Suggested Follow-up activities for ‘North’
· Write text to go with any of the ‘silent’ spreads i.e. those without any words.
· Provide your own images such as downloaded photographs, or images in other books, for children to write their own text for. With older children encourage them to imitate the style of writing used in ‘North’, which has a poetic feel, and where every word counts. Use writing partners to support the drafting/editing/redrafting process. The aim should be to produce writing of quality rather than quantity, where the writer is entirely satisfied that the very best words have been chosen. Focus on the verbs rather than strings of adjectives.
· Older children should be encouraged to use three key elements found in the writing:
o Alliteration, e.g. p4: ‘the sun sinks away’, p6: ‘coats of fur to keep the cold away’.
o Assonance, e.g. p4: ‘’even the seas freeze deep’, p 12: the cold roll of the Pacific Ocean’.
o Similes, e.g. p6: ‘the Arctic is like an icy desert’, p 25: Their long legs step like ballerinas’.
· Younger children can be prompted to use alliteration and similes, perhaps by providing starting points, e.g.
o The polar bear is as cold as…
o The sharp wind feels like…
o Choose alliterative words to describe parts of a particular animal, or the way it moves.
· To encourage vocabulary development children work in pairs, one freeze-framing e.g. the polar bear on page 7, or the musk oxen on page 51. Partners suggest words to describe their appearance (or their thoughts if fiction writing is the goal. This latter process does anthropomorphise the animals which would not occur in non-fiction).
· Re-tell the story from a polar bear’s point of view, either as non-fiction or anthropomorphised fiction. The bear stays in the Arctic all year, so sees it change through the seasons, and sees the visitors come and go.
· Choose one of the creatures that appear in the book only in the illustrations, or are mentioned only briefly, to research and write about, e.g. musk ox, Arctic fox, Polar bear, grey wolves, guillemots (on p 42-43. Children may think they are penguins, which only occur in the Antarctic), orca, Arctic hare.
Tigress, by Nick Dowson
- Look at the cover. Why does the book have the title 'Tigress? Why might the author have chosen to focus on the female rather than the male?
- Look at the endpapers. The Paisley design was chosen to represent India, one of the places where tigers live.
- Note the hot colours the illustrator has used on the first spread (p6-7) echoing the heat of the tigress's environment.
- Notice the two types of text - the main one, in a poetic style that tells the story, and the more straightforward language of the sub-text with gives extra information.
- On pages 6-7 find allusions to the tigress being magical, and link this to camouflage.
- Also on pages 6-7, find the first examples of alliteration - tree,tail; stalks, slowly; and assonance - tigress, hiding; fiery, stripy. There are many more to be found throughout the text.
- On pages 8/9 there are five sentences. Notice how they all start differently and there are no unnecessary words, showing deliberate and careful word choices that ensure an efficiency of language.
- Find the simile on page 10 - 'body like wind on water' - and find others elsewhere in the book.
- On page 14 look at the three spellings and meanings of the words two/too/to.
- List the powerful verbs e.g.: crouches, gleam, ripple, wriggling, snarl, bared, sheathed, crunched, wrinkling, quiver, gliding, nuzzles. Remember that the test of whether a word is a verb is that its tense can be changed.
- Make a time-line of tiger cubs' development
- Create tiger stripe designs in paint or collage
- Write a poem based on tigers. Include their movement, description, sounds, size, hunting etc.
- Map where tigers live
- Find and measure out the size of an adult tiger - nose to tail-tip
- Create a tiger fact-file, using this book and the internet for information
- Make a poster about protecting wild tigers
- Compose some tigery music to accompany the reading of the book
- Create a dance sequence based on the powerful verbs found in the text
- Have a debate about whether wild animals like tigers should be kept in zoos. What are the pros and cons?
Learning to Look. Using the picturebooks of Anthony Browne.
Willy’s Pictures, The Shape Game, Into the Forest and The Tunnel
The one thing above all others that Anthony Browne’s books do is to question the usual, and make us look at things in a different way. This work is based upon that premise. Whether it is used primarily for Art or Literacy, looking at the books from a visual point of view is the starting point.
