The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas (Andersen Press) · The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas (Andersen Press) A broken-hearted robot is left on the scrapheap. Day turns

©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 Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas (Andersen Press)

A broken-hearted robot is left on the scrapheap. Day turns into night, Autumn into Winter, as he lies there,

and this is beautifully and simply portrayed in four consecutive pictures. It seems he will never move again

until a Bluebird arrives who needs help to get to a warmer place. The theme of self-sacrifice and caring for

other echoes that of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince.

Overall aims of this teaching sequence.

This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 1 or Year 2 class.

Overview of this teaching sequence

This teaching sequence is approximately 4 weeks long if spread out over a series of 20 sessions.

The book supports teachers to teach about emotional response to narrative fiction. The narrative

structure is carefully crafted to be thought-provoking and the characters and settings are well drawn,

offering an excellent opportunity to develop empathy for characters and situations. The book provides

a good stimulus for their own descriptive and story writing and offers opportunities for writing simple

non-fiction text types as part of wider study.

National Curriculum objectives covered by this sequence

Reading: (Word reading / Comprehension)

listen to, discuss and express views

about books at a level beyond that

which they can read independently

discuss the significance of the title and

events

link what they hear or read to own

experiences

explain understanding of what is read

discuss the sequence of events in books

and how items of information are

related

discuss favourite words and phrases

answer and ask question

predict what might happen on the basis

of what has been read

draw inferences on the basis of what is

being said and done

participate in discussion about what is

read, taking turns and listening to others

express views about reading

Writing: (Transcription / Composition)

draft and write by noting ideas, key

phrases and vocabulary, and composing

and rehearsing sentences orally

sequence sentences to form short

narratives

write for different purposes including

about fictional personal experiences,

poetry, non-fiction and real events

reread and evaluate writing to check it

makes sense and make simple revisions

read writing aloud with appropriate

intonation to make the meaning clear

use new and familiar punctuation

correctly

use sentences in different forms

expand noun phrases to describe and

specify

use past and present tense correctly and

consistently

use simple conjunctions to link

subordinate and co-ordinating clauses




Speaking and Listening:

listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers

ask relevant questions to extend knowledge and understanding

consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others

participate in discussions, performances, role-play, improvisations and debate about what has

been read

use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas

Cross Curricular Links:

Maths

Geometry and measures

Children can investigate time passing (days, weeks, years, the seasons), distance travelled, scale on maps, and height of mountains.

Science

Children can investigate different materials, the properties of metal, how materials change over time.

Children can look at seasonal change, exploring the language and imagery around this in the text.

Children can learn about the differences between humans, animals and machines, exploring the differences between living and non-living things.

Children can learn the features of birds in their local environment and how to look after animals.

Geography

Children can locate continents and oceans of the world in exploring migration patterns of birds.

Children can investigate features of physical environments, natural and man-made, using the landscapes in the text.

Children can explore the impact we have on the planet through investigating rubbish, waste and recycling and how we care for our natural environment.

Computing

Allow the children to explore how machines work and are controlled by giving children opportunities to explore remote control toys, learning how they work.

Use programmable toys like Bee-Bots or Roamers and simple coding programs like Scratch to explore programming in relation to the robots and how they might be controlled.

Design Technology

Make your own robots from junk modelling materials, investigating how to join materials together and how to create hinge joints to allow the robots to move.

Physical Education

Compare and contrast the movements of living and non-living things through dance. Explore




the difference in the fluidity of movements as a human and a robot. Replicate movements of robots and bluebirds through dance.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This text is an excellent opportunity to explore concepts around selfishness and selflessness with children and the importance of thinking of others before ourselves; exploring wider discussions about needs and how to help others in need.

