbol of the pollinators’ role in feeding the planet and the challenges facing bees today. Wolfgang Buttress talks in his videos on The Hive about the need to listen, to be quiet and gentle: “Sometimes you can say more when you talk and whisper, instead of when you shout.” which echoes the Bee’s words to Belle: “You just have to know how to listen.”

To support this session, you may also want to share with the children examples of artists who have been inspired by music to create pieces of artwork, considering the music that inspired them and how this translates into art, such as: - Improvisation 35 by Wassily Kandinsky - The Triumph of Music by Marc Chagall - Music, Pink and Blue No. 2 by Georgia O’Keeffe - Transatlantic Works by Piet Mondrian. Model how you might begin to use pastels on dark sugar paper to respond to the composition BE that was performed inside The Hive, which can be heard at http://bit.ly/kewhivemusic. Think about the lines, shapes, colours and patterns that the music inspires you to create on the page.

Annotate your response drawing with post-it notes of phrases and vocabulary inspired by what you have heard and seen.

Let the children do a gallery walk to explore each other’s compositions, using further post-it notes to annotate others’ compositions with vocabulary and phrases that are inspired by looking at the images. - What words and phrases came to your mind when the films took you inside the hive? - What words and phrases did your picture help you find? - Did you pick up any new language from the gallery walk?

Scribe some of the vocabulary and verbal feedback and add this to the working wall with a selection of the artwork.

Session 12: Map-making Mapping a story and its setting helps to develop a sense of the story world. Mapping story settings is a way of establishing the geography of a story more securely and visualising where its characters and events would be located. These kinds of maps can be drawn by pairs, groups, individuals, or by the teacher, drawing on a flip chart or interactive whiteboard to construct a map or plan where characters and events of the story can be located.

Read the next two pages, from “Belle has come top…” to “…said the bee.” - Why do you think the bee seems bigger than it was? - Why is Belle determined not to cry? - What does the bee mean when she says, “There is a map all around you”? - What are the advantages of being a bee in Belle’s situation?

- What does Belle mean when she says she lives for adventures? - Can you predict what adventures the bee is proposing?

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Look at a selection of maps, both of town and country, paper and online, and discuss: - Are maps pictures? What do they have in common, how are they different? - Are maps stories? Can you think of ways maps tell their own truth? - Do maps change over time?

As a class draw a “bee’s eye” map of what they think the story setting would look like from the bee’s aerial view, identifying features that would be of interest to the bee, and that are of interest to the students.

The children may want to then go on to make maps of their own, either of their own interpretations of the story setting or of somewhere of particular relevance to them, their home town or the environment around the school.

The page mentions adventures, and another journey. - What do you think the next journey will be? - To what adventures, do you think, will the bee lead Belle?

Session 10: Creative Approaches including classification trees, flower pressing and dance A variety of approaches to the content of the book will enable children to make connections in their learning, articulate confidently their own responses to the book, and find personal connections that strengthen and embed their connection to the story.

Read the next two pages of the story, from “The bee led Belle…” to “…I’d like you to meet.” - What happens when you hurt yourself or are ill? Do you always have to go to the doctor? - Who else besides the doctor knows ways to make you feel better? What do they do? - Does anyone who looks after you ever give you medicine or treat your injuries?

It is essential to link this discussion to the safe use of medicines, linked to PSHE and drugs education topics.

Discuss the illustrations, which the children should be examining closely. - What do you notice about Belle as she sits nursing her knee? - How many different plants and creatures are in the pictures? - What do you think Belle is thinking when the bee tells her to rub crushed flowers on her knee?

Show children either pictures of Arnica and Sunflower plants, or if it is the right time of year, plants themselves that have been grown. Why do you think the Arnica plant reminds Belle of Madame Babineau’s sunflowers? What similar features do they have that could make them ‘cousins’? - Do you know the phrase “Nature is the best medicine”? - Have you been stung by a nettle, and used a dock leaf? - Have you had ginger for a cold or travel sickness? - Have you had honey and lemon for a cold? - Have you used lavender to keep moths out of your clothes or help you go to sleep?

The bee’s description of the plants as cousins could lead to a discussion of families, and how people who are related often look alike, but not always.

At the right time of year flowers could be collected and pressed for display. Flowers could also be grown, see bee-border in cross-curricular learning.

Using Charlotte Voake’s Guide to Wild Flowers children could create a leaflet, poster or book of remedies. Picking up the bee’s comment about arnica and sunflower being cousins, children could create a poster about flower families, or devise an identification guide to distinguish between the flowers they know, or that grow in the school garden.