Introduction
Using any or all of the four books, ask the children to look at the pictures, with no specific instruction other than to see what they can find. This exercise is designed to focus on the benefits of looking closely at the illustrative text, and forms a basis for further work.
Things to look for
- Unexpected images – places where Browne has added odd items, changed the usual unto the unusual subtly, or explicitly.
- The use of chimpanzees where we would expect there to be humans.
- Any links between texts, such as known works of art being changed, Red Riding Hood’s coat, the forest, links with traditional tales, happy endings, families.
- The part the endpapers play in the books, as well as the vignettes on the title pages.
- The ways in which pictures are framed.
- The use of close-ups, particularly at the end of the books.
- The use of the artist’s hands, shown making the illustrations.
From this beginning, you may choose to focus on either Art or Literacy, or combine both.
I’ve organised the ideas by theme.
ART
THEME – FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
Texts: Into the Forest The Tunnel
Shadows
Anthony Browne uses shading and shadows in both books to evoke fear.
· Look at the directions of shadows in relation to the light source.
· Notice how the shadowed areas are frightening or suggestive of the unknown.
Use these ideas to develop a picture of your own using the same techniques. You could use a traditional story as the basis, and include either a tunnel or a forest when creating your picture.
You could create your picture in 3D collage, and display it with a lamp or some other light source to create the shadows.
Changing Shapes
Trees have figures hidden in them, and characters & objects are disguised in the forest.
· Look closely at the trees in both books and notice how Anthony Browne has cleverly incorporated creatures and objects into the trunks and branches.
Draw your own tree, using lines to hide beasts or objects connected with a traditional tale. Individual trees could be cut out to create a large forest scene.
THEME – MAKING LINKS
Texts: The Shape Game Willy’s Pictures
· Start by playing The Shape Game in pairs – one partner draws a random shape for the other to turn into an object.
· Having looked at Willy’s or Browne’s versions of original works of art and discussed the ways in which they have been changed, provide copies of well-known paintings for the pupils to make their own parodies of. Using the original painting, paste images cut from magazines over sections, e.g. replace human faces with animal ones, old-fashioned objects with modern ones. A group parody could be created if the original was increased in size, with individuals working on particular sections of it.
· Spot the Difference: Have two copies of a famous painting. One is changed subtly by adding or changing small elements of the original. Alternatively, take a digital photograph of a person or scene, and make the changes using ICT photo software. Display the images together for others to spot the differences. Choose a frame for the finished pieces.
· Annotation: As Browne did with ‘Past and Present No.1’ in The Shape Game, annotate a painting according to what the children think the various items might represent. This could be accurately researched or done for fun! Perhaps choose a painting by Salvador Dali or Renee Magritte, both of whose work influenced Anthony Browne.
THEME – RELATIONSHIPS
Texts – The Shape Game Into the Forest The Tunnel
- All three books have families at their heart. Choose one or more of the characters and represent them visually. What would you choose to show the likes, dislikes, emotions etc. of your chosen character? Extend this to produce endpapers such as those used to represent the brother and sister in The Tunnel for characters from the other stories.
LITERACY
THEME – FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
Texts – Into the Forest The Tunnel
Poetry
- Each book is in the form of a journey. Using one or other of the books as a basis, re-write the boy or girl’s journey as a poem. Focus on their feelings linked to what they can see or hear. It could be constructed as a list poem. You could use some of the written text as suggested starting points, e.g. from The Tunnel using the girl’s words: ‘There might be…’
- Descriptive poems. The tunnel is described as ‘damp, and slimy, and scary.’ Either extend this to provide a fuller poetic description, using the senses, or work in a similar way with the forest.
- We are told in The Tunnel that the girl is afraid of the dark. Write a poem about ‘Fears’.
Stories
- Using the journey theme again, make a map of one of the stories, drawing and/or writing significant signposts along each route. Children could use these personal story maps to re-tell the story in their own words to someone else, perhaps a younger child, or record it.
- Using the idea of taking the forbidden short way round from Into the Forest write a story called ‘Taking the Short Cut’. In planning the story, consider the reason for the journey (it could be a loosely adapted version of the original), and the characters met along the way – encourage children to choose three or four from other traditional tales, such as the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk or the wicked stepmother from Cinderella. Plan a happy ending!
