Teacher’s Notes Pearson EnglishTeacher’s Kids Readers Notes Pearson English Kids Readers Level 2 Suitable for: young learners who have completed up to 100 hours of study in English Type of English: British Headwords: 400 Key words: 10 (see pages 2 and 6 of these Teacher’s Notes) Key grammar: present simple, present continuous, imperatives, Wh- questions, simple adjectives and adverbs, can for ability, want + infinitive. Summary of the story Background information The Enormous Crocodile is a huge, horrible animal Roald Dahl (1916–1990) started writing in 1942. who doesn’t eat other animals, he only eats At first he wrote short stories for adults. His children. Although when he is really hungry, he writing career for children took off in the 1960s, tries to eat animals too. after he became a father. The Enormous Crocodile was first published in 1978. For more information, He tries to take a bite of Trunky the elephant, but visit www.roalddahl.com. he doesn’t like the taste of him. Next, he tries to catch Muggle-Wump the monkey to eat, but he Roald Dahl’s books appeal to children because his bites a tree by mistake. Then, he tries to catch stories carry a message about right and wrong the Roly-Poly Bird who quickly flies away from which children understand. Dahl’s writing style is the crocodile’s hungry jaws, but not before the playful and inventive, and includes rhyme, rhythm, Enormous Crocodile catches its beautiful tail! repetition, nonsense words and sound symbolism (onomatopoeia). Not having any luck with the animals, and getting hungrier and hungrier, the Enormous Crocodile The illustrator, Quentin Blake, worked with Roald tries out some cunning ideas to catch children. Dahl for many years, illustrating almost all of He pretends to be a coconut tree – until Humpy- Dahl’s books for children. The Enormous Crocodile Rumpy the hippopotamus tries to stop him and was their first collaboration, and Blake’s distinctive saves the children. He pretends to be a see-saw – drawings helped bring Dahl’s stories to life. until Muggle-Wump warns the children that it is in fact the Enormous Crocodile. He pretends to be a Did you know … ? ride on a merry-go-round – until the Roly-Poly Bird Roald Dahl first became interested in spots him and tells all the children to run home. writing children’s books by making up And he pretends to be a seat at a picnic table – bedtime stories for his own children. until Trunky the elephant warns the children not to eat their picnic there. Dahl wrote most of his stories in a specially built hut in the garden of his Trunky is very angry with the horrible crocodile home. and swings him round and throws him up into space and that is goodbye to the Enormous Crocodile. 1 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE LEVEL 2 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers The characters Key words The Enormous Crocodile is horrible. He eats (see page 6 of these Teacher’s Notes for the Key children! words in context) Humpy-Rumpy is a nice hippopotamus. He doesn’t like the Enormous Crocodile. bite (v) horrible (adj) coconut (n) merry-go-round (n) Trunky is a strong elephant. He doesn’t like the crocodile (n) playground (n) Enormous Crocodile. fair (n) round (adv) Muggle-Wump is a funny monkey. He doesn’t like hide (v) see-saw (n) the Enormous Crocodile. The Roly-Poly Bird is clever. He doesn’t like the Enormous Crocodile. Topics and themes What colours are its feathers? Is the Roly-Poly Kindness There are four kind animals in the story Bird’s song beautiful, or is it just a loud squawking who stop the Enormous Crocodile from eating the noise? Are there real birds like the Roly-Poly Bird? children. Can the students tell you the names of Do the students know of any birds of paradise? these animals? How do these animals know that the Show the students images of nature’s examples of crocodile is so horrible? Do the students know of extraordinary birds (e.g. family Paradisaeidae) and / another character in a story or film who is kind and or play the sounds of a bird of paradise. Pictures and helps others? audio are accessible on the internet. The students Fears The Enormous Crocodile disguises himself so could make a collage of the Roly-Poly Bird, or that he can’t be seen by children. The hippopotamus, another make-believe bird. (See also Activity 2 on elephant, monkey and bird save the children from page 4 of these Teacher’s Notes.) being eaten. Ask the students if they would feel Crocodiles Ask the students what they know about frightened if a crocodile, or other dangerous animal, crocodiles. Where do they live? (in hot parts