John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat

Connecting to prior knowledge

Activity 1: friends of all sorts

Display pictures of a dog, a cat, a teddy bear, a girl, a boy, an old person and a goldfish.

Have the students consider whether it is possible to love and be friends with/have as friends each of the people, animals and objects in the pictures. Ask them to explain their reasons – why or why not?

As the discussion progresses, make a list of the qualities of friendship as they emerge from the students’ reasoning.

Activity 2: pets and friendship

Share one of the following picture books with the class, or another book about friendships with dogs or another type of animal:

* Reading Australia title

After reading the story, ask the students:

• What do the dog (or other animal) and the child or family in the story do that tells us they are friends?
• How do we know that the child or family in the story and the dog (or other animal) love each other?
• What happens in the story that is about loyalty or having fun together?

Activity 3: anticipation guide

Show students the cover of John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, written by Jenny Wagner and illustrated by Ron Brooks. Read the title and give students time to view the front cover illustration.

Use a large sheet or whiteboard to display 10 clearly written statements about the story, some of which are true and some of which are not. Ensure that these statements are mixed up. Draw ‘true’ and ‘false’ columns next to each statement. For example:

Read each statement aloud one at a time. Have the students decide if they think it tells them something that will be true about the story, or something that will not be true. You might also ask them to tell you why they think certain statements are true or not. Their reasons should draw on the clues on the front cover and any prior knowledge.

Save the responses to refer to later.

(AC9E2LY02)   (AC9E2LY05)

Activity 4: a questionnaire about pets

Have the children devise questions and then carry out a questionnaire with teachers and/or older children in the school who have pets. You could use a tool like Survey Monkey to do this. The purpose of the survey would be to find out about people’s pets and their relationship with their pets. Sample survey questions might be:

As a class, collate, share and talk about the survey results.

Activity 5: when I feel jealous

Jealousy is often associated with competition. Examples of when young children might feel jealous are:

• When there is a new baby in the family (the child might think that their parents are giving the new baby more attention or love)
• When a special friend spends time with other friends or makes a new friend (the child might want all of their friend’s attention all the time)
• When a friend or peer can do things that the child hasn’t learned to do yet (or things they are not allowed to do)
• When a sibling seems to be getting more attention

Read or use puppets to tell one of the following stories that highlights the feeling of jealousy in a way young children can relate to:

• Two Bad Teddies by Kilmeny Niland
• Milo’s Monster by Tom Percival
• Panda Feels Jealous by Sue Graves, illus. Trevor Dunton
• Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea
• Ball & Balloon by Rob Sanders, illus. Helen Yoon
• My Best Friend’s Bangles by Thushanthi Ponweera, illus. Maithili Joshi

After reading, talk to the class about the feeling of jealousy and have them share their own understanding or experiences.

Alternatively, you might read excerpts from an information book like What to Do When It’s Not Fair that helps children to understand the feeling of jealousy and how to deal with it.

(AC9E2LA01)   (AC9E2LE02)

Rich assessment task

Read John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, pausing on each page so that students can take in the illustrations.

Display feeling word cards (e.g. love, jealous, lonely, sad, angry, happy) consisting of the word and a facial expression or picture. Place students in groups of four and provide each group with a copy of the book. Invite them to talk about what the characters are feeling and what it is about the illustration(s) that makes them think that. Students might notice the characters’ expressions, the setting/scenery and the activity or actions.

Revisit the statements from Activity 3 and read each one out, asking the students whether or not it told them something true about the story. Again, the students should explain their decisions: why do they think that? What in the story told them that? Some students may have interpreted statements differently to others. For example, ‘John Brown gives Rose a special gift’ might be true if acceptance and welcoming of the midnight cat is considered to be a gift.

Finally, have the students create a poster about love, using the story to guide them. Invite each student to create a picture and several sentences. This task can be complete on paper or digitally; they could record their sentences and use an app such as Popplet to create their poster.

(AC9E2LE02)   (AC9E2LY05)

Responding to the text

Activity 6: reading between the lines to construct meaning

In this activity the focus is on the use of inference. It is about how readers use clues in the text to infer meaning about the story; that is, determining information that is NOT directly stated by the author, but can be inferred from what the author DOES state.

Begin with a modelled experience to introduce/revise how to infer. This could be done prior to the Anticipation Guide (see Literature > Connecting to Prior Knowledge > Activity 3) or now. Key questions might be:

• What is my inference?
• What information provided by the author did I use?
• What information in my head did I use?

Useful sentence starters might be:

• In the book it says … [information in the book].
• That makes me think that … [inference].
• I think this because … [link what I know and what is in the book].

The use of consistent question types and sentence starters is useful for young children as they learn to express the thinking that occurs as they listen to a story being read.