- Both books have a child facing fears alone. The girl does not know what might be in the tunnel, and is scared when she sees her brother turned to stone. The boy is frightened that his Dad might not come back and is scared by the characters he meets in the forest. Children could write a story about facing common fears, such as getting lost when shopping with parents, starting a new school, bullies on the playground, or perhaps something personal to them if they chose, such as accepting parents’ separation or getting used to a new step-parent (obviously, treated with caution and sensitivity). This could be in either the first or the third person.
Drama
- Freeze-frame a chosen image from either of the books, e.g. the boy and his mother seated at the table at the beginning of Into the Forest or the brother and sister on the piece of waste ground from The Tunnel. Ask the class to suggest what each character might be thinking – speak their thoughts aloud. The freeze-frame could be photographed, and speech bubbles added to record their possible thoughts.
- Conscience Alley. Using either the girl from The Tunnel or the boy from Into the Forest, ask a child to be that character, walking slowly between two lines of children. One line represents ‘good’ thoughts, the other ‘bad’ thoughts. As the child passes, they say something either to persuade the character to go into the tunnel or the forest, or not to. At the end, ask the child what they would choose.
- Acting the story. As the story is read, children could simply mime the action. Alternatively, they could work in groups to act it out, with a combination of their own words and some taken from the text.
THEME – MAKING LINKS
Texts – Into the Forest The Tunnel The Shape Game Willy’s Pictures
Intertextuality.
- This introduction is a looking and discussion activity. Ask pupils to see what stories they can find hidden within the books. In the case of Into the Forest and the Tunnel, the links are with traditional tales, whereas with The Shape Game and Willy’s Pictures as well as the family and Willy himself being familiar from other Browne books, the links are the paintings themselves.
Stories
- Using a traditional tale as a starting point, write a new version of one section. (The whole story would take too long!) This could be, for example, a modern or futuristic version of Cinderella, or Aladdin. What would Cinders travel in if the setting was 21st century? What would a modern version of Aladdin’s lamp be?
- Willy ‘knows that every picture tells a story’. Choose a picture from any of the books and tell its story.
- Choose one of the pictures from The Shape Game where there is an original and a Browne parody version. Compare the two, listing the links, then write a story based around one or both of them. Decide from whose point of view the story will be told.
Drama
- Use the freeze-frame activities suggested in the previous theme.
THEME – RELATIONSHIPS
Texts – Into the Forest The Tunnel The Shape Game
Writing
- All three books involve family relationships in some form. Start by identifying what these are, and discuss the feelings of each character. These could be written in the form of character sketches, perhaps with a picture of each character at the centre.
- Re-write one of the stories from a particular character’s point of view. How would the brother in The Tunnel tell the story? What might Mum from The Shape Game say about the day’s visit to the gallery? What could Dad’s version of events be in Into the Forest? And what might Mum be thinking whilst the boy is going to Grandma’s house? This could be extended to writing several versions of the same story, e.g. each of the family in The Shape Game.
- In The Tunnel the brother’s feelings towards his sister seem to change. Write a story where, because of one character saving the other, their feelings towards each other change.
- What might happen after the books have finished? Write the next day’s events from one of the stories, focusing on how the characters behave towards each other, what they say and what they might do or plan to do.
- Find some more bad jokes for Dad to tell!
Drama
- Once again, choose images to freeze frame and add character’s thoughts.
- Hot seat a character. If your pupils are not familiar with hot seating, start with yourself in the hot seat. Questions could be planned beforehand in pairs.
All the books could have reviews written for them.
Pick a book you enjoy - a picturebook will probably give you a greater range of opportunities and with a wider age range - sit down and list any ideas at all that spring to mind, under any curriculum area. So look at the illustrations as much as you read the written text. What art activities does it suggest? Is there any maths hidden in there? Is there a location that could be linked to geography, or some element that could be interpreted historically? Does science get a look-in, or could it be used for music or dance interpretation? Once you get into the habit of this, you could have a small hoard of books to be used for any occasion, and at a moment's notice!
