Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon
Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon
Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon
Lesson plans copyright © 2014 by Scholastic (UK). Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Liz Pichon.
CONTENTS
Lesson Plans
Lesson 1: A Tiny Bit Fruity …………………………………………………........…....................... page 3
Lesson 2: Monsters and Aliens …………………………………………............................….... page 5
Lesson 3: Dude3 ………………………………………......……………..…............................…......….. page 8
Lesson 4: Snack Time …………………………………...………………..........................…...…....... page 10
Activity Sheets
Activity Sheet 1: The Crazy Fruit Bunch ……………………………….....................…… page 13
Activity Sheet 2: Drawing with Scissors ………………………………....................….… page 14
Activity Sheet 3: Monstrous Calligrams ………………………….…....................……… page 15
Activity Sheet 4: Monstrous Mash-Up …………………………….……..................……… page 16
Activity Sheet 5: Invisible Ink ……………………………………….…….….........................… page 17
Activity Sheet 6: Comic Strip Template ………………………………...................….…… page 18
Activity Sheet 7: Band T-Shirt ………………………………….....................…….............……. page 19
Activity Sheet 8: Revolting Recipes ……………………….…………...................….….…… page 20
Extracts
Extract 1: from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky .......................................................... page 21
Extract 2: from Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things) .... page 28
Extract 3: from Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly) ............................................ page 29
Extract 4: from The Brilliant World of Tom Gates .............................................. page 33
Task 1
Tom uses a length of string to create doodles of a snail and a monster.
Provide each child with a piece of string and give them time to explore using
it to produce different shapes. Explain that they are now going to create
a permanent string doodle by gluing the string to a piece of card stock.
Encourage them to draw the outline in pencil first and then use a brush
to apply glue over the outline, sticking the string down as they go. Let dry
completely.
Task 2
Once the string doodles are dry, they can be used to print repeating patterns.
Apply paint to the doodles using a brush or sponge roller. Experiment with
printing using different colored paints and backgrounds.
Task 3
Use Activity Sheet 2 to introduce children to Matisse’s cutouts, especially
The Snail. Provide strips of colored paper and scissors, then ask the children
to create cutout collages in the style of Matisse. You can have them use the
fruit shapes on Activity Sheet 1 for inspiration, re-creating shapes they can
see in the fruit. Explain that their collages can be any color — Matisse’s snail
is multicolored.
Extension
In Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things), Tom starts a craze
for banana doodles. Have the children read Extract 2, which shows them
how to create banana doodles. Encourage them to re-create their Crazy
Fruit Bunch characters on a banana.
Task 1
Invite children to create their own monstrous calligrams using the adjectives
on Activity Sheet 3. Or, brainstorm your own words to use.
Task 2
Tom likes to draw monsters, often inspired by his irritating classmate Marcus
Meldrew. Have children try this monstrous mash-up:
• Sort the children into groups of three and give each group a piece of paper.
• Without showing their work to the others, have one child draw the monster’s
head (or heads!) at the top of the page and then fold over the paper so that
just the neck is showing.
• The next child draws the arms and body, then folds the paper over as before.
The final member of the group draws the legs and feet.
• The paper can then be unfolded to reveal the monster. Have the group come
up with a name for their monster.
• The group can then go back and write a monstrous description for each part
of the monster’s body.
Task 3
Cut out the description cards on Activity Sheet 4. Use these to inspire
children to create their own monster pictures or models to match.
Task 1
Ask children to work in groups to look at a range of musical instruments
and then design and make their own from everyday objects. For example:
• Use a pin to make a small hole at the top and bottom of an egg and
carefully blow out the contents into a bowl so that you are left with just
the shell. Carefully enlarge one of the holes and insert some sunflower
seeds or lentils. Insert a straw into the hole and tape it in place to make
a handle. Cover your mini maraca in papier mâché, paint it, and shake it!
• Fill bottles with different amounts of liquid, then blow over the tops.
