Creative Project: Angry Arthur / In The Attic / Igor, The Bird Who Couldn't Sing
Publication Details
Satoshi Kitamura and Hiawyn Oram (1983) Angry Arthur Red Fox
Satoshi Kitamura and Hiawyn Oram (1984) In The Attic Andersen Press
Satoshi Kitamura (2005) Igor, The Bird Who Couldn’t Sing Andersen
The Author
Satoshi Kitamura was born in Tokyo in 1956. He was not formally trained in art, but at the age of 19 began work in Japan as a commercial artist in advertising.
He moved to London in 1979, designing greetings cards until he found acclaim as an illustrator of children’s books.
His now familiar and immediately recognisable style won him the Mother Goose Award for his illustrations of Hiawyn Oram’s Angry Arthur.
Kitamura has since become equally well-known as both writer and illustrator of his own books.
Working in pen and ink and watercolour, his style is reminiscent of the comics he as a child.
Curriculum Context
The teaching suggestions for any or all of the books are most suitable for use in KS1 and KS2, specifically with Years 2, 3 or 4. Ideas can be used singly or as part of a longer unit of work. They can be used discretely as elements of Literacy, Art, Music and PSHE or in a cross-curricular unit incorporating any of those areas.
The books selected cover the following:
Year 2
Term 3 Stories by significant children’s authors
Year 3
Term 1 Stories with familiar settings
Term 2 Stories with related themes
Term 3 Stories by the same author
Year 4
Term 3 Stories that raise issues
Term 3 Stories by the same author
Igor
Synopsis
Igor has a loud and distinctive voice, and he cannot sing in tune. He is drummed out of the Dawn Chorus for not being musical enough, so he takes singing lessons. But his teacher says that not only is he always out of tune, he has no rhythm either. Poor Igor. He goes off into the desert, where at least he can sing to himself without being asked to stop. He builds a nest on a big rock, and starts to sing. But the rock is in fact a gigantic bird - a Dodo! - who likes his music so much it wakes up in order to join in.
Specific themes
The effect on the individual of the negative and positive response of others
Self-esteem/Self-belief
How to treat others/ Being kind – how to tell someone a difficult truth
PSHE
Do we have to be like everyone else? Discuss individual talents, and peer pressure. Role play Igor’s situation with his ‘friends’: How does he feel? How could this situation be resolved? Role-play alternative endings.
When you know that someone is not as good as others at something, should you tell them? If so, how can you do it without hurting their feelings? Discuss the consequences of different approaches.
How might the other birds have helped Igor?
Igor hated himself during the early part of the story but was happier at the end. What made the difference?
Art
Use colours and marks to represent sound (music and song).
Play different percussion instruments. Discuss the different colours, lines and shapes that are suggested by the sounds that the instruments make.
Play a pieces of music and ask pupils to represent the sounds as they listen. Ask them to share their pictures. What similarities and differences are there in the colours and marks that are produced?
Repeat with a contrasting piece of music.
This work could be displayed or kept as an Art sketchbook resource.
Endpapers
Compare the endpapers:
The opening endpapers use clashing colours and the closing endpapers use harmonious colours.
Make your own piece of art using paint or collage, showing disharmony and harmony. Display them side by side.
This idea could be further developed in a movement/dance lesson. Choose three movements suggested by the harmonious colours and three movements suggested by the disharmonious colours.
Build the movements into contrasting sequences using a variety of levels, pace and direction.
Brainstorm a collection of words:
HARMONY / DISHARMONY
Soft / sharp
Flowing / clashing
Use these words to create an opposites poem
Explore how colours can be used to represent emotions.
Collect paint charts which categorise colours by mood e.g. cheerful yellows, calm neutrals, lively reds etc. Discuss the descriptions of the colours. Make up your own descriptions for other colours.
How would you represent anger, joy, sadness, despair, excitement?
Individuals can contribute to a group piece.
Display with the appropriate headings.
Make a list of common phrases which use colour to express an emotion e.g. feeling blue, green with envy.
Painting the sky:
Experiment with watercolour washes for sky types, sunsets, dawn etc.
Create skies using different media such as marbling inks or overlapping layers of torn tissue paper.