Before beginning, it is necessary to explain and demonstrate how readers use clues from the text to make inferences and determine or expand on story meaning. Display the three sentences from the first page of the book so that all children can clearly see it. Read the sentences aloud and use the think-aloud technique to demonstrate the process of making an inference. For example, you might say to the students:

It states in the story that Rose’s husband died, and that makes me think that she might be sad or lonely. It also states that Rose lives with her dog, and that makes me think that maybe she got her dog after her husband died so that she wasn’t lonely.

This might be extended to demonstrate how prior knowledge or experience is used to make inferences (depending on students’ confidence and familiarity with inferring).

You might continue with another example or move to having the students share their own inferences about other parts of the written text. Display each of the following extracts one at a time and guide the children to share their thinking or inferences. Use the sentence starters as outlined previously.

Each time the students share their thinking, provide feedback using the word ‘inference’ (e.g. ‘that was a good inference’ or ‘you used the clues well to make that inference’) to develop metalanguage and reinforce the process.

Other approaches to making inferences might be:

• for students to make inferences based on one or two of the extracts above and then share them in pairs
• to show different illustrations from the book one at a time, have students note the information each illustration contains, and then consider what is NOT shown but can be inferred

Be mindful that the background knowledge used to make inferences will vary from child to child, but should always be connected to the written text.

(AC9E2LY05)

Activity 7: I wonder what they’re thinking?

Select a few pages from the book. For each page, attach a temporary thought bubble to one of the characters using sticky notes. For example, you might choose the following pages and characters:

• p. 2 – Rose
• p. 5 – John Brown
• pp. 10–11 – the midnight cat
• p. 15 – Rose
• p. 16 – John Brown
• pp. 29–30 – the midnight cat

For each page, ask students to consider what the selected character might be thinking. What could be written in the thought bubble? Model this first, sharing your own ideas about the first page and character. You could then do a few with the whole class before having students finish the activity in pairs, sharing their ideas with each other.

This activity extends from the previous one and requires students to infer from the information in the written text and pictures, as well as their background knowledge, to decide on the characters’ thoughts.

(AC9E2LY02)   (AC9E2LY05)

Exploring plot, character, setting and theme

Activity 8: how is John Brown feeling?

This activity will require the students to consider John Brown’s feelings throughout the story and how his feelings changed as the story progressed. Do some preliminary work with emotion vocabulary before starting the activity. Display relevant words so students can refer to them. Introduce sets of words that have similar meanings. For example:

Walk through the book, focusing on the pictures and John Brown and how he is feeling. At different points have students identify the event and John Brown’s feelings in relation to the event. Questions to elicit responses might be:

• What is happening in this part of the story?
• How was John Brown feeling here?
• Why was he feeling like that?

As each event is identified, record it on a chart that is clearly displayed for all students. You could prepare this before the lesson, or write the events down as the children identify them.

Invite students to work in groups of three. Provide each student with three plain white circles so they can draw pictures that depict John Brown’s feelings about the events in the story. Each group should work together (i.e. three events each) and between them cover John Brown’s feelings in relation to all the events outlined in the chart.

Have students attach their pictures to the chart and explain what they drew and the feeling it depicts. You could prompt with:

John Brown was feeling … because …

(AC9E2LA09)   (AC9E2LE03)

Activity 9: improvised dialogue

Assist students to improvise some interaction and dialogue for different situations in the story. Examples that might be used are:

• When Rose and John Brown are sitting in the lounge room by the fire and they hug each other.
• When John Brown goes outside to confront the midnight cat and tell him to stay away.
• When Rose and John Brown are eating dinner at the table and John Brown tells Rose that she doesn’t need a cat because she has him.
• When John Brown went to the kitchen and opened the door and let the midnight cat in.
• When John Brown, Rose and the midnight cat were in the lounge room by the fire.

(AC9E2LE05)

Rich assessment task

A many responses journal

Provide each student with a small booklet (about six A5 sheets, or three A4 folded in half, stapled together). Use the booklet over a period of time and have students complete the story response activities outlined below. Provide time to discuss each activity and develop ideas and thoughts before and after completion.

(AC9E2LE03)   (AC9E2LY05)

Examining text structure and organisation

Activity 10: the pictures and me

Identify two or three pictures in the story that might be used to consider Ron Brook’s use of visual elements, and how these influence the meaning or reader’s response. Examples you might use are:

• Rose and John Brown sitting under the pear tree
• Rose and John Brown sitting by the fire
• John Brown lying down all day, thinking, holding Rose’s slipper

Begin by showing one of the pictures to the class and ask:

• How does the picture make you feel?
• What is it about the picture that makes you feel that way?
• What do you notice about the faces of the characters in the picture?
• What do you notice about the direction of the character’s gaze?
• What title would you give this picture?
• What do you notice about the way the illustrator has created the pictures (i.e. colour, texture)?