Until I Met Dudley
This fabulous book by the inspirational pairing of Roger McGough (words) and Chris Riddell (pictures) was first recommended as part of the old Literacy Strategy, to stimulate the writing of explanation texts, and it was an excellent suggestion. Children (and maybe even sometimes their teachers!) can sometimes get confused between explanation and instructions. Using this amusing book can clear that up immediately!
The idea is that 'I thought I knew how things worked...until I met Dudley'. The narrator has weird and wonderful suggestions for how things like washing machines and vaccuum cleaners worked, which are shared with us - and then Dudley explains them all properly. It doesn't actually matter how the things work for real - the language of explanation is demonstrated beautifully, and the wrong, but hugely imaginative explanations are what you then ask the children to work on, providing their own expanded drawings, with appropriate captions, on their own ideas for how things work. I suggest making a list of things NOT in the book, and offering these, whilst also letting the children come up with their own ideas. They'll need an A3 piece of paper to do this justice, and a couple of sessions to complete their work. Then you have a fantastic display!
Window
Jeannie Baker is a wonderful Australian picturebook maker. Her books have little or no written text but say a lot through her beautifully crafted collage images. This book tells the story of how the view from a window changes over the years, thanks to what some like to call progress. It's the kind of picturebook that can easily convince older children that such publications are not always intended for younger readers - although this can be enjoyed by all ages. Its applications in the classroom are many, but I would suggest three to start with:
- For speaking and listening; debate and speculation; phhilosophical questions.
- For writing. Write in role as someone living in the house, recording the changes over the years and their feelings about them.
- For art. Create, either in paint or collage, a view from a window. This could be known or imaginary, present, past or future, or perhaps a view that a particular fictional or historic character might have seen through their own window.
- Find China on a map. Locate mountain areas where Giant Pandas might live.
- Find photographs of bamboo on the internet. Maybe someone you know has some bamboo growing in their garden so the children can see the real thing.
- Make a journey map of the story, annotating it with the events that happen as the pandas travel. Children use it to tell the story in their own words.
- Listen to traditional Chinese music, then the children compose some music of their own that can accompany the reading of the story.
- Make panda masks.
- Look at the poetic language used in the story; find examples of alliteration and assonance. Use some of the ideas and language for the children to write a poem about pandas.
- Re-write the story from the point of view of the panda cub.
- Use the factual sub-text, and other information from the internet, to create a Giant Panda fact file. Maybe each fact could start with ‘Did you know…’
- Make a lift-the-flap question & answer display, using facts from the book, e.g. ‘What do Giant Pandas eat?’ is on the front; lift the flap to reveal ‘Bamboo’ as the answer.
- Make a large collage of a Giant Panda, using screwed up tissue, fur fabric, or torn paper. Around it place facts about the animal, written by the children.
- Find out more about Giant Pandas, including their conservation, e.g. at http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/
http://www.panda.org.cn/english/index.htm
- Talk about whether pandas and other endangered species should be kept in zoos.
The wonderful Lane Smith has come up with a unique and wonderful picturebook, that is aching to be read and talked about. Here's a link to an animated trailer on You Tube. You could just use this, but there's more in the book itself, and it's somewhat ironic that there even IS an animated version, as you will discover. Watch and/or read it and talk about the book versus technology.
What do THEY think?
When you've shared a story/traditional tale/book/film clip/poem with your class, instead of YOU telling THEM what they're going to do, why not ask them for their own ideas? You might need to suggest a few starters or give a couple of examples, and it will help if you give them subject headings - Art, Maths, DT, Music, etc. Encourage them to share ideas together, and depending on their age, they could be challenged to work out how to do it - basically to come up with a lesson plan! What resources would they need? What order would things need to be done in? How long would it take? What success criteria would they have?
Then you have to decide whether to use any of their ideas!
NB This idea also appears on the Instant Lessons page.
Marauders Map
You know that fabulous interactive map in Harry Potter, that shows him where everyone is at any given time, inside Hogwarts? Well, of course it couldn't be reproduced without magic...but you could use the idea to show where the characters in a story might be at a particular point in the plot; maybe use different colours for the same character to show their progress around the setting...
