Stubby

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Stubby was a brave soldier, a loyal friend… and a dog. From an army training camp to the trenches in France, this is the incredible true story of Sergeant Stubby, the dog who served bravely in the First World War, sniffing out gas attacks, catching spies and winning the hearts of his fellow soldiers.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Use the phrase ‘A True Story of Friendship’ as the starting point for your own story.
• Could you write a story about an animal who plays an important part in a historical event… or an animal who becomes a hero?
• This story is written in the present tense. Can you rewrite some of the sentences in the past tense?
• Could you rewrite some of the text in the third person?
• Write a letter from Corporal Conroy to his family back home.
• Retell the story from Stubby’s point of view.
• Write a newspaper report about Stubby and how he helped the war effort.
• Look at the different locations shown in the illustrations. Choose a few of them and write sentences / paragraphs to describe them. How are they similar / different?
• Could you write a poem about Stubby?
• Write a set of instructions to teach people how to look after a pet dog.
• The author reads this book and gives more information about his work in the videos below. If you could ask him some questions, what would you like to find out?

• Watch this trailer for a movie based on Stubby’s story. Could you watch the movie and compare it to this book? How are they similar / different? Which do you prefer?

Science

• Look at the footprints on the inside front covers of the book. Find out about the different types of animal footprints (see the resource below). Why are animal footprints different?
• Find out about different breeds of dogs. How are they similar / different?

Computing

• Make a stop-motion animation that retells part of this story.
• Use publishing software to create a newspaper report about Stubby’s involvement in the war.
• This website has lots of ‘making of’ videos for the animated version of a story about Sgt. Stubby. Could you watch some of them and then create your own animation?

Design Technology

• Design a shelter for Stubby to sleep in.
• At one point in the story, some ladies make Stubby an army jacket. Could you design a new jacket for him?

Art

• Use art software to create some pictures of Stubby.
• Retell this story in the form of a comic strip.

History

• Find out how animals were used during the war. Could you write a report about this topic?

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