• Castanets can be made with bottle caps glued onto cardboard that is
folded in half.
• A guitar can be made with elastic bands strung over a box.
Task 2
In Tom Gates: Excellent Excuses (and Other Good Stuff), Tom watches
some scary films with his cousins: Vampire Swamp Monsters from Hell
and Bloodsucker Beetles vs. Giant Aliens. Ask children to imagine what
kinds of sounds these creatures might make. Explore the different sound
effects they can create using their voices, bodies, existing instruments,
or the instruments they made in Task 1. Ask children to compose the
score for one of these films. They should think about how they could
record their score on paper using different symbols: for example, monster
footprints to represent the different sounds.
Task 3
In Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things), Tom wins a
competition in Rock Weekly to design a T-shirt for Dude3. Give children
copies of Activity Sheet 7 and ask them to design a T-shirt for the band
they named at the start.
Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 9
Lesson plans copyright © 2014 by Scholastic (UK). Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Liz Pichon.
LESSON 4
Snack Time
Objectives
• Use imperative verbs to write an instructional text.
• Estimate and calculate lengths using standard and non-standard units of
measure.
• Identify fractions of quantities.
Activities
• Create revolting recipes.
• Estimate different lengths using cookies.
• Create a math activity board game.
Resources
• Activity Sheet 8 – Revolting Recipes
• Liz Pichon demonstrates how to doodle different cooking verbs on the
Videos of Liz Pichon playlist at www.youtube.co.uk/scholasticfilmsuk.
Task 1
In Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky, Tom’s class makes pizzas as part of
enrichment week. But during the planning stage they come up with some
very strange toppings, such as raspberry jam and chips. Granny Mavis
is also known for her rather unappetizing recipes, such as Chicken and
Cornflake Surprise. In this activity, children will create their own recipes
for Granny Mavis.
Have the children pair up and give each team a copy of Activity Sheet 8.
Ask them to cut out the food cards, shuffle them, and place them facedown
on a table. Have them take turns flipping over the cards in order to come
up with combinations, then write out a recipe using the imperative verbs
from the lesson starter.
Task 2
Tom’s favorite food is caramel wafers, which are a type of cookie. So use
cookies as the basis for some tasty math. Develop children’s estimation
skills by asking them to predict different lengths using cookies as a unit
of measure. For example, how many cookies long is the table? How many
cookies would you need to put end to end to cross the classroom? Then
measure the length of a cookie in centimeters and calculate the exact
distances using multiplication.
Give groups of children a selection of different cookies and a large piece
of paper. Ask them to use the cookies to create an image — for example,
a face, a train, or a guitar. Then ask them to record what fraction of the
whole image has been made with each type of cookie. Can these fractions
be expressed in a simpler form? Arrange the fractions in order from least
to greatest. You can have students create word problems based on the
fractions or express the fractions as decimals. Whether or not you eat the
cookies afterward is up to you!
The colored shapes in Matisse’s collage The Snail make a spiral, just like the
shape of a snail’s shell.
NT LOTS
bought aIt itwawso u ald bpro
sch oo l w o uld be . Mmmmmmm … I t hin’m
of things.
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L
it late to eat . Dad said, “ I’ll coo k
som eth ing l ike th is …
k
L W HAT?
her day.s tom ach kept and
“ ike ” I asked.
I cou ldn’t get to sle e p .
(MThe n
mmmmm , Ilet m e
m m . )re me m b ered th e se cret st ash of biscuit s Bis cui ts
m m Now choose one of the words below and try to create your own monstrous
m m calligram.
i n my bag. So I grabbed t he m and ate
t“You
he m aknow, things.
ll! C r u m b s got eveterrifying
monstrous rywhe re and it wa s
Thingsvemade slimy
ry u nco m forof
out table in myalien
sle e p ingAnyway,
bag. Eve n .
t hough hairy
we h ad a “ fam ily devilish
te nt ” wit h se pa rate
it doesn’t matter what I made. The main thing w
rooms, D elia co u ld hear m e shift ing arou n d a n d
OUT toothy
I was fi dgeti ng . inIt the
was fresh
really air having
annoy ing he r.
scaly
BRILLIANT! So I did it some more. But
Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 15
✁
THE GREEN SLIME MONSTER drops THE LONG-NECKED ZEBROID is stripy
revolting, shiny glop everywhere he and has a very long neck that can be
goes. He has four fearful heads, each tied in knots. She has three legs with
one with a single bulging eye. hooves.
THE SHARKY STINGER has a large THE SMELLY SOCK MONSTER can be
dorsal fin like a shark and lots of sniffed out long before she is seen.
spiky teeth. She runs very fast and She has five feet, each covered in
shoots poisonous darts from her tail. a brightly colored, extremely stinky
sock.
• lemon juice
• cotton swabs
• hair dryer
What to do:
• Dip a cotton swab in the lemon juice and use it to write an invisible
message in the box below.
• Wait for the lemon juice to dry completely, then swap your sheet
with a classmate.
• Using a hair dryer on a hot setting, heat the paper and wait for the
messages to be revealed.
• What does your friend’s message say?
✁
cabbage lasagna rolls
banana biscuits chips
soup stew spaghetti
cornflakes meringues pie
kebabs chocolate in white wine
sandwiches meatballs eggplant
yogurt casserole cakes
quiche peanut carrot
lettuce porridge vol-au-vents
sausages lentils pasta
omelette fritters custard
Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 20
Lesson plans copyright © 2014 by Scholastic (UK). Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Liz Pichon.
EXTRACT 1
from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky
d i n g t o my
A cc o r da
d
.….
.
THI
S bbiitt
ooff st
s tri
t rningg . …
. .
i s go i n g to b e . …
..
ak
e.
it
(Re Dad’s
a l ly ? ) f
It piec
do
esn I t
’t l
ook
much
like a KI
TE t
o
m
e?
d o o d le.
a s t r i ng o n d e r i n g . )
It ’ s in case you were w
il,
(A sna
T HE
C RA ZY
FR UIT B U N CH,
the BEST cartoon show EVER.
T HE
C RA ZY
FR UIT B U N CH was on and it’s
outside
(He is quite old,running about
round in the fresh air. I hardly
after all.)
H ow to do
a BA N A N A doodle
.
b l ack
Wh n
ere l tur .
you m i t w i l
i c k ly
Yo ake a hol e u
u c u i t e q
an d q
o a doodle like this
it,
t
u ea
Do e yo rker
n't fo r da
b e d
leave
the banana too lo
ng r an y
l
d y
— —–
e d
dark moolu
as the doodle will go then go ).
( yuck
e c r et ES
S SAG
M E S( S h h h h h )
Top
jump
jump
B ac k i n c l a s s,
MF r. ul lerm a n ha s found
y et a n oth er way of ma k ing
us do EX TR A practice for
jump up
SPORTS DAY. We a ll h ave to
a nd to uc h th e a rrow b efore h e lets us come
i nto c l a s s .
Th en h e expla ins to th e cla ss wh at
we’l l b e doing today .
X Y Z
W
M
Sniff
Nosy
a rc us i s L OO KING
at w h at I ' m doi ng a nd
SNI FF I NG right by my ea r.
I tel l h i m to s top doing b oth a nd h e say s, “I'm
busy co n c entrati n g on my own code” ( h e’s not).
H i s pen h a s s ta r ted to lea k a nd it's
leaving ink on h is h a nd s, wh ich
he k eeps putting
puting on h is face.
I try a nd tell h im wh at h e's doing.
.
B ut h e ig n o res m e a nd say s W h ateve r
(I d i d try . )
B C D E F G
A
H I J K L M
O P Q R S
N
T U V W X
Y Z
Simp le
M ind s
Marcus
HA! HA!
three children.