Phonic List - hurt, nurse, turn, church, her, better, other, father, bird, third, dirt, girl, first, thirst, birth, brother.

This is a simple open ended story with a romantic ending. There is the common build up of first, second, and third, with the third time bringing the twist. In this case it does not bring the expected success but success at another level. Children could explore the nature of jokes that have the same format, you may wish to have some examples at hand and you may wish to talk about acceptable content and subjects before asking for examples! The choice of the name Albert Ross for a person who wants to fly like a bird could be used to stimulate the collection of other amusing composite names or begin a collection of book titles and authors eg Vegetarian Cooking by Henrietta Leek. Children seem to love puns and, once they grasp the idea, will enjoy collecting and inventing their own.