Choose another picture from the book. Display it prominently so that everyone can see it. Provide the students with a sheet of blank A4 paper. Instruct them to draw the same picture but, in doing so, change how they use colour so that it is different from the choices made by Brooks.

Display the pictures and discuss:

• how students changed the use of colour
• whether this makes the picture seem different to the one in the book, and if it changes the meaning or how it makes them feel

(AC9E2LA08)

Visual elements are used by illustrators to create precise meaning in the pictures they produce. They include colour, line, texture, perspective and shape. These might be used to communicate:

• the mood of a story or shifts in mood as a story progresses
• characters’ emotions or frame of mind
• relationships between characters
• a setting’s ambience

In working with the use of visual elements in John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, you might consider:

Activity 11: classifying characters

Provide students with three cut-out pictures: one of John Brown, one of Rose and one of the midnight cat. They don’t have to be book-accurate but can simply be a dog, an old lady and a cat. Additionally, provide students with a picture of a ladder on which the word ‘least’ is written on the bottom rung and the word ‘most’ is written on the top rung.

Choose words (descriptive adjectives) that can be used to describe someone’s disposition or character traits. You might consider some of the following words:

Students might not know the meaning of some of these words, so you would need to explain or demonstrate their meaning before they consider how they apply to each character.

For each word, have students place their cutouts on the ladder in order from least (i.e. displaying the trait the least or not at all) to most (i.e. displaying the trait most strongly).

Discuss the reasons for students’ ranking.

(AC9E2LA09)   (AC9E2LE03)

Activity 12: what happened just before? What happens next?

Show one page from John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat that clearly depicts an event in the story. For instance, you might show them the page with Rose and John Brown hugging as they sit by the fire. Ask students to tell you what happened just before this, and then what happened just after. The students will need to describe the story leading up to the focus event, and then think about and describe what occurs immediately after. The goal is for them to consider and recall the order of events in a story, rather than the exact details of a specific page.

Repeat this exercise a second time, but instead of just looking at the book, have students copy the page in the middle of a large sheet of paper, with room on either side of it. You might use the page where Rose puts out some milk for the midnight cat. After some discussion about this event, ask the children to draw pictures to depict what occurred immediately before and after.

(AC9E2LE03)

Examining grammar and vocabulary

Activity 13: creating pictures in my mind

Similes

Introduce or revise similes with the class. Display the picture of the cat in the moonlight (p. 17) and read the written text to the students. Focus on the clause ‘His eyes were like lamps’. Read it again, emphasising the word ‘like’.

Ask the students to work in pairs to consider what Jenny Wagner means when she describes the cat’s eyes as being ‘like lamps’. After a few minutes, have them share their ideas with the class. As they do so, add comments that assist them to understand that when an author says that something is ‘like’ something else, they are helping us to imagine it in our minds. It also makes the story more interesting.

Now look at the picture again and ask the students if they can come up with other things that the cat’s eyes remind them of (or are like). Use the sentence starter:

The cat’s eyes are like …

You might extend this by choosing another picture in the story and asking students to have a go at describing it by comparing it to something else. Provide a sentence starter:

The … is like …

Be sure to choose examples for which using a simile is reasonable.

Vocabulary

Use p. 17 again, but this time focus on the use of the word ‘ragged’ to describe the sky. Explain that this word refers to something old and torn, or something with an uneven surface, edge or outline.

Ask students to consider and try to work out what the word ‘ragged’ means here. How would the sky at night time look if it was ‘ragged’? You might assist by providing other sentences that use the word ‘ragged’ in different contexts. For example:

• She wore an old ragged coat.
• The waves crashed on the ragged rocks.

Your students might require pictorial support to engage with this concept. In this instance it might be useful to have a picture of some rocks or a coat to help demonstrate the meaning of ‘ragged’.

Now ask students to suggest other things that could be described as ‘ragged’.

Together create a poster with the word ‘ragged’ in the middle, then write noun groups that include this word (start with the known examples of ‘ragged sky’, ‘old ragged coat’ and ‘ragged rocks’). Also write words (and provide illustrations) that have the same or similar meaning as the word ‘ragged’ (e.g. uneven, rough, rough-edged, worn out).

Display the poster and attempt to use the word ‘ragged’ in context throughout the day.

(AC9E2LE03)

Activity 14: using context clues

Write an excerpt from John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat on the board so that it can be seen by the whole class. Choose about 10 words from this excerpt and write them in a word bank nearby (do not remove them from the passage yet). Make sure your chosen words appear in a random order. If possible, cover the word bank with a large sheet of paper to keep it hidden from view.

Read the excerpt aloud so that everyone can see and hear the words in a meaningful context. Then erase the 10 words from the excerpt, leaving a blank space or line where the word should be. Uncover the word bank so that students can see the available words.