The Lost Happy Endings
Carol-Ann Duffy's wonderful book The Lost Happy Endings with beautiful illustrations by Jane Ray, can be the focus for so much work. Here's just one idea based on the story. Make cards with lots of typical story endings (see below). Hide them around the room, and ask pairs of children to find them - like an Easter-egg hunt. See how many well-known stories they can match their endings to, then challenge them to create their own story endings. Give these to other children to write a story that could go with the ending. Here are some you could use for the hunt:
- and they both lived happily ever after
- and he was never seen again
- and he never told any more lies
- the king gave his blessing and all the people in the kingdom came to the wedding
- and she realised just how lucky she was
- and after that she always did what she was told
- and all their wishes came true
- and they never wanted for anything ever again
- so they never argued any more
- and they both knew it was for the best
- and they all laughed til they cried
- it was the best cake they had ever eaten
- after that she never went into the forest again
- next time, she did exactly what her mother told her
- they remembered that day for ever
- 'It's true' she said, 'Sometimes wishes do come true.'
- But then the wind changed, and just as she said she would, she flew away.
- they pushed the wicked old woman into the oven and ran back home through the forest
- If you went to that kingdom you would not find one single spinning wheel
- And his supper was still hot
Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 by Margaret Mallett is a new title by an experienced teacher, teacher-educator and writer with a passion for using books in the classroom. The breadth that Margaret has achieved in this excellent book is remarkable - there are over 1,000 titles included in the book which is full of ideas, all underpinned by a lifetime of knowledge and practise. This book would earn its place on any primary teacher's bookshelf, and you'd find it useful for years to come. I can't recommend it highly enough - it's a real achievement of a book. Find out more about it here:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781843123224/
Katie Morag and the Wedding
Some time ago I ran a very successful whole school day based on Mairi Hedderwick's Katie Morag and the Wedding. 
- Make wedding invitations
- Write postcards
- Make maps of the Island based on those from the book’s endpapers
- Write letters between the two grannies
- Create a menu for the café on the Island
- Make a menu for the Wedding party
- Write something to go on the village noticeboard
- Write instructions for how to make the giant chocolate cake eaten at the wedding party
- Follow instructions for making wedding decorations
- Make a plan for the wedding
- Design a leaflet for a helicopter flight over the island
- Play a ‘Deliver the Mail’ board game
Using books across the curriculum
Some titles to inspire cross-curricular links
Dance
KS1 Penguin Small – Mick Inkpen
KS2 The Crafty Chameleon - Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway
Drama
KS1 Tiger – Nick Butterworth
We’re Going on a Bearhunt – Michael Rosen
The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
KS2 The Iron Man - Ted Hughes
Voices in the Park - Anthony Browne
PSHE
KS1 Two Monsters (Conflict) - David McKee
Wonderful Life (Friendship, Loneliness) – Helen Ward
KS1/2 Say Hello (Friendship, Loneliness) - Jack & Michael Foreman
History
KS2 WWII Rose Blanche - Roberto Innocenti
Carrie’s War- Nina Bawden
Archie’s War- Marcia Williams
Geography/Science
KS2 The Future of the Earth - Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Science
KS1 Egg Drop (Life Cycles) – Mini Grey
Walker Books ‘Nature Storybooks’ each on a specific animal.
Music
EY/KS1 Igor, the Bird who couldn’t sing - Satoshi Kitamura
KS2 The Carnival of the Animals – poems - Satoshi Kitamura
Philosophy
Whilst there are often obvious philosophical elements to what might seem, on the surface, to be even the simplest picture books, if you read a thought-provoking story to children, and ask them what puzzles them about it, or what it makes them wonder or think about, it is often surprising what they come up with. The following titles are useful starting points.
