Word Recognition, Phonic Knowledge and Spelling in Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu

The below examples of phonic knowledge, word recognition and spelling teaching opportunities all appear in CBCA Award winning information book, Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu. The full teaching unit by Dr Bronwyn Parkin can be found on the PETAA website for members. 

This book explores the changing seasons of Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory. This book is a wonderful resource for teachers of HASS and Science in the early years to introduce the seasons in the north of Australia. It is also a great resource for the teaching of English, with its parallel descriptions of Kakadu habitat and living things through the seasons: one strand of the text is highly literary, with beautiful descriptions and imagery. The other strand is very concise scientific language. Having these texts alongside each other makes it very easy to point out differences in register and purpose. Even for younger students who are not ready to decode at this level, it is a great book for building both literary and scientific vocabulary.

Selected Focus passages: In many Early Years classrooms, this book will be shared with students as the teacher reads. If appropriate, any page could be selected for close reading. The following pages have been selected because the parallel literary and scientific paragraphs clearly contrast with each other. 

Page 10 is appropriate for Foundation to Year 2. There is not much text, but the language resources are rich, and there is plenty to talk about. Literary: ‘The long-legged jabiru stalks the wetlands ...’; Scientific: ‘About twenty-five frog species live in Kakadu ... fully developed adults.’

Pages 20-21 are appropriate for Years 3–4, with more extended text and more complex grammar. Literary: ‘The plateau's towering cliffs ... into the bushes.’;  Scientific: ‘Kakadu has many waterfalls... keep Kakadu alive during the Dry.’

Page 10 Literary voice

  • Easy blends (some after breaking up into syllables): frog, can, back, nest, tree, banyan. 
  • Rimes (word families)  -ong (long)   -eg (legged)   -alk (stalks)   -et (wetlands)    - and    -eek (seeking)       -eel (eels)    -ake (take)   -ack (back)    -est (nest)   -igh (high)   -ee (tree)
  • High frequency words: the, out, and, it, can, take, back, to, its, in, old, up
  • Compound words: wetlands
  • Morphemes: -ed, -s, -ing, -ies (plural)

Page 10 Scientific voice

  • Easy blends (some after breaking up into syllables): frog, live, in, and, an, important, food, for, birds, snakes, fish, all, eat, tadpoles, Kakadu. 
  • Rimes (word families)  -out (about)     -ive (five, live)     -og (frog)    -ort (important)   -ood(food)  -ird (birds) -ake (snakes)      -ish (fish)     -ole (tadpoles)
  • High frequency words: about, live, in, and, they, are, food, many, all, eat, when, or
  • Compound words: centimetres
  • Morphemes: -ly (fully), in- (including), -ing, -ies (species) cent- (centimetres

Page 20 Literary voice

  • Rimes (word families)  -eau (plateau)   -ower (towering)   -iff (cliffs)   -under (thunderous)    -all (waterfalls)   -ight (night)   -eaf (deafening)   -ark (paperbarks)   -ush (brush-tail)  -ook (look out!)  -ake  (snakes) -ood (floods), -ame (same)
  • High frequency words: become, below, them, at, night, look, out, while, into, have, same
  • Compound words: waterfalls, paperbarks, brush-tail
  • Morphemes: -ous (thunderous), in- (including), cent- (centipede), -ed (climbed)

Page 20 Scientific voice

  • Rimes (word families)  -out (about)   -ive (five, live)   -og (frog)   -ort (important)    -ant (important)    -ood(food)    -ird (birds)    -ake (snakes)   -ish (fish)  -ole (tadpoles)
  • High frequency words: many, some, all, year, round, others, only, these, that
  • Morphemes: -ly (fully), in- (including), -ing, -ies (species)