Just So Stories: Background To The Novel

Just So Stories By Rudyard Kipling
T E AC H E R N OT E S
Background to the novel

Published in 1902 the Just So Stories are fantasy explanations for how animal characteristics evolved.
In his introduction to the Puffin edition, Jonathan Stroud says:
Each tale is full of marvels, but the real magic in them is their language, which explodes like
reworks in your ears. It thrums with a uniquely twirly dancing rhythm that sweeps you up like a
magic carpet; it is crammed with sensuous lists of remote, exotic places that conjure the wonders of
the wide, wide world.
The story used for these activities is the first of twelve in the book which has been reprinted and
reproduced many times since its publication. These are very accessible stories of which you would hope
that the children might go on to read more. The intimate tone and repetition of the phrase O my best
beloved help the reader to make a connection with the narrator. The language is florid and witty and it
would be hoped that experiencing it will enhance the childrens own writing.
1. The Whale (comprehension)

You will need:
a copy of the text for each child
copies of worksheet 1 The Whale
Ensure that the meaning of stute and astute is understood. You can discuss at the end why/how the
stute fish is clever. There are 12 comprehension questions so you can either read the whole story out and
present children with them all at once or break the story at turned round three times on his tail. and do
up to no. 7 first.
The object is to ensure that the story is understood thoroughly.
2. Tricky words (developing vocabulary)

You will need:
copies of worksheet 2
dictionaries (check first that they actually have the words in them)
Encourage children to be creative with their sentences, modelling some first.
3. Banging & Clanging (verbs & rhymes)

You will need:
copies of worksheet 3 Banging & Clanging
highlighter pens
Kiplings wonderful use of rhyme within the prose gives his writing a distinctive feel. Revise verbs from the
passage then highlight the rhyming pairs and write them out. Ensure that children understand why Kipling
took liberties with the language and encourage them to do so similarly in the next activity.
Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 1 of 14

4. Other animals (creative writing)

You will need:
copies of worksheet 4 Other animals
a copy per person of the story
highlighter pens
Get children to highlight stylistic oddities in Kiplings writing such as the repetition of the phrase O my
Best Beloved.. and talk about how this helps to connect the reader to the writer.
Encourage wild ideas about animals by modelling some as a group. For instance How the scorpion got its
sting, share ideas first, reminding them that it need not be realistic. Draw attention to the repetition of key
things such as the suspenders that the Mariner is going to use on the Whale. Encourage use of rhyming
lists and making up words to fit.
5. Whose side are you on? (note taking & making a case)
Children use the work they did on Worksheet 4 to produce a piece of discursive writing. Discuss the
concept of discursive writing with the class and encourage them to generate their own examples. Children
then write a discursive piece on the Whale and the Mariner. They are also introduced to the concept of
drafting their work with specific ideas on how to make improvements, including peer assessment.
6. Latitude & Longitude battleships (co-ordinates)

You will need:
copies of worksheet 5 Latitude & Longitude
coloured pens or pencils
map or globe
access to the internet for research
Explain the concept of Latitude & longitude and find the position on a globe or map of 50N 40 W (it is off
the coast of Newfoundland). Make the connection with plotting co-ordinates and either explain Battleship
rules or get children to read them from the instructions before playing the game.
Extension activity: Investigate the location of the places mentioned. Kipling talks of Albion, (the south
down cliffs in England); Scotland (Hibernia), and the other places are in North America.

7. Review
You will need:
copies of worksheet 6 Review
the work that has been done so far to reference and share
Discuss what children have enjoyed about working on the Just So Stories and encourage them to continue
to read the rest of the book. Use the phrases that Kipling uses in other contexts so that they incorporate
them into their lexicon.
Curriculum links
Geography
Latitude & longitude, you could find out the latitude & longitude of the school and other places the
children suggest.
Work out the distance that the whale might have travelled.
Science/ICT
The many sea creatures named could be investigated and pictures of them obtained with information
about their habitats recorded.
Art
Make a collage of the sea creatures with the open mouth of the whale in the middle and the Mariner
and all his kit popping out.
Game
Children make a pelmanism game of all the rhyming words (there are two sets).

