Mr Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley
- 11 feb
- Tempo di lettura: 3 min
Celebrate Pancake Day in style with a fun and engaging story that explores the importance of helping others, kindness, teamwork—and what can happen when these qualities are missing.
TOPIC: Pancake Day/ food / cooking process
AGE GROUP: 6-10 years old
LANGUAGE SKILLS: speaking and listening / some writing
THINKING SKILLS
LOTS: remembering, understanding
HOTS: analyzing, creating
SEL COMPONENT: teamwork / helping others / kindness
VOCABULARY: food / cooking verbs
STORY BOX: prepare a story box with a wolf puppet or picture of a wolf, a packet of flour, some eggs, coins, a carton of milk, a basket, and a recipe book.
Procedure
Pre-reading
Show students your story box and ask them to tell you what the different elements have in common and what they think the story is about.
Give them hints by pulling the items out of the box one by one, elicit their name and ask students to repeat to ensure correct pronunciation.
Discuss what you need to do if you decide to cook something you have never done before. Accept all answers but focus on the actions that are part of the story:
read a recipe book (point to the one you brought to class)
write a shopping list of ingredients
count the money you need to buy the ingredients (point to the coins)
borrow a basket (point to the one you have)
cook
Explain that, according to British tradition, Pancake Day is the last opportunity to use eggs and fats before Lent starts and that pancakes are the perfect recipe as they are made of eggs, milk and sugar. Reveal that Mr Wolf wants to make pancakes for the first time in his life.
Reading the story
Show students the book cover and ask them to describe what they see. If you don't have the book, you can find a digitalized copy here.
While reading, focus on the characters (they are all borrowed from other stories or English nursery rhymes) and play with the repetition "all by himself". Encourage children to listen actively and ask them to touch their head every time they hear one of the actions listed above.
Encourage students to empathize with the wolf this time, as he it not the villain for once (at least not until the end of the story).
After reading
Skill 1 - Remembering
Discuss characters in the story:
who are they?
where do they live?
Create a story map detailing:
the protagonist
the settings
any other characters
problems
solutions
ending
Skill 2 - Understanding
On the left hand side of the board, list the characters that appear in the story. On the right hand side of the board, list the actions necessary to cook a recipe in random order (there should be no correspondence between action and character). Ask students to copy them on their exercise book (alternatively, you can create a worksheet and provide them with copies). After that, ask students to match the character with the action Mr Wolf asks to be helped with.
The solution is:
Chicken Licken - read the recipe book
Wee Willy Winky - write a shopping list
Gingerbread Man - count money
Little Red Riding Hood - borrow a basket
Three Little Pigs - cook pancakes
Skill 3 - Analyzing information
Run a class survey on whether Mr Wolf is right in eating all his neighbors and the pancakes "all by himself". Use an empty box as ballot box and call students one by one to cast their vote. At the end of the voting procedure, open the box and count the votes. Write the figures on the board (this should be a "yes/no" vote).
Ask students to transform the numbers on the board into a bar chart. Older students can write a short sentence to highlight survey results.
Skill 4 - Creating
Divide the students in groups and ask them to think about a different ending for the story. Older students can write a short text. Younger students can draw it. Share in plenary and ask groups of students to explain their choices.
If you liked ❤️ this content, please help us reach more people 📣 by saving and sharing it.
🔔 Join our international community of teachers and receive new lesson plans straight into your inbox.
Thank You 😊❣️
Commenti