Just So Stories. Background to the novel. 1. The Whale (comprehension) 2. Tricky words (developing vocabulary) 3. Banging & Clanging (verbs & rhymes)

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1 ust o tories y udyard ipling ackground to the novel ublished in 1902 the ust o tories are fantasy explanations for how animal characteristics evolved. n his introduction to the uffin edition, onathan troud says: ach tale is full of marvels, but the real magic in them is their language, which explodes like fireworks in your ears. t thrums with a uniquely twirly dancing rhythm that sweeps you up like a magic carpet; it is crammed with sensuous lists of remote, exotic places that conjure the wonders of the wide, wide world. he story used for these activities is the first of twelve in the book which has been reprinted and reproduced many times since its publication. hese are very accessible stories of which you would hope that the children might go on to read more. he intimate tone and repetition of the phrase my best beloved help the reader to make a connection with the narrator. he language is florid and witty and it would be hoped that experiencing it will enhance the children s own writing. 1. he hale (comprehension) ou will need: a copy of the text for each child copies of worksheet 1 he hale nsure that the meaning of stute and astute is understood. ou can discuss at the end why/how the stute fish is clever. here are 12 comprehension questions so you can either read the whole story out and present children with them all at once or break the story at turned round three times on his tail. and do up to no. 7 first. he object is to ensure that the story is understood thoroughly. 2. ricky words (developing vocabulary) ou will need: copies of worksheet 2 dictionaries (check first that they actually have the words in them) ncourage children to be creative with their sentences, modelling some first. 3. anging & langing (verbs & rhymes) ou will need: copies of worksheet 3 anging & langing highlighter pens ipling s wonderful use of rhyme within the prose gives his writing a distinctive feel. evise verbs from the passage then highlight the rhyming pairs and write them out. nsure that children understand why ipling took liberties with the language and encourage them to do so similarly in the next activity. uffin ooks age 1 of 14

2 ust o tories y udyard ipling 4. ther animals (creative writing) ou will need: copies of worksheet 4 ther animals a copy per person of the story highlighter pens et children to highlight stylistic oddities in ipling s writing such as the repetition of the phrase my est eloved.. and talk about how this helps to connect the reader to the writer. ncourage wild ideas about animals by modelling some as a group. or instance ow the scorpion got its sting, share ideas first, reminding them that it need not be realistic. raw attention to the repetition of key things such as the suspenders that the ariner is going to use on the hale. ncourage use of rhyming lists and making up words to fit. 5. hose side are you on? (note taking & making a case) hildren use the work they did on orksheet 4 to produce a piece of discursive writing. iscuss the concept of discursive writing with the class and encourage them to generate their own examples. hildren then write a discursive piece on the hale and the ariner. hey are also introduced to the concept of drafting their work with specific ideas on how to make improvements, including peer assessment. 6. atitude & ongitude battleships (co-ordinates) ou will need: copies of worksheet 5 atitude & ongitude coloured pens or pencils map or globe access to the internet for research xplain the concept of atitude & longitude and find the position on a globe or map of (it is off the coast of ewfoundland). ake the connection with plotting co-ordinates and either explain attleship rules or get children to read them from the instructions before playing the game. xtension activity: nvestigate the location of the places mentioned. ipling talks of lbion, (the south down cliffs in ngland); cotland (ibernia), and the other places are in orth merica. uffin ooks age 2 of 14

3 ust o tories y udyard ipling 7. eview ou will need: copies of worksheet 6 eview the work that has been done so far to reference and share iscuss what children have enjoyed about working on the ust o tories and encourage them to continue to read the rest of the book. se the phrases that ipling uses in other contexts so that they incorporate them into their lexicon. urriculum links eography atitude & longitude, you could find out the latitude & longitude of the school and other places the children suggest. ork out the distance that the whale might have travelled. cience/ he many sea creatures named could be investigated and pictures of them obtained with information about their habitats recorded. rt ake a collage of the sea creatures with the open mouth of the whale in the middle and the ariner and all his kit popping out. ame hildren make a pelmanism game of all the rhyming words (there are two sets). uffin ooks age 3 of 14

4 ust o tories y udyard ipling or all worksheets ow the hale got his hroat n the sea, once upon a time, my est eloved, there was a hale, and he ate fishes. e ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. ll the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth so! ill at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small tute ish, and he swam a little behind the hale s right ear, so as to be out of harm s way. hen the hale stood up on his tail and said, m hungry. nd the small tute ish said in a small stute voice, oble and generous etacean, have you ever tasted an? o, said the hale. hat is it like? ice, said the small tute ish. ice but nubbly. hen fetch me some, said the hale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail. ne at a time is enough, said the tute ish. f you swim to latitude ifty orth, longitude orty est (that is magic), you will find, sitting on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, est eloved), and a jack-knife, one ship-wrecked ariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity. o the hale swam and swam to latitude ifty orth, longitude orty est, as fast as he could swim, and on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must particularly remember the suspenders, est eloved), and a jack-knife, he found one single, solitary shipwrecked ariner, trailing his toes in the water. (e had his ummy s leave to paddle, or else he would never have done it, because he was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.) hen the hale opened his mouth back and back and back till it nearly touched his tail, and he swallowed the shipwrecked ariner, and the raft he was sitting on, and his blue canvas breeches, and the suspenders (which you must not forget), and the jack-knife. e swallowed them all down into his warm, dark, inside cup-boards, and then he smacked his lips so, and turned round three times on his tail. ut as soon as the ariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the hale s warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn t, and the hale felt most unhappy indeed. (ave you forgotten the suspenders?) o he said to the tute ish, his man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccup. hat shall do? ell him to come out, said the tute ish. o the hale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked ariner, ome out and behave yourself. ve got the hiccups. ay, nay! said the ariner. ot so, but far otherwise. ake me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-lbion, and ll think about it. nd he began to dance more than ever. ou had better take him home, said the tute ish to the hale. ought to have warned you that he is a man of infinite-resource-andsagacity. uffin ooks age 4 of 14

5 ust o tories y udyard ipling o the hale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could for the hiccups; and at last he saw the ariner s natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-lbion, and he rushed half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said, hange here for inchester, shuelot, ashua, eene, and stations on the itchburg oad; and just as he said itch the ariner walked out of his mouth. ut while the hale had been swimming, the ariner, who was indeed a person of infiniteresource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (now, you know why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating good and tight into the hale s throat, and there it stuck! hen he recited the following loka, which, as you have not heard it, will now proceed to relate y means of a grating have stopped your ating. or the ariner he was also an i-ber-ni-an. nd he stepped out on the shingle, and went home to his mother, who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily ever afterward. o did the hale. ut from that day on, the grating in his throat, which he could neither cough up nor swallow down, prevented him eating anything except very, very small fish; and that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls. he small tute ish went and hid himself in the mud under the oor-sills of the quator. e was afraid that the hale might be angry with him. he ailor took the jack-knife home. e was wearing the blue canvas breeches when he walked out on the shingle. he suspenders were left behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and that is the end of that tale. hen the cabin port-holes are dark and green ecause of the seas outside; hen the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between) nd the steward falls into the soup-tureen, nd the trunks begin to slide; hen ursey lies on the floor in a heap, nd ummy tells you to let her sleep, nd you aren t waked or washed or dressed, hy, then you will know (if you haven t guessed) ou re ifty orth and orty est! uffin ooks age 5 of 14

6 ust o tories y udyard ipling he hale 1. ame the things the whale eats when the story begins. 2. ow does the way the tute ish uses the word cetacean help us to work out what it refers to? 3. ow does the tute ish describe man? 4. hat do you think nubbly means? ake up another word that describes man. uffin ooks age 6 of 14

7 ust o tories y udyard ipling 5. here did the tute ish tell the hale to go to find the ariner? 6. rite three of the things that udyard ipling uses to identify the man that they are looking for hat did the hale do immediately after he had swallowed the ariner? 8. escribe in your own words what the ariner did when he was inside the hale. uffin ooks age 7 of 14

8 ust o tories y udyard ipling 9. hat do you think he means by: ake me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-lbion, and ll think about it? 10. hat does the ariner do to protect other people from being swallowed by whales? 11. hy might the hale be angry with the tute ish? 12. s the ending of the story happy or sad, and why?. uffin ooks age 8 of 14

9 ust o tories y udyard ipling ricky words. se a dictionary to find out (or check) the meanings of the words from the story and write a sentence using them. suspenders eaning: entence: lbion sagacity shipwrecked breeches grating shingle uffin ooks age 9 of 14

10 ust o tories y udyard ipling anging & langing ighlight all the verbs in this passage then copy them into the tables in rhyming pairs. wo of the words are not the proper words, put rings around them and write the correct one. hy do you think ipling used these? ut as soon as the ariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the hale s warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn t, and the hale felt most unhappy indeed. jumped thumped uffin ooks age 10 of 14

11 ust o tories y udyard ipling ther animals. he titles of some of the other stories are below. ow the amel got his ump ow the hinoceros got his kin ow the eopard got his pots he utterfly that tamped hoose one of them and invent what you think happened. r if you prefer you can choose a different animal such as an octopus, a rattlesnake or a seahorse and explain how that became the way it is. et your imagination go wild, nothing needs to be possible! rite as much as you can in the style of udyard ipling. ow the... got its... nce upon a time, my est eloved uffin ooks age 11 of 14

12 ust o tories y udyard ipling attleships ecretly draw the outline (only) of your 5 characters on the lower grid. o character can hang over the edge of the grid or touch another. hey can be in different orientations from those shown but must be the same shape. layers take turns firing a shot to find opponent s characters. n your turn, call out a letter and a number of a row and column on the grid. our opponent checks that space on their lower grid, and says miss if there are no ships there, or hit if you guessed a space that contained a part of a character. hen a box is hit put an X in that box, then when the whole is hit you tell your opponent that it is complete and colour it in. ark the shots you make on your upper grid, with X for misses and coloured in boxes for hits, to keep track of your guesses. here is a winner when one person has found the whole of all the characters. attleship symbols: whale mariner starfish crab eel uffin ooks age 12 of 14

13 ust o tories y udyard ipling our opponent s grid our grid ill in the numbers and letters on the edges of the grids, then outline 5 characters onto the bottom grid. uffin ooks age 13 of 14

14 ust o tories y udyard ipling eviewing what we have done ood bits ad bits o you want to read the rest of the book?... hy? hat did you learn from working on this project? uffin ooks age 14 of 14

15 an you find all the books? X X X

16 an you find all the books? X X X

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