Yes Day!

Free lesson plan, writing template and printable word-search for kids

Best suited to:

K – Year 2

KLAs covered:

English (questions, question marks, exclamation marks)

Learning:

• what is a question?
• why do we ask questions?
• what is the difference between a question, a statement and an exclamation?

Need to know:

• a very simple text, consisting of basic questions answered by an image;
• great for reading and discussing without a corresponding activity, if you have a few spare minutes;
• sparks children’s imaginations and sense of fun – a feel-good book!
• very quick to read;

Discussion Questions (before reading):

• what do you think this book will be about? What do you see that makes you think that?
• do you think this book will be a fiction text or non-fiction? What do you see that makes you think that?
• what do you think the title Yes Day! means?

Discussion Questions (after reading):

• why do you think the little boy in the story likes Yes Day so much?
• would you like to have a Yes Day at your place? Why or why not?
• if you had a Yes Day at your place, what would you ask your mum or dad for?
• why do you think the author wanted to write this book? (because mums and dads often say no and she wanted to see/explore/show what might happen if they said yes instead);
• what kinds of things do your mum and dad say no about?
• how do you feel when you ask mum or dad to do something or if you can have something and they say no?
• what kinds of things do your mum and dad say that really just mean ‘no’?
• show children the inside cover of the book and discuss all the ways mums and dads say ‘no’. Do your mum and dad sometimes say these things? When? Why do you think they say them?
• when the little boy says “Can I … ” what do we call that? (asking a question);
• when we write down a question, what do we put at the end to show people that it is a question?

Additional Discussion Questions for Year 2:

• why do parents say no?
• what kinds of things do your parents say no about?
• how does it feel when you ask mum or dad something and they say no? How does your body feel when you hear ‘no’?
• do mum and dad sometimes say no about things that you think you should be able to decide for yourself?
• what sorts of things do you think you should be able to decide for yourself?

Activities:

• children draw and/or describe their favourite part of the story;
• children write a question they would ask their parent or carer if they had a Yes Day at their place and illustrate. You can write the sentence starter Can I … on the classroom whiteboard to help scaffold this task, if required;
• older children can write about why parents say no, the kinds of things they say no about and how it feels to the child to hear this ‘no’. They can reflect on whether they think parents say no too often/unreasonably. Do parents say no when you think the issue is something you should be able to decide for yourself? What sorts of things do you think you should be able to decide for yourself?