iteracy activities (year 1&2 Spring term, traditional stories).

Key questions:

• Why did the other princesses lie about feeling the pea?
• Why didn’t the royal family recognise the girl from the garden?
• Why did the girl from the garden tell the truth about feeling the pea?
• Was she really a princess?
• Did the Prince marry the right girl?
• Was the Queen happy about the match?
• Why would the Queen be happy? Why would the Queen not be happy about the marriage?

Immersion activities:

• Discuss characters.
• Discuss how Mini Grey uses the illustrations to convey further information, meaning, make implications etc… look at the very first picture and the last in the garden, where is the prince in each? Why is the Queen in the middle of the maze at the end?
• Retell the story, tape the children’s retelling then compare it with the written version.
• Map the story.
• Look at other takes on traditional tales e.g. the adventures of the dish and the spoon Mini Grey, The true story of the three little pigs Jon Scieszka, the three little wolves and the big bad pig Eugenios Trivizas, Mr Wolves Pancakes Jan Fearnley, Rvolting rhymes Roald Dahl etc…

Writing activities

• Character profiles e.g. a passport for the other princesses.
• Retell other traditional stories from alternative points of view e.g. the enormous turnip form the turnip’s point of view, Goldilocks and the three bears from the chairs point of view, Little Red Riding Hood from the cloaks point of view etc…
• Write an invitation to the happy couple’s happy day.
• Wanted poster for a perfect princess.
• Newspaper report for how the happy couple got together/their wedding day.
• Write a label for the pea’s display case.
• Rewrite the story substituting a different vegetable.

Word level activities

• Adjective work connected to the other princesses the prince met on his travels.

Cross curricular activities

• D&T - design and make a display case for the pea.
• D&T - QCA unit making a fruit salad.
• D&T/ART - look at the queen’s pea jewellery and design other jewellery.
• Science/PSHE - healthy eating
• Geography - map the prince’s journey around the world.
• Numeracy – draw/paint pictures like Mini Greys with hidden vegetables, how many peas can you see?
• Numeracy – work out how much pocket money the prince gets.
• Numeracy – look at the properties of 2D and 3D shapes when designing the case for the pea.