Connecting to prior knowledge
Discussing important places and landmarks
Ask students:
What are some of the special places we identify with Australia?
Lead a discussion about iconic Australian places and landmarks such as:
| The Sydney Opera House | Uluru | The Daintree Rainforest |
| The Great Barrier Reef | Ningaloo Reef | The Twelve Apostles |
How many of these places do your students know? Are any of them special to your students? If so, invite them to explain why.
Ask students to think about another place that is special to them. This may be somewhere they have visited or somewhere they have imagined from reading a story, looking at images, or watching a movie. It may be somewhere that helps them feel calm or peaceful. Once students have imagined this place, they can visualise what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel when they are there.
Ask students to form a circle and face outwards. Move around the circle, stopping in front of each student and asking them to share one of their sensory experiences. They should use one of the following sentence starters:
- I feel …
- I see …
- I hear …
- I taste …
- I smell …
Afterwards, students can draw or paint their special place and annotate its special features. Invite them to write a paragraph describing their place. You can also talk about the need to care for our special places and the environment more broadly.
This activity may be repeated with a focus on animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates). Students could identify a special or favourite animal, then describe and draw its special features.
Extension
Students could choose a word or phrase to describe how they would feel if their special place and/or animal was threatened or in danger. You may wish to form another circle and move around as you did before. Students could add a gesture or movement to their word/phrase, focusing on how they might vocalise their feelings.
Then, as a class, discuss the concepts of belonging (and not belonging), feeling connected to others, and feeling included or excluded at different times. Brainstorm some scenarios in which a person may feel:
- That they belong to a group
- Connected with someone
- Excluded from a group or activity
NOTE: You may invite students to share examples from their own lives, but this should be strictly voluntary. Be aware of your class context and do not call on students to participate if they do not wish to do so.
Exploring the text in context of our community, school, and ‘me’
Storying
Ask students to form groups of four or five. Provide each group with a copy of The Boy and the Elephant by Freya Blackwood. You will need to prepare the books ahead of time by placing sticky notes on four different illustrations. You may wish to use paper clips to keep the remaining pages hidden. Each group should receive a book with a different combination of images.
Invite the groups to look closely at their books and discuss the marked images. Encourage them to explore different ways the images could be sequenced and agree on one possible sequence. Remind them that there is no right or wrong answer.
Each group will use the pictures to create their own verbal story. Once they have done so, they will share their story sequence with the rest of the class. You might like to explore the pictures first before inviting students to tell their story.
Exploring the blurb
Display the back cover of The Boy and the Elephant and read the start of the blurb:
The boy lives in a city, where everything is fast and loud. But amidst the bustle and the noise, the boy has a secret …
Draw attention to the following words:
| ‘Bustle’ | Explore the meaning and the spelling of other words in the word family:
|
| ‘Noise’ | Explore the meaning and the spelling of other words in the word family:
|
Discuss whether this description of ‘bustle and noise’ relates to where students live.
If appropriate, you may extend your discussion to the judges’ comments from the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, for which The Boy and the Elephant was shortlisted. The comments can be found in this 2024 blog post. Record new or unfamiliar words like ‘emotional’, ‘tender’, and ‘poignant’, and explore their meaning and word families as above (Etymonline can be useful here).
Reading the blurb can also lead to a discussion of secrets and whether students think it is acceptable to have secrets, and why or why not.
(AC9E4LA11) (AC9E4LE03) (AC9E4LY10)
Rich assessment task
Share some information about the author-illustrator Freya Blackwood. Students may know some of the other books she has written and/or illustrated, including (but not limited to):
- The Garden of Broken Things
- The Unwilling Twin
- Banjo and Ruby Red* by Libby Gleeson
- Amy and Louis* by Libby Gleeson
- My Two Blankets* by Irena Kobald
- Afloat* by Kirli Saunders
- The Feather* by Margaret Wild
- The Treasure Box* by Margaret Wild
* Reading Australia title
First in a pair-share, then as a whole class, discuss the features of Blackwood’s art.
Students can observe the front cover of The Boy and the Elephant and make some predictions about the story and its possibilities. They might think about the colours Blackwood has used, how these colours make them feel, and how they continue into the endpapers. Record students’ oral suggestions as a formative assessment.
Now invite students to individually create a storyboard with a possible story sequence for The Boy and the Elephant. They can base this on the images they observed during the earlier Storying activity, and expand their ideas by building on possibilities discussed in their groups or as a class. Students can share their completed storyboards with their peers.
Responding to the text
NOTE: For the purpose of tracking page numbers, the first illustrated page (the boy at the window) will be considered p. 1.
Examine pp. 1–9 of The Boy and the Elephant (up to the school scene). If you have a document camera or visualiser, you could use it to enlarge the illustrations. Otherwise, you could circulate copies of the book to allow students to carefully observe and discuss each illustration.
Sculptor and statue
Students will work in pairs to sculpt each other and take turns stepping into the role of the boy on these first few pages. You might like to guide each stage: first looking out the window, then getting ready and walking to school, then sitting alone in the playground.