Teaching Approaches Reading Aloud

Response to Illustration

Role-Play and Drama

Debate

Freeze-Frame and Thought Tracking

Writing in Role

Looking at Language

Expanding experiences through Non-

Fiction

Shared Writing

Dance

Conscience Alley

Developing expressive writing through

poetry

Retelling

Storymapping

Booktalk

Bookmaking

Writing Outcomes Captions and annotations

Debate writing

Speech and thought bubbles

Writing in Role

Text annotations

Non-chronological report

Instruction writing

Letter

Free verse poetry

Storymaps

Retelling from alternative perspectives

Links to other texts and resources

Little Home Bird by Jo Empson (Child’s Play)

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde as retold by Jane Ray in The Emperor’s Nightingale and Other

Feathery Tales (Boxer Books)

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (Particular Books)

Bluebird by Bob Staake (Andersen Press)

Texts to support cross curricular nature study:

The First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies and Mark Hearld (Walker)

101 Things for Kids to Do Outside by Dawn Isaac (Kyle Books)

The Wild City Book by Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks (Frances Lincoln)

Usborne Nature Spotter Cards: Birds by Susanna Davidson and Jenny Cooper (Usborne)

Usborne Little Book of Birds by Sarah Khan (Usborne)

Other texts by David Lucas:




This is My Rock (Flying Eye, 2015)

A Letter for Bear (Flying Eye, 2013)

Grendel: A Cautionary Tale About Chocolate (Walker, 2013)

The Skeleton Pirate (Walker, 2012)

Christmas at the Toy Museum (Walker, 2011)

Lost in the Toy Museum (Walker, 2011)

Cake Girl (Andersen Press, 2009)

Peanut (Walker, 2008)

The Lying Carpet (Andersen Press, 2008)

The Robot and the Bluebird (Andersen Press, 2007)

Something to Do (Gullane, 2007)

Whale (Andersen Press, 2006)

Nutmeg (Andersen Press, 2005)

Halibut Jackson (Andersen Press, 2003)

The Me Books app has e-books available of:

Cake Girl

Nutmeg

Halibut Jackson

Find information about these at: http://www.mebooks.co/

David Lucas’ Website:

http://davidlucas.org.uk/

Weblinks: David Lucas has an author page on CLPE’s Power of Pictures website with videos of him talking about himself as an author and his texts, including The Robot and The Bluebird. There is also a Power of Pictures teaching sequence for another David Lucas text, Grendel. Find this at: https://www.clpe.org.uk/powerofpictures/lucas-david Mini Grey’s Traction Man Meets TurboDog (Red Fox) explores interactions with a robotic character and allows children to further consider the differences between interactions between robotic and ‘human’ characters. The Power of Pictures website has a Key Stage 1 teaching sequence for this text at: https://www.clpe.org.uk/powerofpictures/grey-mini

Teaching Sessions

Session 1: Response to Illustration

Look at the first double page spread in the text. Have this as a large scanned copy on the IWB

so that it is clear for the children to see or have copies of the illustration for pairs or groups to

look at in detail.

http://www.mebooks.co/

http://davidlucas.org.uk/

https://www.clpe.org.uk/powerofpictures/lucas-david

https://www.clpe.org.uk/powerofpictures/grey-mini




Ask the children to note what they can see in the picture, what questions they have about it

and note responses around a copy of the illustration in the reading journal or on a working

wall. This activity will allow you to observe children’s prior experience of the subject matter

and their base vocabulary around it.

Ask the children who they think the main character might be and why. What is different about

this character? What draws our attention to this character in particular?

Talk about how the picture makes the children feel; you may draw reference to how the

characters within the picture are feeling to guide this. You might also draw children’s attention

to the colour palette used by the illustrator – what does this suggest about the mood?

Though discussion, paired and group work, consider four elements:

o What do we know about the robot? What would you like to know about it? o Does anything puzzle you? o What especially caught your attention? o What sort of story are you expecting? Why? Does it remind you of anything you have read

before? As children share their initial thoughts, scribe responses around the enlarged image, labelling

any clues children have found about the characters, the setting, and predictions they have

about the story.

Finally, reveal the text that accompanies the image. What do we think it means? How does

this make us feel? Why do we think the word broken looks different? What does having a

broken heart mean to us? What do you think it means for the robot? Do robots have hearts?

