The Daily Dangers of Sleepy Sue

Learning intention:

I am learning to select relevant information from a text to create a visual representation of the setting.

 

Success criteria:

• I can scan a text to select relevant information
• I can transfer the information into a visual format
• I can create a map of the setting based on information from the text

 

If you have a digital subscription, complete the activity on Features of a Mud Map as an introduction to the activity prior to reading.

 

Before reading the story, have students to create a mud map of the school (or a specific area of the school, such as the playground). If time permits, take them for a walk around the school to help them with the finer details. For a guide on how to do a mud map, visit WikiHow’s page on How to Make a School Map.

 

Tell students to keep the setting in mind while reading the story The Daily Dangers of Sleepy Sue. Read the story as a class. Explain that students are to create a map of the town based on what they know from the text. In pairs, students scan the text to find mentions of place names and landmarks that they will need to create their map. As long as they include all references mentioned in the text, the rest of the map can be invented by the students.

 

Students can collect data from the text in the following way:

Gerald and Sue live on Bedford Road

•  walking distance from each other
•  has a road and a path that goes deeper into town
•  an old man also lives on that street

There’s a bridge overlooking the river – walking distance from Bedford Road

 

Once they’ve gathered as much information as they can, students individually plan out their maps. They must label the locations:

• Bedford Road
• Sue and Gerald’s house
• The bridge overlooking the river
• The house by the river with the fountain
• Sue and Gerald’s school

 

When complete, students compare their maps with others to see the different ways they’ve interpreted information from the text.