Read the excerpt again from beginning to end, saying ‘blank’ at each missing word. Now read the excerpt once more, but this time stop at each missing word to allow the students to suggest a word from the word bank. Ask:

What word makes sense here? What word sounds right?

As the students suggest a word, write it back into the excerpt using a different coloured marker. If the students suggest a word that does not match the one used in the book, fill it in and check whether it makes sense and sounds right by reading the sentence or phrase with the word included. The objective is not necessarily to get the exact word from the story, but to choose a word that makes sense (meaning) and sounds right in terms of structure (grammar).

You might extend the activity by writing the missing words on cards (or perhaps picking new words) and giving them to different students. They can stick the words to the board in the appropriate location as you read the excerpt aloud again.

Activity 15: moving the story along

Reread John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat to the class and stop on each page that involves narration but no direct speech between characters. On each of these pages, focus on the written language and how the sentences begin. You might write the beginning of each sentence on a chart as they are identified (see below) so that the class can analyse and discuss them. The sentence beginnings in the book are:

Discuss the different sentence beginnings and how they help us to follow the events and actions of the story and the order in which things happen. There are two types here:

1. Sentence beginnings that indicate character movement or actions
2. Time or time-order sentence beginnings that show time passing or the time distance between actions or events

You may want to brainstorm time order words before beginning.

(AC9E2LA03)   (AC9E2LE03)

Rich assessment task

Story retell using a scenescape

Place students in groups of three and provide each group with a scenescape board for the story. A scenescape board is a long piece of thick cardboard that is sectioned according to the number of setting variations in the story, with each section visually depicting a different setting. It is not necessary to capture every detail of every setting, but students should include some key elements from the story that will help denote the setting.

For John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, the scenescape board would be divided into five. The general setting is Rose’s home but the story moves from outside to inside and between rooms. These changes should be depicted on the scenescape. Refer to the table below for the five setting variations.

Additionally, provide each group of students with cardboard cut-outs of the three characters: John Brown, Rose and the midnight cat.

Model an oral retell of the story using the scenescape and cardboard cut-outs, demonstrating how the story moves from one setting to another (and sometimes back again) as it unfolds.

Have students work in their groups to orally retell the story in their own words, also using the scenescape and cardboard cut-outs to indicate shifts in settings.

Discuss the characters and settings of different texts and explore how language is used to present these features in different ways.

(AC9E2LE03)   (AC9E2LY05)

Activity 16: narrative pantomime

Invite students to find their own space in the room. They won’t need to interact, but will be acting out their own story.

Read John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat at a pace that gives students time to listen and respond. As you do so, the students will act the story out, taking on the role of John Brown. There will be no sounds or costumes – just each child going through the physical movements of John Brown at each point of the story.

Extension

Repeat this activity, but this time have the children respond to your instructions by means of a ‘remote control’. This requires students to make changes to the manner in which they are acting out the story. Press the button of a pretend remote control while calling out an instruction (pause, rewind, fast forward, slow motion, louder, softer, mute). The children will then apply this instruction to the way they act out the story.

(AC9E2LE05)

Activity 17: story soundscape

Provide a range of musical instruments and allow the children to experiment with them. After a short time, provide a more structured context so that students can consider each instrument in relation to the feeling or mood it evokes. They might want to experiment with two or three instruments, playing, soft or loud and fast or slow to create different moods or evoke different feelings.

Walk through the pictures of John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat one at a time, inviting students to identify the mood of each part of the story. To assist them to understand and label the moods, ask them how the picture makes them feel and why. They might also consider what any of the characters on the page are feeling. You could ask students to close their eyes, visualise a scene/event and take it in using the different senses.

Help students to assign music to each part of the story by choosing what instruments to use and how to play them. You might take an audio or video recording for future reference.

Allocate instruments and guide students to create music to represent the mood of each picture or event. They can decide to make some changes as they go so as to portray an appropriate mood or feeling for each picture or sequence of pictures.

Read the story aloud while students depict the changing moods using the musical instruments.

(AC9E2LE05)

Rich assessment task

Digital storytelling

For this activity the students will use an appropriate app or program to retell the story of John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat in pictures and words. They might also use musical instruments to represent the mood or feeling of the story.

Have the children work as a whole class (or in groups) to create a six-section storyboard depicting the events of the story. They can illustrate each section and use a limited number of words, if they wish.

Using their pictures, students will practise retelling the story in their own words. At this stage, they might decide how musical instruments could be used. They should then rehearse their retelling, guided by the pictures and accompanied by musical instruments (if they decided to use them).

When everything is organised, work with the students to use an appropriate app or program to record their story. Book Creator may be appropriate, as may Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva, or any similar software that you can access and that students can use.

(AC9E2LE05)   (AC9E2LY06)