When We Fall, We Rise

Unit Objectives

• Recognise and describe a range of emotions and strategies to manage them.

• Understand how empathy and respect influence relationships.

• Explore resilience and persistence through literary characters.

• Express emotional experiences through speech, visual interpretation, and narrative writing.

• Use visual and written texts to interpret and create meaning.

Learning Intentions

• Identify and describe emotions experienced by a character.

• Make predictions and visualise events in a story.

Success Criteria

• Name and describe at least three emotions Humpty Dumpty feels in the story.

• Explain why a character might feel a certain way.

• Make predictions based on clues in the story.

• Draw and label a scene showing a character's emotions.

• Share strategies I use when I feel scared or anxious.

What do you think happened to Humpty Dumpty
after the fall, before he got back up again?

Turn and Talk

Read without stopping

Were your predictions correct?

On your whiteboards, write down any emotions
Humpty is feeling throughout the story.

🎯 Write a quick note about what is making him feel that way.

-Be ready to share-

Let's put them on a class vocabulary chart.

On your whiteboards, brainstorm strategies you have used when you feel negative or challenging emotions.

-Be ready to share after 5 minutes-

Learning Intentions

• Describe how fear affects behaviour.

• Identify ways to show courage and persistence.

Success Criteria

• Explain how fear can stop someone from doing something.

• Describe what helped Humpty Dumpty show courage.

• Name and share strategies that help me bounce back from challenges.

What is something you were once afraid of? 

How did you overcome it?

Would anyone like to share?

The Branches

What are your personal strengths?

🎯 On your tree branch, write down what your strengths are.

The Leaves

What are three strategies you use to bounce back? Think about your emotions toolbox.

🎯 Write your three favourite strategies, one on each leaf. 

🎯 Colour in the leaves.

Learning Intentions

• Explore how images show emotion and meaning.

• Describe how placement and colour affect a story.

Success Criteria

• Identify visual elements like colour, size, and placement in an image.

• Explain how these elements show emotions like fear, isolation, or hope.

• Use words like salience, framing, and symbolism to describe images.

• Work with a partner to analyse an illustration and share my ideas.

Class Discussion

How do the images show fear, isolation, or hope?

What do the colours and background tell us?

How does Humpty’s position change throughout the story?

Student/s from each illustration to share.

🎯 Can images show feelings even without words?

🎯 How do pictures help us understand the story better?

Learning Intentions

• Describe how a character changes over time.

• Connect a character's journey to my own experiences.

Success Criteria

• Retell the key moments in Humpty Dumpty’s journey.

• Describe how Humpty’s emotions and actions change throughout the story.

• Write about a time I showed courage or resilience.

• Reflect on what helps me grow and bounce back from challenges.

As a class, retell After the Fall in 5 key moments.

🎯 What happened before the fall?

🎯 How did Humpty feel after the fall?

🎯 What changed at the end?

If we were to write chapter titles for the 5 key moments, what would their titles be?

4 words or less! 

Let's create a character map showing Humpty’s emotional journey in those 5 moments.

If you finish early, add some more strategies to your 

Emotions Tool Box

What did Humpty teach us about resilience?
How can we use what we learned in our own lives?

Learning Intentions

• Identify grief as an emotion and describe how it feels.

• Interpret metaphors in a story to understand emotional experiences.

• Use emotional vocabulary to express feelings and responses to grief.

• Discuss how authors use figurative language to explore difficult emotions.

Success Criteria

• Explain what grief is and give examples of when someone might feel it.

• Identify and explain metaphors used in A Leaf Called Greaf.

• Describe how the leaf represents grief in the story.

• Share my thoughts and feelings respectfully during class discussions.

What are some emotions we feel when something sad happens?

Can we add any to the words we brainstormed for After the Fall?

Discussion

What do you think the leaf represents?

What is “greaf/grief”? 

How does the leaf help the character understand grief?

Let's search

Let's read the story again. 

Can we find any metaphors? Focus on the leaf.

Jot Pad Journal

When was a time you felt grief? 

What metaphor leaf represents your feelings to that time?

Learning Intentions

• Explain what a metaphor is and how it helps us understand feelings.

• Identify metaphors in a story and connect them to emotions.

• Use a metaphor to describe a feeling in my own writing.

• Share and reflect on my ideas with others.

Success Criteria

• Describe what a metaphor is in simple words.

• Find and explain at least one metaphor from A Leaf Called Greaf.

• Write about a leaf that represents a feeling, using descriptive language.

• Explain what emotion my leaf shows and how it feels to carry it.

• Listen respectfully and share my ideas during class reflection.

What are metaphors?

turn and talk

My Own Leaf of Emotion

Imagine you have a leaf that represents a feeling. 

What emotion does your leaf represent?
(e.g., sadness, joy, anger, worry)

What does it look like?
What does it feel like to carry it?

If your leaf could talk, what would it say to you? 

