Planet Wobble

Make a Book

The pages in this section are not protected - your content will be saved. With Make a Book you can create your own version of the story, either on-screen or by printing out the pages and writing your own version. The new version can be bound into another book.

The Make a Book activity can be used in a number of different ways.

The teacher as scribe can collate the ideas of the group and focus on particular story elements such as narrative, setting, characterization or dialog. The first draft can be saved to review and edit later. It can be edited on-screen or children can work on printouts of the first draft and discuss possible alternatives as they work collaboratively to produce a final form.

The 'hear' button on each page will automatically read the contents of the text box. This facility can be used to check how the new text will sound as you go along. As an alternative you can record your own voice to read the text; this is very motivating for early readers.

The Make a Book activity can be a valuable exercise for paired work. By carefully selecting your working pairs an able reader/writer can work with a less able child and scribe the joint narrative; perhaps the less able reader might record his or her voice reading the text.

It could be used to introduce the book to your class before reading the published version. They can create their own story using the pictures. This could stand alone or be compared to the published version.

The following are some ideas for the Make a Book activity.

• Children could write a story using a sub-plot, for example the story of the spider or of the baby in Ella's Bedtime (Level 2 Set A).
• The story could be written from one character's perspective, for example Josh's story in The Cake (Level 3 Set A) - how did he feel as each person added an appropriate ingredient to the mixture?
• Any character's version of the wobble board race in The Race (Level 3 Set A).
• Josh's feelings as he remained stuck in the mud in Stuck (Level 3 Set A).
• Dan's thoughts in the back of the car in Dan's Journey (Level 2 Set A).
• All the children's feelings as they got into the pool in At Wobble Pool (Level 1 Set A) or onto the play equipment in At Wobble Park (Level 1 Set A).
• Retell the published story.
• Describe the picture. You could supply a suitable sentence starter to get the writer going (e.g. type 'I can see…') on the page.
• Single pages can be printed out for children to write their own content for an important point or an alternative ending. These can be compared with each other generating discussion appropriate to the teaching focus whether vocabulary choice or sentence structure.
• Different children can write each page of the book. When the book is put together elements such as textual cohesion could be discussed.

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“The range and quantity of computer activities enables all the children to benefit from working to their own potential and at their own level.” Jo Cummings, Technology Coordinator, Trial School