TEACHER RESOURCE PACKFOR TEACHERS wORKing wiTH PUPilS in nURSERy - yEAR 1

THE wHO wASOwl

dARKAFRAidOF THE

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THE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARKFROm 13 SEP - 4 nOvFOR PUPilS in nURSERy - yEAR 1

dARK iS EXCiTing. dARK iS Kind. dARK iS nECESSARy...

Plop closed his eyes, took a deep breath and fell off his branch.

Plop is a Baby Barn Owl, fat, fluffy with a beautiful heart-shaped ruff and knackety knees. He’s still learning to fly, very curious and almost always hungry. And he’s afraid of the dark, which is not very helpful for a night-bird. So his exasperated mother sends him on several missions to find out more about night time.

‘Dark is exciting’ says a small boy. ‘Kind’ says an old lady. ‘Necessary’ says a little girl. Then he meets a cat who tells Plop ‘there are many kinds of dark’ and shows him the beauty of the night.

After all this enthusiasm, will Plop learn to embrace the dark?

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COnTEnTSinTROdUCTiOn TO THE PACK p.4

AbOUT THE SHOw p.5

mAKing THE PlAy: inTERviEwS wiTH THE CREATivE TEAm p.6

ClASSROOm ACTiviTiES p.8

• SectionOne:LightandDark• SectionTwo:Owls• SectionThree:GoingonaCampingTrip• Resources

Classroom activities have been developed with children and staff at our partner school, Christopher Hatton Primary School.

TEACHER RESOURCES

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inTROdUCTiOnThis resource pack is for teachers bringing pupils to see The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark at the Unicorn in autumn 2016.

The classroom activities are designed to support and extend your pupils’ visit to the theatre and offer teachers ways to pick up on and explore the themes in the play, before and after a visit. They will use drama, and storytelling as ways of exploring ideas that are relevant to the play and to children’s lives.

Resources support the EYFS framework and employ the characteristics for effective learning; playingandexploring,activelearning,andcreatingandthinkingcritically. There are clear links to the key areas of learning at the Foundation Stage:personal,socialandemotionaldevelopment,communicationandlanguage,physicaldevelopment,expressiveartsanddesign,andunderstandingtheworld.

At Key Stage One the resources and theatre visit will have particular relevance to spokenlanguage,writingandscience, as well as supporting the socialandemotionalaspects of children’s learning.

There will be afreeteacherCPDday for The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark on Wed14Sep2016from10am–4pm which is a chance for teachers to find out more about the show and gain practical experience of the classroom activities before leading them with a class.

To find out more about the CPD or to book your place, email schools@unicorntheatre.com.

TEACHER RESOURCES

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AbOUT THE SHOw The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark is a show based on the much-loved book by Jill Tomlinson. The story is about Plop, a young barn owl. Plop is grown up enough to be ready to fly off with his father and begin hunting for food for himself, but there is a problem; he is afraid of the dark. His parents try to encourage him, but he tells them that dark is black and frightening. And so Plop stays awake all day, when his parents are trying to sleep, and sleeps at night time when he should be awake.

But then Plop has a series of encounters with people and animals who each have something to share with him about the night time; they see it as beautiful, exciting, necessary, fascinating and fun. Each day he flies off the branch of his tree, landing badly with a bump or a roll as he hasn’t quite learnt how to land properly yet and finds out something new about the darkness of night time.

Firstly he meets a boy who is waiting for the night to come because it is fireworks night. Fireworks are exciting and need darkness to be seen in all their splendour.

He meets an old woman who tells him how kind the dark is. She loves it because in the dark she is able to remember all the stories of her life.

A little girl is adamant that the dark is absolutely necessary. Father Christmas never, ever visits in the light of day - it has to be dark.

A young woman shows him how fascinating night time is because of all the nocturnal animals she can observe only at night. In her notebook she has drawings and facts about daytime creatures and nocturnal creatures, but she finds the night time creatures most fascinating.

Another encounter is with a Boy Scout who takes Plop to his Scout camp and shows him how the dark makes their games such as hide and seek even more fun and it means they can sit around a bonfire telling stories.

Plop also meets a man who studies the stars. He shows him the wonders of the night sky and teaches him the names of the constellations.

