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A review by alicebennett
Where's Waldo? the Fantastic Journey by Martin Handford
5.0
We used this book to teach a grammar lesson about expanded noun phrases. It showed children that in order to effectively describe a character, for example in their writing they need to add detail to allow the reader to build up a picture.
We chose different pages from the book, paired everyone up and asked them to use noun phrases to describe one of the tiny characters and their partner had to find who were they were describing. After this, in larger groups, the class had to annotate photocopied pages from the book with all of the noun phrases they could come up with to create a vivid description of that picture, for example one group had a picture of a huge multicoloured fish.
We included opportunities for immediate feedback and elicitation by having each person write in a different coloured pen. This way a teacher could assess everyone’s understanding, contribution to the task and perhaps, recognise one of the more quiet children for their progress.
We could also make some links to Maths by dividing the pages of the book into sections in a grid and having the children write directions for finding: “The young boy with sandy-blonde hair, wearing tight red shorts and long electric green flippers”. This would teach prepositional words in a creative and engaging way.
What I loved most about using a ‘Where’s Wally’ book to teach grammar was the fact that not only did it provide the class with an exciting context, but it was also so accessible for every child in my class because it contains no words. Each person was able to use noun phrases to describe a character they could see in the book, making for an incredibly effective teaching resource and lesson.
I am very excited to use this book in school and make full use of the numerous opportunities that it offers from Reception through to Year six.
We chose different pages from the book, paired everyone up and asked them to use noun phrases to describe one of the tiny characters and their partner had to find who were they were describing. After this, in larger groups, the class had to annotate photocopied pages from the book with all of the noun phrases they could come up with to create a vivid description of that picture, for example one group had a picture of a huge multicoloured fish.
We included opportunities for immediate feedback and elicitation by having each person write in a different coloured pen. This way a teacher could assess everyone’s understanding, contribution to the task and perhaps, recognise one of the more quiet children for their progress.
We could also make some links to Maths by dividing the pages of the book into sections in a grid and having the children write directions for finding: “The young boy with sandy-blonde hair, wearing tight red shorts and long electric green flippers”. This would teach prepositional words in a creative and engaging way.
What I loved most about using a ‘Where’s Wally’ book to teach grammar was the fact that not only did it provide the class with an exciting context, but it was also so accessible for every child in my class because it contains no words. Each person was able to use noun phrases to describe a character they could see in the book, making for an incredibly effective teaching resource and lesson.
I am very excited to use this book in school and make full use of the numerous opportunities that it offers from Reception through to Year six.