Sally Murphy's Blog, page 31

Poetry Friday: First Swim

It’s Poetry Friday and, as the weather here starts to warm up, my thoughts have turned to swimming. I’m lucky enough to be able to swim all year round in my local heated pool, and I love that, but I really really love to swim in an outdoor pool or at the beach.

When I was growing up, we lived in the same street as the local pool. That was wonderful, but the pool was not heated, which meant that it was only open for about four months of the year. SO, it didn’t matter whether it was really warm enough, or whether the water had reached a decent temperature, on the first day the pool opened I was there. Today’s poem is about that experience, that feeling. I hope you like it.

First Swim

Not a swimming photo – since I couldn’t find one – but some flowery balls of sunshine from the garden to brighten your day, wherever you are.

Summer’s here

and I rejoice

to see the OPEN sign outside the pool.

Blue water beckons

and once I’ve paid

I dump my towel and rush

to greet my old friend.

SPLASH!

Bliss bubbles and bibbles

as I plunge into icy depths.

(Poem  and photo copyright Sally Murphy)

Do you love to swim? Or is there something else that you eagerly anticipate with the changing of the seasons? I’d love to hear about it.

Have a wonderful Friday. Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Teacher Dance. Head over there to see what other poetry goodness has been shared on the blogosphere.

A Visit to Doonside, and an Adventure with Flat Stanley(s)

I love the author life. Sometimes I have to remind myself that what I do is work.

Last week I had a flying visit to Sydney. I flew over, spent a day working on a school, another day checking in with two of my publishers, and on the third day visited some of my favourite Sydney landmarks. Throw in a catch-up with two of the most wonderful friends a person could want to have- both fellow authors – and I had the perfect combination of work and pleasure.

The purpose of the trip was to visit St John Vianney’s Primary   in the suburb of Doonside. There I worked with the year 5 students in a whole day workshop. We explored Do Not Forget Australia,and the story behind it, and by the end of the day every child had written at least two new poem drafts. These young writers were keen,passionate and amazing, and their teachers were pretty special too.

An added, unexpected, bonus  was the opportunity to meet the two year one classes who, with the help of the librarian, crashed my workshop to each shake my hand, introduce themself and hand me a Flat Stanley they had cut out and coloured in. I had told the librarian how much I remembered Flat Stanley from my childhood, and this had given her the idea. The children, she told me later, were just excited to think that Flat Stanley might travel in a plane. But then another teacher told me that there were many children living in the Western Suburbs of Sydney who might ever have seen landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And an idea formed.

So,for the remainder of my trip, wherever I went, Flat Stanley went, too. I did attract plenty of funny looks, but I had lots of fun,and I think Stanley did,too.He even met up with Sage Cookson along the way.

Here’s what I ended up with:

;

The final video was, I must confess, put together on a plane and,as such, I can see a couple of flaws I would have fixed had I had more clicking space for the mouse, and better eyesight to spot a couple of proofreading and resolution issues.But, alas, I saved the project to video format without saving it in editable format.

Still, I had fun,and hope the children enjoy what I have done.

Book Day: Sage Cookson’s Latest Adventure released Today

Jingle bells, Jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Sage Cookson’s Christmas Ghost

Is released today!

That’s right folks. It’s a new month and I am really excited to announce that the sixth title in the Sage Cookson series is now available. This time, Sage heads to Mundaring, near Perth, to witness an attempt to make a world record sized pavlova. But, of course, not everything goes according to plan. Could there really be a ghost getting in the way? It;s up to Sage to find out.

Available in all good bookstores, or online here,  Sage Cookson’s Christmas Ghost is suitable for ages 6 and up.

Now, sing it with me:

Jingle bells, Jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Sage Cookson’s Christmas Ghost

Is released today!

HEY!

