Teacher Edition

BusyBirdWritten by Lynette Ind Illustrated by Marjory Gardner

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Text highlights• Displays all the features of a narrative text

• Direct speech

• Colour illustrations support and extend the

story

Vocabularybusy, laid, excited, beak, feathers, noise

How to use this bookBefore reading: TalkthroughTalk through the book with the children. Encouragethem to predict the text from the cover and thepictures, and to think about the information theyprovide. Direct the children’s attention to aspects ofthe text that may challenge them. Support the childrento deal with these challenges by asking theTalkthrough questions on each page.

During reading: Observe and supportObserve the children as they read. Encourage them tomonitor their own reading as they comprehend thetext. As needed, support children by assisting them todiscover and use reading strategies and cues to solveproblems and respond to reading challenges that arisein the text. Interruptions to the child’s reading shouldbe minimal and focused on a specified learning need.

After reading: Comprehension, returning tothe text, responding and writing links To further develop children’s understanding of thetext, select from activities found on page 12 and theinside back cover. These whole text, sentence and wordlevel activities reinforce the teaching focus of thisbook. Assessment ideas are provided to assist withplanning for further teaching.

Horwitz EducationA Division of HorwitzPublications Pty Ltd55 Chandos StreetSt Leonards NSW 2065Australia

Horwitz Gardner EducationUnit 53, CressexEnterprise ParkLincoln RoadHigh Wycombe, Bucks, HP12 3RL,United Kingdom

Published edition © Eleanor Curtain Publishing 2003

First published 2003

Apart from any fair dealing forthe purposes of study, research,criticism or review, aspermitted under the CopyrightAct of Australia, no part of thisbook may be reproduced byany process, or transmitted inany form, without permissionof the copyright owner. Wherecopies of part or the whole ofthis book are made under PartVB of the Copyright Act, thelaw requires that records ofsuch copying be kept and thecopyright owner is entitled toclaim payment.

Developed by Eleanor Curtain PublishingText: Elizabeth GoldingConsultant: Susan HillDesigned by Alexander StittProduction by Publishing Solutions

Printed in Hong Kong

ISBN 0 7253 2828 2Pack ISBN 0 7253 2763 4(6 Student Books + 1 TeacherEdition)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 903 04 05

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Setting the contextShow the childrenphotographs of differentkinds of nests. Discuss whatnests are made from andhow birds gather thematerials. Ask: Have youever seen a bird’s nest? Whatwas the nest made from?

Introducing the bookThis book is called ‘BusyBird’. It is about a bird whocomes to live on a farm witha sheep, a horse and achicken. She is always busy!The other animals wonderwhat she is doing. What doyou think she could be busydoing?

Front coverLook at the title and the illustration. Whatkind of book do you think that this will be?Why?

Title pageWhat is the title of this book? Show me theauthor’s name and the illustrator’s name.

BusyBirdWritten by Lynette Ind Illustrated by Marjory Gardner

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Busy Bird

Written by Lynette Ind

Illustrated by Marjory Gardner

alphakids

2

Busy Bird Pages 2–3

TalkthroughThese are the animals that lived on the farm. They kneweverything about each other.Discuss the illustration.Why is the woman holding Horse’s leg? What is she doing?What is the man doing to Sheep? What kind of machine ishe using?

Observe and supportCan the child explain the difference between the word‘knew’ and ‘new’? Read the text on page 3.What is the difference between the word ‘knew’ and ‘new’?

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3

3

Some animals lived together on a farm. They knew everything about each other.

They knew when Chicken laid her eggs.

2

They knew when Horse got his new shoes.

They knew when Sheep had her wool cut.

4

Busy Bird Pages 4–5

TalkthroughWhy did the other animals want to get to know Bird? Whydidn’t she take the time to get to know them?

Observe and supportCan the child explain the inferred meaning of the text?Why didn’t Bird stop to talk to Horse and Sheep andChicken?

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5

5

One day a new animal came to the farm. It was Bird.

The animals were very excited.They wanted to get to know Bird.

But Bird was very busy,flying here and flying there.She didn’t stop to talkto Horse and Sheep and Chicken.

4

6

Busy Bird Pages 6–9

TalkthroughWhat did Bird want from Sheep? What did she want fromHorse? How do you think this made Sheep and Horse feel?Highlight the use of punctuation associated with directspeech: speech marks, commas and new lines to indicate adifferent speaker.

Observe and supportDoes the child recognise the punctuation associated withdirect speech?Can you find the speech marks on page 6? Who is talking?

