Stimulus Set of fairy tale character cards or figures.
Stimulus details Set of figures, toys, puppets or pictures  depicting a dragon, king, evil queen, big bad wolf, witch, an ogre, prince, knight etc. 
Year group Nursery/reception 
Skill focus Justifying a choice. Agreeing and disagreeing with other choices. Introducing bigger concepts.
Thinking focus Thinking about how characters behave and why. Understanding the bigger concepts that underlie the general ideas of “good” and “bad”
Preparation Make sure children are familiar with the fairy tales through story and role play experiences. 

Prepare two books by folding a large sheet of paper in half. Write big book of good on the cover page of one and big book of bad on the cover of the other.

Provide small pieces of paper for children to draw on. You will also need glue and pens
Presentation Introduce the characters and explain that the children will be helping to make two books about good and bad characters.
Conversation and Thinking time Allow thinking and talking time in pairs or small groups. Ask children to tell each other everything they know or think about the characters, deciding whether they think they are good or bad. Ask children to draw and name the characters if appropriate. 
Thinking together activity 

 

 Bring the class back to the circle. Ask children one at a time to place their drawing or character (card or figure) inside their chosen book giving their reasons why. 

Allow all children to contribute and encourage children to say whether they agree or disagree with the book chosen. The drawings can then be stuck in the books or a representation of the figure drawn by the Teacher.

Building 

 

 Ask the children to say what it is that they think makes the characters either good or bad (some may be both!) write these down as concepts such as jealousy, angry, magic, appearance etc in the book next to the drawings. 
Last words 

 

 Ask the children to review which big concepts are to do with “badness” and which with “goodness”
Follow up thinking 

 

 Allow children to play with and sort figures or cards into good and bad groups. Display the finished books in the book area for the children to share and talk about.
Questions for Facilitator to reflect on 

 

 Did the children focus on behaviours of characters? 

Could they explain why the behaviour could be seen as good or bad?

Could the children see where there was agreement and disagreement about behaviours of character?

Were you able to introduce understanding of bigger concepts effectively?

 

Found this interesting? Please share with others...
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks