Handa's Surprise - Teaching Slides

In the educational material provided by Focus Education UK Ltd, Year 1 students are introduced to the story "Handa's Surprise" by Eileen Browne during their summer term. The lesson sequence is designed to engage young learners in a variety of activities centred around the book. In the initial lesson, children watch a video of the story, which serves as a basis for class discussion. They then examine the book's cover, predicting its content and identifying the fruits in Handa's basket. This is followed by a sensory exploration where students taste the fruits and express their preferences, using descriptive words like 'delicious', 'juicy', and 'crunchy' to articulate their opinions. They are also encouraged to write sentences about their favourite and least favourite fruits.

Further lessons delve deeper into the narrative and themes of "Handa's Surprise". Students are prompted to think critically about Handa's actions, such as why she carries a basket on her head or why she's taking fruit to her friend Akeyo. They explore the story's vocabulary, learning to use conjunctions to join sentences and discussing the meaning of words like 'cheeky' and 'surprised'. Activities include writing letters from Handa's perspective, discussing emotions, and sequencing sentences based on their relevance to Handa's thoughts. The children also reflect on their own experiences with friendship, loss, and surprise, drawing parallels to the story. As the lessons progress, they are tasked with creative writing, imagining their own stories and characters, and perfecting their sentence construction skills. The unit culminates with students formulating questions for the author, Eileen Browne, and becoming vocabulary detectives, seeking out new words and their meanings.