The Giant’s Loo Roll

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This rip-roaring, read-aloud delight follows a giant’s toilet roll as it goes on a crazy journey through town, leaving havoc in its wake. What will the townsfolk do with all the enormous sheets of paper? They could build a paper plane, or make 100s of pairs of pants… But will there be any paper left for the giant in his time of need?

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Make a list of all of the rhyming words in the book. Could you use these to start your own rhyming dictionary?
• Work together to think of lots of unusual ways that a toilet roll could be used (e.g. as a seat for small children, as a never-ending notepad).
• Write a newspaper article that reports on the appearance of a giant toilet roll in the town.
• There are lots of ‘-ing’ words in the story. Can you find them all?
• Imagine that a giant lived on a hill near to you. How would you feel? What adventures might you have together?
• Can you find any other stories that include giants? Which do you prefer? Why?
• Turn the story into a playscript using speech and stage directions.

Maths

• Estimate how long a toilet roll is. Can you measure a single sheet and multiply this by the number of sheets to get the total length?
• Find out the prices of different brands of toilet rolls. How many sheets do they have? Which is the best value?
• Each sheet of the giant’s loo roll is ten-foot square. Measure how large this is.
• Imagine that you are having a party like the people in the story. Plan the different things that will be needed. How much might this all cost?

Science

• Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill? What force caused it to do this?
• Make some paper darts using different-sized pieces of paper. Does the size affect how far the darts will fly?
• Make paper darts using different types of paper (e.g. toilet roll, kitchen roll, photocopier paper, tissue paper) and investigate which is the best.

Design Technology

• Make some paper darts (like the children in the story) and have a competition to see which one will fly the furthest.
• Design a new pair of paper pants!

Art

• Find some giant pieces of paper and use these to make your own artwork.

Geography

• Find out how paper is recycled. Make a poster that encourages people to recycle waste paper.
• Could you make your own recycled paper? Could you make some instructions to teach people how to do this?