Primary workshop: Flooded

Patrice Balwin
Thursday, February 1, 2024

Using the picture book Flooded by Mariajo Ilustrajo, Patrice Balwin outlines a lesson for students aged between five and seven, unpacking how they might approach the topics of climate change, science and citizenship.

The water level gradually rises, and a city floods. The animals realise they can't keep ignoring the problem and need to deal with their problems together. This is the plot of Flooded by Mariajo Ilustrajo, and it is a great starting point for a drama workshop. When embarking on this lesson, avoid reading the book to the class first, as not knowing what happens will help build dramatic tension.

Learning objectives:

  • To listen and respond to fictional characters
  • To contribute to a simple performance
  • To learn how to express their ideas in role

What this lesson can be used for:

  • To learn about the basic needs of animals and humans for survival
  • To take part in discussions with one other person and the whole class
  • To learn what harms their natural and built environments and some ways of looking after them together.
  • Read pages 1 to 5, ending with, ‘WELLIES!’
  • Movement and Mime: Everyone puts on imaginary wellies and walks around as if in ankle-deep water, ignoring one another.
  • Movement and Mime: In the picture most animals are carrying something, such as an umbrella or mobile. They will now carry imaginary objects as they continue walking through water, ignoring each other.
  • Teacher in Role: The yellow-tailed monkey in the picture is talking to animals and being ignored. Explain that you will be that monkey. Students should carry on walking and must ignore you if you speak to them.
  • Meeting: Gather students together and say, ‘I wonder why the streets are flooded. Where might all this water be coming from?’ Share ideas about possible causes and encourage discussion.
  • Active Storytelling: The animals are having fun with water at school. You mime various water activities and use ‘water adjectives’, such as splashing, dripping, flowing, swirling and so on. They imitate you.
  • Improvisation (pairs): Can they think of an enjoyable water activity, and then pretend to do it together?
  • Read to, ‘and school had never been so much fun’. Add their ‘fun’ water activities into the story, as you read, ‘as if’ their ideas are in the book.
  • Whole class mime: Read, ‘The day was suddenly filled with surprises’ and show the mice rowing a boat through a restaurant. Ask the children to get into one line, seated and facing you. They are the mice in the boat. You are the mouse with the loud hailer. Instruct them to pick up their oars and row in unison. You set the rhythm and say how many strokes they will paddle on each side. They could count the strokes aloud as they paddle.
  • Read from, ‘The water kept on rising’ to ‘It was becoming harder to cope’.
  • Improvisation/Teacher in Role: Ask them to walk around, with their heads just above water level, greeting everyone they meet and talking about flood problems. You join in.
  • Picture detectives/Sentence stems: Ask them to study the pictures as ‘picture detectives’. With a partner, can they find all the problems in the picture? For example, this might be rabbits stranded on a roof. Afterwards, ask students to share what they have noticed, using sentences that start with, ‘I can see…’.
  • Still Image: In pairs or small groups, ask students to think of other flood problems that could be happening but aren't shown in the pictures. Then ask them to use their bodies to make a still picture of a flood problem. You might let them include some speech.
  • Performance Carousel: Now ask students to present their still images to each other. You could ask them to imagine they are on a stage together, with an imaginary audience watching.
  • Read to, ‘Everyone had to work together’. Add in the problems depicted in their ‘still image’ scenes, ‘as if’ they are already written in the book.
  • Teacher in Role: As the yellow tailed monkey, instruct them to stand in a line, pick up an imaginary rope together and pull it repeatedly whenever you say, ‘Pull!’ Then read, ‘The problem drained away!’
  • Picture detectives/Sentence stems: Show the final pictures and ask what tasks they need to do next. Ask them to tell you, using sentences starting with ‘we’, for example: ‘we will pick up the litter’.
  • Read from ‘Nothing was quite the same as before’ to the end.

Find the book here: quarto.com/books/9780711276765/flooded

Sound effects (optional):