What do we think about this robot’s heart? Do you think it is the same as ours or different?

How? What do you think could mend it? Record children’s thoughts and responses.

Session 2: Role play leading to debate

Look back at the different robots in the first picture.

Draw a large outline of the robot to create a role on the wall.

Look back at the robots you can see. How is this robot different? What do you think it is like?

Note responses on the role on the wall – each time you come back to this in the sequence,

mark responses in a different colour to note children’s changes in perceptions as they read

more and learn more about the character.

In a large space, such as the hall or outside, give the children the chance to role-play as these

robots. How do they move? Walk? Pick something up off the ground? What noises do they

make? Can they speak? What do they say?

Ask the children what they already know about robots. Why are they useful? How do they

help us?

Alongside work in computing look at simple programming software or with programmable

toys such as bee-bots or roamers, it would be beneficial to explore how robots work and how

they need to be programmed to function and carry out tasks.

You may also wish to read a complementary non-fiction text here, such as Robots by Jonathan

Emmett (Collins Big Cats) to broaden children’s frame of reference.

Ask the children; ‘What can robots do that humans can’t’ and inversely, ‘What can humans do

that robots can’t?’




Set up a comparison chart and discuss the similarities and differences between robots and

humans, e.g.

What is the same about them? What is different? Children could fill in their own charts

independently or in groups to share their thinking.

Ask the key question; ‘Are humans and robots the same?’ Working in groups, give the children

time to think about their answers and record their responses, before presenting these back to

the group as a whole. Were there similar things that people picked up on? Record responses

in the reading journal or on the working wall.

Session 3: Response to Illustration, Freeze Frame and Thought Tracking

Re-read the first page and on until ‘They did their best to fix him, but it wasn’t any good.’

Look carefully at the illustration. What is happening here? How many robots can be seen? (Do

the children notice the robot on the bottom right taking his old heart away?)

Return to the role on the wall. What do we think about this character now? What other words

could we add to describe him?

Think about robots; what do we already know about them? What do you think their jobs are?

What do you think they are programmed to do? Do you think any of these characters can feel?

Speak? Think? How can you tell?

Have the children freeze-frame the scene from this image. You may wish to play an industrial

soundscape in the background to add to the atmosphere, such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ih0JJLoMIg&list=RD-Ih0JJLoMIg#t=19

As children position themselves, invite them to think about how their assigned character

Humans Robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ih0JJLoMIg&list=RD-Ih0JJLoMIg#t=19




would react in this situation. Are they programmed just to do their job and get on with it, or

are they thinking and feeling at the same time? It may be beneficial at this point to explore

Mini Grey’s Traction Man Meets TurboDog to explore how the robotic TurboDog’s speech is

presented as pre-programmed mechanical phrases on the page. What would be happening

inside these robot’s mind or circuits as they work? Might it be a constant robotic signal, such

as ‘Wire 1 – Check, Wire 2 - Check, Circuit - Malfunction’ or would they be actively thinking

and feeling?

As the children are frozen, tap individuals on the shoulder to unfreeze and voice what their

character is thinking, saying or doing, through dialogue and or movement.

Have the children record their work in speech or thought bubbles around a copy of the

illustration in their groups.

Session 4: Response to Illustration

Focus on an enlarged copy of the small illustration at the top of the page ‘So he was sent to sit

on the scrapheap.’ without revealing the accompanying text.

Look carefully at the body language portrayed in this illustration and the feelings it conveys.

Who do you think the pointing finger belongs to? What are they saying to the Robot? How

does the robot feel about this? How do we know?

Reveal the accompanying text and read aloud. What is a scrapheap? What do you think the

robot thinks when he sees it? Focus on the size and scale of the pile. How do you think he

feels sitting on top of the huge pile, looking down on all the other old machines, with no

response from any of them? What will happen to him now?

Reflect on the robot again through role on the wall. How he looks and how he feels inside.