Photographs and notes from artistic and creative approaches can be added to enrich the working wall.

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Session 11: Response to Illustration; food webs The children's books featured on Corebooks have been chosen because of the quality of the illustrations they contain and the ways in which the illustrations work with the text to create meaning for the reader. Children will need time and opportunities to enjoy and respond to the pictures, and to talk together about what the illustrations contribute to their understanding of the text. Children can develop their responses to the book by drawing or painting in a similar style to the illustrations.

Share with children the illustration of Belle and the bee walking through the forest (“The bee knew everyone…” to “important job of all.”), inviting children to look closely and extract as much detail and information as they can, interpreting what they see. - What animals can you see? - Are they alone or in groups? - How do they live in this habitat together?

This illustration offers an excellent opportunity to explore habitats and food chains and webs and the interdependence of species, as well as how the success of flora and fauna go hand in hand, and the impact on altering one part of an ecosystem.

Watch the BBC resource: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zc42xnb to start to look at what a woodland environment is like and what animals live there. You might also follow this with a look at the short film on Food Chains: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c2xnb to look at how the plants and animals depend on this habitat for their survival.

Revisit the phrase “In nature, we all have a job to do.” - What do you think each animal’s job might be? - What would happen if one of the animals did not do their job?

“The bee knew everyone and everyone knew bee.” - How does seeing compare to knowing, what is the difference? - Who do you know? In the class? In school? In your street?

“…an army of ants pass[ed] on the forest floor.” - Why is a group of ants called an army? - Do you know the collective nouns for any other groups of animals? - Do you also know the special names for animals’ homes? E.g., squirrel’s dray, fox’s earth,

badger’s sett, and so on. - Do you know the names for the male and female and young of each kind of animal? E.g., dog

fox, vixen, cub; boar, sow, piglet for wild boar; stag, doe, hart for fawn. As a class record as much information as possible about all the animals that can be seen, and draft

a class list poem, e.g.,

We are the Badgers, We live in a sett. Meet the boar, the sow and our cubs. How do you do?

We are the Foxes, We live in an earth. Meet the dog, the vixen, the cubs How do you do?

We are the Rabbits, We live in a warren. Meet the buck, the doe, the kits. How do you do?

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Session 12: Food Diary and Food Tasting Engaging all the senses is a way of embedding the children’s learning, and using that sensory memory adds depth to their writing.

Share with children the next two pages (“’We help everything grow…” to “…a saying for that.’”), and revisit what the children learned in their non-fiction writing about what bees do when they pollinate, watching again the video on pollination (http://bit.ly/newsroundbees).

Ask children to keep a food diary — of breakfast, or of the whole day or week — and to note which items would be reliant on bees for pollination. The last page of the book lists foods whose production is reliant on bees.

This spread of pages would be a good opportunity for children to taste honey, or different types of honey, or to taste foods that were reliant on bees for pollination.

Children could demonstrate their understanding of how bees make honey from nectar and “accidentally” pollinate plants, by creating an annotated explanatory diagram. Revisit the ‘My Pet and Me: Honey Bees’ programme to learn more about this process in depth, listening for words and phrases that help describe the process most effectively that would be good for the children to use: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/cbeebies/episode/b08ktyvx/my-pet-and-me-series-3-16-honey-bees

Look at an explanation text such as the ‘How do bees make honey’ spread in What on Earth? Bees, Andrea Quigley, illustrated by Pau Morgan (QED) to look at how this kind of text might be organised on the page, using words and pictures to help explain the process to the reader.

Session 13: Diary Entry Unpicking a proverb gives children an insight into the richness of their own language, and clarifying their meaning for others requires them to hone their skills of explanation.

Share the next two pages of the story, from “La nature est bien faite…” to “…trees in the country.” Explain the meaning of “la nature est bien faite” (literally, Nature is well made, with the implication

that there is a place for everything and everything in its place, and an emphasis on harmony and balance), ensuring that all have understood it and can explain it to each other.

This proverb is central to the book’s message, encapsulating the philosophy of Bernard Chevillat, whose experience inspired Belle’s story http://bit.ly/chevillat

- Can you explain what the bee means by “La nature est bien faite”. - What does the story mean, is it teaching us a moral? - Can you think of other traditional tales that have a moral?

Reread the text “I can see everything. […] I must write it all down.” Look carefully at the double page spread illustration on this page, what do you think Belle sees? Give

children time to annotate around a large copy of the illustration of the sorts of things Belle might want to write about.

