The Snail and the Whale

The Snail and the Whale

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson

Longing to see the world, a tiny snail hitches a lift on the tail of a humpback whale. Together they go on an amazing adventure – but when the whale gets beached, how will the snail save him? Follow the tiny snail’s exciting journey, as seen through the eyes of an adventurous young girl and her seafaring father…

Main Focus: Punctuation

This Year 1 / Year 2 resource encourages your class to identify punctuation and also add in the missing punctuation to the activity sheets.

Each activity sheet is differentiated and you can also allow children to read the guide sheets for a few minutes and then ask the to redraft the work.

This KS1 resource linked to The Snail and the Whale encourages children to add in capital letters, commas, apostrophes, speech marks and full stops.

Main Focus: Comprehension

Using extracts from the story  The Snail and the Whale, your KS1 groups must delve deeper into the story and answer the questions.  

Main Focus: Newspaper Report

If you are exploring Newspaper Reports with your Year 1 / Year 2 class then this resource will be useful. Check out our report linked to orcas and the original by The Independent. At the end there is an activity sheet to give children the opportunity to show their understanding.

Main Focus: Non-Fiction Text

This is a fantastic non fiction resource that teaches your Year 1 / Year 2 children a lot about whales, in particular the orca. There are differentiated question sheets to encourage your KS1 class to reflect on the text.

Main Focus: Adjectives

Your class must do their best to apply their knowledge of adjectives to complete this resource pack. This also works on listening skills as the children must remember and recall the adjectives from The Snail and the Whale story.

Main Focus: Phonics

This is a useful way to check that your children are able to identify sounds within words during an independent reading activity.

Main Focus: Rhyming Words

This KS1 activity linked to The Snail and the Whale encourages your Year 1 / Year 2 class to identify rhyming words, recite rhyming pairs and create a new version of a familiar story.

Encourage your AA-HA to use different spellings when creating the rhyming pairs. You can also instruct them to use familiar stories to help.

Main Focus: Picture Comprehension

I know you are thinking, ‘why is a picture comprehension on this page?’ This is a great resource for a group activity. Allow each member in the group to take the lead and read a page each, also encouraging them to discuss and ask questions to the rest of the group. Once each group has had a chance to read the story, give them the question sheet and as a group, see how much they really learnt about The Snail and the Whale Story – you’ll be surprised!

Facts about Whales

Your KS1 children will learn some fantastic facts as well as dive deeper into the natures, habits, diet and features of specific whales. This is a fantastic resource for children to learn by listening to the sound clips or by reading the information boxes.

Video Clips

Check out this fantastic range of video clips that focuses in on humpback whales. From mating calls to singing and dancing, this is a brilliant bank of resources.

A few more links:

Whale sounds – http://www.whaleacoustics.com/audiobaleenwhales.html
Different types of whales – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/whale-facts/
Blue Whales – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/b/blue-whale/
Facts for kids – https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/sea-life/10-blue-whale-facts/
Pilot Whales and Pollution – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05nslnh
Information – https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/search/whales/
Toothed whales – https://study.com/academy/lesson/whale-facts-lesson-for-kids.html