Instructional Series
Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.

- Gold
- Purple
- Blue
- Red
- Green
- Yellow
- Orange
- Turquoise
- Magenta
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 1
- 4
- 6
- 5
- 3
- 8
- 7
- 2
- 1
- English
- Social Sciences
- Science
- Health and Physical Education
- Technology
- The Arts
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- None
- Nature of science
- Living world
- Nature of technology
- Statistics
- Geometry and Measurement
- Planet Earth and beyond
- Physical world
- Technological knowledge
- Number and Algebra
- Material world
- Technological practice
- Gather and interpret data
- Use evidence
- Critique evidence
- Engage with science
- Interpret representations
- Articles
- Stories
- Poems
- Plays
Search results
994 items - Showing 31 - 40
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A Quilt for Kiri
by Don Long
pictures by Judith Kunzlé
This sensitive narrative tells of the death of Kiri’s grandmother far away in the Cook Islands. Grandma’s gift of a quilt to Kiri sparks special memories for Kiri and her dad. A Gift for Aunty Ngā (Gold) is a sequel to this book.
Purple 2
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Two Tiger Tales
retold by Barbara Beveridge
illustrated by Caroline Campbell and Ali Teo
This book contains two folk tales in which tigers are outwitted by smaller animals. In “The Clumsy Tiger”, a tiger asks a cat to teach him to become quick and clever. The tiger learns fast, but there is one thing the clever cat realises he shouldn’t teach him! “The Competition” describes how a small but clever frog is able to scare away a tiger.
The two stories are available as individual audio files for download:
Purple 1
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Treasure from the Sea
by Francesca Riley
illustrated by Elspeth Alix Batt
Treasure from the Sea is based on an actual event. Megan loves to stay with Nan and listen to Nan’s stories about the treasures she has collected on her beach walks, but Megan would love to find her own treasure and tell her own story. This narrative describes Megan’s holiday quest. She finds several objects but nothing really special until she notices a fish that has become stranded in a sandy stream on the beach. With help, Megan manages to get the fish back to the sea, safe from the hot sun and hungry seagulls. At last, she has her own story of “treasure from the sea”.
Purple 1
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Tom’s Tryathlon
by Kristine Hornblow
photographs by Peter Crawford
In this recount, Tom talks about his first experience of participating in the Weet-Bix™ Kiwi Kids Tryathlon.
Purple 1
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The Queen of Spain
by Alan Bagnall
illustrated by Freya Blackwood
This recount of an imaginary trip on Grandpa’s boat The Queen of Spain mixes fantasy and reality. It links well with Dragon (Orange), also by Alan Bagnall.
Purple 1
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The Lion and the Mouse
an Aesop’s fable
illustrated by John Griffiths
In this traditional moral tale, a lion catches a mouse but lets him go after the mouse promises to help him one day. Soon afterwards, the lion gets trapped in a net and the mouse comes to his rescue.
Purple 1
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That’s the Way
by Lino Nelisi
illustrated by Elspeth Alix Batt
This dramatic narrative describes Animoe’s exciting experience of achieving her goal of playing in her mother’s kirikiti team. The text draws out the friendly, lively nature of island cricket and of Animoe’s parents’ pride in her performance. It’s available in five Pacific languages in the Tupu series, and audio versions in both English and Niuean are on Tupu CD Two, item 10625.
Purple 1
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Skate Champs
by Janice Marriott
photographs by Diana Dobson
This text recounts Luka’s experiences at the Skateboarding Championships and includes an interview. Luka also features in the Magenta-level book Off I Go! The sporting themes and specialised vocabulary link well with Tom’s Tryathlon (also at Purple).
Purple 1
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Pencils and Pens
by Kate Boyle
This report describes some school writing implements and how they have changed over the last hundred years. It includes explanations, supported by photographs and labelled diagrams of how they work.
Purple 1
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Guide Dogs
by Sue Walker
This report describes how guide dogs are trained and how they help blind and visually impaired people.
It provides opportunities for students to identify and summarise main points and to use the information to explain why guide dogs are special.Purple 1