Pupils’ work could be used as backgrounds for sound representations, either individually or as a group.
‘Dawn Chorus’
On a large wash background paint a tree similar to that at the beginning of the book.
Stick birds drawn, painted or collaged by individuals, with their own specific sound representation.
Music
Play the bird songs, independently and collaboratively.
How would you choose the instruments?
Can you create the bird songs with mouth/body sounds?
How will you write them down for someone else to play?
Use them as an accompaniment when the story is read aloud.
Ask children to paint their own composed musical sound patterns.
Literacy
Story Performance:
Act the story, with musical accompaniment.
It could be narrated and mimed, or pupils could use their own words in conjunction with some words/phrases/sentences from the book.
Hotseating
Ask for a volunteer to be Igor in the hot seat:
You may want pupils to work out the questions they will ask beforehand.
Character sketches:
What are Igor’s qualities?
Write on large card labels
Display labels around an image of him.
Do the same for Dodo.
How was Dodo different from Igor’s ‘friends’ at the start of the story?
Changes of setting:
Make a map of the story, represent the changes of setting by creating landmarks on the map
Mark the main elements at each point in the story on the map (e.g. the characters that Igor meets)
Use the map to tell the story in your own words to a partner.
Story Writing:
Write your own story about a character who cannot do something that people would normally expect them to be able to do:
> a lion that cannot roar,
> a witch whose spells do not work,
> a frog that cannot jump,
> a bee who cannot make honey
Give the story a happy ending.
Write an alternative story for Igor:
>What would have happened if his friends had reacted differently to his inability to sing?
>What if they had looked for ways of helping him instead of laughing at him?
Angry Arthur
Synopsis
When Arthur gets very angry, strange things start to happen. Exploding thunder, typhoons and hurricanes take Arthur on a very peculiar journey.
Specific Themes
Angry Arthur deals primarily with the consequences and ultimate futility of losing one’s temper through selfishness.
The consequences of uncontrolled anger
PSHE
Discussion points:
Is anger selfish?
Is anger ever justifiable?
Is it possible to use anger positively?
What are your personal experiences of the consequences of anger – either your own or someone else’s? (Be sensitive to individual circumstances with this one. You may wish to present a scenario, e.g. a friend becoming angry on the playground, or a spoiled toddler failing to get an ice cream for example, rather than question too personally).
Art
Paint a picture of anger:
Will it have pictures of people or real things in it or will it be made up of lines and shapes?
What colours will you choose?
Arthur’s anger reached out into space and came back to his own room.
Look at the ways Satoshi Kitamura showed this movement of Arthur’s anger.
Using paint or collage choose one of his ideas or find one of your own, to show anger travelling a long way very quickly.
Music
Create a piece of music showing Arthur’s anger beginning, growing and subsiding.
Which instruments will you choose?
How many?
How will you build the sound and fade it away?
How will you end your piece?
How will you write it down so that someone else could play it?
Play your composition whilst the story is being read aloud.
Different groups could play different sections of the story.
Literacy
In the Hotseat:
One child is Arthur in the hot seat.
The others work out questions to ask him. Extend the children’s responses by asking questions or taking on the role of Arthur in the hot seat. Invite more than one child to take the hot seat and compare different responses.
Arthur’s mother and grandfather could also be hot-seated.
Write a Poem:
Write a poem about anger.
Try to make it build from a small beginning, ending similarly to the book.
It could be written as a concrete poem, and illustrated, possibly in the style of Kitamura.
As a stimulus, two copies of the book could be cut up and displayed in sequence, to appreciate the movement and development of the anger.
Write a poem about what makes you – or other people- angry.
It could be given a simple form such as starting each line with ‘I get angry when…’, or ‘Anger is…’.
Ask children to create a grid like this. The taste of anger is….. The smell of anger is….. Model a few ideas for the children.
| ANGER | |
| TASTE | |
| SMELL | |
| TOUCH | |
| LOOK |
In small groups ask them to share their grids.
Use ideas to create a class poem about anger.
Write a recipe ‘To get rid of anger’
What would work to take away your anger?
Who would do it?
List ingredients and explain method.
In the Attic
Synopsis
A child playing on an attic rug imagines many worlds and activities. While readers see glimpses of the boy's varied imaginative play, the very real rug remains securely visible throughout a story filled with intriguing angles and shapes.