For all worksheets

How the Whale got his Throat
In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.)
there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the Then the Whale opened his mouth back and
starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, back and back till it nearly touched his tail, and he
and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the raft
his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, he was sitting on, and his blue canvas breeches,
and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes and the suspenders (which you must not forget),
he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth and the jack-knife. He swallowed them all down
so! Till at last there was only one small fish left into his warm, dark, inside cup-boards, and then
in all the sea, and he was a small Stute Fish, and he smacked his lips so, and turned round three
he swam a little behind the Whales right ear, so times on his tail.
as to be out of harms way. Then the Whale stood But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man
up on his tail and said, Im hungry. And the small of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself
Stute Fish said in a small stute voice, Noble and truly inside the Whales warm, dark, inside cup-
generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man? boards, he stumped and he jumped and he
No, said the Whale. What is it like? thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and
Nice, said the small Stute Fish. Nice but he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and
nubbly. he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped,
Then fetch me some, said the Whale, and he and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped
made the sea froth up with his tail. and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed,
One at a time is enough, said the Stute Fish. and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped
If you swim to latitude Fifty North, longitude and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where
Forty West (that is magic), you will find, sitting he shouldnt, and the Whale felt most unhappy
on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing indeed. (Have you forgotten the suspenders?)
on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of So he said to the Stute Fish, This man is very
suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccup.
Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, one ship-wrecked What shall I do?
Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of Tell him to come out, said the Stute Fish.
infinite-resource-and-sagacity. So the Whale called down his own throat to
So the Whale swam and swam to latitude the shipwrecked Mariner, Come out and behave
Fifty North, longitude Forty West, as fast as he yourself. Ive got the hiccups.
could swim, and on a raft, in the middle of the Nay, nay! said the Mariner. Not so, but far
sea, with nothing to wear except a pair of blue otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the
canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must white-cliffs-of-Albion, and Ill think about it. And
particularly remember the suspenders, Best he began to dance more than ever.
Beloved), and a jack-knife, he found one single, You had better take him home, said the
solitary shipwrecked Mariner, trailing his toes in Stute Fish to the Whale. I ought to have warned
the water. (He had his Mummys leave to paddle, you that he is a man of infinite-resource-and-
or else he would never have done it, because he sagacity.

So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with from that day on, the grating in his throat, which
both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could he could neither cough up nor swallow down,
for the hiccups; and at last he saw the Mariners prevented him eating anything except very, very
natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and small fish; and that is the reason why whales
he rushed half-way up the beach, and opened nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls.
his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said, The small Stute Fish went and hid himself in the
Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, mud under the Door-sills of the Equator. He was
Keene, and stations on the Fitchburg Road; and afraid that the Whale might be angry with him.
just as he said Fitch the Mariner walked out of his The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He was
mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, wearing the blue canvas breeches when he
the Mariner, who was indeed a person of infinite- walked out on the shingle. The suspenders were
resource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife left behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and
and cut up the raft into a little square grating all that is the end of that tale.
running criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with
When the cabin port-holes are dark
his suspenders (now, you know why you were not
and green
to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that
Because of the seas outside;
grating good and tight into the Whales throat,
When the ship goes wop (with a
and there it stuck! Then he recited the following
wiggle between)
Sloka, which, as you have not heard it, I will now
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen,
proceed to relate
And the trunks begin to slide;
By means of a grating When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap,
I have stopped your ating. And Mummy tells you to let her sleep,
And you arent waked or washed
For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And
or dressed,
he stepped out on the shingle, and went home
Why, then you will know (if you
to his mother, who had given him leave to trail
havent guessed)
his toes in the water; and he married and lived
Youre Fifty North and Forty West!
happily ever afterward. So did the Whale. But

The Whale
1. Name the things the whale eats when the story begins.
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2. How does the way the Stute Fish uses the word cetacean help us to work out what
it refers to?
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3. How does the Stute Fish describe man?
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4. What do you think nubbly means? Make up another word that describes man.
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5. Where did the Stute Fish tell the Whale to go to find the Mariner?
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6. Write three of the things that Rudyard Kipling uses to identify the man that they are
looking for.
1. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
2. ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
3. ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
7. What did the Whale do immediately after he had swallowed the Mariner?
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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8. Describe in your own words what the Mariner did when he was inside the Whale.
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9. What do you think he means by: Take me to my natal-shore and the

white-cliffs-of-Albion, and Ill think about it?
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
10. What does the Mariner do to protect other people from being swallowed
by whales?
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11. Why might the Whale be angry with the Stute Fish?
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12. Is the ending of the story happy or sad, and why?.
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Tricky words.
Use a dictionary to find out (or check) the meanings of the words from the story and
write a sentence using them.
Meaning: Sentence:
suspenders
Albion
sagacity
shipwrecked
breeches
grating
shingle

Banging & Clanging

Highlight all the verbs in this passage then copy them into the tables in rhyming pairs.
Two of the words are not the proper words, put rings around them and write the correct
one. Why do you think Kipling used these?
But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself
truly inside the Whales warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and
he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he
clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he
howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and
he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldnt,
and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed.
jumped thumped

Other animals.
The titles of some of the other stories are below.
How the Camel got his Hump
How the Rhinoceros got his Skin
How the Leopard got his Spots
The Buttery that Stamped
Choose one of them and invent what you think happened. Or if you prefer you can
choose a different animal such as an octopus, a rattlesnake or a seahorse and explain
how that became the way it is. Let your imagination go wild, nothing needs to be
possible! Write as much as you can in the style of Rudyard Kipling.
How the ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
got its .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Once upon a time, O my Best Beloved

