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FIRST READING · AGES 5–7

Oona and the Wobbly Tower

Up, up, up… plop! Oona’s tower falls over. A friend, a wide block and one new idea turn a tumble into a funny little house.

Read the story
Oona the brown otter in a teal vest sits beside a box of coloured wooden blocks and reaches for a yellow block near a small upright tower

A box of blocks

Oona has a box.
Red blocks. Blue blocks. Yellow blocks.
“I will make a tower!” she says.

Up, up, up!

One block.
One more block.
Up, up, up!
Oona reaches for a yellow block.

Oona looks at blocks that have fallen gently onto a rug as Timo the green tortoise in a mustard scarf comes to sit beside her

Wobble… plop!

The tower leans.
Wobble, wobble…
Plop!
The blocks land on the rug.

A friend comes

“Oh,” says Oona.
Timo comes to look.
“Shall we try another way?” he asks.
Oona nods.

Oona and Timo make two short block towers on wide bases, with a gap between them and a long blue block ready nearby

Wide below

Oona picks a wide block.
“Wide below,” she says.
Timo finds another.
They make two short towers.

A gap between

There is a gap.
Timo finds a long blue block.
“Here is one more,” he says.
Oona looks at the gap.

Oona and Timo smile at a little block house with a long blue roof and a wooden duck underneath

A little roof

“A roof!” says Oona.
They put the long block across the gap.
A little wooden duck fits below.
“Come in, Duck!”

Who said quack?

“I wanted a tall tower,” says Oona.
“We made a house!” says Timo.
“Quack!”
Was that the duck?
No. It was Timo!
Oona laughs.

↑ Back to the story start

look & learn

New words

towera building or stack that reaches up high
wobbleto move from side to side without being steady
widehaving plenty of space from one side to the other
gapan open space between two things

think together

Talk after reading

  1. What did Oona and Timo change when they tried again? You can point to a picture.
  2. How did the long blue block help turn the towers into a house?
  3. Who made the duck sound? What could Duck’s house become in your own ending?
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