Specific Themes
In the Attic is about the joy of using the imagination rather than relying on materialism.
Friendship and sharing
PSHE
Does having lots of things (toys) really make us happy?
What are the good things about it?
What are the bad things?
List and discuss ideas.
What do you think about the boy’s mother?
Did she give him the toys?
Why does she not know about the ladder and the attic?
What helps us to use our imagination?
Put together an ‘imagination kit’.
What would you include in it? (This does not need to be material things – it could be treated like the wishes at Sleeping Beauty’s christening.)
How can sharing help us in our friendships?
Art
Large Scale Illustrations:
Class projects could be based on recreating on a large scale a version of the illustrations in the book that show lots of things - the family of mice, and the colony of beetles. Individual ideas are cut out and stuck on to the basic background. Using the imagination, other ‘worlds’ could be invented and illustrated.
Windows:
Using the idea of windows, children could produce their own views through windows – real or imaginary places. A stunning effect could be achieved if the window frames were 3D, and of varying size and style. Views could be painted, collaged or have a digital photo as a basis to be worked on and developed.
A Never-ending Game:
Use the idea of ‘a game that could go on forever because it kept changing’. Either, individuals produce their own ideas of game components that are stuck on to a large base board, such as the one in the book, or groups could work together to produce a joint piece. Write the rules for your game
Music
Compose a piece of music to be used as a background whilst the story is being read and the illustrations are being looked at – perhaps having been scanned into a computer and projected on to a whiteboard.
Literacy
Poster Design:
Design a poster to encourage a child to use their imagination instead of wanting to buy more and more toys.
>Examine persuasive devices
>Model how to write persuasively.
Write a story:
Imagine you have climbed into an attic.
It appears to be empty at first, but then you begin to discover unexpected things.
Describe what you find and what happens.
Write a poem
Write a poem called ‘In my imagination’.
A list poem will provide a supportive structure for pupils who need extra support.
Write a non-chronological report
What do you enjoy sharing with your friends?
Write a non-chronological report about the things that you and your friends like to share.
Illustrate you report.
Imaginative writing
If you had a magic ladder, where might it take you?
Further Reading
When Sheep Cannot Sleep (1988) Red Fox
UFO Diary (1991) Red Fox
Me and My Cat (1991) Andersen Press
Sheep in Wolves Clothing (1997) Red Fox
Comic Adventures of Boots (2004) Red Fox
What’s Inside? (2000) Andersen Press
Once Upon an Ordinary School Day (2005) Andersen Press
Carnival of the Animals (2005) Walker
Pablo the Artist (2005) Andersen Press
From Acorn to Zoo (2005) Andersen Press
Captain Toby (2005) Happy Cat Books
National Curriculum PoS Links
Speaking and Listening
KS1
>To take account of different views
> To develop own ideas in light of discussion
> To provide reasons for own opinions and actions
> To use drama to apply language and actions to explore and convey situations, characters and emotions
KS2
>After considering others’ views respond appropriately
>To make contributions appropriately to the topic and in discussion take turns
>To defend or amend their own view after listening to others’
>To make use of dramatic techniques such as hot seating to investigate characters and issues.
Art
KS1
>To represent their own observations, ideas, feelings, and design and produce images and artefacts.
>To explore a variety of starting points for practical work.
KS2
>To question and make reflective observations concerning starting points and choose ideas to make use of in own work.
> To employ a range of methods/approaches in order to convey observations, ideas and feelings and also to design/produce images and artefacts.
>To explore a variety of starting points for practical work.
Music
KS1
>To produce musical patterns
>To explore, select and organise sounds and musical ideas
>To learn how sounds can be produced in differing ways and described with provided and invented signs/symbols
KS2
>To learn how music can be produced in differing ways and described through appropriate/invented notations
>To respond to a variety of musical/non-musical starting points
PSHE
KS1
>To recognise and name own feelings, handling them in a positive way
>To recognise how others are affected by their behaviour
KS2
>To talk, write about and explain their views on both personal and society issues
>To learn that their actions can affect themselves and others, to consider the feelings of others, and attempt to perceive their point of view