Step One

Draw a large leaf which takes up almost all of an A4 sheet of paper.

Cut the leaf out.

Trace around the leaf onto lined paper.

Cut out the lined paper.

Write your name on both pieces.

Step Two

In your writing book, write a short story or poem based on an emotion.
-It should be no longer than two pages. It has to fit on your leaf.-

What emotion does your leaf represent?
(e.g., sadness, joy, anger, worry)

What does it look like?
What does it feel like to carry it?

If your leaf could talk, what would it say to you? 

Step Three

Write your story onto the lined leaf paper.
You have the rest of the lesson to complete the story.

Step Four

Glue your lined paper to your leaf.

Illustrate your story on the back.

Share

Share your story to a friend. Give each other feedback.

🎯 Tell them one thing they have done well.

 🛠️ Give them one thing they can work on.
Use CUPS to help you.

Learning Intentions

• Identify emotions shown in illustrations.

• Describe how visual elements tell a story.

Success Criteria

• Identify and name emotions shown in illustrations.

• Explain how visual elements like colour, shape, and composition help tell a story.

• Use terms like visual metaphor, symbolism, and tone to describe what I see.

• Reflect on how images communicate feelings and ideas.

 KWL chart

Complete the L (Learned) column.

🎯 What is something new you have learned today?

Learning Intentions

• Explain how visual metaphors represent emotions.

• Connect visual symbols to personal experiences.

Success Criteria

• I can explain how a visual metaphor represents an emotion or idea.

• I can identify examples of visual metaphors in Small Things.

• I can create my own visual metaphor to show a personal worry or fear.

• I can share and explain how my drawing connects to my feelings.

Let's Remember

What are metaphors?

What are the metaphors we discovered in After the Fall and A Leaf Called Greaf?

Share your creature or object with the class.

Describe how your creature reflects your worry or fear.

Learning Intentions

• Compare how two texts show emotional connection.

• Describe how relationships help us manage emotions.

Success Criteria

• I can describe how each text shows emotional connection.

• I can compare how characters in both stories feel and cope with emotions.

• I can explain how words and images are used to show feelings.

• I can share who or what helps me feel connected when I’m sad or worried.

What helps us feel better when we’re anxious or sad?

Turn and Talk

What is the string a metaphor for? 

Emotional connection.
It is a direct comparison of how love can stretch over time, distance and loss. 

What does the string symbolise? 

The string symbolises love and comfort.

How do relationships help us with emotional wellbeing?

Share a connection and why or how it connects you.

Learning Intentions

• identify key parts of a narrative using the Seven Steps text structure.

• summarise a story using a story graph.

Success Criteria

• I can identify the key events in the story Small Things.

• I can match events to a step in the Seven Steps text structure.

• I can use visual clues to support my summary.

Let's read Small Things again.

What are the difference stages in the Seven Steps Narrative Story Graph?

Turn and Talk

Working in groups, chunk the story into the different sections using Seven Steps text structure.

🎯 Sizzling Start/Introduction

🎯 Pebble

🎯 Rock

🎯 Boulder

🎯 Ending with Impact

🎯 Emotional wrap up

Which part of the story stood out to you?

How did the story graph help you understand the character’s journey?

Learning Intentions

• Write dialogue that shows emotion and tone.

• Use formal and informal language appropriately.

Success Criteria

• I can write dialogue for the characters in Small Things.

• I can role-play situations compassionately and with empathy.

Informal and formal writing also applies to dialogue- how you speak to people. 

If there was dialogue in this book, what sort of language would you mostly see?

We are going to write the dialogue; speech and thought, for this book.

We need to ensure the writing uses: 

🎯 the correct type of language 

🎯 the correct tone 

🎯 the correct emotions 

We can do that by making sure we select the best words which portray the emotions seen in the pictures.

I DO

WE DO

YOU DO

In groups using your worksheet,

🎯 brainstorm the dialogue for the last three frames

🎯 each write the dialogue you have decided on using speech and thought bubbles

Role play the whole first scene from the book.

If we have time,

present your role-play to the class.

What was the tone and emotions of this opening scene to the story?

Which group demonstrated these two elements well in their role-play?

Learning Intentions

• Write speech that shows emotion and tone.

• Use formal and informal language appropriately.

Success Criteria

• I can write dialogue for the characters in Small Things.

Let's review the narrative story graph we constructed.

What happened in each section?

Sizzling Start | Introduction (Backfill)

Pebble, Rock, Boulder

Exciting Ending

Emotional Wrap Up

In pairs or threes, you will be given two pages from the book Small Things.

Using the story graph and looking at the visuals closely,
add in the dialogue on your two pages.

When the pages are completed, I will compile the book back together as a class copy.

If your pages relate to a previous page which another group has, you may want to see what they are doing to ensure that the narrative flows and makes sense.

Let's read the story from beginning to end with everyone's dialogue.

Does the story mostly make sense?
What worked? What didn't?
Have we worked well as a team?