of Africa, suddenly jumped on them. Are there hidden dangers Asia, North and South America and Australia). What in the real world that children should look out for? do they live in? (rivers and lakes). How big do the Punishment The Enormous Crocodile has upset a students think the Enormous Crocodile is? Discuss lot of animals and people by the end of the story. the facts for a particular species of crocodile, e.g. What does Trunky do with the horrible crocodile? the Nile Crocodile: it can be 5 metres long, it weighs Do the students feel sorry for the crocodile or do 225 kilograms and it lives up to 45 years. The they think he deserves to be thrown into space? students could make a crocodile mask, or paint a Should he still be punished if he said sorry for his large picture of the Enormous Crocodile to display behaviour? on the classroom wall. (See also Activities 1, 3 and 4 Disguises The Enormous Crocodile uses disguises on pages 4 and 5 of these Teacher’s Notes.) to trick people (a tree, a see-saw, a merry-go- Picnics In the story, Trunky warns a family of four round ride, a picnic seat). What other disguises about the crocodile just before they sit down for a could the crocodile use? (e.g. a bridge over a river). picnic. Ask the students what food might be in their The students could draw a picture showing a new picnic baskets. What kind of food would the students disguise for the Enormous Crocodile. Disguises worn like to take on a picnic? They could draw items of by people are a kind of costume. For what occasions picnic food and drink and label them. might the students wear a costume? Which Fairs and playgrounds In the story, some costumes do they like wearing? children go to a fair. There is a merry-go-round at Beautiful birds Talk about the Roly-Poly Bird the fair. What other rides can be found at a fair? with the students. Do they think it is beautiful? 2 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE LEVEL 2 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers (rollercoaster, dodgems, bouncy castle). What kind of equipment can be found in a playground? (see-saw, slide, swing, climbing frame). Do the students often go to a fair or a playground? What do they like there? The students could draw their favourite fair or playground activity. Notes on the photocopiable activities Page 6: The students could paste the list of Key words into a notebook. You could ask the students to learn this vocabulary as homework and then test them on it. Pages 7–8: While-Reading activities, Activity 2: Alternatively, the students could cut out the sentences and stick them under the pictures. Activity 4: You could ask the students to correct the four incorrect sentences: 1 The Enormous Crocodile doesn’t bite Humpy-Rumpy. 5 The children can’t see the Crocodile in the tree. 8 The Crocodile doesn’t eat the children on the merry-go-round. 9 Trunky can see the Crocodile under the table. Pages 9–11: After-Reading activities, Activity 1: Encourage the students to use the same colours as in the book, and to talk about the picture / colours as they work. Activities 3 and 4: The students could cut out and match the sentences to the pictures. For Activity 4, they could stick them in the correct order in their notebooks and use the pictures and text as a prompt to retell the story in their own words, in pairs. 3 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE LEVEL 2 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers Class Activities (After Reading) • Draw an outline of the Roly-Poly Bird on a large sheet of paper / card, to include its long Here are some activities to do with your class feathers, and place it on a desk or on the floor. after reading The Enormous Crocodile. • Ask the students of they can remember the colours of the Roly-Poly Bird’s feathers on the 1. A Hundred Scaly Crocodiles rhyme different parts of its body (tail, wings, head, • For young children, an important part of neck, body). Write the colours on the board. learning phonology is playing with words and sounds in their own or in a foreign language. • Mark areas on the drawing of the bird with the Teach the class this short rhyme about hungry chosen colours. crocodiles. • Draw its eyes and beak. A Hundred Scaly Crocodiles • Hand out the different coloured tissue paper to A hundred scaly crocodiles the students and have them roll it up into lots of Going out to lunch. little balls. Gobble, gobble, glug, glug Crunch, crunch, crunch! • Then the students can glue the balls of tissue paper onto the bird in the designated sections of • When the students have memorised the rhyme, colour.