The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Submitted by: Sara Lindsey 

Divide the class up into groups of three. The entire group will be responsible for the display, but each person within the group will have a section of research that they will have to do on their own.

Display

Suggested Materials:

 

Shoebox lid

Paint

Old polystyrene

Small sticks/twigs

Plasticene – dark brown

Blue cellophane

Toothpicks or used matchsticks

Green cellophane or construction paper

Clay, ‘fimo’ or modelling substance

 

Instructions

This display should be left up to the individual groups. They should work on a shoebox lid and be given the instructions as to what to do – this will ensure that they are free to be creative.

On a shoebox lid you are required to set up a scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The scene is a snow-covered landscape with a stream flowing through it. Trees are scattered all over and there is a beaver’s dam in the stream. Around and about are various creatures from the story.

Paint the outside edge of the shoebox in an earthy colour and make the inside look as life-like as possible.

 

Research

This is divided up into three sections: beavers, snow and mythical creatures. Each student takes one of these topics (they can choose, be assigned the topic or draw one from a hat) and researches it. They must produce their information in a way that makes it easy for the rest of the class to access (the group can decide whether to make a chart, booklet, PowerPoint display, mobile or other suitable form)

 

Beavers

Find out about beavers and answer the following questions:

  1. What does a beaver look like? Include a picture (draw your own if you wish!)
  2. Where do beavers live? Describe the environment as well as the country names.
  3. What do beavers eat?
  4. When do beavers reproduce? Give some interesting facts about how many young they have, gestation period etc..
  5. How do they swim?
  6. For how long can they remain underwater?
  7. To what Class and Order do beavers belong?
  8. Name other animals that belong to the same order as beavers.
  9. Why has the number of beavers declined over the past few hundred years?
  10. How do they build their dams?
  11. How does the beaver in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe compare with the ‘real’ beaver?

 

Snow

Find out about snow and answer the following questions:

  1. How does snow form?
  2. What do snowflakes look like?
  3. Find out about the various kinds of snow e.g. powder snow.
  4. Find out what the following things are: snow blindness, snow bunting, snow finch, snow leopard, snowplough, snowshoes, and snowdrops.
  5. Find some other ‘snow’ words and give their meanings.
  6. Find out what problems Sir Robert Falcon Scott had with snow.
  7. Both Napoleon and Adolph Hitler had problems with snow. What were those problems?
  8. On a map of the world, indicate the areas where: a lot of snow falls, some snow falls, little snow falls and no snow falls. What do you notice?
  9. Many countries have festivals, holidays and customs based on snow. Choose five countries from different parts of the world and explain their festivals, holidays or customs. Include pictures if you can.
  10. Do you think snow is an important element in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Give reasons for your answer.

 

Mythical Creatures

  1. List all the mythical creatures you can find in the story The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
  2. Make another list of all the mythical creatures you can find. Include pictures if you can.
  3. Choose three creatures from the story, and three creatures not in the story and compare them in as many ways as you can. Suggestions are given below (not all will be applicable, and you will probably want to add some more of your own)
    1. Size
    2. Country or area ‘found’
    3. Good or bad?
    4. General Appearance (include pictures where possible)
    5. Where they live (e.g. under a toadstool, in a cave)
    6. What they do.
    7. What they eat.
    8. How they eat.
    9. Interesting habits.
    10. How long they live.

 

  1. Make up a mythical creature of your own. Draw it and give a good description of it.

 

Evaluation

It really depends what you are evaluating for: research ability, ability to put information together, ability to present information, creativity, grammar, organizational skills, ability to link information to the novel etc…

You may wish to add specific steps and evaluate these e.g. you must source all your material, you must use three different types of reference material (encyclopaedia, Internet, TV program, CD Rom, or reference book), you must hand in draft copies of all work…

 

Home