Encourage students to think about how the boy would feel in each moment. They can use a device to photograph their sculptures and write a few descriptive sentences about each image. Encourage them to use sentence starters like:
- The boy is thinking …
- The boy is feeling …
- The boy says …
Hot seating
In pairs or groups of three, students will discuss how the boy is feeling at this point in the story. How do they know? Encourage them to look for clues in the illustrations to support their opinions.
Each pair/group will develop five questions they would like to ask the boy. For example:
- Where do you live?
- How do you feel about going to school?
- What do you like best/least about school?
Place three students in the hot seat and invite the rest of the class to ask their questions. The students in the hot seat should answer in character as the boy. Once they have answered a question, they can choose another student to take their place.
Exploring plot, character, setting, and theme
Continue to pp. 10–17 of The Boy and the Elephant (from the home scene to the changing seasons). Consider why the boy might consider the elephant his friend. What sort of things might he say to it? If the elephant could talk back, how might it respond?
Scripted conversations
Students will work in pairs to script and perform a conversation between the boy and the elephant. Model and/or revise how to write a script; this BBC Bitesize article offers a simple explanation for writing dialogue.
Give the pairs time to script and rehearse their conversation, then invite them to perform for the rest of the class. if desired, you can record the conversations for future reference (e.g. for teacher or peer feedback).
Conscience circle
Display pp. 18–19 of The Boy and the Elephant, in which the boy discovers the marked trees. Ask students how he might feel about the possibility of the trees being cut down.
Continue to pp. 20–23, in which the boy considers the situation and the action he might take. Ask:
What advice would you give the boy in this moment?
Get students to sit in a circle. Invite those who have advice for the boy to stand up and share it with the rest of the class. For example:
- Talk to your parents
- Talk to your teacher
- Find out if other people in the apartments are worried too
Brainstorm how the boy’s neighbours might feel about the trees being cut down, given that this is their only green space. Also consider the arguments of those who might want to use the space for other purposes (e.g. a developer planning another apartment building or shops, the council planning a community building or playground). Students can write a PMI list to summarise the arguments for and against cutting down the trees.
Town meeting
Students can make up a character who would fit into The Boy and the Elephant and role-play as that character at an imagined town meeting. Options include (but are not limited to):
| A local councillor | A tradesperson | A senior citizen |
| A parent of a child | A teenager | A shopkeeper |
| A journalist | An environmentalist | A police officer |
Students will develop a simple profile to determine their character’s stance on the proposed destruction of the trees. You may wish to provide or allow students to bring in a prop or item of clothing to help them to get into character.
Arrange the classroom in your preferred meeting layout. As the teacher, you will chair the town meeting. Establish the rules for participation, such as listening for key points, contributing to the discussion, acknowledging other opinions, and extending ideas and information. Subordinating conjunctions will be important for making the following meanings:
| Time | e.g. after, before, whenever, until, now that |
| Reason | e.g. because, since, as, so that, in order to |
| Condition | e.g. if, unless, provided that, as long as, in case |
| Comparison | e.g. rather than, whether, as much as, whereas |
| Concession | e.g. though, although, even though |
Make sure there is a balance of opinions among the chosen characters. Once students have prepared their stance, carry out the town meeting, prompting students to speak in character about the proposal to cut down the trees.
Rich assessment task
Ask students to write in role as either the boy or one of the characters from the town meeting (e.g. one of the boy’s parents, his teacher, the owner of the vacant block). They will share their feelings about the destruction of the trees and argue for or against this proposal. They will then share their writing with a peer who has chosen a different character and/or perspective.
Ensure that students have been scaffolded through writing complex sentences using correct punctuation and subordinating conjunctions. Refer to the table above or display a similar list as point of reference.
Continue to the end of the The Boy and the Elephant (pp. 24–40). Invite students to discuss their reactions, ask questions, and wonder about what happened.
Record the ideas from the discussion. As you do so, prompt students to consider the main themes that emerged (see below) and where in the text they were introduced, complicated, or resolved:
- Belonging
- Care for the environment and animals
- Friendship
- Courage
- Loneliness
- Change
Examining text structure and organisation
Exploring critical moments through freeze frames
In groups of three or four, students will discuss and list what they see as the critical moments in The Boy and the Elephant. Encourage them to think about how these moments link to the main themes in the text. They will then choose three moments that they believe are most critical to the plot and depict them as freeze frames.
Each group will share their freeze frames and the rationale for their choices, including an explanation of how each moment links to the main themes. You may take photos of the freeze frames and record the rationales (video and/or audio), or ask students to write them down. They should also come up with a caption for each freeze frame.
Visual features
Turn back through the pages of the book so students can examine how Freya Blackwood uses visual features to deepen meaning in the story. Ask them to select the image that most resonates with them and explain why they find it so meaningful.
Explore the various visual features by comparing and contrasting different images and how they affect the viewer. For example:
| Colour | How has Blackwood used colour to depict day and night; the seasons; the contrast between the trees and the builders; the boy’s anxiety about what will happen? |
| Distance | What effect do the close-up images have? Do they help the viewer feel part of the scene?
