Stick Man

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“Stick Man lives in the family tree With his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three.”

But it’s dangerous being a Stick Man. A dog wants to play with him, and a swan builds her nest with him. He even ends up on a fire!

Will he ever get back to the family tree?

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Could you write a prequel for this book? Where did the Stick family come from?
• Find all the rhyming words in the book and use them to make your own rhyming dictionary.
• Make a list of the different ways that sticks can be used.
• Write a set of instructions to teach somebody how to play a game that uses sticks.
• Some of the children play ‘Pooh Sticks’ in the game. Do you know when this game was first mentioned?
• Use the speech in the text to turn the story into a play script.
• Could you write a new part of the story in which an animal / person tries to use the Stick Man for something else? How would this make him feel?
• Rewrite the story as a diary entry from the Stick Man’s point of view.
• Write some postcards that the Stick Man might send home to his family to tell them about his adventures.
• When Stick Man tries to escape from the fire, he makes lots of different types of movements (e.g. scratch, scrape, wiggle, jiggle, poke, shove, nudge, hop, jump). Can you think of any other words that can be used to describe movement?
• Could you write a new story about Stick Man and his family?
• Watch this video showing the author reading the story. Could you record your own retelling?

Maths

• How many animals can you count in the illustrations? How many dogs / cats / birds etc.
• Collect different sticks from a local field / park. Can you measure their length / width?

Science

• The swans try to use the Stick Man when they are building their nest. How many other different animals build a nest? Where do they build them? What materials do they use?
• The Stick Man floats out to sea. Think about why things float. Can you test different materials to see if they float?

Computing

• Use stop-motion animation software to make an animated version of the story using sticks and your own pictures.
• Use the Pivot Stickfigure Animator software to make an animation about a stick.

Design Technology

• Design and build a sandcastle like the family in the story. What different parts will it have?
• Look at the toys in the Stick Family’s bedroom. Could you use natural materials to make a new toy for the children?
• Can you make your own Stick puppets? Could you perform the story using them??Watch this video showing a clip from the stage version of the book for some ideas:

Art

• Use natural materials (e.g. sticks / leaves) to make your own stick people and animals. Could you take digital photos of them?
• Turn the stick photos into your own cartoon family by drawing on arms / legs / faces etc.?(see Resources below).
• The Stick Family live in their ‘family tree’. Could you draw a family tree showing different members of their family?

Music

• Can you make a tune that could be used for an animated version of the story?

Geography

• Draw a map showing the journey that the Stick Man took throughout the story.

History

• Make a timeline showing the different events of the story.

PSHE

• Look at the Stick Man’s facial expressions throughout the story. How is he feeling? Could you try to make some of those facial expressions too?

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