EYFS English Scheme of Work - Blueprint for all

EYFSEnglish Scheme of Work

Based on 'Ruby’s Worry' by Tom Percival

& Handouts

EYFS Scheme of Work

Brief Overview of Scheme and Links to Stephen Lawrence Day

Theme: Finding our Place in the World - Developing Emotional Resilience

This scheme is comprised of a sequence of 4 lessons based on Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry and incorporates the EYFS & KS1 Stephen Lawrence Day Assembly PowerPoint. It starts by encouraging children to celebrate life by introducing something they love doing to a classmate, even if some of the activities are outside of their comfort zone. Ruby’s Worry introduces the idea that we all have worries but if we don’t share them these worries can stop us from doing the things we love. The children will learn that Stephen Lawrence had many things he loved to do, just like Ruby in the story. However, when he was still a young man, bad people hurt Stephen and he died. Stephen’s Mum and Dad made sure that the police knew who the bad people were, and they now help lots of other children stay safe. Stephen and his family were kind and caring to others. The children will learn that one of the ways we can be kind and caring to someone else is by listening to what is on their mind.

We know that teachers will be mindful of the backgrounds of the children they teach and will be able to skillfully adjust these lessons to take account of their own local context and individual pupils’ needs. We recognise that many families and communities experience huge hardships and some children may voice fears that are already 'big fears' (e.g. poverty, hardship, bereavement etc.) and some indeed may be potentially safe-guarding issues. The scheme is designed to run alongside your regular EYFS provision and can be extended to 5 days and should be adapted to meet the specific literacy needs of your class(es).

Text: Ruby’s Worry - Tom Percival ISBN: 9781408892152

The Book

Ruby has a wonderful life, filled with experiences that she loves. She happily shares them with us as we journey into her world alongside her. One day, she discovers a worry but it is only little, so she barely notices it. Over time, the worry grows bigger and bigger. Ruby keeps the worry to herself as we continue to navigate her life alongside her. But now we are joined by a worry that has grown so big that it is stopping Ruby from doing what she loves! The worry is all-consuming and never leaves her, leading Ruby to do the worst thing: she worries about the worry! One day, she notices a little boy sitting by himself, looking sad. He also has a worry. Ruby comes to understand that everyone has worries and if you share what’s on your mind you can shrink a worry.

Ruby’s Worry was published by Bloomsbury in 2018 and is the second book in Tom Percival’s bestselling Big Bright Feelings series, the first being Perfectly Norman. This was followed in 2019 by Ravi’s Roar.

The Author & Illustrator

Tom Percival is a picture-book author and illustrator who grew up in Shropshire and started drawing as a boy. His Big Bright Feelings series of books is instantly recognisable, tied together by similar themes and colourful illustrations in a similar style. You may be interested to know that he has produced cover art for several successful children's fiction series, including 'Skulduggery Pleasant'. His Twitter handle is: @TomPercivalsays

Early Learning Goals Success Criteria

Teaching Input Resources Activities and Experiences Opportunities for Differentiation

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: • Expresses own

preferences and interests.

Communication and Language: Grrrr. Formatting. Every other bullet point sits by the margin apart from these. Can you help? Do you care? Why do I?

• Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.

Children identify between 1 – 3 activities / experiences they love

Read the first 7 pages of Ruby’s Worry (starting on the first wordless page, where Ruby is dancing), emphasising ‘she loved’ as you read. Stop reading after: ‘Sometimes she even went right to the very bottom of the garden.’ Explore the enlarged images on flipchart / screen HO1 Opening of Ruby’s Worry • What does Ruby love

to do? • What might she enjoy

doing at the beach? • Why do you think she

loves to explore the

Copy of Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry HO1 Opening of Ruby’s Worry See Activities and Experiences for free flow resources. Camera Post-it notes to record 1 - 3 activities / experiences that each child loves.

Free flow indoor and outdoor provision led by a range of activities that the children in your class have demonstrated they love. You could also link some of the provision to what Ruby loves in the first few pages of the story. Here are some examples. • use (wrist) ribbons to

enhance the creativity of dance and movement making

• create paper windmills using HO2 Windmill Template

• picnic role play: picnic basket, flask and blankets with toy food and additional soft toy guests

You may wish to involve parents and carers, asking the children to bring in a photograph of an experience their child loved. Some children may wish to draw / paint what they love doing outside of school.

• Understands ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ in simple questions (e.g. who’s that? What’s that? Where is?

Literacy: • Uses vocabulary

and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.

garden? • What else do you

think she might enjoy doing?

During free flow activities and experiences, adults take lots of photographs of children doing what they love. Ask children what they love doing and record on Post-it notes.

• buckets and spades in the sand

• create a Bucket Tower Challenge Is it easier to create a tower if the buckets are upside down? Is it easier to create a tower if the buckets are all the same size? etc.

• Do you have an area that might serve as ‘a wild, faraway place’? Children explore with magnifying glasses / take photographs of what interests them using ipads.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: • Expresses own

preferences and interests.

• Confident to speak to others about own needs, wants, interests and opinions.

Communication and Language:

Children share what they love doing with others and vice versa Children start to become familiar with the concept of ‘worry’

Share photographs of children doing what they love from yesterday’s lesson (and children’s homes). Ideally, place these on a board at the children’s eye-height along with some pictures of Ruby doing what she loves (from HO1 Opening of Ruby’s Worry). • Does everyone love

doing the same things?

Copy of Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry HO1 Opening of Ruby’s Worry HO3 Worries Camera Photographs from yesterday’s lesson (and

Continue with provision from yesterday, building on children’s preferences and extending to include Ruby’s world up to page 17 of Ruby’s Worry Children leave the carpet in pairs. One child leads their partner to an activity they loved yesterday. When they are ready, reverse roles. Stick a few different sized ‘worries’ (from HO3) around

Depending on class routines and dynamics, you may wish to assign children partners or allow them to self-select. Ideally, you want to avoid pairing children with those they usually play with. You may want to send some children off in

• Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.

• Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests them.

• Developing understanding of simple concepts (e.g. big/little).

• Uses language as a powerful means of widening contacts, sharing feelings, experiences and thoughts.

• Uses vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of particular importance to them.

Literacy: • Uses vocabulary

and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.

• Is there anything up here that someone doesn’t even like doing? Why?

Stick a few different sized ‘worries’ (from HO3) onto the board. Read Ruby’s Worry topage17: ‘The worry was always there – stopping her from doing the things she loved.’ • What is a worry? • Do you have any

worries? Tell children that today, they are going to encourage a classmate to do try an activity they wouldn’t usually choose. During free flow activities and experiences, adults observe dynamics of play and if children appear hesitant, ask them why and what they might do to move forward.

children’s homes) Free flow resources

the activities at the children’s eyeline.

groups of 3 or 4, instead.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: • Expresses own

preferences and interests.

• Confident to speak to others about own needs, wants, interests and opinions.

• Aware of own feelings and knows that some actions and words can hurt others’ feelings.

• Begins to accept the needs of others and can take turns and share resources, sometimes with support from others

Communication and Language: • Listens to stories

with increasing attention and recall.

• Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation

Children know what a worry is Children know that everyone has worries Children know that talking about your worries helps to shrink them

• What did you love doing yesterday?

• Did you have any worries? Point to where you felt the worry in your body.

• Did your worries stop you from doing any of the activities?

• Were Ruby’s worries stopping her from doing the things she loved?

Read Ruby’s Worry to the end.

Copy of Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry HO3 Worries HO4 A Big Worry Free flow resources Camera

Continue free flow in same / different pairs from yesterday, informed by previous day’s learning. Give each child a little worry (from HO3) to take with them. • Are you going to let your

worry grow? • What will you do with your

worry? At the end of the session take a big worry from behind your back and make a worried face. • What do you think has

happened? • What do you think I should

do about it? What do you think we could do about it?

Could extend the provision to include Ruby’s experiences of the world to the end of the book.

interests them. • Developing

understanding of simple concepts (e.g. big/little).

• Uses language as a powerful means of widening contacts, sharing feelings, experiences and thoughts.

• Uses vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of particular importance to them.

Literacy: • Uses vocabulary

and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: • Aware of own

feelings and knows that some actions and words can hurt others’ feelings.

• Begins to accept

Children know that Stephen Lawrence was hurt unfairly, and he died. Children know that one of the ways we can

Tell the children that today, they are going to learn about something unfair that happened to a young man from South London 17 years ago. Use EYFS & KS1

Copy of Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry HO4 A Big Worry Art materials

Art activity One of the ways we can be kind and caring to others is to listen to their worries. Some worries are little worries and some are big and need to be shared with someone. When we listen to other

With some children / classes, you make prefer to use HO5 Everyone has Worries or puppets or role play to stimulate talk

the needs of others and can take turns and share resources, sometimes with support from others.

• Aware that some actions can hurt or harm others.

Communication and Language: • Listens to others

one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests them.

Literacy: • Uses vocabulary

and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.

be kind and caring to someone else is by listening to what is on their mind.

Stephen Lawrence Day assembly Slides 1-5. So far, Stephen’s life was like Ruby’s life; there were lots of things he loved and lots of people he loved. Do you think Stephen had worries? Yes! But he didn’t stop them from doing what he loved. Stephen loved school; he loved writing and drawing. Use EYFS & KS1 Stephen Lawrence Day assembly Slide 6 Pause and reflect. Hold up HO4 A Big Worry. Sometimes something truly terrible happens that we would never expect to happen. • What was Stephen

worried about? • What were his family

worried about? • What do you think

they did with their

HO5 Everyone has Worries Screen and internet to show video and PowerPoint Painting / drawing materials Small world / construction materials etc. EYFS & KS1 Stephen Lawrence Day assembly

people’s worries, we help to make them smaller (rip HO4 Big Worry in half) and smaller (keep ripping) and smaller (keep ripping). The worry may not completely go away but sharing worries by talking means they don’t grow big enough to stop us doing what we love. Remind the children that Stephen loved to draw. Children draw or paint a time when someone helped them to feel better -their body / their feelings / their heart / their head.

Children could also use the small world to explore things they love doing through role play, storytelling, retelling etc.

They could explore things they love through role play in the home corner or they could build something they love using construction etc.

They talk about the experience with the children and adults near them.

You may also want to sing You’ve Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story. Stephen’s favourite colour was orange. You may wish to incorporate this into an alternative art activity celebrating #liveyourbestlife

worries? • Who can we talk to

when we are worried?

Use EYFS & KS1 Stephen Lawrence Day assembly Slide 7

You may wish to end the sequence of lessons with children watching the animated trailer of Ruby’s Worry and ripping up their own copies of HO4 Big Worry as you ask them: • How do we shrink our

worries? “We talk about them!” • And who can we talk to?

HO1: Ruby’s Worry

HO2: Windmill Template

Create a Pinwheel.

1. Photocopy template onto coloured / patterned paper—light blue and yellow, if you wish to follow the

theme of the book.

2. Alternatively, photocopy either blank template or onto squared / starred paper for children to deco-

rate themselves.

3. Children cut the 4 lines leading towards the centre.

4. Bring every other point into the centre and stick a pin

through all four points.

5. The head of the pin forms the hub of the pinwheel

6. Stick the pin into the lolly stick / doweling

7. Roll the pin around in little circles to enlarge the hole a

little to help the windmill spin.

You will need:

• Windmill templates

• Pins

• lolly stick / doweling

HO3: Worries

HO4: A Big Worry

HO5: Everyone Worries