Noah Dreary

Free lesson plan, writing template and printable word-search puzzles for kids

Best suited to:

Kindy – Year 4

KLAs covered:

English, PDH

Australian Curriculum outcomes:

English: ACELY1656, ACELY1660, ACELY1661, ACELY1667, ACELY1670, ACELY1671, ACELY1677, ACELY1680, ACELY1682, ACELY1688, ACELY1690, ACELY1694.

NSW Syllabus outcomes:

English: EN1-4A, EN1-8B, EN1-6B, EN1-2A, EN2-4A, EN2-8B, EN2-6B, EN2-2A.

Learning:

• it’s important to be grateful for the things we have in life;
• complaining leads to negativity and unhappiness;
• complaining can become a habit but habits – of thought and of speech – can be changed;
• happiness lies within ourselves, not with the things we have or external validation;

Need to know:

• Noah Dreary is a very funny story about the difficulties we can experience in life and how it’s our attitude towards them which creates – or prevents – our happiness;
• as with all Aaron Blabey books, much of the story is told through the unusual and quirky illustrations;
• the text is sparse, with occasional changes of font and type size adding emphasis where appropriate;
• there are many close-ups of Noah’s head (after it’s been separated from his body), however, the whole bizarre tale has a fairy-tale quality created by the lively illustrations and there is a happy ending so it’s unlikely to frighten any but the most sensitive of children;

Discussion Questions (before reading):

• show the children the front cover and ask what they think the story will be about;
• read the title and show the children the name of the author and illustrator. For younger children, review and discuss the meaning of the words author and illustrator. What other books written by Aaron Blabey do you know?
• call their attention to Noah’s surname. What does the word ‘dreary’ mean?  

Discussion Questions (after reading):

Note that some of these questions appear on the comprehension worksheets in the resource pack. 

• ask children what they thought about of the book. Did they like it? Not like it? Why? Which was their favourite page?
• how does the author use humour in his illustrations?
• which illustration is your favourite? Why?
• what makes the book funny?
• which page do you think is the funniest? Why?
• why do you think the author wrote this story? What do you think is the main message he wants us to learn from Noah Dreary?
• why do you think the author chose to write about something serious (gratitude and how we can be happy) in a funny way?

Whole-Class Activities

• discuss Noah. What kind of person is he at the beginning of the book? What words would you use to describe him? What is he like at the end of the book? Brainstorm words that describe him at the beginning and at the end and write them on the board; 
• discuss the setting, characters, problem and resolution;

Individual Activities

There are templates for these activities to help scaffold children’s work in the resource pack.

• children complete a written re-tell of the story, using a first-next-then-finally scaffold, and illustrate their work;
• children complete a wordsearch using vocabulary from the book;
• children write and/or draw a response to the book. They can draw or write about their favourite part or write about something they learnt from the book;
• children complete a story map, listing the characters, setting, problem and resolution;
• children use a copy of the book to complete a word hunt: they write down a list of nouns, verbs and/or adjectives from the book;
• children answer comprehension questions – literal, influential and evaluative (these three pages are in the resource pack. They’re suitable for Years 2 and 3);
• children complete a book review;

Art Activities

There are templates for some of these activities to help scaffold children’s work in the resource pack.

• children create paddle-pop stick puppets and use them to retell the story;