The Bowerbird

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Bert the bowerbird has made the most perfect bower nest, complete with a pretty purple flower, and is hoping it will help him to meet the bird of his dreams. But will all his efforts to create a beautiful display be enough to win over Nanette?

English:

• Retell the story from Bert’s point of view.
• Make a list of all of the rhyming words in the book. Can you think of other words that rhyme with each one?
• Rewrite some of the direct speech as reported speech.
• Write a new story in which one character tries to impress another. Will it end in the same way as this story?
• Think of some speech / thought bubbles for Bert and Nanette throughout the story.
• Could you turn the story (or part of it) into a play script and perform it to an audience?
• Try some role-play activities. Pretend to be Bert, Nanette, Claude or Jean and interview them about what happened in the story.
• Make a list of words and phrases to describe a bowerbird. Use these to create a poem about them.
• Watch this ‘read along’ video. Could you record your own?

Science:

• Research the topic of bowerbirds and write a report about them.

Computing:

• Make a game in which a bird has to fly around and collect different objects.
• Make a written / multimedia / video presentation about bowerbirds.

Design Technology:

• Could you design and build a bower for Bert? What materials could you use?
• Watch this video showing a bowerbird making its bower. Could you use sticks / straws to make your own?

• Could you create a model of a bowerbird?
• Make some puppets of Bert and Nanette and use them to retell the story to an audience.

Art:

• Look at some photos of bowerbirds (see Downloads below). Use these as inspiration for your own drawings and paintings.
• Retell this story in the form of a comic strip.
• This video shows Catherine Rayner painting the Bowerbird. Could you use similar techniques to paint your own picture?

Music:

• Compose a tune to accompany parts of this rhyming story.

Geography:

• Find out where bowerbirds usually live and try to find this on a map.

PSHE:

• While he was away, all of Bert’s things were stolen. How did this make him feel? Why isn’t it nice to take things that belong to other people?
• Bert tries to impress Nanette with lots of different things. Have you ever done something special to impress another person?

Downloads: