# Original teacher-read stories · not child-decodable assignments

These original stories deliberately use richer vocabulary than the learner's controlled print. **An adult reads every word aloud**. Children may retell by speech, sign, AAC, drawing, arranging scene cards or directing an adult. Do not use the stories as independent decoding tests. No real child, family or local place is represented.

## Week 3 · The signs that moved

Nia and Eli cared for two pretend seed trays at the class maker table. They drew a sun on one paper sign and a water drop on another. At the end of the day, a breeze from the open door blew both signs across the table. Eli stopped. “Which sign belongs beside which tray?”

Nia looked at the drawings they had made earlier. One drawing showed a tray beside the window; the other showed a tray near the tap. They clipped the signs to stiff cards and put them beside the matching trays. Eli drew a little map so the group could find the signs again. The next morning both signs were where they expected.

“The map helps us remember,” Nia said. “We still need to check each tray before we decide what to do.” Eli agreed and left a blank space on the map for a new observation. The group wanted a record, not a guess.

**Teacher discussion, not an answer to copy:** Who are the characters? What changed when the signs moved? What did they do first, next and last? Why leave a blank space? Accept an evidence-linked retell and other sensible questions. The story does not teach that a drawing proves a plant has water, or that every tray needs the same care.

## Week 4 · The puppet show card

The library group made a tiny show with paper puppets. Miri wrote a card to help the actors remember the order, but she left out the marks that separate sentences. The card looked like one long instruction. When the group tried it, one child stopped the puppet Dot while another let Dot walk on. Everyone had been trying to follow the same card.

They read the message aloud slowly. Miri decided which idea came first and where it ended. She started the next idea with a capital letter and gave each idea a full stop. Then the group acted the two steps again. This time the puppets moved in the order they had planned.

Miri kept the first card beside the new one. “The words mattered,” she said, “and the spaces and marks helped us see where one thought ended.” The group asked a new actor to try the card without hearing their explanation. When that actor could follow it, they knew the message had become clearer.

**Teacher discussion:** What problem did the first card cause? What did Miri change? How did the group test whether the card helped? A capital/full-stop edit is a visible convention; comprehension still depends on the words and context. If the class uses a different sentence example, keep the two independent ideas and read them naturally.

**Rights:** Original SubjectNest story text © NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Credit source and mark changes. A school may replace these with its own rights-cleared literature; no external story is reproduced here.