The Catch 

A young fisherman's meagre catch is stolen by a fox who leads him to the catch of a lifetime.

Teaching ideas
Create an emotions graph tracking the boys emotions through the eventsin the story. 
    - Waiting with anticipation for the first catch, 
    - The distress caused by seeing the injured fox,
    - Anger at the fox stealing the fish, 
    - Chasing the fox,
    - Surprise and excitement at seeing the giant fish, 
    - Trying to catch it, 
    - The catch at the end. 
There are many points to discuss such as where the boy is from, why he has to fish for food, what happens t the fox at the end? Why?
Younger children could describe the giant fish, they could also mak rods and paper fish to have a go at catching themselves.

Birthday Boy (UKS2+)

The year is 1951, the place is Korea and there is a war going on.  The hero of the story is Manuk.  We first see him exploring the wreck of a downed plane looking for some 'useful' bits of metal.  Manuk wanders around the town on his way home, playing perilously close to the railway - using the trains to flatten bits of metal which he uses to make small toys.  There are some funny moments, he throws a stone during a game and it hits a cyclist.  There is a poignant moment at the end when a parcel arrives.  The audience is led to assume that his father has been killed in action and these are his possessions.  Manuk does not realise.
Teaching Ideas
  • Look at similarities and difference between Manuk's life and ours.
  • Rewrite small sections as a narrative, e.g. the stone throwing incident, or the thrill of seeing the train/planes.
  • Create a box with some of the items in - show the children the items one by one.  Who could they belong to?  What could have happened to the person that owned them?
  • Write letters between Manuk and his Father.
  • Write a dialogue between Manuk and his mother, him retelling what he has been up to whilst she tries to persuade him to be careful.
  • Write the next scene in the film.  Mother comes home - what happens?
  • Write a description for the image of the higgledy-piggledy rooftops.

Zahra

Zahra spends all day collecting water in order to help her tree grow so she can get some shade.  She travels back and forth to the water pump but to no avail.  The tree won't grow.  It is not until a bead of sweat falls on the roots that the tree springs forth and grows protectively in order to protect her from the sun.

Lots of discussion points about the little girl.  How we know she is in a different country, clothes, houses etc.

PSHE links about lack of water in Africa, why children have to walk along way to collect it. 

Writing opportunities.

  • Writing 'A day in the life...' from the little girls point of view.
  • Write a narrative based in the girl's village.
  • Adverts for 'Water aid' type charities.
  • Write a persuasive letter to the government to support funding water supplies in Africa

Hugh
Based on an Apache myth

An old shaman was telling a story to 3 young children.
Ages ago, some human beings had big troubles because the sky was too low.
Birds could not fly and men were bended.
One day, small children decided to change things and attempted to raise the sky with stocks.

Literacy

  • Children need to read the subtitles to understand what is going on.
  • Pause the text and discuss plot, language etc
  • Write own myth in the similar
  • Link with Tinga Tinga tales and How the Whale became etc
  • Play the film without subtitles (see link ) and discuss with the children, text type, predictions etc
This animation can be used when looking at Native Americans in history work to show their mythical beliefs. Although the language spoken in the film is French.

Click here to watch the film without English subtitles.