Battleships
Secretly draw the outline (only) of your 5 characters on the lower grid. No character can
hang over the edge of the grid or touch another.
They can be in different orientations from those shown but must be the same shape.
Players take turns firing a shot to find opponents characters.
On your turn, call out a letter and a number of a row and column on the grid. Your
opponent checks that space on their lower grid, and says miss if there are no ships
there, or hit if you guessed a space that contained a part of a character. When a box
is hit put an X in that box, then when the whole is hit you tell your opponent that it is
complete and colour it in.
Mark the shots you make on your upper grid, with X for misses and coloured in boxes
for hits, to keep track of your guesses.
There is a winner when one person has found the whole of all the characters.
Battleship symbols:
whale mariner
starfish
eel
crab

Your opponents grid

Q
P
O
N
L M
A L
T K
I J
T I
U H
D G
F
E
E
D Fill in the
C numbers
B and letters
A on the
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 edges of
LONGITUDE the grids,
then
Your grid
outline 5
Q characters
P onto the
O bottom
N grid.
L M
A L
T K
I J
T I
U H
D G
F
E
E
D
C
B
A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
LONGITUDE
Reviewing what we have done

Good bits Bad bits
Do you want to read the rest of the book? ...........................................................................................................................................

Why?
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
What did you learn from working on this project?
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Can you
find all the
books?
A B H T O M S A W Y E R N J M B A
L L U F S A W Q F A F K P O S D N
I A C J Y E C U B K J L D U C M N
C C K I N G A R T H U R A R Z L E
E K L U O H L L S D N E F N P A O
S B E T Y A L U V K G D A E D L F
A E B P Q N O F R Z L S F Y Q I G
D A E J K S F R A E E U M T W T R
V U R N L C T L C H B J S O O T E
E T R J A H H E O S O A C T K L E
N Y Y D S R E K C H O L D H Y E N
T Q F W E I W O H U K T Y E X P G
U K I S D S I G C L S P K C L R A
R C N C H T L G U I E A O E I I B
E S N O U I D R L C D E R N T N L
S L K C V A D E H E I D I T T C E
I U Y T I N R E P L J H B R L E S
N B M O C A H K P K P R K E E S W
W I N D I N T H E W I L L O W S D
O V A Y W D I E T O L B S F O G F
N B I S L E J R E P K N L T M S O
D K Q S O R B O R I Y V H H E L P
E S T E L S P E P M H O H E N M A
R K B Y O E A S A J I Q W E K I E
L O I E R N T E N R K W I A F O U
A H Y A N M I A L D S E L R G T G
N B W I Z A R D O F O Z X T D V H
D S E C R E T G A R D E N H P B K
Q K T R E A S U R E I S L A N D L
R P A F J X Z S A Q N M K D I O H
Can you
find all the
books?
A B H T O M S A W Y E R N J M B A
L L U F S A W Q F A F K P O S D N
I A C J Y E C U B K J L D U C M N
C C K I N G A R T H U R A R Z L E
E K L U O H L L S D N E F N P A O
S B E T Y A L U V K G D A E D L F
A E B P Q N O F R Z L S F Y Q I G
D A E J K S F R A E E U M T W T R
V U R N L C T L C H B J S O O T E
E T R J A H H E O S O A C T K L E
N Y Y D S R E K C H O L D H Y E N
T Q F W E I W O H U K T Y E X P G
U K I S D S I G C L S P K C L R A
R C N C H T L G U I E A O E I I B
E S N O U I D R L C D E R N T N L
S L K C V A D E H E I D I T T C E
I U Y T I N R E P L J H B R L E S
N B M O C A H K P K P R K E E S W
W I N D I N T H E W I L L O W S D
O V A Y W D I E T O L B S F O G F
N B I S L E J R E P K N L T M S O
D K Q S O R B O R I Y V H H E L P
E S T E L S P E P M H O H E N M A
R K B Y O E A S A J I Q W E K I E
L O I E R N T E N R K W I A F O U
A H Y A N M I A L D S E L R G T G
N B W I Z A R D O F O Z X T D V H
D S E C R E T G A R D E N H P B K
Q K T R E A S U R E I S L A N D L
R P A F J X Z S A Q N M K D I O H

Just So Stories: Background To The Novel

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Just So Stories By Rudyard Kipling

Background to the novel

1. The Whale (comprehension)

2. Tricky words (developing vocabulary)

3. Banging & Clanging (verbs & rhymes)

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 1 of 14

4. Other animals (creative writing)

6. Latitude & Longitude battleships (co-ordinates)

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 2 of 14

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 3 of 14

For all worksheets

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 4 of 14

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 5 of 14

3. How does the Stute Fish describe man?

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 6 of 14

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 7 of 14

9. What do you think he means by: Take me to my natal-shore and the

12. Is the ending of the story happy or sad, and why?.

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 8 of 14

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 9 of 14

Banging & Clanging

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 10 of 14

How the ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

got its .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Once upon a time, O my Best Beloved

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 11 of 14

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 12 of 14

Your opponents grid

Reviewing what we have done

Do you want to read the rest of the book? ...........................................................................................................................................

What did you learn from working on this project?

Puffin Books 2015 22096 www.teachitprimary.co.uk Page 14 of 14

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