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7

7

Then one day Bird did stop.

‘Good morning Sheep,’ said Bird.‘Can I have some of your wool?’

‘Yes you can!’ said Sheep.‘What do you want it for?’

6

But Bird did not stop.She picked up the wool in her beakand flew away.

9

‘Good morning Horse,’ said Bird.‘Can you give me some of your hay?’

‘Of course!’ said Horse.‘What do you want it for?’

8

But Bird did not stop.She took some hay in her beakand off she flew.

8

Busy Bird Pages 10–13

TalkthroughLook at pages 10–11.Why would Bird need feathers?Turn the page.How do the animals feel about Bird? Where could Bird behiding?

Observe and supportCan the child read the text with expression?Can you read the text so that it sounds like Bird, Sheep,Horse or Chicken is talking?

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9

11

‘Good morning Chicken,’ said Bird.‘Can you give me some of your feathers?’

‘Yes!’ said Chicken.‘What do you want them for?’

10

But Bird did not stop.She picked up the feathers in her beak.And off she flew.

13

‘What a funny bird!’ said Sheep.

‘She’s always in a hurry!’ said Horse.

‘She never has time to chat,’ said Chicken.

12

‘Why does she want those things?’ they said. ‘Let’s go and find out.’

So the animals went to look for Bird.

10

Busy Bird Pages 14–16

TalkthroughWhere do the animals look for Bird?Before children turn to page 16, ask them to predict whatthey expect to see.What do you think that they will see in the bush?Turn to page 16.Can you spot the items that Bird borrowed from the otheranimals?

Observe and supportDoes the child monitor their own reading by re-readingthe text when necessary?I like the way that you re-read the text when you made amistake.

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11

15

They looked in the old tree,and under a bush.They looked down by the pond.

But they couldn’t find Bird anywhere.

14

Then they heard a noise in the bushes.They looked and saw …

why Bird had been so busy.

16

12

Busy Bird

Being a meaning makerEncourage children to support theiranswers with evidence from the bookas they discuss these questions:What did Bird want from Sheep?Why did Bird need wool, hay andfeathers?Should Bird have told the other animalswhy she wanted these items? Why orwhy not?Did the other animals have the right toknow what Bird was doing with thewool, hay and feathers?Is it okay to have secrets? Why?

Being a code breakerExplore the following languagefeature:• Punctuation associated with directspeech: speech marks, commas andnew lines to indicate a differentspeaker.

Being a text userDid you like this book? Why or why not?Who would you recommend this bookto?What kind of book is it? Fiction orinformation? How do you know?

Being a text criticIn the book the author lets the animalsfind out why Bird has been busy. Doyou think this is fair? Should Bird havebeen left alone?

Responding to textChildren work in small groupsto make stick puppets of the

characters in the book. Providechildren with time to rehearse a playbased on the story to present to theclass.

Working in pairs, allowchildren to have a conversation

in writing. Give each child a differentcoloured felt-tipped pen so they cantake turns to ‘communicate’. Onechild writes a sentence:‘I liked Busy Bird,’ said Hannah.The other child can reply. ‘I did too,’ said Dario.Encourage the use of correctpunctuation.

Highlight words with the /or/sound: horse, course, morning,

for, saw.

List these words on the board and askchildren to find other words that fitthese patterns.

Writing linksShared/guided writingRewrite the text with one of the otheranimals as the busy animal. Horse,Sheep or Chicken could have a reasonwhy they are so busy that they do nothave time for their friends.Alternatively, children could chooseto write a story using completelydifferent animals.

Independent writingRetell the story as a comic. Providelarge paper folded into eighths.Children compare their finished workwith the text, noting similarities anddifferences.

AssessmentCan the child:• Use the punctuation related to direct speech to read the text expressively?• Understand the correct punctuation that is used to write conversation?• Say why each character acted as they did?

whole text activity sentence activity word activity

BusyBirdWritten by Lynette Ind Illustrated by Marjory Gardner

alphakidsTeacherEdition

Topic: Living thingsCurriculum link: ScienceText type: NarrativeReading level: 13Word count: 286Vocabulary: busy, laid, excited, beak, feathers,noise

Possible literacy focusReading punctuation associated with directspeech.Identifying character motives in texts.

Summary‘Busy Bird’ is a narrative about a bird that gathershay, wool and feathers from the animals that livein the barn. The other animals finally discoverthat the busy bird has been busy building a nest.

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