This Week's Story

This week's story is Giraffes Can't Dance!
Let me know what your favourite part of the story is, what characters you liked and didn't like, what the animals could have done to be nicer to the giraffe and anything else you noticed and thought about the story!

Discussion Points -
-The animals think that Gerald can't dance. Sometimes people say 'there is no such word as can't'. What does this mean?
- Is there anything that you couldn't do to start off but when you had a go, you realised it wasn't as bad as you thought? Maybe something you have had to practice lots to get good at!
- How might Gerald feel when the other animals are laughing and waiting for him to dance? How should they behave instead?
- Discuss what the difference is between laughing at someone and laughing with someone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPicok4P7t4&feature=emb_logo

ACTIVITY 1

After watching Giraffes Can't Dance, I want you to have a look at the picture attached. In school every morning, we complete an OWI. You all write on whiteboards about what you observe, what you wonder and what you infer using amazing adjectives to make your writing more interesting!

When you are writing sentences, it is so important that you make sure you include the following;
- A capital letter at the beginning of the sentence.
- Finger spaces throughout the sentence.
- A full stop at the end of the sentence.
- You must make sure your sentence makes sense by reading over it once you are finished.
Use this as a checklist when you are writing.

Look at these incorrect sentences:

the lion is fierce

The elephant was marching noisily towards the.

What has been missed out? Can you change them so they are correct? Use the checklist to help you!


I would like to know what you think about this picture. Can you write two observations, two wonders and one inference?
You can use these sentence starters if you would like to.

I observe...
I can see...
I wonder who/ what/ when/ where/ why/ if/ how...
I think/ infer...

ACTIVITY 2

In the story, Giraffes Can't Dance, there are lots of rhyming words!
Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuWKBFkZcU (skip to 55 seconds).

I would like you to listen to the story again and firstly, make a list of some of the rhyming words!
Once you have done that, you can think of some other rhyming words to go with them. Remember they have to end with the same sound!
Once you have a range of different words (they don't all have to rhyme), put them on to separate scrap pieces of paper and see if you can sort them in to rhyming groups. You could play snap with these rhyming word cards you have made, too!
Lastly, can you write sentences that rhyme?
I'm going to have a go!

Miss Rowley woke up at the crack of dawn, it was very, very early.
She brushed her teeth, looked in the mirror and realised her hair was curly!

When Mrs Farmer was bored, she decided to play a game.
She shouted, "who wants to play with me?" to see if anyone came!

Osian was doing a Tiktok dance with his big sister, Tilly.
They practiced and practiced all day long and then showed a friend called Lilly!

I had a lot of fun thinking of these! Lets see what you come up with.

ACTIVITY 3

In Giraffes Can't Dance, there are lots of amazing words that the author used for moving. run, skip, prance, dance,waltz, roll, tango, walk, creep, and lots more! Can you think of other fun and interesting ways of moving? If I said 'the giraffe moved on the dance floor', it would be a bit of a boring sentence. If I used a more exciting word for 'moved', it would make it more interesting.

The giraffe crept across the dancefloor.

The rhinos waltzed with the zebras in the sunshine.

If you want to make your sentences even more interesting, you can add a word to describe how they did this movement. This word would be called an adverb! Rather that just saying 'crept', I could say 'crept slowly' or rather than just saying 'waltzed', I could say 'waltzed beautifully'. Have a go at making these sentences more interesting, change the words that are in capital letters to a more interesting verb (and adverb if you're feeling brave!)

You could do this work either by writing or just saying your interesting sentences and 'hand-in' your work as a video!

The giraffe WENT home.

When the rhinos MOVED with the lions, it made the ground shake!

The monkeys MOVED through the trees to see what was going on in the Jungle Dance.

MOVING, the warthogs tried out their best dance moves.

You can think of some of your own, if you'd prefer!