As well as this, show the children film of the countryside (virtual walk in England and drone flights in France), echoing Belle’s view from the treetop across the fields to her grandpa’s house. Play also the sounds of nature.

- Beautiful British Countryside – A Virtual Walk

http://bit.ly/britishcountrysidevirtualwalk

- Drone Flights over French Countryside

http://bit.ly/droneflightbordeaux

http://bit.ly/droneflightburgundy

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- Sounds of the French Countryside

http://bit.ly/frenchcountrysidesounds

Encourage the children to complete a piece of free writing in role as Belle, ‘writing it all down’. Through modelled writing explore how to layer the senses that will enable the reader to perceive the countryside, and to explore a full palette of authorial practices, drafting, sharing and collaboratively editing.

Session 14: Debate and Discussion on Ecology; Artwork; Learning Outside the Classroom Albert Einstein is credited with having said: “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth then

man would only have four years left to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man!”

Revisit the resources from Friends of the Earth, Soil Association, National Geographic and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to discuss the importance of bees to the ecosystem, and the impact of chemicals that affect them, both to our food supply and to nature as a whole.

Revisit the BBC Food chain resources to recall the importance of each creature in a food web and show how one species’ demise can have far-reaching consequences.

Make posters campaigning for the bee and ways in which we can protect them. Create bee-friendly environments in the outdoor area, making then distributing seed bombs and

leave these to grow naturally and organically without the use of harmful pesticides. This could also include planting bee-friendly seeds (“perfect for pollinators”) in pots for windowsills

and balconies to take home or undertaking some guerrilla gardening in the local area.

Session 15: Song, Music to Accompany Singing songs, reciting chants and rhymes and following beats and rhythms play an essential role in laying the foundation for reading readiness and the success of systematic phonics teaching, and developing children’s early phonological awareness. Research consistently reports increased confidence and improved learning outcomes as a direct result of singing regularly, while singing well together also has a deep impact on the school community, helping to strengthen the identity of the school and makes pupils feel proud to be part of it. Other benefits include improved self-esteem, increased enjoyment in school life, deeper engagement in class and enhanced social skills

Read the next two pages from “The afternoon…” to the end of the song, without reading the final part of the text which will be read at the end of the session.

Learn the song for performance in an assembly or for posting on the internet. The song fits quite well to the tune and rhythm of Frère Jacques already explored in Session 5.

The song uses both rhythm and rhyme, and the children will need to work on picking up the pulse of the words and the rhythm of the syllables, and how to lengthen or compress their words to fit the beat of the poem. This is best done through moving actively to the poem or song to feel the pulse and rhythm, before trying to fit any words to the rhythmic skeleton, then wen the beat is internalised fitting the words to the beat, adjusting syllables where necessary.

As a class, explore how you could write your own verse to sing to the same tune. Encourage the children to come up with initial ideas for the lyrics, before trying them out and adjusting them as necessary to fit the beat patter. Encourage the children to think about the rhythm of our words, don’t worry whether they rhyme or not. When you think it fits, sing the whole song through with the new verse at the end.

Now read the final part of the text on the page. Does this page remind you of any other stories that end with “time to go home”?

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Session 16: Hot-Seating

In hot-seating, one member of the class role-plays a central character from a poem or story and is

interviewed by the other children. This activity involves children closely examining a character's

motivation and responses. Before the hot-seating, they need to discuss what it is they want to know and

identify questions they want answering. If children have no experience of hot-seating, the teachers may

initially need to take the role.

Read the next two pages of the story, sharing and discussing the illustrations, from “’May I come back…” to “…time to go home”.

Ask the children to consider Belle’s feelings up to and including this point, prompting discussion and debate: - What would Belle be thinking or feeling up to this point? What might Belle be feeling after the

summer she has spent with the bee in nature? - What might we say to Belle about what she has discovered? Is there anything we would like to ask

her? - What will happen to Belle when she returns to the city at the end of the summer?

Tell the children to imagine that Belle will be visiting us and support them in composing comments or questions that they would like to put to her. Model the kind of questions the children might like to ask: share a range of question tags that vary the form of questions; using different sentence openers. The children need to keep Belle interested, so encourage them to work individually or in pairs to devise their own comments and questions.

Use shared writing to demonstrate and elicit effective language use, sentence structure and punctuation. Scribe for a small or large group to create questions together, enabling the children to concentrate on their ideas and composition. The teacher and children should work as active partners, talking together to share ideas and while the teacher guides the children through all the decisions that writers need to make and help them shape their thoughts on paper.