 

 

 

What I Read in October

I’ve had a very busy October, which is wonderful, but has impacted on the number of books I got through this month. Still, there are some amazing titles in the thirteen books I did read.  From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle made me cry. It’s only the second Kate De Goldi book that I have read, but it won’t be the last.  Braving the Wilderness also introduced me to a new author, researcher Brene Brown. I am so glad my friend Sue recommended Brene’s work to me. Her examination of aspects of belonging spoke so much to me, and I have a second book loaded onto my Audible account to listen to.  Here’s the lists of what I got through in October, with links either to my reviews or to where you can find them online.

Picture Books

Eric the Postie, by Matt Shanks

Younger Readers

Dinosaur Trouble: The Great Egg Stink, by Kyle Mewburn & Donovan Bixley

Dinosaur Trouble: The Lava Melt Shake, by Kyle Mewburn & Donovan Bixley

From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle, by Kate de Goldi

To the Moon and Back, by Dianne Bates

Clockwork, by Philip Pullman

Young Adult

Dreamology, by Lucy Keating

Adult

No Matter What!, by Lisa Nichols

Half Wild, by Pip Smith

The Figures on the Lake, by Peter O’Shaughnessy

Braving the Wilderness,by Brene Brown

5000 Words per Hour, by Chris Fox

How to Make a Living with Your Writing: Books, Blogging and More[image error], by Joanna Penn

Have you read any of these, or do you have another recommendation for me? I’d love to hear from you.

Teacher Tuesday: Using Pearl Verses the world in a Year Five Classroom

Welcome to the fifth edition of Teacher Tuesday, where I match one of my books to a year level, and offer some activities for sharing the book in the classroom. In previous weeks I shared activities for Looking Up, Do Not Forget Australia, Snowy’s Christmas and The Floatingest Frog.

This week, per a request from a year 5 teacher, I am focusing on my verse novel, Pearl Verses the World.

Using Pearl Verses the World in a Year Five Classroom

Pearl Verses the World, by Sally Murphy, illustrations by Heather Potter

Published by Walker Books, 2009

ISBN: 9781921150937 (Paperback)

Format 80 page Paperback, RRP $14.95

US and UK Editions also available.

Blurb: At school, Pearl feels as though she is in a group of one. Her teacher wants her to write poems that rhyme but Pearl’s poems don’t. At home, however, Pearl feels safe and loved, but her grandmother is slowly fading, and so are Mum and Pearl.

Sally’s Recommended Grade Levels: Year 2- Adult, but these suggestions focus on Year 5.

Themes/Topics:

Belonging
Family
Aging/Dementia
Death
Empathy and Compassion
Poetry
School

Publisher teaching notes available HERE.

More wonderful teaching ideas HERE.

Curriculum Links:

Year 5 English

The following ideas can be used separately, choosing just those which fit your classroom needs. However, this unit offers an opportunity for regular journal writing activities. As such, setting up a special writing book (or section of an existing daily writing book) for each child before reading begins, and then using it throughout reading could add an extra dimension to a novel study.

Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality (ACELA1504)
Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds in formal and informal situations, connecting ideas to students’ own experiences and present and justify a point of view (ACELY 1699)

Before reading:

Journal writing. In the days/weeks before introducing the book, have students write on one or more of the following questions: What kinds of books do you like to read? Do you like reading poetry? What does it mean to be lonely? After each journal writing activity, provide opportunities for sharing in groups or in class discussion.
Show students the cover of the book. Discuss reactions to the title, the front cover illustrations and the blurb. The blurb includes the word ‘poignant’. Discuss what this might mean. Journal writing:  Make a prediction. What do you think Pearl Verses the World might be about?

During Reading

Read pages 7 to 11, finishing with “Which made her poor teacher go hurl.” Discuss what has happened so far. Why is Pearl lonely? How does she feel about poetry? Does poetry have to rhyme? The last five lines are a limerick. Discuss whether that part rhymes. Who is speaking/writing the limerick?
Journal writing: Pearl is in a group of one. Do you belong to any groups at school? Do you think your own class has groups?
Read pages 11 to 17. Recap events. Discuss the revelations about what is happening at home. Focus on what we now know about Pearl’s life. Encourage connections to children’s own lives re family structures, illness, loneliness, but also the happy stuff like spinning.
Journal Writing: Which part of Pearl’s story so far do your feel reflects your own life? How does that make you feel? Pearl loves spinning. What is your favourite movement: running/jumping/skipping/standing still? Write about that movement and how it makes you feel.
Read pages 18 to 26. Recap events. Discuss, again encouraging responses and connections to students’ lives and experiences. Explore Pearl’s relationship with Prudence Jones and with Mitchell Mason. Other areas to highlight in discussion include the swimming and library scenes. Discuss how Pearl feels about poetry. In groups or as a class discuss what makes a poem, building on earlier discussion.
Journal writing: Do you like poetry/ Why/why not? What kinds of poetry?  What makes a good book? Write about your favourite book.
Read pages 27 to 35. These are some difficult pages so, before reading, have students ready their journals and writing materials. Tell them that, after you have read the pages you want them to write their responses in their journals FIRST and then discuss them after. After reading the pages, repeat the instruction. Give time to write about how they feel about what is happening to Granny, Pearl and Mum. After writing, group of class discussion about what has happened.
Repeat this process for pages 37 -50, 51-64 and 65 to 73.
Read pages 74 to 74. Discuss ending. Discuss: Is this a happy ending, or not? Could it have ended differently? How did students feel about the ending?
Journal writing: Do stories need to have happy endings? Why/Why not.  Write a new scene, either changing the ending, or showing a scene in Pearl’s life a month/year after the story ends.


Present a point of viewabout particular literary texts using appropriate metalanguage, and reflecting on the viewpoints of others(ACELT1609)
Use metalanguageto describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features on particular audience (ACELT 1795)
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (ACELY1700)


During reading introduce students to the terms ‘free verse’ and ‘verse novel’. After reading use groups to establish similarities and differences between verse novels and prose novels.
In groups, students to decide which form they prefer and prepare a presentation to class explaining why.
As a follow up, brainstorm arguments from both sides.(In my ideal world, class would arrive at the realisation that one form is not better than another, but offer different strengths). Discuss whether pearl verses the World might have been as effective written in prose.
Journal writing: Rewrite a scene in prose. Write a book review of Pearl verses the World.


Understand, interpret and experiment with sound devicesand imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, in narratives, shape poetry, songs, anthems and odes (ACELT1611)
Createliterary texts that experiment with structures, ideas and stylistic features of selected authors (ACELT1798)
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing textstructures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY 1704)


Either during reading or after, examine the limerick on p. 11, and limericks from other sources. Us a worksheet like this one HERE  to establish how limericks work. Focus on rhyme patterns, rhythm patterns and content before having students create limericks of their own.
During or after reading revise or introduce devices including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, repetition, tricolon. Use examples from the book, or have students identify them in the book. Experiment with ach form either in journals or on worksheets or display boards. If you have space on yoru pin up boards, have places where students can write examples of each device on strips of paper or stickynotes and build up a bank of examples.
Examine the elements of free verse poetry (this link here is a simple starting point). Write lots of poems: there are many great lesson ideas on this site, from Australian poets.
Have students create a class poetry book OR individual chapbooks

Other suggestions for using Pearl verses the world in your classroom include:



Pearl Verses the World can be used as a springboard to building empathy, and to understand differences between sympathy and empathy, outside of the literacy classroom.
Pearl Verses the World is wonderful for reading aloud. Use an extract in the drama classroom for students to memorise and perform.


Email the author (that’s me!) Your students can write to me through this website, and share their responses or ask questions.

Related Books (these are all verse novels)

Roses are Blue, by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Gabriel Evans
Toppling, by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Rhian Nest James
On Track, by Kathryn Apel
Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not), by Sherryl Clark
Star Jumps, by Lorraine Marwood
Do Wrong Ron, by Steven herrick

Mostly, I’d love to remind you that while I love to see my books used in classrooms, I also love to see kids just enjoying them. Reading a book should be pleasurable – whether it’s being used in the classroom or not.  So allow your students to enjoy reading Pearl Verses the World.

If you find this useful, or have any suggestions or comments, do leave a comment. And, if there is a particular book or year level or topic that you would like covered in a future edition of Teacher Tuesday, let me know.

Successful Adulting

As you might know if you visit this site regularly, is that I love to read widely and I love to write all kinds of thing heading with my life, at the same time as exploring my learnings from some difficult times I’ve been through.

I don’t yet know if any of this writing will become a book or not, but I have been enjoying the writing and have also been having fun with posting some of my random thoughts and observations on a new adult-focused Facebook page called Succesfully Adulting. It’s a mix of funny observations, serious ones, and public admission of my attempts to, as the name suggests successfully adult.

Here’s the latest bit I’ve shared on the page, a quote from the amazing Brené Brown a researcher and author who I have only very recently discovered, but who you will soon see featuring in my monthly ‘what I read’ posts.

 

If you’d like to see what I’m doing on the page, feel free, and feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, enjoy the quote.

Poetry Friday: From the Ball of Fluff Under Your Bed

It’s Poetry Friday and I am so glad to be posting for the second Friday in a row, following a big break. This week I was lucky enough to travel to Sydney, and to visit a wonderful school called St John Vianney’s  in the suburb of Doonside.

I was there to work with two wonderful year 5 classes, and we spent much of the day reading, writing and talking about poetry. The aim was to get them to have at least one poem drafted by the end of the day. But – amazingly – nearly every child had three poems drafted or started, and every child had two whole poems drafted. That is amazing work and left me filled with joy.

So today I thought I’d share one of my poems which I shared with the children in Doonside. I wanted to model how a free verse poem can be used to explore all kinds of topics, and to see how voice can dictate what we ‘see’ in a poem, but also how it is up to the reader to interact, and it is the reader’s experience of the poem whcih ultimately determines the poem’s reception.

I chose this poem  to use, with others, because when I wrote it I thought it was a bit-of-fun poem, but one of my university colleagues, when she read it, saw it as sad because of what it says about a child fearing their parent. She wasn’t wrong, and neither was I: every reader should be allowed to have their own response to what they read. This is an important lesson for poets to learn, whether they be in year 5 or hold a doctorate in poetry.

Amway, here’s the poem. I’d love to hear your response.

From the ball of fluff under your bed

I mean you no harm.

Honestly.

I did not even mean to be here,

brought into simple existence

by your refusal to keep

this part of your bedroom tidy.

Yet here I am,

lurking behind five odd socks

last week’s homework

and a mouldy apple core

(which I wish you’d remove).

Come midnight

I will not transform into a monster

and scare you witless

or drink your blood

or mutter and moan .

No, at midnight –

and at every other hour,

come to think of it –

I will continue to be

just a ball of fluff.

But heed this warning:

even a humble ball of fluff

knows that the time is coming

when you will shake with fear.

Yes – one day,

one day soon

your mother

(perhaps lured by the smell of that apple core)

will lift the edge of your bedspread

and see

the socks

the homework

the apple core

and me.

And then there will be trouble.

(Poem Copyright Sally Murphy)

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales. Brenda’s contribution is absolutely wonderful – and you might see, as you read it, that I was amazed we had both chosen unusual voices or narrators for our poems. Head over there to see what other poetry goodness is being shared in the blogosphere. Have a great Friday and a great week to come.

Teacher Tuesday: Using Snowy’s Christmas in a Year 2 Classroom

Welcome to the fourth edition of Teacher Tuesday, where I match one of my books to a year level, and offer some activities for sharing the book in the classroom. In previous weeks I shared activities for Looking Up, Do Not Forget Australia and The Floatingest Frog.

This week, with Christmas getting ever closer, I’m focusing on a Christmas book: Snowy’s Christmas. And, because this book can be a little hard to get hold of, I am also offering signed copies, posted anywhere in Australia, for $15. You can contact me directly.

Using Snowy’s Christmas in a Year Two Classroom

Snowy’s Christmas, text by Sally Murphy, illustrations by David Murphy

Published by Random House, 2011

ISBN: 9781921042546 (Paperback)

Format 24 page Picturebook, RRP $14.99

Available directly from me. Contact me HERE.

Blurb: ‘Snowy hopped to the billabong. The face reflected in the water was not rugged and red like the other roos, but soft and white.’  Snowy is feeling left out and doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas with his friends. But then a mysterious stranger arrives by the billabong and suddenly Snowy’s Christmas is looking up.

Sally’s Recommended Grade Levels: Year K-3, but these suggestions focus on Year 2.

Themes/Topics:

Christmas
Kangaroos
Australian animals
Mothers
Diversity
Acceptance

Curriculum Links:

Year 2 English

Identify visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and consider how these images add to or contradict or multiply the meaning of accompanying words (ACELA1469)
Identify aspects of different types of literary texts that entertain, and give reasons for personal preferences (ACELT159)


Before reading: Look at the front cover. Explain that Sally Murphy is the author and David Murphy is the illustrator (As an aside, because students may ask, David is Sally’s brother-in-law). Discuss: What does an author do? What does an illustrator do? Prompt students to look closely at the illustrations while the story is read, looking for anything that ways the words and pictures show the same things, and ways that the pictures  show something different or extra.
During reading: First read-through – read whole story without asking questions. Let students enjoy the story.
After first read through: ask students to name any differences/similarities they saw.
Re-read, prompting students to look especially at the kangaroo characters and what their various facial and body expressions show about how they are feeling. As students contribute, discuss which expressions reflect the words, and which add to or even contradict what the words are saying.
After Reading: Have students divide a sheet of blank paper into four. In each square students draw a picture of Snowy feeling a different emotion: sad/surprised/excited/happy.
Reread story, or simply view the pictures, asking students to identify anything happening in the pictures which is NOT part of the story of the kangaroos and Santa. As you read, build a list of the various animal characters shown in the book – koala, wombat, echidna etc. If you have multiple copies of the book, this could be down in groups. If only one copy is available, it can be a whole-class activity.
Discuss: Why do illustrators – and in this case, David Murphy – include details in the pictures which are not in the words? Does it add interest? Does it make the story easier to understand?
Art: Have students draw/paint animal characters. Alternatively, provide preprinted animal stencils (there are a good range on this site HERE). These could be cut out as classroom decorations.

 

Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and characters from literary texts (ACELT 1593)
Innovate on familiar texts by experimenting with character, setting or plot (ACELT1833)
Discuss different texts on a similar topic, identifying similarities and differences between the texts (ACELY1665)


For the following activities, a picture book version of the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is needed.
After reading Snowy’s Christmas, share the book of Rudolph
Before reading: Ask students to listen carefully to the story, prompting them to consider whether it is similar to another book they have recently heard.
After Reading: Discuss – are there similarities between Snowy’s Christmas and  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Explain: Sally Murphy wrote Snowy’s Christmas as an attempt to tell an Australian version of  the Rudolph story.
In Groups/Pairs: Students to complete a table noting how the two books are similar or different in areas including: Plot – Beginning, Middle, End/Characters/Setting/Illustration Style/Other. Groups to discuss which book they prefer, giving reasons.
Report back to class and discuss.
Writing: As a class, or in groups, work to rewrite another Christmas story or song into an Australian version. For example, the story of Frosty the Snowman.

Other suggestions for using Snowy’s Christmas your classroom include:

Writing:  What happens next? Students write a story about what happens to Snowy after Christmas. Does he go back to live with his mother? How do the other kanagaroos react? Does he have any more adventures?
Art: There are many ideas for Christmas and Kangaroo activities available online. For example, make this kangaroo planter as a pre-christmas craft activity.
Email the author (that’s me!) Your students can write to me through this website, and share their responses or ask questions.

Related Books

The Twelve Days of Aussie Christmas, by Colin Buchanan and Glen Singleton
We Wish You a Ripper Christmas , by Colin Buchanan and Roland Harvey
Christmas At Grandad’s Farm, by Claire Saxby and Janine Dawson
Christmas At Grandma’s Beach House, by Claire Saxby and Janine Dawson
A Very Wombat Christmas, by Lachlan Creagh

Mostly, I’d love to remind you that while I love to see my books used in classrooms, I also love to see kids just enjoying them. Reading a book should be pleasurable – whether it’s being used in the classroom or not.  So allow your students to enjoy reading Snowy’s Christmas. And, if you do want a copy of Snowy’s Christmas I am offering signed copies, posted anywhere in Australia, for $15. You can contact me directly.

If you find this useful, or have any suggestions or comments, do leave a comment. And, if there is a particular book or year level or topic that you would like covered in a future edition of Teacher Tuesday, let me know.

 

Poetry Friday: Trash and Treasure

It’s been ages since I joined in on the fun  of Poetry Friday, mostly because I spent a good chunk of this year finishing off and submitting my doctoral thesis exploring – you guessed it – children’s poetry. Now that my thesis, Belonging: A Place in and For Children’s Poetry has been examined and accepted and I am officially a doctor, I’ve been thinking for a few weeks that I must get around to jumping back in some Friday.

 

And then a weird piece of synchronicity happened this morning. I was walking on the beach, as I do most days, and admiring the various treasures on the sand. Some days there is little but sand on the shore and I instead admire the clouds, or the sparkling water, or the dolphins, or my thoughts, but some days, like today, the sea has abandoned something like this :

or this:

or even this:

for me to stop and admire (and photograph of course).

 

And the words of a poem of mine, Trash and Treasure started running through my head, and I knew that I should share the poem today for Poetry Friday, even though I knew I’d shared it before. So I came home, and here I am about to write this post, when I realised that not only have I shared the poem before, but I shared it this week a year ago!  SO whether it is that this is the week of the year that the sea likes to prompt poetry, or whether it is sheer coincidence, I know I am meant to re-share Trash and Treasure with you here today. Enjoy!

And, for those who would prefer a text version, here it is:

 

Trash and Treasure

Each night

the sea deposits her rubbish

along the shore:

shells, sponge

even a starfish she no longer needs.

In the morning

her trash becomes my treasure.

 

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

It’s so lovely to back participating in Poetry Friday again. You can find the round up at A Day in the Life, where you will find links to other blogs having fun with Poetry Friday.

 

Teacher Tuesday: The Floatingest Frog in the Year 4 Classroom

Welcome to the third edition of Teacher Tuesday, where I match one of my books to a year level, and offer some activities for sharing the book in the classroom. In the first two weeks I shared activities for Looking Up and for Do Not Forget Australia.

This week I’m focusing on my very first picture book: The Floatingest Frog.

Using The Floatingest Frog in a Year Four Classroom

The Floatingest Frog, text by Sally Murphy, illustrations by Simon Bosch 

Published by New Frontier Publishing, 2004

ISBN: 9781921042546 (Paperback)

Format 24 page Picturebook, RRP $14.99

Available from good bookstores or here.

Blurb: Ferdinand the Frog wants to outdo his brother Frankie in every possible way. He can jump the farthest, croak the loudest, and even has the longest name! Sibling rivalry soon reaches hilarious heights when Ferdinand pushes his luck too far. Based on an Aesop’s fable, The Floatingest Frog is a cautionary tale about being too full of hot air.

Sally’s Recommended Grade Levels: Year K-5, but these suggestions focus on Year 4.

Themes/Topics:

Siblings
Frogs
Animals
Friendship
Aesop Fables
Humour
Wisdom

Curriculum Links:

Year 4 English

Recognise how quotation marks are used in texts to signal dialogue, titles and quoted (direct) speech (ACELA 1492)
Investigate how quoted (direct) and reported (indirect) speech work in different types of text (ACELA 1494)


During Re-Reading of the book, or using selected pages, ask students to identify how we know a character is speaking. Highlight opening and closing quotation marks, commas and attributions such as said/exclaimed/scoffed.
Rewrite selected sentences of dialogue on whiteboard or smartboard, demonstrating the correct placement of punctuation.
Create a worksheet with sentences from the text containing dialogue, with punctuation removed. Have students punctuate appropriately.
Writing: Write a conversation between Frankie and Ferdinand which does not happen in the book. OR write conversation where Frankie goes to introduce himself to the cow.

 

Make connections between the ways different authors may represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (ACELT 1602): comparing different authors’ treatment of similar themes and text patterns, for example comparing fables and allegories from different cultures
Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension (ACELT 1605)


After Reading: Explain that The Floatingest Frog is based on an Aesop’s Fable, The Frog and the Ox. Discuss the elements of a fable – a story designed to teach a moral or message, after using animal characters and explicitly stating the moral.
Questions: Did any student identify the story as a fable on the first reading? How? Does The Floatingest Frog contain the elements of a fable?


Read Aesop’s fable: The Frog and the Ox. (There are several versions of this available online)
In groups/pairs construct a table exploring how the picture book is similar/different to The Frog and the Ox. Suggested headings: length, language, characters, dialogue, statement of moral.
Discuss: Why might an author use a fable to create a picture book? Which version did students prefer? Why did Sally use two frogs, rather than just one? Why did she change the ox into a cow?
Examine the book closely – using a story map or other process – to identify how the text attempts to make the original fable more engaging using dialogue, characterisation and action. Examine the illustrations closely to see how the illustrations add to the written words.
Questions: How has the author used dialogue tags/word choice/repetition/pacing to build an exciting story? Are their things which happen in the illustrations which do not happen in the words? What effect does this have? Why does the word ‘cow’ not appear in the text? How do we know it IS a cow?
Writing: Retell a different Aesop’s Fable as a narrative.

 

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features.


After Reading: Building on work on dialogue and on fables, have students write their own original animal story OR rewritten fable. Work through stages of planning, drafting, editing and publishing this narrative.

Year 4 Science

Biological sciences

Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)
Living things, depend on each other and the environment to survive (ACSSU073)


The study of The Floatingest Frog can coincide with studies of the life cycle of the frogs. You can find Frog Printables here or at numerous other websites – or make your own.
Complement The Floatingest Frog with my non-fiction book Frogs: Awesome Amphibians, available here. You can see sample pages of the book HERE
Compare the language of the nonfiction book with the fiction book, integrating science and literacy activities into the one unit of work.

 

Other suggestions for using The Floatingest Frog in your classroom include:

Art/Technology:  The art in The Floatingest Frog is created digitally. Experiment with drawing on whichever computer programs are available in your classroom.
Art: There are many ideas for frog craft, including frog origami. This Pinterest page has links to many easy, clever activities.
Email the author (that’s me!) Your students can write to me through this website, and share their responses or ask questions.

Related Books

Frogs: Awesome Amphibians, by Sally Murphy
 The Pros & Cons of Being a Frog, by Sue deGennaro
Two Frogs, Chris Wormell
The Orchard Book of Aesop’s Fables, by Michael Morpurgo
Squids Will  Be Squids, by Jon Scieszka
Unwitting Wisdom, by Helen Ward

Mostly, I’d love to remind you that while I love to see my books used in classrooms, I also love to see kids just enjoying them. Reading a book should be pleasurable – whether it’s being used in the classroom or not.  So allow your students to enjoy reading The Floatingest Frog.

If you find this useful, or have any suggestions or comments, do leave a comment. And, if there is a particular book or year level or topic that you would like covered in a future edition of Teacher Tuesday, let me know.