George and Sylvia – Michael Coleman and Tim Warnes
Aesop’s Fables
It’s So Unfair! – Pat Thomson and Jonathan Allen
Click Clack Moo, Cows that type –Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Bear Goes to Town - Anthony Browne
Anansi stories
Horrid Henry - Francesca Simon
Talking Turkeys - Benjamin Zephaniah
Horrible Harriet – Leigh Hobbs
Zoo - Anthony Browne
Egg and Bird – Alex Higlett
Little Beaver and the Echo – Amy Macdonald and Sarah Fox-Davies
Literacy
KS1/Lower KS2
Fairy Tales & Intertextuality
Previously - Allan Ahlberg
Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book - Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
KS2
Explanation texts
Until I Met Dudley - Roger McGough
Letter writing
When you're teaching your class how to write letters, or if you need a stimulus for a letter-writing project, why not use the picturebook 'Dear Greenpeace'? It's been around for some time, but is one of those old-but-gold titles that's always worth having - the message doesn't fade. If you don't know it, the book is a series of (fictional!)letters between a little girl who finds a whale in her paddling pool, and the organisation Greenpeace, who she turns to for advice. The little girl's letters are of coure much more informal in tone than the replies from Greenpeace, who sadly can't believe that her claim is true...
Compare finished anthologies and discuss the children's reasons for their groupings.
(Incidentally, although the book was written with secondary children in mind, the ideas in it are excellent for adapted use with primary children).
The Hodgeheg Letter writing
Compare finished anthologies and discuss the children's reasons for their groupings.
(Incidentally, although the book was written with secondary children in mind, the ideas in it are excellent for adapted use with primary children).
One of Dick-King-Smith's best-loved books and still enjoyed by young readers.
- Ongoing - Whilst you are sharing the book with the class, they could be compiling a Hedghog factfile.
- Chapter 1 - Create a Road Safety poster and/or a list of rules for safely crossing the road. Use the same basic idea but written as a TV advert.
- Chapter 5 - What is it? Write detailed descriptions of everyday objects, based on the was the crossing and phone box are described in the book.
- Chapter 8 - Write a poem about seeing the world from a different viewpoint - e.g. human feet on the crossing from the hedgehog's point of view.
- Chapter 9 - Write a telephone conversation between the Lollipop Lady and a friend, about the hedgehogs crossing the road. OR Write a Newspaper or TV news report of the First Crossing, to include clips of an interview with the Lollipop Lady and/or a motorist.
Make a Hatalogue!
I had some great fun working with Year 2 children using Satoshi Kitamura's 'Millie's Marvellous Hat'. We had lots of different hats for them to try on - we took photos of the children in the hat of their choice, printing each one for them to write their own description. We put these into a 'Hatalogue' for everyone to read. Of course, the children made their own hats, using a doughnut shaped piece of sugar paper as a basis.
We played 'Who would wear a hat like this?' with the children choosing a hat for others to guess who might wear it. The children created their own adverts to sell either the hat they'd made or one from the collection. They also had the chance to make books where the pages were split horizontally, drawing different hats on the top half so that when the page is turned over, the faces they had drawn on the lower half appeared to be wearing a different hat. Each hat had a brief description of it written at the top of the page.
The Iron Man
Ted Hughes' classic is still a fantastic read. Here are some ideas for different types of writing inspired by each chapter.
- Chapter 1 - design a 'Lost' poster for the Iron Man, include when he was last seen, a description, his special powers, his size, etc.
- Chapter 2 - write a poem about catching the Iron Man. Have several verses, chronologically arranged so that they tell the story. Use the 'Clink clink, clink' from the text as part of a chorus.
- Chapter 3 - write the opening picnic scene as a playscript. or, write a recipe for the Iron Man's perfect meal - use an image of a scrapyard as a further stimulus.
- Chapter 4 - write a TV news report, giving details of the story about the space being.
- Chapter 5, or the whole book - write an autobiography in role as Hogarth as an old man, recalling the events of the story.
The Future of the Earth, by Yann-Arthus Bertrand
Downloadable teaching notesI wrote these extensive teaching notes for this wonderful photographically illustrated book by Yann-Arthus Bertrand, for the Write Away website. Click on the link above to download them.
Book-based games
I first became aware of book-based games after seeing the wonderful Helen Bromley demonstrate them. They're a brilliant way of cross-curricular working. Choose your book - picture books work particularly well - and the children make their own board game based on elements of the book. Track games are the easiest, maybe with packs of cards (like those in Monopoly) for forfeits or advantages. You'll be combining reading, writing, D&T, maths and art.
Aargh! Spider! game
Here's a board game by Year 4 children based on the book 'Aarrgh Spider!'
And here's one based on Anthony Browne's 'Into the Forest'
