Applying learning

Language comprehension: The party

Primary

Communication and language

﻿Hello, my name's Alison. And I'm your teacher today. In today's lesson, we're going to be sharing a story all about Jim and his birthday. After we've read the story, we're going to ask some questions about the story, and then we're going to think about sequencing the events in the story. Before we can do that though, we need to get ready. For today's lesson, you'll need question cards, who, what and how. You can print these off or draw them on paper, press pause while you get things ready. Let's get ready. Find a quiet space to work, away from distractions. Make the area a comfy reading space. This could be with cushions or blankets or bean bags. Use a familiar reference to prepare your child that the activity is going to start. This could be a symbol, a sound or a song. Press pause while you get things ready. Now that we've got everything ready, it's time to look, listen and learn. Today's story is Jim's Birthday written by Alison Ley. images from Pixabay. Jim was very excited. Tomorrow was his birthday. He went to bed thinking about how much fun it would be. Jim woke up early, mom was in the kitchen baking. What do you think mom might be baking on Jim's birthday? Jim asked if he could help. Jim and mom decorated the cake with icing. Did you guess right what mom was going to bake? Jim made a list of all the things he needed to do. He needed to blow up the balloons, find the candles and set the table. What colour is the balloon in the picture? Everything was ready, it was time for the party. Do you like parties? I do. There was a knock at the door. Jim's three friends arrived. What do you think his friends have brought with them? Shall we turn the page and see? Each friend was carrying a present. Let's count how many presents we can see. One, two, three, three presents. Can you see the really big present with stars on it? Jim unwrapped the presents. Can you guess what was inside? Have a look at the pictures and see if you can name the three presents Jim got. So rocket, a Teddy bear and a football. Next, it was time for cake and ice cream. Don't forget the candles. Can you count how many candles are on the cake? One, two, three, four, five. Five candles on the cake. Everyone sang happy birthday. Jim blew out the candles. After tea, they played games. Pass the parcel was Jim's favourite. Soon it was time for everyone to go home, bye. What a great party said Jim, we can do it all again next year. A good way of checking the level of understanding when reading a story is by using questions. Today, we're going to use who, what and how questions. Now that we finished our story, we're going to have a go at answering some questions about what happened. The first question that we're going to have a look at is who's birthday? I've given three possible answers for you to have a look at. When asking questions to your child, it's sometimes a really good idea to give some prompts to what the answers might be, just to help them remember what it was that they heard or read in the book. So whose birthday? Is it mom's, dad's or Jim's. Why don't you try and point to the right answer. Did you say Jim? Whose birthday, Jim's birthday. The next question we're going to ask about today's story is who's baking? Again, I've given three possible answers. Is it Jim, mom or dad? Why don't you have a look at the answers and see if you can choose the right one. Did you you say mom, if you did then you're right. Who's baking, mom. She was baking the cake in the kitchen. We're now going to try and recall how many presents we saw in the video. Do you remember? If you need to go back and have a look and count them, then that's okay. I've given you three possible answers. Can you find the right one? How many presents? Three, two, or one. Can you point to the right answer? If you said there were three presents, then you're right, three presents. We're now going to try to remember what were in the presents. Again, if you need to look back on the video to remind yourself, you can do, but I have given you four possible answers. Did he get a teddy, a ball, a puzzle or a rocket? Now remember there are three answers here, so can you choose the three things that Jim got in his presents? The right answer is teddy, ball and rocket. And our last question today is how many candles were on Jim's cake? Did you count them? Were there three, seven or five? Have a think and point to the right answer. There were five candles on Jim's cake, Well done for answering all of those questions about Jim's party and the story today. We're now going to have a look at sequencing the events in this story. Now that we've read the story and answered some questions, we're going to think about sequencing our story. Can we use the following symbols to sequence today's story? First of all, we're going to think about what happened in the beginning of the story. Was it that everyone went home after the party and they said, goodbye, or was it, Jim helped his mom to get ready for the party, getting ready. Or was it his friends arrived for the party and they had to pay to eat and played games, party? Which one do you think was at the beginning of the story? Now that you've thought about what happened in the beginning of the story, let's think about the middle of the story. Again, our three choices are everyone went home after the party, they said goodbye. Jim helped his mom get ready for the party, getting ready. Or, his friends arrived to the party. They had cake to eat and played games, the party. Which one do you think happened in the middle of the story? Have a look at the three choices and see if you can decide. Finally, we're going to have a think about what happened at the end of the story. So again, our three choices are, everyone went home after the party, they said goodbye. Jim helped his mother get ready for the party, they were getting ready, or his friends arrived for the party and they had catered eat and played games. Look carefully at the three choices and see if you can decide what you think happened at the end of the story. Now let's see if you got it right. So this is the order of our story, going to start at the beginning, then the middle and then the end. So in the beginning, Jim helped his mom to get ready for the party, getting ready. In the middle of this story, his friends arrived for the party. They had cake to eat and played games. So the party was in the middle of the story. At the end of today's story, everyone went home after the party and they said goodbye. Did you get the sequence right for today's story? Well done, you've worked really hard today, reading the story, answering questions and then sequencing the events. See you again soon, bye. To make today's lesson easier, you can provide additional resources to support the storytelling. You could use symbols or pictures rather than words to support storytelling. And you can find resources from around the home that link to the story. To make today's lesson harder, why don't you reduce the prompts given when asking questions or try to extending the use of your questions to what will happen next or what would happen if? For more ideas following today's lesson, why don't you find other books to read with your child and engage them with questioning? Or write your own story about a festival or celebration. At Oak, we'd really like to see all the hard work that you are doing and the work you are completing. If you'd like to share, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

Language comprehension: The party

Language comprehension: The party

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

Lesson slides

Lesson details

Key learning points

Equipment

Supervision

Licence

Lesson video

Worksheet