How is he different from all these ‘old machines’? Add new responses in a different colour to

show how our thinking changes the more we read and learn about him.

You may wish to link this to work in Science on changing materials, looking at what happens to

metal as it weathers or what happens to materials when they are scrapped.

Give each child a copy of the two illustrations on this double page spread and have them think

of thought or speech bubbles to convey the robot’s thoughts and feelings at these points in

the story. Share these around copies of the illustration in the Shared Journal or on the working

wall.




Session 5: Response to illustration and writing in role

Re-read the text so far, and on until ‘He lay there until the first snows of winter fell.’ Look at

the way the pictures are set out on the page of this double page spread. What does this tell us

about this part of the story? Linked to work in maths and science on time and seasonal

change, investigate how we could estimate how much time has passed while he sits alone on

the scrapheap. What do you think this feels like for him?

You could go to a large space, like the hall or outdoor area and have the children lay down

apart from each other without moving or speaking for a set time (e.g. 5 minutes) to give them

a small idea of this experience. How did it feel to be on your own and silent for that short

time? How must it have felt as he sat there season after season? What do you think he would

be thinking as he lays there?

Come back to the classroom and model through Shared Writing how to write in role as the

robot, recalling his experience of being broken, unable to be fixed and sent to the scrapheap.

How will they write about his reaction to each event?

Have the children write their own pieces in role as the robot.

Reflect on what we know about the robot now and add any other ideas to the role on the wall

in a different colour

Session 6: Looking at Language

In preparation for this session, it would be useful to have a toy bluebird that the children can

look after.

Re-read the story so far and on until ‘You can sleep there if you like.’ Copy the text onto the

whiteboard for a text marking activity, which will help children to look at effective use of

vocabulary to imply meaning. What can we tell about the bird from the language the author

has used? This is an excellent opportunity to investigate adjectives, adverbs and verbs in

action and the impact of these on the reader. What are the words and phrases that tell us

more about the Bluebird? How does this make us feel about her?

What words in this passage give us more information about the robot’s character? What could

we add to the role on the wall to show what we have learnt about what he is like on the

inside?

Come back to the text and ask the children if they can think why the bluebird might be flying

south? Explore their prior knowledge around migration and extend this if necessary with

further reading or cross curricular work linked to Geography. Little Home Bird by Jo Empson is

an excellent example of a text that will support this learning and the endpaper maps can

support geographical understanding of the continents and oceans of the world through

migration patterns.




Sessions 7 and 8: Broadening experiences through exploring Non-Fiction

Re-read the story so far. Find out children’s prior knowledge and encourage interest and

questioning about bluebirds by filling in a grid, such as:

What I know or think I

know about Bluebirds:

What I want to find out: Where might we find this

out?:

This allows for an excellent opportunity to reinforce grammatical understanding of statements

and questions. Children can be supported to recall statements of things they know or think

they know already and to frame and phrase questions about the things they want to find out,

investigating how to punctuate these accordingly.

Use non-fiction texts, including digital and multimodal texts on supportive and relevant

websites, such as:

o CBeebies ‘Our Planet’ programme featuring bluebirds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011t002

o National Geographic website containing information, photographs of bluebirds and birdsong example: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/bluebird/

o Information pack on Bluebirds from the Mountain Bluebird Trails organisation: http://www.virginiabluebirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/childrensactivitybookfeb1820081.pdf

Use these resources to explore information for children to write a non-chronological report.

Model how to read and then summarise important information into notes. You could suggest

sub-headings to help the children look for and categorise information found, e.g. what they

look like (appearance), where they can be found (habitat), what they eat (diet).

