Home Learning

 A conjunction is explained to children as a ‘joining word’ that makes sentences longer and more interesting. This book aims to develop children’s understanding of the use of conjunctions and bring to life this grammatical tool.

 The overall goal is for children to enjoy this story either independently or with an adult, so sit down, snuggle up and enjoy.

 TALKING POINTS

 • Discuss how short the sentences are on the first page.

Are they interesting to read? Why not?

• Encourage your child to draw from their own experiences.

Charlie felt nervous about speaking to his neighbour, Meera. Have you ever felt nervous? What happened?

If you met Charlie, where would you take him for the day?

• Talk about how the sentences change in the second chapter.

How has using the conjunction ‘and’ helped make the sentences more interesting?

 • Discuss what is changing in Charlie’s life as the story develops.

What is he doing differently?

How is this making him feel?

What might have stopped him from meeting new people and exploring new places before?

• Talk about the different uses of each conjunction.

Can you think of a sentence using the conjunction ‘because’?

• Discuss the overall theme of the story.

Did Charlie’s life improve throughout the story?

What can we learn about ourselves from this book?

Extra Ideas

 • Ask your child to invent a new friend for Charlie and Meera. What do they look like? What kind of things do they enjoy doing?

• See if your child can explore other people’s points of view. Ask them how Charlie’s mum felt at the beginning and end of the story. Discuss how it feels when someone you care about is feeling unhappy.

• Encourage your child to think about their sentence before they speak. Younger children could say the longest sentence using all the conjunctions. Model taking a breath between sentences to help them think about how full stops would be used in their writing.