Don't Forget

A teaching unit for students in Years F-6 

The content description links on this page have been updated in line with Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. Use this guide to compare codes across versions.

Author:  Jane Godwin  Illustrator: Anna Walker

Publisher:  Puffin Books

Synopsis: Don’t Forget is a beautifully written and illustrated picture book filled with a sense of optimism. It is a poignant reminder for all of us to stop and remember the things that make us, our lives and our world wonderful. The book begins with simple everyday reminders that most children would be well-accustomed to hearing – ‘Don’t forget to make your bed’, ‘Don’t forget to brush your teeth’ but quickly moves to remind readers ‘to wonder, to be brave, to share’.

Themes: Hope, gratitude, community, friendship, optimism, self-appreciation.

Year levels: Australian Curriculum: English, Foundation – Year 6; Personal & Social Capability, Foundation – Year 6

Why use this book? While the publisher recommends this book for lower primary ages, the messages and themes are relevant to all of us. It would make an ideal text for all primary school age groups to study in the first few weeks of the school year to support the building of a positive classroom community but would also be useful as a support for wellbeing at any time. As well as being a springboard for a teaching a variety of reading skills, the book provides prompts that can be used to help students find ways to express what is important to them and their lives.

Focus passages:

• Front cover, back cover and endpapers: text predictions
• Page 4-5: sentence structure and noticing syllables
• Page 13: literary devices
• Page 26-27: visual literacy and word building

Unit writer:  Karen Rogers

Reading, listening to and appreciating the book

Book introduction (big picture)

  • A video recording of Jane Godwin reading the book can be found here.
  • The text is titled Don’t Forget. Provide some examples for students of some things that are important for you as a teacher to not forget. What might happen if you forget them? Some things have bigger consequences than others. Ask students to brainstorm some things that they need to remember (point out the shift in language from ‘don’t forget’ to ‘remember’ for younger students to build vocabulary AC9EFLA08). What would be the consequences for themselves and others if they forgot? AC9EFLE01, AC9E1LE02, AC9E3LE02, AC9E4LE02, AC9E6LE01
  • Look closely at the front cover illustration and ask students to make a prediction about the things that the text might be reminding us to not forget. Then, read the blurb on the back cover and add to or refine predictions. AC9EFLA04, AC9E1LY05, AC9E2LY05
  • Before reading, look at the end pages at the front and back of the book. Notice what is the same and what is different. Ask students to think about why this might be as they listen to the book being read. AC9E3LY05, AC9E4LY05, AC9E6LY05
  • Read Jane’s Godwin’s description of why she wrote this book. As you read the book think about why she chose to include each reminder for the reader. AC9E2LY03, AC9E3LE01
  • Consider what type of text this might be. While it has a picture book format, the style of the text is instructional or advisory – for middle and upper primary take the opportunity to discuss genre and that sometimes texts can be combinations of different genres and formats. After reading ask if you would call this an instructional text? Why or why not? What else could it be? How does it differ from other instructional texts that you are familiar with? AC9E2LY05, AC9E4LA03, AC9E5LA03, AC9E5LY03, AC9E6LA03

Close reading

All year levels:

  • What matters to me? What matters to my friend? Jane Godwin has included reminders for things that she thinks are important for us to remember. Are there any things in the book that students think are not important? Are some more important than others? Different people have different ideas about what is important. Ask students to think about what matters to them. Working with a partner create a Venn diagram to compare ‘what matters to me’ and ‘what matters to my friend’. Share with the class the things that each pair has in common and the things that are different. At the beginning of the school year this could be a nice way for students to get to know each other. AC9E1LY02, AC9E3LY02
  • Visual literacy: On page 26-27 look closely at the illustrations of the people. For one of the pairs of people draw a line from their eyes to show what they are looking at. Explain that this is called ‘gaze’. Notice where the rest of the people’s gaze is directed. How do the images and the use of gaze match the words of the text – ‘And don’t forget what we can achieve together’ AC9E2LA08, AC9E3LA09, AC9E4LE02, AC9E5LE01

Lower primary:

  • Nouns and verbs – All of the sentences in this text begin with the instruction ‘don’t forget’. Some of the sentences tell us not to forget a thing or object (e.g., your coat), others tell to not forget to do something (e.g., brush your teeth). Find the words in each sentence that tell us what we should not forget and sort them into objects or things (nouns) and actions (verbs). Brainstorm some more things that we should not forget and decide whether they are nouns or verbs. AC9E1LA07

Middle/Upper primary: 

