For The Snowman Story Book by Raymond Briggs; the lesson plan goes like this
Game:
Let’s play Ice and Melt. Whoops of joy on both sites, Tonca and Taleigao. Great fun and poses with the freeze motion. Even the bigger children have fun play acting and the grown men who play volley ball five feet away do not deter anyone from wild and wacky freeze and melt moments.
Pre Story Talk:
So, what do we call ice that falls from the sky – ‘baraf’ ? In English, ‘ snow’ . Yes!
What do we call water that falls from the sky – stunned looks for 1 second, then ‘ rain’ ? Yes!
Where does it snow? Goa ? A good firm negative later, then where ? on TV , yes! On tabs ( the new Gizmos many middle school children have received in Goa schools) , really ? , where else? Doremon? Ok, so we are back to TV. Anywhere else? Hmmm , cold places. Yes!
Suddenly, a dawning.. where Santa Claus lives ? O yes! We have a context, we have snow, the imagination of a cold place and now ..
What does one do with snow ? Build a man ? Yes. do you know any men we build in Goa? Spontaneously – Narkasur ! Yes again. Any other ? Hmmmm , in the field ? Yes . Are these built of snow ? No. But, in today’s story book there is a snow man built of snow and off we go to discover James and his snowman friend.
Read Aloud:
Post Story Talk :
A lot of talk surrounds the story lesson planning and so , what do you think James felt when the sun came out ? Why did the sun come out? What might have happened if the sun did not come out? Do you think James really flew with the snowman? Why did they tip toe into the parent’s room? Would you like a snowman friend? What kind of a boy was James? Do you think Raymond Briggs tells a good story ? Kishen replies, ‘ no’ ‘ isme to kuch khaas nahi tha’. Clutching our hearts on the inside, we paused to reflect on this and also tried to understand what Kishen would want in a good story. The answer was length, he wanted more text, more suspense and mystery than a mere sunlight to ruin the day for James, Kishen is ready for the jump start into chapter books and longer read alouds.
Extension Activity:
Let’s make Christmas cards for friends, teachers, someone? We got down to making Snowman cards and wrote special greetings and Kishan decided he liked snowmen after all and wrote a long expressive card for Christmas.
And that is how we MOP about with Snowman in warm Goa during this Season.