Compare these with middle- or long-distance images. |
| Frames | Which images make the viewer feel that they are ‘in the story’? Usually these are images that take up the whole page.
How does the use of multiple horizontal and vertical frames (e.g. the boy’s day at school; his trip into the overgrown lot with the cereal bowl) help narrate the story? Where is the viewer most distant from the action? |
| Symbols | What are the recurring symbols in the story and what might they represent?
For example, track all the pictures with a butterfly or a bird. How is the colour red used as a symbol? |
| Space | How does the size of and distance between people and objects communicate information about their relationships? |
| Gaze | How does the direction of the boy’s gaze help us focus on his feelings at different points in the story? |
Blackwood has described her work as having both ‘softness and darkness’ (see the Critics Review on this listing). Students can identify and discuss examples of both softness and darkness in The Boy and the Elephant, first in small groups and then as a whole class.
Examining grammar and vocabulary
Vocabulary
Write some key concepts from the story (e.g. trust, friendship, belonging, courage, anxiety) on separate sheets of butcher’s paper and place them around the classroom. Working in groups of four or five, students will rotate between the stations and add words and/or phrases they associate with the key concepts. Once they have visited every station, they will return to their starting point. They will then examine the new additions and highlight anything particularly interesting or surprising. Each group can share these with the whole class.
Metaphors and symbols
Introduce and/or revise what metaphors are. Metaphors help us make sense of the world by understanding one idea or concept in terms of another. Explore some of the metaphors in The Boy and the Elephant. The elephant is the most important one. What might the elephant be a metaphor for?
Trees have long been used as metaphors for life, growth, and resilience. In this book they also act as a character. Ask students if they can think of other stories in which a tree is a key character. One example is The Lorax by Dr Seuss, in which the Lorax speaks for the trees and the importance of a healthy natural environment. Another is Once I Was a Giant* by Zeno Sworder, a story about growth, belonging, and change from a tree’s perspective. Also brainstorm and/or research famous quotes about trees, such as ‘He who plants a tree / Plants a hope’ (‘Plant a tree’ by Lucy Larcom).
* Reading Australia title
Animals are also often used to represent human qualities. What might elephants symbolise in this story? Perhaps wisdom, strength, or a long memory? Brainstorm and/or research idioms or famous sayings involving elephants, such as ‘the elephant in the room’ or ‘an elephant never forgets’.
Rich assessment task
Building on the earlier freeze frame activity, students will individually select three critical moments that they think are most important to the story of The Boy and the Elephant. For each moment they will:
- Draw a picture
- Come up with a caption
- Write a short paragraph to:
- Describe the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, and ‘where’
- Explain why that moment is critical to the plot
Again, encourage students to think about the main themes in the text, and remind them to use subordinating conjunctions and correctly punctuate complex sentences.
Role-play and writing in role
Review the critical moments that students identified in the Examining section (under Examining Text Structure and Organisation > Exploring Critical Moments Through Freeze Frames). Together, turn back through The Boy and the Elephant and carefully explore the images that convey these key moments.
Invite students to role-play as the boy and consider how they/he would feel in the following moments:
- Looking out the window
- Walking to school
- Talking with the elephant
- Finding the marked trees
They can then select one of these moments (or another key moment of their choice) and write in role as the boy, expressing his thoughts through the following verb processes:
- Doing
- Feeling
- Thinking
- Saying
- Relating (using a metaphor)
Conversations and readers’ theatre
The boy has some important conversations throughout the story:
- Early on with the elephant
- Trying to convince the elephant to move
- With the girl under the tree at the end
In pairs, students can improvise these conversations. Once they have experimented with all three, they can choose one to record as a script. Review the script-writing process from the Responding section (under Exploring Plot, Character, Setting, and Theme > Scripted Conversations). Once the pairs have finished their scripts, they can conduct a readers’ theatre-style reading for the rest of the class.
(AC9E4LE03) (AC9E4LE05) (AC9E4LY06)
Rich assessment task
Students can compare The Boy and the Elephant to other stories that consider themes of loneliness, connection, friendship, and the environment.
Place students in groups of three or four. Bring in a range of picture books and allow students to browse them. Eventually they will pick one, read it closely as a group, and explore and discuss how its themes are similar (or different) to The Boy and the Elephant.
Possible texts for this activity include (but are not limited to):
- Where the Forest Meets the Sea* or Desert Jungle by Jeannie Baker
- Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley* by Aaron Blabey
- Oi! Get Off Our Train by John Burningham
- One Tree* by Christopher Cheng, illus. Bruce Whatley
- Suri’s Wall* by Lucy Estela, illus. Matt Ottley
- Amy and Louis* by Libby Gleeson, illus. Freya Blackwood
- Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
- My Two Blankets* by Irena Kobald, illus. Freya Blackwood
- Once I Was a Giant* by Zeno Sworder
* Reading Australia title
Allow time for students to share their findings with the rest of the class.
