Voices In The Park

Four different people visit the park, and their lives touch for a time.

What do they see? What do they say?

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Create a character profile for each of the four ‘voices’ in the story.
Could you turn the story into a radio play with different children playing the role of each voice in the story?
Could you create your own story in which different people have different points of view about the same event?
Use the story as a starting point for learning about the first / third person and how they are written.
Could you rewrite the story in the third person to explain what happened?
Think about the hopes and dreams of the different voices who are speaking. Could you describe these to a friend?
Identify the different nouns / adjectives / verbs / adverbs / connectives / punctuation used in the story. Why have these been used in particular places?
Write some instructions to teach someone how to make their Dad a nice cup of tea, ?like the girl in the story.
Discuss the differences between the four voices and record these in different ways. Check out this example from Ms Kate on Instagram:

Voices in the Park

Can you find any examples of tessellations in the pictures? Can you create your own tessellations?

Look at the use of light and shadow in the illustrations. Where is the light source? How are shadows formed?
Look at the different trees shown in the pictures. How do they change in each part of the story? Can you research different types of trees and write a report to share what you find out about them?
Describe the forces that are in action in each illustration.

Each character in the story is written in a different font. Investigate different types of fonts that are available on your computer. Can you sort them into different groups? Which ones would be most appropriate for different types of character in a new story?
Could you design your own font?

Design and create a model of a new statue to go in the park where the characters met.

Look at the use of perspective within the illustrations. Can you draw some pictures which use techniques to show the foreground, background, perspective and depth?
Look at the facial expressions and body language of the characters in the illustrations. Can you draw the same person with different expressions / body language to show their changing emotions?
Discuss the use of colour within the illustrations. How do the changes in colour reflect the changing emotions of the characters speaking?
Look at the illustrations of nighttime scenes. Could you create your own pictures which feature silhouettes of people / objects?
Explore each of the illustrations. Is there anything interesting / unusual in each one that makes you want to look further? Could you create a picture with something interesting / unusual to make people look more closely?

Draw a map showing the different places featured in the story. Use this to show the route taken by each of the voices that day.

Look at the body language and facial expressions of the characters in the story. How are they feeling? What might they be thinking?