Gradually Plop becomes more confident, until he ventures out into the growing darkness of the early night with a cat called Orion (the hunter) as his guide. Orion shows him the sheer beauty of the night-time, and tells him how this is just one kind of night-time beauty and there are many more: winter nights, stormy nights, summer nights, cloudy nights. Finally Plop is ready to join his father on a night-time hunt. At last he knows he is a nocturnal creature, he can fly in the dark with confidence, and he can land. And at last his parents can get a good day’s sleep.

This beautiful coming-of-age story deals with the anxieties of growing up, trying new things, facing fears of the unknown and becoming independent.

The Unicorn production of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark will immerse the children in a theatrical version of a bedtime story. Sitting around the space amongst the actors, they will begin by hearing the story book read to them and then gradually the story will come alive with moments of drama and the visual and aural elements of theatre: animation, lighting, sound and music. We hope the children will go on a journey with Plop as he gains confidence in the growing darkness around him.

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inTERviEw wiTH PURni

wHy did yOU wAnT TO AdAPT THiS STORy FOR THE STAgE?

In my opinion, it is the best piece of literature ever written in the English language. I have known that since I was two, and it continues to be the best book ever written. It was my favourite, I was obsessed with Plop. The reason I was obsessed by fireworks was because of that book, the reason I’m now obsessed by astronomy is because of that book.

wHAT dO yOU THinK THE bOOK iS AbOUT?

It’s about an owl who’s afraid of the dark, which is a problem for owls, and about how he overcomes his fear of the dark so he can become a better owl.

You might say this is a story about a child who knows what is expected of him and understands that his generally benign parents would like him to fit in. He would also like to fit in, but what it’s about is not doing it their way but finding his own way to fit in, on his own terms. So it is Plop who finds out that he loves the dark, but it’s not a relief, it’s an opening of a new world. The dark that he finds isn’t the same dark that his parents see. I think the reason I loved it when I was little is that it’s about how you can do what the world expects of you but do it on your terms, so it doesn’t feel like a prison. That you can find your own excitement and possibility in the world in your life, you don’t have to do things the way other people say, you can do them your way.

wHy ARE yOU STAging iT AS A THEATRiCAl REAding OF A bEdTimE STORy?

The thing you connect with in the book is the narrative tone. For example there are little bits in the book where his mum says ‘Plop looked down at his toes and mumbled something.’ An actor can’t do that; I mean he can look at his toes and mumble, but it’s not the same as when someone tells you ‘he looked down at his toes and mumbled’.

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mOREll - AdAPTOR

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inTERviEw wiTH lEE

wHy did yOU wAnT TO diRECT ‘THE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARK’?

I didn’t know the book, it wasn’t a book I grew up with, but when Purni (Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director) asked me to read it I just thought it was gorgeous. I guess what I really like about it is the universality of it. I’ve been thinking a lot about fear lately, I think it’s something that never goes away; we overcome one thing and we move onto the next. The journey of life is kind of a journey of fear, and what the book does for a child is explain the whole concept of fear - that there might be things you will be frightened of because you don’t know about them, and the only way to stop being frightened is to find out more about them. It’s the same for the dark as it is about people; people from different places, people with other faiths, whatever it is. Life is about facing and overcoming your fear. I think if we can start doing that at a young age we can evolve into much better people.

There is often something quite scary in the work I tend to make, though this show will do it in a much gentler way. There’s something brilliant about theatre as it’s somewhere where we can explore our fear. It is a safe space we can learn about and experience fear together. One of the plans for the show is that it will become darker throughout, so you are working towards a moment of pitch black. It feels safe to do that in a theatre, with all those other people there.

I’ve been reading Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway – I think all you can do is try and understand something and then you won’t be frightened of it anymore. Whether you are making a piece of work for people who are age 3 or 83, it’s the same thing we are all experiencing. At 3 it’s fear of the dark, at 12 it could be fear of your peers and at other ages it’s fear of something else.

iS iT AlSO AbOUT Him bEing AFRAid OF Flying And lEAving HiS PAREnTS?

I think it’s a story about moving on to the next thing; about evolving and becoming an adult, whatever that means. It’s also about good parenting and consequently about good education, which isn’t about telling people what to do, but instead about saying ‘why don’t you try this?’ or ‘what do you think?’ or ‘how do you feel about it?’ It’s about coaxing and nurturing. It’s about finding your place in the world on your own terms.

CAn yOU TEll US yOUR THOUgHTS AbOUT STAging SO FAR?