To follow on from this in cross-curricular learning in Science, look at videos of different kinds

of local birds, and compare these with Bluebirds, which are unlikely to be found locally, such

as the fantastic introductory video to Garden Birds on the BBC Nature website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00bt4d3 and supportive non-fiction texts, such as

the RSPB’s My First Book of Garden Birds by Mike Unwin, Sarah Whittley and Rachel Lockwood

(A & C Black), Usborne Little Book of Birds, Usborne Discovery: Birds, Usborne Spotter’s Guide:

Birds. There are also supportive resources on the Woodland Trust

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/packs/birds.htm and RSPB websites bird guide:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/a/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011t002

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/bluebird/

http://www.virginiabluebirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/childrensactivitybookfeb1820081.pdf

http://www.virginiabluebirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/childrensactivitybookfeb1820081.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00bt4d3

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/packs/birds.htm

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/packs/birds.htm

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/a/




Session 9: Shared Writing

Re-read the story so far up until ‘…he felt as if his own heart were fluttering. Why do you think

that the robot made the bird a nest? What else do you think the robot could do to help the

bluebird survive the cold and freezing wind?

Read on we can help birds in our own environments by making bird feeders with the children.

Investigate the RSPB website:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/makeanddo/activities/bir

dcake.aspx

Read and follow instructions for making the bird cakes. Hang these up in the outdoor area so

that children can monitor them and note visitors in a bird spotter diary.

Write up the recipe for making the cakes using the proper features, e.g. lists of ingredients

and equipment and staged instructions, numbered so that they are easy to follow.

Provide opportunities for children to make other things to help the birds e.g. bird feeders,

make a feeding platform or bird house as a shared project in the woodwork area, provide

nesting materials. There are some lovely ideas in the book The Wild City Book by Jo Schofield

and Fiona Danks (Frances Lincoln) and 101 Things to Do Outside by Dawn Isaac (Kyle Books)

such as making various different types of bird cakes and feeders, building a bird hide to

observe wildlife and weaving own bird nests.

Reflect with the children on how the robot felt, knowing he had protected the bird and why it

is important for us to help birds in our own environment.

Session 10: Investigating language and meaning through Dance

Re-read the story so far and on until ‘…and danced a creaking, clanking dance.’ Explore David

Lucas’ choice of adjectives here, what does creaking and clanking tell us about the robot? Why

are they good words to use? How do you picture the robot moving? What can you see, hear as

the dance is happening?

Watch an example of robotic dancing, such as

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4afbDBWINU (you need only watch a small section to

gain an idea of the movements). Do you think this is a good way to represent the movements

of the robot? What makes the movements look robotic? Investigating how hinge joints work

as part of Design Technology may expand children’s understanding of the types of movements

that could be explored physically.

Move to a large space, such as the hall and allow children time to explore and experiment

with movement to create their own ‘creaking and clanking dance.’ You may wish to play some

music that could act as a good soundscape, such as

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q Ask the children how the music makes

them feel as they listen to it. Do they think it matches how the robot feels at this point in the

story? Why or why not?

To follow on from this, look at how music could be created from scrap materials to accompany

their dance. Watch the video from the Urban Percussion Band at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnTfOIR9NxE and look at what they have used to make

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4afbDBWINU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnTfOIR9NxE




their music. In conjunction with cross-curricular work in music, explore how to use beat,

pattern, rhythm, tempo, timbre and dynamics to create a piece of recycled music that

exemplifies the robot’s mood and feelings at this point from recycled metal instruments such

as, pots, pans, pipes etc.

Play the music to accompany the dances, recording the final performances so that children

can play back and evaluate the impact of the music and movement on creating a picture of the

robot’s mood at this point of the story.

Session 11: Exploring Issues and Dilemmas through Conscience Alley

Re-read the story so far and on until ‘…and his joints groaned with every step.’ Have a copy of

the words from ‘I wish I could live in your heart…’ to ‘‘…and his joints groaned with every step.’

available on the whiteboard or copied for pairs or groups to look closely at the text. What

words or phrases does the writer use to make us see how important and how difficult the

journey is? Mark these on the text, discussing why these words and phrases have impact. Do

they make us feel sorry for a character? Do they make us see how hard the journey is? Do they

persuade us that the decisions made are right?

Conduct a conscience alley, to allow the children to take stock and decide if they think the

robot should stop and give up at this point or carry on. Once children have formulated ideas,

Have them create a conscience alley, forming two lines opposite each other. Select one of the

children to be the robot to walk down the alley listening to why the children think he should

or shouldn’t carry on. When they have walked the alley and heard all the opinions, the child

should decide whether they think they ought to go on, reflecting on the importance of

statements that were said to them and what persuaded their decision making most.

When you have heard the reasons, have the children write a letter to the robot to tell him

whether they think he should do next and why. Model this in writing during a shared writing

session. Think carefully about the voice and words they would use if they were going to

persuade the robot that their idea is the right one. This would also be a good opportunity to

model learning outlined in the VGaP appendix of using conjunctions to make compound

sentences and express opinions in more detail, justifying their thoughts more fully.

Session 12: Developing Expressive Writing through Poetry

Look at the next double page spread where the robot enters the garden without revealing

any of the text.

Explore how the colours change on the double page spread, moving from the smaller, dark

illustration in the first frame to the larger, colourful illustration in the second frame. Explore

the size of the sun in this illustration. Why is this important considering the story that has

happened before? Ask the children to focus on what is different about this setting, comparing

it to the factory, the scrapheap and the mountain trek. How do you think the robot and the

bluebird feel as they walk into this setting? Why?

Encourage the children to think about this setting engaging all of their senses – you could link

this to cross curricular work in Science. Ideally it would be good to take a visit to a real public




garden with flowers on a sunny day to recapture this, otherwise, you might want to provide

materials which help the children engage with the setting using their senses, e.g. flowers with

a definitive scent like freesias, a patch of grass or artificial grass to feel, a soundscape such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTlQXmqFGko to engage children in the sounds of the

setting, images of real gardens to note sights.

Arrange the children into groups of 5 or 6. Give each child a sentence strip and ask them to

write a word, phrase or sentence that best captures how they think about the garden.

Encourage them to use their sensory experience to use figurative language that takes the

reader into the garden setting and gives a feeling of what it is like to be there.

Have the children share their strips with their groups and organise the strips to create a verse

poem, considering which order the strips work best in to paint the picture of the setting.

Give time for the children to practise their poems for performance, thinking about how they

would use voices, group dynamics and body language to make the listener feel as if they were

in the setting and help them to visualise the garden.

Session 13: Reading Aloud and exploring the emotional journey of a text

Read until the end of the book. How do you feel about the end of the story? How do you think

the robot feels? Look at the importance of the sun again. How has the author written this on

the page? Why do you think he has used a capital letter? This makes it a proper noun and

therefore another character in the story, like the Robot and the Bluebird. What makes the sun

so important to this story?

Use this opportunity to reflect on the emotional journey the robot goes through in the story

by creating a graph of emotion to show how he feels at different parts of the story. What

more do we learn about the robot? How does he change from the start to the end of the

story? Add these thoughts, in a different colour, to the role on the wall.

Talk about the main series of events in the story. Alongside each event, make collections of

words to describe his emotions at each major point in the story, exploring different and better

words than the standard sad, e.g. devastated. This would be a good opportunity to explore the

use of a good infant thesaurus, such as the Oxford First Thesaurus or the Collins Junior

Illustrated Thesaurus.

Use the discussions to create a ‘Graph of emotion’. You may want to use illustrations from the

text to map out events, e.g:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTlQXmqFGko




Contented

Excited

Determined

Curious

Lonely

Anxious

Devastated

Have the children discuss which of the emotion words best describes the robot at each part of

the story. Track his emotional journey – is it a smooth route to happiness or is his story full of

ups and downs?

Ask the children to consider their own opinions as to whether they think this story has a happy

or sad ending and give reasons for their opinions. Be aware that some children may link the

Robot’s stillness at the end of the story to death, and consider any children you know who

may have sufferd from a bereavement.

Session 14: Re-telling

In preparation for this session, copy and laminate key illustrations from the text which will

walk children through the story and help them to re-tell in sequence. Hang these around the

school environment, linked to the ideas below. Have a copy of the book to read from and the

class bluebird with you but concealed from the children at the start of the journey.

