Chris Isaac P7 Book review 1 - There’s a Dragon at my School by Philip Hawthorn

[Cisaac]

There’s a Dragon at my School by Philip Hawthorn


There’s a Dragon at my School is a delightful pop-up book which tells the tale of a class’s encounters with a mischievous dragon who is brought to school by a school girl. I have read this story to my new class at the beginning of every school year as an introduction to whole class reading. It is an ideal book to read at the beginning of the year as it allows the class to explore and reaffirm themselves with the expectations of appropriate behaviour in the classroom. As the story unfolds the classes witness, with much amusement, the dragon as he steels food from the students, pours paint on the floor, and brings the school into dismay. The book concluded with the teacher telling the school girl that her dragon is welcome to return to school the next day but only if he promises to be good.
This story allows the teacher to open a discussion with their class about the consequences of the dragon’s behaviour. Why was the dragon wrong? How did he make the students in the story feel? What can the dragon do to be a better student? It also allows the teacher to explore with their class the importance of forgiveness and learning from our mistakes.
As an EAL teacher a found this book to be great for second language learners. Its formulaic structure and repetition of the rhyme ‘There’s a dragon at my school and he’s broken every rule’ at the beginning of every page allows second language learners to get to grips with the story. Students also enjoy the anticipation and excitement of opening the paper doors to reveal what the dragon has done now. My students find particularly amusement in the part where the dragon clogs the toilet with toilet roles and towels.
Post reading activities for ‘There is a Dragon at my School’ may include each student designing their own classroom rules poster and creating their own classroom dragon.