Title of the book:Small Mouse, Big City Features of the text: Notes: Key Stage One-Year One. Author/ illustrator: Simon Prescott Genre: Picture Book, mice demonstrating human behaviour Structure: Chronological Narration: 3rd person, some dialogue from each mouse. Layout: Some of the pictures take up a double page spread, others are smaller showing a sequence of events. Text is often on both sides of the page which helps to show a progressive journey throughout. The pictures dominate each page and tell the stories, the role of the text is to just support the pictures and add more detail. Illustrations: Pencil Drawings, pencil colourings. Differences in colour shown when the mouse moves from the country to the city. The city is portrayed using dark colours when the country feels scared and alone. When he finds a friend in city mouse, the colours change and become brighter. The first page of the book is set out like a scrapbook with a letter from the city mouse to the country mouse asking him to visit the city. The endpaper at the back of the book shows a silhouette of the city at night. This indicates the end of the book and the fact that the country mouse has left the city behind and gone back to the countryside. The illustration on the page when the country mouse is lost in the city uses thin, blurred lines to demonstrate the speed of the cars and how busy the city is. It also helps to show how vulnerable the small mouse is all alone in the city. When the country mouse finds city mouse, the lines in the picture are more defined and the reader can relax because the country mouse is safe. Characterization: Country mouse felt overwhelmed in the big city as the streets all looked the same showing the difference between rural and urban areas. He needed a friend to show him around. He was reassured when he found a friend in city mouse, which shows his sense of security and relief to be found. He felt more comfortable in the city now he had a friend. However, he saw his old home in the distance, the countryside and missed his old home. He needed to go home. Once he was home, he felt relief and reassurance that he was back in a place he knew. Setting: The countryside and the city Themes: Leaving the countryside and going to the city. Missing home. Friendships. Publisher/Year:2009 Linguistic features. Use the New National Curriculum to focus on: Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation / Questions/Pages you would want to explore further and why Dear Country Mouse, please come and stay in the city with me. There’s so much to do and so much to see. You will love it! see you soon. love, City Mouse x This is written in the form of a letter - could explore the concept of letter writing with children (see literacy opportunities) Explore the use of an exclamation mark - why do we use them? What does it help city mouse to show? Country Mouse was leaving his quiet little home. he was going to the big city. Shows contrast between ‘quiet, little’ and ‘big’. The use of adjectives and how they can provide more information for the reader. His heart raced, as the countryside swept by in a blur of leafy green. The city took his breath away. Identifying and writing different types of sentences. Simple, compound, complex. How do they make the text more interesting for the reader. There were so many people… but no one stopped to show him the way. How can writing show how a character feels? Country Mouse was on his own. And the streets all looked the same... strange...dark…and dangerous! He needed a friend- fast! And he showed up just in time. suddenly the city didn’t feel so strange, “You’ll love it here,” said City Mouse. And he did! The city was amazing! The city was intoxicating! The city was magnificent! Contrasting adjectives - change in attitude as the mouse finds a friend in the city. Relate to personal experiences of visiting a new place for the first time. But when Country Mouse gazed across the rooftops and saw the green hills of his home, he began to feel sad. “I miss my countryside,” he said, and he told his friend all about it- how beautiful it was, how peaceful. He loved City Mouse and he loved the city. But it was time to go home. Country Mouse lay out on the soft, green grass and smiled. “It’s good to be back!” he said. “There’s just no place like home.” Simple dialogue - correct punctuation, how to set it out, how does the reader know who’s talking? Close Reading of key pages: Literacy Opportunities (with a focus on grammar) : Drama Opportunities:All of the following ideas follow the Year One NC recommendations that: - Role play can help pupils to identify with and explore characters and to try out the language they have listened to’. Flashbacks/ Flashforwards- the children are asked to create a short scene which may have happened minutes/seconds before a certain page in the book e.g. An emotional goodbye between the mouse and his friend. Conscience Alley (adapted)- The children in the class get into the role of the mouse when walking through the big city. The children stand randomly around the room to create the illusion of a busy pavement. One person, playing the character of country mouse, must weave their way round and listen to the feelings and thoughts called out by their peers. 1. Consider how the mouse would be feeling. Pages 9-10. 2. Playing the role of the passers by who are in a rush to get somewhere. Letter writing- Using the first page as an example ask the children to write a letter home to their families, pretending to be the mouse. This could be done as a class activity to practice the Year One NC requirement of composing sentences orally and sharing these with teachers and peers. NC: Add prefixes and suffixes. The children could do a range of activities to identify prefixes and suffixes within the text. The children could also create additional sentences using prefixes and suffixes that could be used within scenes in the book. 1. 2. Children stand up when they hear a word with a suffix and sit down when they hear a word with a prefix. 