The Smile

The Smile is a heartwarming narrative that traces the journey of a contagious smile as it travels through a community before finally being passed on to the children. This story features a clear beginning and end, set in familiar community environments that children can easily relate to. The text uses repetition-especially the phrase œgave the smile to-to support early readers, while also highlighting the œsm blend found in the word œsmile. High-frequency words such as œgave, œthey, and œall are introduced to build confidence in word recognition. The clear placement of text and expressive illustrations allow readers to œread emotions on the characters' faces, enhancing comprehension and engagement. This book is designed for guided reading settings to help children blend sounds, summarise story elements, innovate on storylines, and incorporate visual aids such as diagrams and maps. As part of Learning Media's extensive range, The Smile supports literacy learning in line with research-based pedagogy, making it an excellent resource for early readers aged 6 to 8.

Educational benefits:

• Develops blending of consonant blends, especially œsm.
• Supports recognition of high-frequency sight words.
• Encourages summarising and retelling skills.
• Enhances comprehension through facial expression cues.

Classroom ideas:

• Use the repeated phrase to practise fluency and phrasing.
• Encourage students to write their own version of the story with different actions.
• Create a community smile map to track the smile's journey.
• Discuss emotions and facial expressions using the illustrations.

Information:

• Ages: 6-8 years
• Reading level: 6-8 (Yellow)
• Format: Printed book