It was really hard when we started trying to turn the book into a play, we just lost so much. It’s to do with the period in which it was written and how important language was then, it’s not as immediate, there’s a lot of time in it and space. It asks a lot of its audience in a way that picture books now perhaps don’t so much. It has an old fashioned quality to it, but there’s real craft in it as well.

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lyFORd - diRECTOR

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It will have an experiential feel – you’ll start by being told a story and then soon you find you’re immersed in the middle of it. There’ll be moments of fireworks going off, there’ll be the stars; it will come to life in front of you, but you will always be being told a story. There will be scenes and there will be acting, it just won’t feel like the play starts and then we all just all watch it. The aim is for it to feel like the best bedtime story ever.

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ClASSROOm ACTiviTiESTHE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARK - RESOURCES

These activities are designed to capture children’s imaginations, increase motivation to learn and offer a range of possible ways to link with your classroom priorities.

Most of what we suggest are drama activities; working through drama allows children to notice and draw on their feelings and thoughts about the world, to explore things that matter to them within a fictional context, draw on their prior knowledge and apply it to new situations, develop language as they give expression to new understandings and develop emotional intelligence and critical thinking. It will also allow the children to take responsibility, make decisions, solve problems and explore possibilities from within the drama.

ACTiviTiES inClUdE

• Drama, movement and story-making activities that explore ideas around darkness and light, night and day. This activity draws on Vivian Gussin Paley’s ‘Helicopter Technique’ which facilitates children telling their own stories and acting these stories out with their peers.

• Movement and drama in-role work exploring owls, their habitats and how they live.

• A drama sequence set on a camping trip which allows the children to investigate daytime and nocturnal creatures and the social and emotional aspects of such a trip, including trying new things, becoming independent and, through a gentle ‘mantle of the expert’ drama, helping someone (teacher in role) face their fears and anxieties.

• A post-show activity using imaginative play and storytelling to explore what happened to Plop after the play. This will be added to the pack once the play opens.

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SECTiOn OnE: ligHT And dARK AimSTo explore concepts of light and dark. To explore the way in which night and day, light and darkness can make us feel. To create and act out stories which take place at night-time and in the dark.

Stage1begins to explore the kinds of stories which take place in the dark. Together the class create and act out a shared story that takes place in darkness.Stage2 gives the children the opportunity to tell their own stories set at night, using images as a stimulus. These stories are then acted out as a whole class.

STRATEgiESWhole class discussion, sharing ideas, helicopter technique, story writing, telling and acting out, exploring key vocabulary.

RESOURCESA selection of images of the night time (countryside and city-based images) – some on large print outs. A piece of classical or atmospheric music.

TimE2 x 30 minute sessions

STAgE OnEOpeningdiscussion- start by discussing some of the following ideas:• Night and day - ask the children what kind of things happen during the daytime and what

happens during the night. What is different about the night-time and the daytime and why? What do we feel about night and day; which do we prefer?

• Nocturnal creatures, animals which sleep all day and are awake at night.• Words connected to darkness or the dark. What does the dark make us think about? What does it

make us feel? Ask them to first share their ideas with a partner, and then write their words up on the IWB or on paper. These can be returned to later.

• If the children haven’t mentioned these words themselves suggest the words ‘exciting’, ‘kind’, ‘wonderful’, ‘fascinating’, ‘fun’ and ‘beautiful’ and ask children to choose one and make a sentence starting ‘the dark is (word) when…’ Or they can use their own words in the sentence.

• Ask the children about any stories or parts of stories they know that take place in the darkness or at night. Why type of stories might take place in the dark? Discuss with a partner and feed back.

Stop/Go• Play a game of Stop/Go. When you say GO ask the children to move about the space, weaving in

and out of each other. When you say STOP ask them to stop as quickly as possible as if they’ve been turned to stone. Practice this a few times noticing aloud the children who are completely still and how they look like statues.

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• Start to introduce some story elements to the game, so that the children have a range of ideas to draw upon later. Each time you say STOP, ask them to show you a frozen image of a different character or landscape that you might find in a story, e.g. someone who is lost, someone who has magical powers, a forest at night (with someone walking through it), the city at night, someone who can’t sleep, a fox, someone looking up at the night sky.

Story-making• Now look at an image of the night-time - choose either a city or countryside image. Ask for ideas

of what might happen in a story that takes place there, using some of the following questions:Where in the image does the story begin? Who is the main character in our story? Are there any other characters?Are there any special objects or things?Is there a problem?What do the characters do?What happens at the end of the story?

