The children in Room 2 had their ideas about witches challenged this week as they were introduced to “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson. Before reading the book they discussed words they would use to describe witches and most children felt that they were mean, made potions and turned people into undesirable things such as frogs! They said they trick children into entering gingerbread houses and don’t like water because it makes them melt away into nothing.
After listening to the first few lines in the book they drew an illustration of the witch. After reading on until the middle of the book they drew another picture and some begun to change their image of the witch using some of the descriptions in the text and their judgements about whether this witch was different to your average witch. After listening to the rest of the story they drew a final illustration and many of the children changed their ideas significantly from their first image.
Discussing and making judgements about characters in texts is a component of the English Learning Area (Literature) in the Australian Curriculum.
We have also viewed and animation of this wonderful story and are looking forward to watching the stage production next week.
