Support Notes for Teachers, Parents and Carers
Story Book 1 – The New Playground
The following prompts and activities can be used in class alongside Story Book 1 — The New Playground.
Patch and his friends wriggled and chatted with excitement as they waited to see their new school playground.
Ms Stanley reminded all her students how important it was to think carefully and act kindly towards each other no matter how excited they were. But Charlie forgot that important message as soon as he entered the playground.
Explore Prior Experiences
Keeping in mind the message from the text, invite children to recount experiences of excitement or anticipation.
Were the experiences good?
Did any of the experiences end up being disappointing? Did a person’s actions spoil the experience?
Relate the story to their own lives by discussing their memories and experiences of a time they played in a playground.
Making Connections
Invite children to talk about the book. You may wish to use the following prompts.
Discussion prompts
At the start of the story the characters were very excited.
Why do you think there needs to be rules when playing a game?
Charlie was frustrated during the story.
Tell me about a time you were feeling frustrated.
Ms Stanley wanted Charlie to know he did the wrong thing by pushing Patch.
How did you feel when Charlie had to move to a bench outside the playground?
Ms Stanley spoke to Charlie about things he could do when he was feeling frustrated or overexcited.
What are some calming exercises you could use to help you relax?
What did you learn from Skipper’s message?
Follow up activities
Have children draw a picture of Skipper
Ask them to write their own message underneath about thinking and acting very kindly.
Have children create simple stick puppets of the main characters.
Using the puppets, have them retell the story in their own words.