3. Have a spinner with words from the book. Children have to add either a prefix or a suffix to the word that the spinner lands on. Diary Entry- The children could use their knowledge from the text to create a diary entry in order to record the events of the story. This will show understanding of events and allow the children to work together to use their writing skills (Statutory requirements set out in Appendix 2 of the NC). Poetry - contrasting poem, looking at describing the city with the country, descriptive language, rhyme Thought tracking/ freeze frame- Using the same page a freeze frame could be created with the class. Specific children could also verbalise a thought and use dialogue to help them express their understanding of a character. This activity could also be done for the following page. Cross Curricular Opportunities: Use the curriculum jigsaw and copies of the NC to help you see relevant links to the text. Receptive Context: Think about how you can use the room to excite and engage the children into wanting to explore the book and anything related to it more. How can you wow them when they first walk in? PSHE ● ● Look at the importance of friendships and what it feels like to have a good friend and what it might feel like if you are lonely. Safety when travelling to a new place or being somewhere unfamiliar - who can help if we get lost? Art NC - ‘To use a range of materials creatively to design and make products’. ‘To use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination’. ‘To develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space’. Taught ‘about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work’. ● Children could create a collage or mixed media piece of the countryside and also one of the city. For example the children could look at the different materials and techniques that could be used to create leaves on trees. ● Can look at what you could use to draw around to make a shape such as a glue lid for the sun. ● Children can be shown other work of the illustrator and how they do their illustrations and see if they can use their technique to create their countryside or city pieces of art. Geography NC - Use vocabulary to refer to ‘key human features, including: city, town, village’ ‘Use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment’. Before: 1. You could create a train within your classroom, possibly using chairs, and as a class discuss going on an ‘adventure’. You could talk about what it would be like to go alone and why someone would go on an adventure to somewhere new. 2. Split the classroom in half. On one side of the classroom set up a city landscape and on the other set up a countryside landscape. During: 1. As a class you could collect essentials for going on an adventure. what would you need? why would you need them? 2. Use supporting texts relating to friendships or adventures to make comparisons. After: 1. Carry out a trip to a contrasting environment to the school e.g. country or city. Compare and contrast feelings of being in a new environment. 2. Why is somewhere special to you? ask the children to draw somewhere special and present their reasonings. Links to NC requirement of sharing work with peers. ‘Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality’. ● Children could be taken out into the school grounds or around their town/village/city to establish the features which make it a town or the countryside etc. ● Decide what they live in and how they know they live in a city/town/village. ● Children looking at their local area. Music NC - ‘Play tuned and untuned instruments musically’. ‘Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music’ ● Children could create one piece of music to represent the calmness of the countryside and one contrasting piece of music to represent the business of the city. ● Children experiment with the different sounds different instruments make and how they can create different sounds on the same instrument. PE NC - ‘Perform dances using simple movement.’ ● Soft, gentle shapes and movements to portray the calmness of the countryside - use gentle music. ● Sharp, jagged, busy movements and shapes to show the city atmosphere - faster paced music to show contrast. ● Focus on travelling - what can we use from the countryside and city to inform different ways of travelling and moving. Maths NC - ‘Begin to measure ‘length, capacity and weight’ ● ● Create city models - a focus on measuring heights and lengths Use vocabulary for comparison. Shape - Adding detail e.g. windows, doors to buildings using shape Questions you could ask to develop comprehension: Try and refer questions to specific pages from the text and make sure they’re open-ended ‘His heart raced, as the countryside swept by in a blur of leafy green’ ● Why might his heart have been racing? ● What might he have been feeling? ● What might he be expecting to see in the city? ‘The city took his breath away’ ● Why did it take his breath away? ● What might he be feeling looking at the city? ● Have you ever been anywhere that has made you feel like this? ‘There were so many people… but no one stopped to show him the way’ ● Why don’t you think anyone stopped to show him the way? ● How do you think country mouse was feeling when no one was stopping? ‘He needed a friend - fast’ ● Why is it important to have friends? ● What would happen if we didn’t have friends? ● What would you do if you were lonely? ‘There’s just no place like home’ ● Why do you think country mouse liked going back to the countryside? ● What is it about your home that makes it special to you? Notes: Events - Grammar in context activity NC: Add prefixes and suffixes. The children could do a range of activities to identify prefixes and suffixes within the text. The children could also create additional sentences using prefixes and suffixes that could be used within scenes in the book. - Show children a variety of words which either have a prefix or a suffix added - ask the children to identify them. Can they think of any more words? Have a spinner with words from the book. Children have to add a suffix to the word that the spinner lands on. List of suffixes to use: - s - ing - ed - est - tion - ment - full - ness - y - ary Words (an example of a word for each suffix - would need more in the game) - dog - sing - work - near - celebrate - move - help - great - rain