As this is a geographical story, in terms of it being a journey through different settings, as well

as through different elements, hanging the illustrations in different areas and having them

walk the journey of the story will help this to become a more interactive and immersive

experience, and will help the children to remember the story as well as feel deeper empathy

for the hardships the characters endure. Tell the children that you are going to walk the story,

re-reading as you go and looking for the next part of the story.

It would be good to place the first illustrations in the classroom – the environment where the

children are most familiar, before moving them out to a waste like area, far from this –

perhaps a rubbish and recycling area hidden at the back of the building. As they walk to find

the scrapheap illustration, ask questions that help them empathise with the robot at this point

of the story, e.g. ‘Do you know where I’m taking you? How does that feel? Is this route familiar

to you?’ Pause for a while at this point and look back at the four close up illustrations of the

robot on the scrapheap. Ask the children; ‘What do you think it is like here when it gets dark /




is raining / is snowing and freezing cold? How would you feel if you were there then? You

might want to pass an ice cube or a snowball – a tennis ball wrapped in wet white felt, secured

with an elastic band and frozen in the freezer to emphasise this.

Next, bring the bluebird out and pass it round the children. While this happens, continue

reading up to ‘And when the bluebird fluttered, he felt as if his own heart were fluttering.’ Ask

the children how they feel now the bluebird is with us. What difference does it make having

someone else with you? Read up to ‘…she said sadly, settling in his hand.’

As you walk to the next illustration, which should take as long and arduous a path as is

possible, read up to ‘…and his joints groaned with every step.’ Encourage the children to live

out the story as you read battling cold and wind, climbing mountains and getting slower and

more tired and stiff with every step. Get the children to remember the reasons for carrying on

that they came up with in their conscience alley activity and call these out as a means of

encouraging them to carry on and not give up.

Have the last illustrations, where the robot lifts his arms to the bluebird and ends standing

still, in a green and beautiful place, if possible. Walk on to this place and ask the children what

it feels like to be there after the rest of their journey. What do they see and hear? How does it

feel to be there? Have them close their eyes, stretch out their arms and stand still. Is this a

place you’d be happy to rest?

Session 15: Booktalk

Read the whole book all the way through

Talk with the children about their responses to the story and to the illustrations. What did

they like and/or dislike? Would they recommend the book to someone else? Why? Why not?

Ask the children; what will you tell your friends about this book? What won’t you tell them

because it might spoil the book for them? Or might mislead them about what it is like?

You may wish at this point to read some other stories which explore the theme of thinking of

others before ourselves to make links between texts on the same theme. Excellent examples

of other texts to draw on are The Happy Prince as retold by Jane Ray in The Emperor’s

Nightingale and Other Feathery Tales (Boxer Books) and The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

(Particular Books) What do they have in common?




Session 16: Re-telling and storymapping

Reread the whole text and revisit the children's reactions to the story, focusing on the aspects

that they found most interesting or surprising.

Remind the children that the main events are the most important things which happen in a

story and they must be told in the right order for the story to make sense. Start with the

opening phrase: ‘There was once a Robot with a broken heart’ then concentrate on

sequencing the main events, in order. Encourage the children to retell the story in stages.

Make explicit the way in which the precise language choice demonstrates the passing of time

as well as the changing location, e.g the repletion of ‘he lay’ to show a long passing of time,

the use of ‘so he was sent’ to move the setting, ‘And there, one day, was a Bluebird’ to

introduce a new character ‘The next morning’ to mark a new section of the story.

Swiftly demonstrate how to map the story geographically to demonstrate the journey of the

story, moving through the different settings encountered on the Robot’s quest. Label the

story map with any of the rich and memorable language they can remember from the original

text.

In pairs, invite the children to draw a map of the story. If possible use backing/wall paper that

can be rolled out as they draw.

When completed, encourage the children to retell the story using their story maps.

Sessions 17: Storymapping and planning

Tell the children they are going to retell the story from either the robot’s or the bluebird’s

point of view.

Have them complete their own copy of the geographical storymap like the one that has been

created together but this time to note each event in the point of view of their chosen

character, they will need to add personal detail, as well as simply recording events, such as

how they felt at different points and why.

This may include filling in the backstory of the bluebird at the beginning of the story – how did

she come to be at the scrapheap on the freezing day? Why was she alone?

When completed, encourage the children to retell the story using their story maps in role as

their chosen character.

Sessions 18 & 19: Drafting writing and responding to writing

Children go on to work independently or in pairs to write parts of the story from their

character’s point of view in draft. As they work, ask them to stop occasionally to read parts of

what they have written to a response partner. Ask them if there is anything they want to

change; a section, sentences or phrases? When a whole section is complete, it can be edited

with the help of a response partner.




Session 20: Bookmaking

Once each section is finished children can write a final copy of their story and illustrate it – this

may need several sessions.

The chapters can then be bound together to make complete books which can be placed in the

book corner for everybody to enjoy and celebrate. Details for how to make simple bound and

origami books can be found in the Bookmaking section of the Teaching Approaches tab on the

Power of Reading website.

Display them alongside the original The Robot and the Bluebird book in the book corner or in

a communal space for others in the school community to share.

Word Reading and Transcription (National Curriculum 2014)

Use and Application of Phonics and Spelling

The following words could be used to exemplify learning at phonic phases:

Phase 2:

sit, in, fell, sun, if, his, fog

Phase 3:

Good, fix, down, long, dark, nights, feel, bright, now, hung

Phase 4:

Best, sent, wind, nest, sleep, sweet, felt, hand, step, storms, still, stands

Phase 5:

/oa/ variations:

Robot, so, broken, know, snows, go, no, don’t, frozen, groaned, though, hollow, home

/ar/ variations:

Heart

/ee/ variations

Machines, empty, freezing, sleep, only, carry

/ai/ variations

Rain, lay, days, they, stay, wastes, take

/igh/ variations

Nights, sky, tried, shines, tired, like, icy, die

/ur/ variations:

Bird




/or/ variations:

Door, morning

/oo/ variations:

Flew, soon

/ow/ variations:

Towering, mountains, now, out

Storytelling Words:

There one was…

And there, one day…

The next morning…

And so…

And when…

High Frequency Words:

there, was, one, they, with, he, so, said, like, be, old, little, like, here

Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation:

This sequence gives ample opportunity to explore the use and application of grammar knowledge and

terminology in the Key Stage 1 requirements. The storymapping and writing the story from the robot’s

or bluebird’s point of view model how to construct short sentences to form simple narratives. This will

also encourage children to use the past tense consistently for this type of narrative writing.

The book offers ample opportunity to explore and use adjectives, adverbs and verbs to explain noun

phrases to add detail and description.

Questions and statements can be explored throughout as children formulate their own questions in

response to the text and explore these in more depth in the non-fiction task.

Subordination (using when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (using and, or, so) can be explored in

many of the shared writing activities.

Spelling:

Suffixes

‘-ed’ suffix ‘-ing’ suffix

root word simply + ‘ed’

double consonant then +‘-ed’

-e then + ‘-ed’

change y to i then + ‘-ed’

simply + ‘-ing’

double consonant then + ‘-ing’:

-e then +’-ing’

Talk talking

Look looked

Rust rusting

Freeze freezing




Land landed

Settle settled

Live living

beat beating

flutter fluttered fluttering

astonish astonished

sing singing

fly flying

creak creaking

clank clanking

settle settling

carry carried

groan groaned

open opened

sing singing

twitter twittering

fail failed

lift lifted

live lived

outstretch outstretched

-ly suffix:

Weakly, gently, sadly, deathly

-est suffix:

faintest

Compound Words:

Scrapheap

Documents

The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas (Andersen Press) · The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas (Andersen Press) A broken-hearted robot is left on the scrapheap. Day turns