Take pupils on an adventure around the globe with Travelling Tales: The Snail and the Whale. The Travelling Tales series are a one-stop shop for teaching storytelling to KS1 pupils. They include everything you need to teach a cross-curricular series of lessons based around a quality text, including a Teacher Guide with ideas and inspiration for lessons.

In this Travelling Tales, teachers are provided a copy of The Snail and the Whale written by the amazing Julia Donaldson and illustrated by the talented Axel Scheffler. The Snail and the Whale is a heart-warming story about one snail’s dream to see the world, and the unlikely friendship that sparks adventures around the globe.

Also included in the Travelling Tales story sack is a variety of resources that can be used alongside The Snail and the Whale to teach effective storytelling lessons.

• Give your voice a break and let the incredible talent of Imelda Staunton read The Snail and the Whale to your pupils by playing the included CD.

• Tell the story using physical representations of the characters with soft toy versions of the Snail and the Whale.

• Use the play mat to help pupils envision the journey the two protagonists take.

• Teach cross-curricular themed lessons using the Catch and Count maths-based game.

• Explore creatures from the ocean using the tub of plastic sea mammals and fish and learn all about them with Kings of the Ocean, a non-fiction book that investigates large ocean creatures.

What’s in the Travelling Tales sack?

1 x copy of The Snail and the Whale

1 x copy of Kings of the Ocean

2 x soft toy representations of the main characters

1 x play mat

1 x Catch and Count game

1 x tub of plastic sea mammals and fish

1 x Teacher Guide

Contents may vary from description.

Reasons to Love:

• Quality texts from well known authors, great for sharing with children; the patterned language promotes choral reading and retelling, naturally encouraging audience participation!

• Each bag provides a window into a new world where the children can learn new ideas and information through engaging and exciting stories

• Good quality materials support the texts, allowing children to create their own play with the characters, further developing vocabulary and language

• Each bag contains a related non-fiction text, developing the idea of the story with further information

• The games link to the text and provide the opportunity to work collaboratively and take turns, while extending and developing the story

Learning Outcomes:

EYFS

Communication and Language and Understanding

• After listening to stories, children can express views about events or characters in the story and answer questions about why things happened.

Expressive arts and design

• This involves supporting children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. It involves providing children with opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities including role-play.

ELG 17 Being imaginative:

• Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes

• They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through … role-play and stories

Letters and Sounds - Phase 1: Enjoying and sharing books

• Experience shows that children benefit hugely by exposure to books from an early age. Right from the start, lots of opportunities should be provided for children to engage with books that fire their imagination and interest. They should be encouraged to choose and peruse books freely as well as sharing them when read by an adult. Enjoying and sharing books leads to children seeing them as a source of pleasure and interest and motivates them to value reading.

Spoken language

• The National Curriculum for English reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing. Pupils should develop a capacity to explain their understanding of books and other reading, and to prepare their ideas before they write.

• Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances.

Reading

• Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (in particular of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.

• Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds.