Dragons and Giants
Session:
Plan around ‘Dragons and Giants’ (In Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel) making use of ‘The Hokey Kokey’ method (in [concrete], out [abstract], in again [test abstract against concrete) (see Once Upon an If for full explanation):
1) Read story up to “‘Yes, but are we (brave)?’ asked Toad”
2) Short activity: pair everyone up into an A and B. Ask the As to stand up and show the Bs what ‘brave’ looks like. Then ask the Bs to do the same to their As.
3) A short enquiry on ‘What does brave look like?’ (based on their examples)
4) Read the rest of the story.
5) At the end of the story ask the following TQ1: ‘Were Frog and Toad brave?’
6) Run an enquiry on TQ1 (mainly anchoring and opening up or iffing, anchoring and opening up).
7) Ask TQ2: ‘What is brave?’
8) Run an enquiry on TQ2. Suggestion: you could give them a sentence-starter to guide them with this and to encourage concrete examples: ‘Brave is when you…’ or ‘You are brave when you…’
9) Return to TQ1 iffing what they’ve said at 8: ‘So, if brave is when you… were Frog and Toad brave (when they…)?’
10) ‘Spider’ extension activity: dramatise three different kinds of responses to a large, hairy spider that you’ve asked the class to imagine on a chair.
a. A person who is scared of spiders and who runs away when the spider is seen.
b. A person who is scared of spiders and who overcomes their fear in order to put it in a glass and throw it out the window.
c. A person who is not scared of spiders and who works as a spider expert in a zoo. They let the spider walk all over them and then they take it back to their specialist unit.
After each case, and then again after all three, ask, ‘Are each of these people brave?’ Then open up.
Definition Extension Activity:
You could take some of the definitions you’ve heard in the session and put them to the group. For instance, ‘Brave is when you stand and fight,’ or ‘brave is when you face your fears’. If you have things like this then write them up and ask the class what they think about these. Suggestion: use the thumb poll strategy: ‘Put your thumb up if you agree with [statement X], put your thumb down if you disagree, and put your thumb sideways if you think something else such as ‘I’m not sure,’ or ‘I think both’’.
The Hokey Kokey method can also be used with the following books:
- Frog is a Hero (‘Is Frog a hero?’ / ‘What is a hero?’ / ‘If a hero is… then is Frog a hero?’)
- Knuffle Bunny (‘Does Trixie talk?’ / ‘What is talking/language?’ / ‘If talking is… then does Trixie talk?’)
- Shrek (‘Is the princess beautiful?’ / ‘What is beauty?’ / ‘If beauty is… then is the princess beautiful?’)
- The Three Robbers (as above starting with ‘Were the robbers good men?’ …)
- The Ugly Monster (as Shrek but on ‘Ugly’ or ‘Friends’ – ‘Are the big ugly monster and the stone rabbit friends?’ … )
- Aliens in Underpants (‘Are the aliens good?’ …)
- Oh no George! (‘Is George a naughty dog?’ / ‘What is naughty?’ / ‘If naughty is… then is George a naughty dog?’)