An important part of hot-seating is for children to consider how they think Belle will respond, preparing follow-up questions as necessary.

The teacher, TA or another appropriate adult should take on the role of Belle and respond to the children, using the opportunity to extend their ideas and support the development of deeper empathy and reading comprehension. It is useful to wear a signifier, such as a stripy Breton top or red neckerchief, to help the children to understand when you are taking on the role of Belle and when you are back to being teacher again. Confident children could try this for themselves in small groups, once this has been modelled.

Session 17: Storymap/Graph of Emotion Making a story map is a way of retelling the story. It is a graphic means of breaking a story down into episodes and sequencing its events. This kind of graphic representation helps children to hold on to the shape of the story more confidently so they can re-tell it orally or in writing. Completing a graph of emotion allows children to show and see how story characters feel throughout a story. The graph can be reflected upon to help children to make judgements about how story events may have affected one or more characters.

Discuss Belle’s voyage of discovery during the story, and what she has found out about nature from different points in the story.

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Use the children’s discussion, key questions about Belle’s understanding, and reference to the Role on the Wall updated through hot-seating Belle, to plot a Graph of Emotion that reflects the change in Belle’s understanding.

Understanding of Nature Give the children an empty graph then ask them to populate it by retelling each key scene from the

story in the first person from Belle’s point of view, showing how she felt, orally first and then in writing in role as Belle.

Session 21: Read Aloud and Book Talk; Readers’ Theatre Reading aloud is one of the most important ways that children are motivated and supported to become readers, It is essential that children experience hearing texts read aloud in the classroom as a regular part of each school day.

Children need frequent, regular and sustained opportunities to talk together about the books that they are reading as a whole class. The more experience they have of talking together like this the better they get at making explicit the meaning that a text holds for them.

Readers’ theatre is a valuable way for children to work in a group to perform the text. Children can begin marking or highlighting parts of the text, indicating the phrases or sections to be read by individuals or by several members of the group. This enables them to bring out the meanings, pattern and characterisation.

Complete Belle’s Graph of Emotion, possibly hot-seating Belle a final time, and updating the Role on the Wall.

Reread the whole story aloud from the beginning, and engage the children in a book talk session, inspired by Aidan Chambers’ basic questions from Tell Me (Children, Reading and Talk) with The Reading Environment (How Adults Help Children Enjoy Books) (Thimble Press), scribing their responses.

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Likes What did you like about the book/story/picture?

Dislikes Was there anything you disliked about it?

Puzzles Was there anything that puzzled you?

Connections/Patterns Does it remind you of anything? Did you notice any patterns?

You might want to extend the children’s thinking with some of Chambers’ Special Questions, for example:

Tell me… Which part of the story is most memorable to you? Why is this? Can you freeze-frame this scene? From whose perspective were you experiencing the story? Did this stay the same throughout or did

it change? In what way? From where did you see the story unfold? For example, from above, from beside the characters?

Select key passages for a Readers’ Theatre that enable the children to explore the language of the story and dramatize key events, e.g.,

There was a bump. Followed by a ‘Woah!’ Followed by a clatter. Then an ‘Owww!’ All the animals and insects fell silent. Even the breeze seemed to stop for a moment. Belle looked down. Her skirt was covered in dust. She had a bruised knee. But worst of all. She had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She was lost.

Or It was Belle’s mother’s bicycle from when she was a girl. Belle had gazed longingly at it a million times in the picture on her mother’s dressing table. And now here it was, right before her, freshly painted and gleaming in the sun. She could hardly breathe for excitement. Belle threw her bag in the basket, rang the bell twice, and headed off down the lane as fast as her feet could pedal.

Session 22: Double Bubble A comparison grid is a visual way of recording similarities or differences in style, language or content, for example when considering the question: How is this version of the story like that one? Talking together as a whole class about how you might collect 'evidence' in this kind of way helps children to see patterns in text. A chart could help with comparing story beginnings or looking at different characters.

Read the final two pages of the story from “Belle found herself…” to “…noble work.” sharing and discussing the images.

Revisit the original view from Belle’s window, and compare and contrast the two images, discussing with the children what has happened in the gap between the two views, and what impact this had had on Belle (“Belle now knew the country and the country knew Belle.”).

Use a double-bubble (Appendix 1) to compare and contrast the town and the countryside, emphasising Belle’s enhanced understanding of nature and the way that “the grand scheme” functions.

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Session 23–25: Extended Writing

In the final piece of writing, the children will use the ideas from their double bubble to write a more extended piece comparing the town and the interdependence of nature in both settings. This piece of extended writing will capture this idea, emphasising balance and harmony.

