Video: Language comprehension and sharing chants: 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt', a sensory story

﻿Hello. My name is Kat and I am very happy to be your teacher today. We're going to read a sensory story called, "We're going on a Lion Hunt". First, I'll read the story through with some hints and tips of things that you can do with your learner. Second, I'll read the story through with minimal adult language, for you to enjoy with your child. For this lesson, you will need green paper cut into strips, a tray, a water jug, cornflour, brown paint, and a blanket. Let's get ready. It's time to look, listen, and learn. Find a quiet, comfortable space away from distractions. Gather your resources and have them nearby. Make sure you and your learner are comfortable. Press pause while you get everything ready. We're going on a lion hunt author and illustrator David Axtell, publisher, McMillan, 2019. "We're going on a lion hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "But we're not scared. "Been there before. "We're going on a lion hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "We're not scared. "Been there before. "Oh no, "long grass! "Can't go over it. "Can't go under it. "Can't go around it. "Have to go through it. "Swish, swash, "swish swash." So there are lots of opportunities here to extend your child's learning. You could start off with a question such as, "Where is the grass?" He could use the symbol on the PowerPoint or draw your own symbol at home to support their learning and their identification of the grass. You could also ask, "Where are the two girls? "Which one is wearing yellow, "and which one is wearing red?" If you have a learner that likes to engage in sensory play, sensory materials, you could put together a tray of long grass. So this is just strips of green paper, and I've also added in some twigs and some leaves. Now this is a great way. Now I need to just engage the pupil and give them something to feel, something to touch, and something more sensory and more tangible is also a great way to introduce some colour keywords. So you could say, "Can you find me the green grass? "Can you find me the green leaf? "Can you find me the brown twig?" So again, it can be about that introduction of keywords, familiar language, and one word instructions. This is also a really good opportunity to support your learner to think about books and how books work. So it would be great opportunity to see if they can turn the page. If this is on a PowerPoint, maybe they could be in charge of the button and anticipating at what point did they move on to the next stage of the story. If you have a copy of the book at home, see if your learner can help hold it the right way up. See if they're able to point to the pictures and see if they're able to turn the page correctly themselves at the right time. "We're going on a lion hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "We're not scared. "Been there before. "Oh no, "a lake! "Can't go over it. "Can't get under it. "Can't go around it. "Have to go through it. "Splish, splash, "splish, splash." This is another really great opportunity to ask some questions, to extend your learner's understanding. For example, "where "is the bird? "What colour "is the bird? "How many "zebras "can you see? "Does the girl feel "happy "or sad?" To increase your learners sensory engagement with this story, you could simply fill a tray with water to represent the lake. Now, this is a nice opportunity to get, to encourage your learner, to join in with a repetitive phrase, which here is splish, splash, splish, splash. So you can model this by yourself, especially in the water and saying, "splish, splash, splish, splash." See if your learner can then join in with that. You could also introduce some following instructions. So you could say, "can you make a big splash?" And model a big splash. Or you could say, "can you make a little splash?" And again, model the little splashes. See if your learner can follow those instructions. "We're going on a lion hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "We're not scared. "Been there before. "Oh no, "a swamp! "Can't go over it. "Can't go under it. "Can't go around it. "Have to go through it. "Squish, squelch, "squish, squelch." Now to create sensory engagement with your learner here, you may want to create a swamp sensory experience as I have done here in this tray, this is just cornflour, water, and brown paint. You could either just use it as it is, squishing and squelching. Again, if you use that repetitive phrase, squish, squelch, squish, squelch. See if the learner can join in with that either with actions or vocalisations, you can also introduce other elements into the swamp, such as sticks. And then you can introduce some instructional language. For example, mixing , or patting , or swishing. You could also use some mark-making, could do some letters or shapes with the sticks in the swamp. However, your learner most enjoys engaging with that material. Again, there's lots of opportunities for questioning here to extend learning. One of which could be, "how many different "animals can you see? "How many of the same animals "can you see? "What's happening to the little girl? "Does she feel happy "or frightened?" So again, introducing some keyword vocabulary through the medium of the picture. "We're going on a lion hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "We're not scared. "Been there before. "Oh no, "a big "dark cave. "Can't go over it. "Can't go under it. "Can't go around it. "Have to go through it. "In we go, "tiptoe, tiptoe." So hide and seek can be a great game to introduce at this point. All you need is a blanket. And you could just introduce a game of anticipation and initiation with your learner, through hiding under the blanket yourself initially, and then jumping out and then allowing the learner to either put the blanket over themselves or you do it for them carefully. And then moving it back and enjoying the excitement and the anticipation of that moment. You can then build that up until they're doing it more independently, allowing them to choose how long they stay under the blanket. And at what point they jump out with the idea being that the blanket represents the cave. If your learner isn't interested in that, that's fine. You could just simply look at the pictures and explore some questions and some extensions of learning around the pictures. And at this point they might be quite familiar with the key refrain of, can't go over it, Can't go under it. So see if you leave a gap, whether they might be able to fill in these keywords, whether they might want to say alongside you, or whether you might be able to prompt them with a little bit of the word or a sign or a symbol to fill in each bit of the refrain themselves. It's more independence. This part of the story is great for building up anticipation and excitement. And again, you could bring in a discussion about feelings. You could say, "How do the girls feel? "Do they feel happy, "or do they feel a bit scared?" And see if your learner can respond to the signs and the words there. Again, introduce symbols, if your learner finds them more useful and just build up a discussion there around those keywords. "But what's that? "One shiny wet nose! "One big shaggy mane! "Four big furry paws! "It's a lion!" This section of the story can all be about using keywords to identify body parts. So you'd read the first line, "But what's that?" "One shiny wet nose!" See if your learner can identify their nose. Perhaps you could use a mirror to support them and model yourself identifying your own nose. "One big shaggy mane!" So here we would use hair, we would find our hair. We would show the learner their hair, see if they can identify it and "Four big furry paws!" So at this point we could count one, two hands, three, four feet. See if the learner can find each one alongside you counting and see if they can count their own hands and feet at this point. So this last part of this story is all about creating a sense of enjoyment and engagement and fun and a little bit of a sense of anticipation running away from the lion. So just read through, and if you want to get the resources out again, that you've used previously, or you could just do hand movements for tiptoeing, squelching, and swishing. So we'll read through, "Back through the cave! "Tiptoe, tiptoe. "Back through the swamp! "Squish, squelch, squish, squelch. "Back through the Lake! "Splish, splash, splish, splash. "Back through the long grass! "Swish, swash, swish, swash. "All the way home! "Slam the door! "Crash! "We're all tired now. "Tired and sleepy. "Better catch a lion tomorrow." And at this point, you can tuck your learner in to the end of the story to mimic going to sleep. To make this story easier, spend longer exploring each of the resources with your learner. Focus on engaging with and exploring the materials, minimise adult language, and use keywords and signs instead. To make it harder, once you've read through the story, see if the learner can sequence it themselves using symbols and pictures, add in more complex language or see if the learner can use two keywords together to describe elements of the story, e.g. "the grass is long". Try sequencing the story together using symbols and pictures. Explore some African music and songs with your learner. You could even try some African food, do some arts and crafts with bright colours and African traditional prints and patterns. If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag #LearnwithOak.

Completed: Language comprehension and sharing chants: 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt', a sensory story

In this lesson, we will read through the story 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt', written and illustrated by David Axtell, and published by Macmillan (2019). With each part of the story, we will explore related sensory activities and games.

Communication and Language

Language comprehension and sharing chants: 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt', a sensory story

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