  • Themes: The text has a number of themes including resilience, friendship, community, hope, gratitude and optimism. Create a set of 12 small cards with one theme represented on each card. Include themes that are not present or not as obvious in the text (honesty, prejudice, war, culture, acceptance, etc) as well as the prominent themes. Working in small groups discuss the themes and sort them into ones that are and are not represented in the book. Then discuss and debate which one of the themes is the main theme, providing justifications and evidence for thinking, e.g. The main theme of the text is belonging because it says “don’t forget that you belong”. Encourage students to listen to the ideas of others and to appreciate that they may have differing views. AC9E3LY02, AC9E4LY02, AC9E5LY02, AC9E6LY02
  • Sentence types: All of the sentences in the text begin with ‘Don’t forget…’. These sentences are called imperative as they give an instruction. What other imperative sentences can you think of together? e.g. ‘Run to the office’. Notice that the first word of an imperative sentence is usually where the command is given, and notice that the command is always a verb. AC9E5LA04
  • Sentence length:  Look at the 3 sentences on pages 4-5. The first two are simple sentences as they contain only one clause. The third one is a compound sentence, as it contains two clauses joined by a conjunction (‘and’). Introduce or revise clauses as needed with the class. Discuss the difference between a simple and compound sentence and notice that to be a compound sentence both clauses need to make sense on their own. What is the effect on the reader of using a combination of simple and compound sentences? Rewrite the compound sentence as two simple sentences – read them out loud and compare to the original. Which do you prefer? Why? AC9E2LA06, AC9E3LA06

Upper primary: 

  • Personification: Personification is a literary device that assigns person-like characteristics to non-human things or objects. In the text Jane Godwin uses personification on page 13 - ‘the touch of each season’. Think about what the ‘touch’ of a season might feel like. Why do you think Jane Godwin decided to use personification here? How does it add to the mood of the text? Choose a season and describe what it might feel like if the season were to ‘touch you’ e.g. ‘the icy hand of winter’ or ‘the fiery breath of summer’. Think about the ways that personification can contribute to the mood of a text. [If you are using Writer’s Notebooks these examples could be recorded and used as seeds or ideas for future text creation]. AC9E5LE04

Word recognition, phonic knowledge and spelling

Lower primary: 

  • Noticing syllables: Most of the words in the text contain one or two syllables which makes it excellent for noticing the difference. Read the text on page 4-5 and then read again, focusing on the words ‘don’t’ and ‘forget’. Show students that you can use one clap as you say ‘don’t’ and two claps to show the two syllables in ‘for-get’. Read the rest of the page, supporting students to clap the syllables in each word. For additional reinforcement (and as a way to get to know each other’s names) sit in a circle and say and clap the syllables for each person’s name in the class.  AC9EFLY09
  • Compound words: There are several examples of compound words in the text including ‘homework’, ‘goodbye’, ‘sometimes’. Look closely at each word and notice that they are made up of two separate words. Does putting them together in a compound word change the meaning? Go on a word hunt in the classroom to find other compound words.

Middle primary: 

  • Contractions: ‘don’t’ is an example of a contracted word. The uncontracted form is do not. Write do and not on separate cards, then cut out the ‘o’ from not. Join the 3 pieces together to make dont. Then show students that an apostrophe is needed to show that you have ‘cut’ the ‘o’ out to make don’t. Repeat with other contracted words such as wouldn’t and can’t to reinforce the role and location of the apostrophe in these words. AC9E3LA11

Upper primary: 

  • Adding suffixes: We can alter the meaning of a word by adding a suffix. Look at the word ‘achieve’ on page 26. Begin by exploring the meaning of achieve. Then think about suffixes that can be added to alter the meaning, e.g. achievement. Adding -ment changes the word from a verb or process to a noun. Ask students to think of other words with the same suffix. Does the meaning change in the same way? What generalisation can you make about the suffix you have looked at? AC9E5LY10

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Using the book for listening, speaking, writing and creating

All year levels: 

  • How can we share what matters to us? Watch this video of Jane Godwin and Anna Walker as they talk about their creative process for ‘Don’t Forget.’ In the video Jane says, “the idea for a picture book sits in my head for a long time”. Students can create an ‘open-minded portrait’ to illustrate the things that they care about – the things that sit in their head that they don’t want to forget. Ask students to draw a self-portrait of themselves and cut around the edge and across the forehead to create an ‘open-mind’ similar to the one on the right. Draw pictures ‘spilling out’ of the mind to show all of the things that students care about. [These could be used to make a class display showing all of the unique interests of the class or added to Writer’s Notebooks as seeds for writing]. AC9EFLY06, AC9E4LE05
  • Collaborative text – Ask students to think about one thing that they think is important to remember. Create one page with their ‘Don’t forget…’ advice and an illustration to match. Collate all the pages into a class book to share in the classroom library. AC9EFLA05, AC9E2LY06, AC9E5LY06

Lower primary: 

  • Establishing classroom norms: Discuss and make a list of what matters to students when they are at school. Select some of the student ideas to support the development of classroom norms e.g. ‘don’t forget to wash your hands’ or ‘don’t forget to help your friend’. Create a shared list of expectations for the classroom. These can be turned into a chant or song to both support oral language development and help to establish routines. AC9EFLE04

Middle/upper primary: 

  • Class tree: Look closely at the tree that Anna Walker has illustrated on the front cover. She has used collage to create the illustrations. Create a large collage tree trunk for display in the classroom and ask each student to create their own leaf to add to the tree. On each leaf write or draw something that students think is important for creating a positive learning community – things they should not forget in order to grow as learners throughout the year. AC9E3LE02, AC9E4LE02

Relevant resources and links

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