Model to the children how to turning the boxes of the Double Bubble into a set of bullet points, which will represent a first draft of initial ideas. These can then be worked into more descriptive paragraphs about the benefits and needs of each area, the ‘scheme’ that ‘is simply life itself’. Support children in sharing Belle’s discovery, that the country and the city are not different, but are two faces of the same coin, and that balance is essential.

Allow plenty of time for the children to draft their writing before reading and responding with a friend or enabling adult and then writing up for display.

Consider creating a folding book that shows both city and countryside, the differences but the similarities, and a scheme that is simply life itself with people but a part of it.

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Extended Complementary Work All of the following proposed pieces of work could be undertaken simultaneously alongside your study of this book to complement, extend and enrich this sequence of work.

Computing: Children could make audio or visual recordings of themselves reporting on and presenting their

findings about bees. Children could create stop frame or similar animations of bees or a bee hive. Children could film each other talking about the “grand scheme”. Science: Conduct a study of fauna, flora and fungi that inhabit the town and the country. Research the threats posed to bees and other species through human intervention – a poster for

Save the Bees? Devise recipes that use honey and develop a class cook book inspired your research and cookery

sessions, indoors and out. You might choose to design and publish a book about bees or town and/or country habitats. You might choose to invite parents at the end of a cookery session to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Plant a bee border or window box with wildflowers and plants that support bees.

Music, Movement and Dance: Provide opportunities for the children to hear a range of nature-inspired music. Explore the musical instruments and identify them in the music played. Practise keeping pulse by clapping or with rhythm sticks, tambourine or tabla. Sing action songs with the children as well as other songs and poems involving bees and other wild

animals.

Art and Design: Explore techniques and materials used by the illustrator to create illustrations for handmade books. Children could collect and explore a range of junk materials with which to then upcycle into

something new with either form or function in mind. Support the children to join these materials in a range of ways and choose the most appropriate to meet specific criteria. Children could experience what is involved in metal work, shaping metal with a range of tools and evaluating the effects.

Make a solitary bee house (instructions here and here).

Geography and History: Human and Physical geography of France. What are the most obvious differences between UK and France, in terms of food, dress, language:

cultural understanding. France describes itself as l’Hexagone, because of its physical shape. The hexagon is also central to

the design and structure of a hive. Consider the properties of hexagons, including exploring the through artwork.

Napoleon was obsessed with bees, and they appear in the architecture and furnishings of many of the palaces and the clothing of those who lived in them.

PE: - Explore what children’s games are popular in France, can they learn and teach other children these

games for breaktime, or include them as a warm-up in a PE session? - La marelle — hopscotch - Jeu a l’épervier —sparrowhawk game, much like bulldog

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- Les loups et les moutons — wolves and sheep, also much like bulldog - Un deux trois soleil — grandma’s footsteps - Cache-cache — hide and seek - Le fermier dan son pré — the farmer’s in his den

Other ideas for Continuous and Cross-curricular Provision

Reading Area: Provide soft toy insects and mammals that recommend books as well as being there to listen to the

children read to them.

Provide a rich display of books that will help enrich and extend children’s understanding of the story.

Make provision for the children to read, share, revisit and talk about these themed or related books

and incorporate this into their play and continuous provision.

Provide audio books so that the children can listen whilst tuning in to the print of increasingly

familiar books.

Ensure that the children are given much opportunity to read for purpose across the provision.

Small world play:

Provide opportunities for children to revisit and talk together to explore this story for themselves in

as many ways as possible:

- Storyprops: create stick puppets of all the characters and create a tabletop theatre from a

cardboard box.

- Storybox: Create a storybox of the setting with the children. Fill it with a variety of small people,

buildings and objects to represent the characters and setting in the story.

PSED

Talk about and explore feelings, using the feelings of the characters in the book as a starting point

for talking about the children’s own experiences and different feelings they have experienced. This

will support the children’s emotional literacy and socialisation skills.

Consider how it feels be sad or lonely or left out.

Understanding the World

Collect together images of French cities, towns, fabrics, and foods etc. for the children to explore.

What questions do they have about them? What’s different from the things that are familiar to

them?

Revisit the images on display from the book for further clues to Belle’s lifestyle.

You may want to explore French food and drink, and use this as an opportunity for the children to

share the food from their own cultures and heritages.

If these activities don’t already exist in your setting, you may want to encourage the children to start

a gardening club, to transform part of the school grounds into a bee-friendly area:

https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/home.