Lesson plan ideas for the classroom

Pre-reading activity

Look at the front cover and discuss what the story might be about. What do the title and cover illustrations tell us? Does the description on the back cover give more information?

After reading activities

• Think of words and phrases to describe Francois in this story. Look through the text to find words and phrases that the author uses.
• Francois would go to the end of the world for his friends. What do you think this means? Discuss.
• Write down or discuss all the different circus characters that you can see in the book. Which one is your favourite and why?

Other themes to discuss – written or verbal

• Francois is scared of doing lots of things, but he still does them anyway. When have you been scared of doing something, but have done it anyway? How did you feel after you’d done it?
• Feelings – do you think everyone feels scared sometimes?

Science – Fascinating Facts.

• Help students to research elephants to learn more about these magnificent creatures, using non-fiction reference materials. Have partners or groups work together to create a list of 10 fascinating facts about elephants and present it to the class.

Worksheet activities

These activities have a corresponding worksheet provided at the end of this document that you can print out and distribute to your class.

Activity 1 – Same and different   (See Page 5 in PDF) Francois says that he is different and the same as you. In what ways are you the same as Francois? In what ways are you different? Why do you think we are all different? In what ways are we different? In what ways are we the same? Choose from a list of statements and if they are true or false for you. Some of the statements are ambiguous.

Activity 2 – Rhyming Words cards   (See Page 6 in PDF) Cut the cards out and match the word pairs that rhyme.

Activity 3 – Words and Meanings   (See Page 8 in PDF) Write down or talk about the meanings of these words.

Activity 4 – Days of the Week cards   (See Page 9 in PDF) Cut the cards out and sort them into the right order for the days of the week. On which days was Francois scared? Which days was he happy? Were their days when he was both?