EAL Nexus
Winnie the Witch
0 to 4, 5 to 7
English
Winnie the Witch by Valerie
Thomas and Korky Paul
Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
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Wilbur flashcards (on PowerPoint)
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Wilbur body parts and colours dice (on PowerPoint)
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Matching exercises and substitution tables (on PowerPoint)
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Speaking or writing frames (Word)
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DARTs activities about Wilbur
You will need:

one photocopy of Wilbur per learner playing the game.
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colouring equipment: red, yellow, pink, purple, green, blue. If pens are big enough, these can be labelled with names of colours as well
 two dice for each group
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photocopies of any of the reading and writing follow-on activities you want to use.
You will need to:
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photocopy the outline of Wilbur on the first slide of the Flashcards PowerPoint 1 per learner (A4 or A3)
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print out the Dice PowerPoint onto A4 thin card. Cut out and stick the two dice for the game.
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photocopy Word documents as required.
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print out matching exercises and substitution tables from PowerPoint onto A4 as required
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make flashcards by printing out the required slides from the Flashcards
PowerPoint as two-to-one or six-to-a-page handouts depending on size preferred.
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To understand and engage with the story of Winnie the Witch
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To practise the names of colours and body parts
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To begin to copy/write simple sentences accurately with help/independently
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals © British Council 2015

EAL Nexus
Describing (present tense)
Describing (past tense)
Predicting
Simple present: Wilbur’s _____ is __________.
Wilbur’s __________ are ____________.
Wilbur has got a … (singular noun).
Wilbur has got … (plural noun).
Possessive: My Wilbur’s …
Wilbur’s __________ went ______________.
My Wilbur’s whiskers are going to be red.
I’m going to throw a blue.

Body parts: head, tail, body, front legs, back legs, whiskers, eyes
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Colours: red, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple

whole class

as differentiation within class

one to one or small group

parts of it can also be used for independent learning.
What to do
The main activity is a game played with dice where learners throw dice to decide which colours to colour Wilbur in and make him multicoloured, in a similar way to
Winnie the Witch’s spell in the story.
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The game can be played with 3 –5 players.
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Each player has a photocopy of the outline drawing of Wilbur. As Wilbur’s eyes remain green in the story, each learner can colour in Wilbur’s eyes green before starting the game.
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Each player throws both dice. As usual, the upper face of each dice is what is read; in this case one dice gives a body part and the other gives a colour.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals © British Council 2015

EAL Nexus

The learner selects the correct colour and colours the correct body part of their photocopy of Wilbur; for example, if they throw ‘purple’ and ‘tail’ then they colour in their photocopy accordingly.
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If a player throws a colour they have already used or body part already coloured then they must skip a turn.
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The winner is the first to complete colouring in their Wilbur, but the game continues until every learner has completed colouring their Wilbur.
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To wind up the game, each pupil can hold up their Wilbur and recount to the other pupils in the group, ‘My Wilbur has a red tail, a blue head’ etc.
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This could be followed up in some written work using the DARTs activities, substitution tables and model sentences provided. Learners at early stages of reading and writing could
‘read’ back their work to the lead professional, which may be based partially on memory and partially on reading skills.
Other ideas for making the best use of this resource
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The flashcards can be used in a simple matching task – to be carried out in pairs or groups so it becomes a collaborative activity .
This could be matching words to pictures or words and pictures to pictures depending on the level of the learners.

The flashcards can also be used to play pairs games (also known as
Pelmanism).
 Pairs game 1: matching words to pictures of Wilbur’s body parts
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Pairs game 2: matching colour words to colours
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Learners could write a booklet with their own version of the story and their own choice of colours. Some of the DARTs activities can be used as scaffolding for this activity for those learners needing this additional support.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals © British Council 2015