Little J is initially scared to approach the ‘monster’ in the back yard. Encouraged to face his fears, he vows to catch the frilly-necked monster and sets about building a monster trap with the help of Levi.

Explain - Explore the different contribution of words and images to meaning in stories and informative texts

Theme - MONSTERS

Setting

Read or view a selection of Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories about scary monsters to the class, such as:

• Ancient stories, new voices, Dust Echoes (ABC Education)
• Donaldson, J. and Scheffler, A. (2006). The Gruffalo 
• Language of belonging - Wadu matyidi 
• Dreamtime
• Tiddalick The Frog 
• Namorrodor 
• The Curse
• Giant Devil Dingo
• Kelly, J., and Russell, S. (2003). The Min Min. [Killara, NSW]: Indij Readers
• Notley, W. & Russell, E. (2009). The hairy one.
• Smith-Yualug, C. & Martins, F. (2012). The haunted billabong. [Killara, NSW]: Indij Readers

Discuss with students where these stories take place. Make a list of the suggested locations.

Ask students to work in pairs to examine one of the stories/animation (above), or one of their own, and to answer the following questions:

• What clues does the illustrator/animator give to where the story takes place? Explain the use of colours, identifiable land and sky forms, sounds, patterns, etc.
• How does the setting relate to the main character? Is it their home, school, land, cave, sky, etc.
• How is the setting represented? Is it a scary place, happy place, imaginary place, etc.?
• Does the setting increase the feel of the story?

Ask pairs to share their ideas with another pair who may have chosen the same story/animation. Ask the groups of four to explain their responses with the class.

Invite students to create a collage setting for a ‘scary’ character either to increase the scariness of the story, or provide an opposite feeling. Have each student explain their reasoning to the class.

Students could access and use the following resources to develop their own stories, characters and settings: Adobe Spark app

Suggested resource

• Playing with texts (Scootle: TLF ID M019077)
  This teaching resource contains a variety of interactive activities that will engage your early year’s students with narrative and informative texts. Use its selection of enjoyable game-based learning experiences to explore text types, characters, settings, narrative sequencing, story mapping and strategies for adding meaning to texts.