Favourite Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb Teaching Resources

TM Storytime Favourite Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb Teaching Resources

Tom Thumb is an old English fairy tale about the amazing In Brief adventures of a little boy who is only as tall as a thumb.

1 Literacy Lesson Ideas Read Tom Thumb, and have a class discussion. Use the following questions as a starting point: 1. Why were the ploughman and his wife unhappy? 2. What do you think life is like for someone as small as Tom? 3. What’s the best thing about being the size of a thumb? 4. What can Tom Thumb do that you can’t? Write a list. 5. What’s the worst thing about it? 6. What does the world look like from Tom’s perspective? (Think about how ordinary things like tall grass or a step could be a big obstacle) 7. Why do you think the beggar dropped the bowl of cake mixture? 8. Why does Tom’s mother worry about keeping him safe? 9. How many times does Tom escape from a tricky situation? 10. Why do you think King Arthur admired Tom so much?

See our Tom Thumb Word Wise Sheet to discover the meanings of some of the less familiar words in the story and for more literacy activities.

Arrange the story in the correct order on our Tom Thumb Story Sequencing Sheet.

Tell the story in six paragraphs using our Tom Thumb Simple Storyboard.

Which animals were featured in our story? Test your memory on our Character Comprehension Sheet.

If you could be Tom Thumb for a day, what would you do? Write it down on our If I Were Tom Thumb Sheet.

Create an Objects Box and fill it with small things, such as a walnut shell, a paperclip, a small roll of tape, and a coin. Ask your class to come up with ideas for how Tom Thumb could use them as tools in his adventures. (In the story, he is given a needle for a sword.) Alternatively, ask them to come up with ideas for what Tom could use for his bath, bed, pillow, blanket, plate or a toy. Can you write a sentence about each object?

© storytimemagazine.com 2017 Read this story alongside Thumbelina from Storytime Issue 17 – can you find similarities and differences between the two stories? Other ‘small world’ stories you can read include Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Proysen and The Borrowers by Mary Norton.

Spot Tom Thumb in our picture puzzle – a great way to wind up a literary session.

2 maths Lesson Ideas

Play our Bigger or Smaller size matching game, inspired by Tom Thumb’s tale. Or have a go at size ordering the characters and animals in the story from smallest to largest.

3 geography Lesson Ideas

Use our Story Map Sheet to draw Tom Thumb’s adventure from his home to the court of King Arthur. Don’t forget to include every landmark.

4 art Lesson Ideas

Recycle loo paper rolls, bottles, matchboxes and card to junk model a small world table showing the inside of Tom Thumb’s home or his bedroom. Use our Tom Thumb Finger Puppet and Small World Decorations for the finishing touches.

Make a tiny carriage to carry Tom, using a small box and bottle tops or pennies for the wheels.

Print out our Tom Thumb Mask and act out the story or even his further adventures.

Colour in our Tom Thumb Colouring Sheet.

Draw Tom Thumb in your favourite scene from our story in our Storytime Picture Frame.

Check you understand what the trickier Word WATCH words mean in Storytime Issue 35’s fairy tale, Tom Thumb.

Generosity – being sharing, unselfish Pail – bucket By-and-by – in a while, before long Pleas – requests Clambered – climbed Furrow – long deep trench Churning – moving around Violently – with force and strength Bewitched – under a spell Astonishment – surprise Woeful – sad

There are many different ways of Big Words, saying the words big and small. Small Words Write as many as you can in each box. g w ords bi ll w ords sma

Imagine Tom has to cross a classroom or playground WRITE filled with toys. Write a story describing his adventure IT! and all the obstacles he has to face.

How would you dress Tom Thumb? pint-sized poetry Write your own version of the poem from our story here.

With a for his hat,

In a shirt of

With a jacket made from

And trousers neatly done

All stitched together, by-and-by,

With from

What magic words did Merlin say to make merlin magic Tom Thumb appear? Write his spell here.

TIP! Why not start with: Abracadabra!

A raven catches Tom in its beak, but drops him in the river. Merlin uses his magic to give them a thumb-sized son. thumb-sized a them give to magic his uses Merlin

A cowaccidentallyscoopsupTom initsmouth.

scared and drops it. drops and scared

A beggar takes the bowl of cake mixture, but he is is he but mixture, cake of bowl the takes beggar A

mixture. cake of bowl a into falls TomThumb

Merlin visitsaploughmanandhiswife.Theyseemsad. Tom endsupin the bellyofafish. Tom wakes up to find himself in the court of King Arthur. pocket. apron mother’s Tom his into drops cow The King Arthur gives Tom a new outfit, a carriage and coins. Tom goes home again, excited to share his adventure. S ng equencing S S tory tory heet

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Te Storytime a ching Resou rces TM © storytimemagazine.com 2017 TM Storytime Tom Thumb: Simple Storyboards - page 2 Teaching Resources Name Class

How many things can you think Teeny Tiny Things of that are really small? Write them here.

If I were Tom Thumb… ______

______

Circle the animals that appeared in the story and write their name below Character each picture. Comprehension

Spot T ame Class

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humb when youspotthemall. each one.Colourinthetoadstool in thispicture.Drawacirclearound There aretenlittleTom Thumbshiding Te Storytime a ching

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rces TM © storytimemagazine.com 2017 TM Storytime Favourite Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb Teaching Resources Name Class Which of these items are bigger than Tom Thumb in real life and which are smaller? bigger or Draw a line between each object and the smaller? bigger or smaller boxes.

bigger

smaller

Draw a map of Tom’s journey from his home at the beginning of the story story map to King Arthur’s court. Include the cornfields, the river and the castle.

TIP! Add the animals he meets too – the © storytimemagazine.com 2017 cow, the raven and the fish. TM Storytime Favourite Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb Character Mask Teaching Resources

2016 TM Storytime Favourite Fairy Tale: Tom Thumb Finger puppet Teaching Resources

Cut out Tom Thumb and use him to act tom thumb out the story in a small world landscape finger puppet or small storytelling groups.

Tom Thumb Finger Puppets

For more free downloads go to: www.storytimemagazine.com/free 2017

Cut out these decorations to make Tom Thumb’s room look homely – Small what else does he need? World Decorations