Year 1 'The Magic Porridge Pot': reading and writing worksheet

“Characters and settings” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 1 English unit “'The Magic Porridge Pot': reading and writing”, for children aged 5 to 6, and takes about 22 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 14 to 15 of the year, 8 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Characters and settings

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 1 · English · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell who is in a fairytale and where it happens.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which letter makes the first sound in 'sun'? Circle one.
sun
2.
Which word is a name and needs a capital letter? Circle one.
Benbedbig
3.
Which mark goes in the box after Sam ran home?
.?!

B Watch me, then you4 min

Read this short story. Tom and his mum live in a little house by a pond. One day, a frog asks Tom for help. Who is in the story, and where does it happen?

Watch me

Characters are the people or animals in a story.

The characters are Tom, his mum and a frog.

The setting is the place: a little house by a pond.

Now you

1.
Read: Ana finds a red hat in a wood. A wind blows it away. Who is the character? Circle one.
Anawoodred hat
2.
Ola and Ben walk to the castle to see the king. Where does the story happen? Circle one.
the castleOlathe king

C Your turn8 min

Read the story card. Mia lives in a small house beside a river. One day, a silver fish asks her for help. Mia helps the fish, and it gives her a shell that sings.

A small house beside a calm river, with a silver fish under the water

1.
Which words name characters in the story? Circle the right ones.
Miariverfishshell
2.
Where does the story happen? Circle one.
a small house beside a rivera silver fisha shell that sings
3.
Write each card in the right column of the table.
Miasilver fishsmall houserivershell that sings
Character Setting Not a character or setting
4.
What do you think Mia will do with the singing shell? Write one sentence.

Say it out loud: Which words tell you who is in the story? Which words tell you where it happens?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Ola says: “The mountain village is a character, because the story happens there.”

1.
Is the mountain village a character or the setting? Circle one.
charactersetting

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Make up a short fairytale. Name your character and say where it happens. Tell it to your grown-up.

How did it feel?

Which person or place in today's story did you like best? Tell your grown-up why.

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Characters and settings · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. s If they circled ‘n’, they heard the last sound. Say ‘sun’ slowly and ask which sound comes first.

2. Ben

3. .

B

1. Ana If they circled ‘wood’, they found the setting. Ask: can a wood go on an adventure?

2. the castle If they circled ‘Ola’, they named a character. Ask: where did Ola and Ben walk to?

C

1. Mia, fish If they circled ‘river’, they found the setting. Ask: is a river a person or an animal?

2. a small house beside a river If they circled ‘a silver fish’, they named a character. A setting is the place where things happen. Ask: where does Mia live?

3. Setting: small house, river · Character: Mia, silver fish · Not a character or setting: shell that sings If the shell is in the Character column, ask: can a shell lead a story? Remind them that characters are people or animals.

4. Look for: one sentence saying what Mia might do next with the shell, linked to the story

D

1. setting If they circled ‘character’, they think any place in a story is a character. Ask: can a village talk, walk or go on a trip?

E

1. Look for: a short story with a named character and a place where it happens

Words to use

Say“Who is in the story, and where does it happen?”

Instead of“Tell them the answer, or read the whole story to them again.”

After the sheet

Pick a bedtime book at home. Ask who the character is and where the story happens. Draw both together on one sheet of paper.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

7 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Comparing fairy tales(with a plan)
Feelings and doing words(with a plan)
Putting events in order(with a plan)
Words that paint pictures(with a plan)
Starting my story(with a plan)
Making the story middle(with a plan)
Writing a happy ending(with a plan)

Every Year 1 English worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

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