KS: R & KS1
Year Group: Year 1
Literary Theme: Nature & Environment
Author(s): Tom Percival
This is a Vocabulary Vine for The Sea Saw by Tom Percival
A Vocabulary Vine is designed to be a sister resource to a Writing Root and Spelling Seed. It sits within our wider Teach Through a Text approach by explicitly identifying vocabulary from the book and providing additional opportunities for paired, small group and whole class experimentation with this vocabulary in context. Vocabulary Vines further complement spelling development too through exploration of the morphology (word structure) and etymology (origins) of words. They also provide oracy opportunities through a focus on talk tasks and on oral sentence construction. They are designed for short burst oral and vocabulary development.
A Writing Root is available for The Sea Saw.
Writing in role, notes of advice, missing posters, diary entries, letters of thanks
Own version narrative
15 session, 3 weeks
In this three-week Writing Root, the children discover a bear having a picnic. They talk about their own special toy and create labels. But then the bear is left behind and the story, The Sea Saw by Tom Percival is shared. The children give advice in the form of commands to the sea (who plans to help the bear to return to Sofia) before helping Sofia make wanted posters that use statements, questions and commands. To support sequencing of events, the children learn to spell the days of the week and include these in a diary entry. Words prefixed with un- are investigated and the use of ‘and’ is explored so that the children can write a letter in role as Sofia thanking the sea for returning her bear. Then, to plan their extended piece of writing – an own version narrative – the children create titles in the style of Tom Percival’s, make maps as plans and then write their stories in three stages, mainly focusing on the objective, 'To sequence sentences to form short narratives' before editing, publishing and sharing.
When Sofia loses her beloved teddy after a day at the beach, she is heartbroken. But the sea saw it all, and maybe, just maybe, it can bring Sofia and her teddy back together. However long it may take... A beautiful, emotionally satisfying look at how nothing is ever truly lost if you keep it in your heart...
This text has strong PSHE links, exploring themes around how people grow and cope with change and loss. Award-winning author and illustrator Tom Percival has created a plethora of gorgeous books that help children navigate various emotions and challenges in life which they can enjoy on their own after studying this text as a class. Wonderful collage artwork is paired with moving text to create this very special picture book.
Seaside, sea, beaches, toys, PSHE, loss and change
Date written: June 2021. Updated January 2025.
View The Sea Saw Writing RootA Spelling Seed is available for The Sea Saw.
This is a three-session spelling seed for the book The Sea Saw by Rachel Ip. Below is the coverage from Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum 2014.
Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning.
There is a Spelling Seed session for every week of the associated Writing Root.
so, of, by, go
Adding -er and -est to adjectives
Adding s and es to words
m using -mb
ou, ow (/aʊ/) ow,(/əʊ/), ue, ew
ar,ee, ea (/i:/), ea (/ɛ/)
View The Sea Saw Spelling Seed
