Horton Hears A Who!

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Horton the kindly elephant has his work cut out saving the tiny Whos who live on a speck of dust – no one else believes they are there! But Horton eventually convinces everyone that ‘A person’s a person, no matter how small’!

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Rewrite the story (or part of it) from Horton’s point of view.
• Identify the different types of punctuation used in the story. Which is the most common? Which is the least common? Why?
• Think of some similes that can be used to describe the size of something.
• Think of some similes to describe how loud / quiet something is.
• Could you turn the story into a playscript and perform it for an audience?
• Write a diary that tells the day in the life of a Who.
• Write a newspaper report about an elephant who has been seen talking to a speck of dust on a clover.
• Read the story and pause at different points to discuss how Horton is feeling. Could you think of questions to ask him at that point?
• Look through the text and find different synonyms for ‘said’ (e.g. humpfed, chatting, bellowing, snapped).
• Write a thank you letter from the Mayor of the Whos to Horton.

Maths

• How large is an elephant? How small is a speck of dust? Think of different ways of measuring them. What units of measurement would you need to use?
• Make a timeline that shows the different events of the story. Don’t forget to use the dates / times mentioned in the story to help you.
• Horton finds the Whos on the three millionth clovers. Can you make up some Maths problems that include the number 3,000,000?

Science

• Use the story as the starting point for learning about sound and volume. How do we measure the loudness of different sounds? Could you measure the volume of different noises and use them for some data-handling activities?
• Investigate ways that we can make our voices louder / travel further. Could the Whos have tried any of these methods?
• Think of things that are as small as the Whos. Could you use a microscope to look at some of them?

Computing

• Record your own narrated version of the story. You could make this with Powerpoint or other multimedia software.

• Make a trailer for the book / animation / movie.

Design Technology

• Design a device that Horton can use to protect the Whos.

Art

• Draw your own pictures to show what you think the Whos might look like.
• Try to recreate one of the illustrations in the book using a wider range of colours.

Music

• Compose a tune that the Whos could have used to alert the Wickersham gang that they were real.
• Look at the instructions that the Whos play. How many can you identify? What noise do they make?

Geography

• Draw a map that shows the Jungle of Nool, the patch of clovers and other locations mentioned in the story.
• Draw a map of Who-ville.

PSHE

• Horton says that ‘A person’s a person, no matter how small.’ What does this mean?