• Don’t close down the possibilities at this stage, you are talking about ideas for a number of potential stories. This should provide a broad range of ideas to choose from and develop:

• As you discuss, take some of the ideas they have offered and write down a story which incorporates as many of them as possible. Make sure that you stay true to their ideas and don’t add much; the idea behind this activity is that the children develop confidence in their storytelling and these can be tiny stories as well as longer more detailed stories.

Actingout• Bring all the children together to act out the story. Mark out an area with tape where the story

acting will take place. Explain that you will be the narrator or storyteller and that the children will take it in turns to act out the moments in the story.

• Read out the story you have prepared, bringing children up in turn around the circle to act out the characters and objects in the story; for example children can play the trees in a forest or the moon in the sky, creating the setting where the action takes place. When you get to a natural end of a scene or moment you can WHOOSH the children away and start again with the next children around the circle.

• Having developed a shared language of storytelling and demonstrated how the activity works, you can now build on this by giving the children the chance to tell their own story about the night time and darkness in stage two.

STAgE TwOIndividualstory-making• Display a selection of the night time images around the room, printed large so that they can be

seen. Ask the children to choose the one they like and stand next to it. Give them time to look at the image and maybe discuss with other children what they like about it.

• Now ask the children to lie down and ask some guiding questions to help them shape their story: Where does their story take place? Who are the characters in their story? Is there a problem? This will help the children get some initial ideas but it is in dictating their story to an adult later that they will make their final decisions about what happens.

• Make children aware that a member of staff will be available to write down their stories throughout the day (or at specified times). You will need to make sure that all children who want to tell their story have a chance to. The adult must write the story verbatim for each child, exactly as they speak it, reading back to the child as they go to check that they have the right phrasing

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and detail. The adult shouldn’t critique the story, or make suggestions of what happens next, but can encourage by saying ‘and then what happened?’ or if sensing the story has reached its end by asking ‘is that the end or does something else happen?’

• You can act out a few children’s stories each day while you are still gathering other stories, hearing and seeing how children pick up on each other’s characters, themes, symbols and metaphors is a part of the technique as the children grow their story-making vocabulary.

• Ask the child whose story it is which part they would like to play in the acting out. All other parts are allocated at random as you go around the circle.

• At the end of acting out a few stories discuss the different ideas and themes which have emerged. If children have created stories which are scary, ask why so many scary stories we hear happen in the dark. What is it about the dark that is scary? Remember the other words we thought of to describe dark; exciting, kind, wonderful, fascinating, fun, beautiful etc.

EXTEnSiOn idEAS• You could repeat the story making activity using a piece of music as a starting point, rather than

an image. Ask the children to find a space, lie down and close their eyes. Remind them that we are creating stories that happen in the night-time, when it is dark.

• As they listen to the music, ask the guiding questions from the activity above, but start with ideas around character (who lives in this place and what sort of creature or person are they?). Let the music influence the choices they make.

• They can then go on to tell their story to an adult and act it out, as before.• You could turn the stories into a classroom display alongside other popular stories which centre

on the night time and darkness. Ask children to paint or draw their story and then write the text which goes with the images.

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SECTiOn TwO: OwlSAimSTo explore the behaviour and habitats of owls.To explore the relationship between a mother owl and chick, and the need for the chick to grow up and become independent.To explore nocturnal creatures.

STRATEgiESMovement, role play, exploring key vocabulary, improvising conversations.

RESOURCESImages & video of barn owls.Underscoring music. Useful websites: www.barnowl.co.uk & www.barnowltrust.org.uk

TimE1 x 45 min session.

STAgE OnEOpeningdiscussion• Ask the children what they know about barn owls and what questions they have about them.

Show the children some images or videos of barn owls on the IWB. Explain that owls are nocturnal creatures and live in hollows in trees, barn roofs or special nest boxes. Point out the different parts of the owl with the children’s help: the talons, the ruff, the beak, the heart-shaped face, the feathers etc. There are some facts about barn owls at the end of this pack that you might want to include in the discussion.

Stop/Go• Play a game of Stop/Go, as described in the previous activity. Practise stopping still like statues

as a whole class. • Now explain that we are going to imagine we are barn owls and explore the type of things barn

owls do and how they behave. Begin Stop/Go again and when they are still, introduce an image you would like them to make - some of these can be statues, some you can bring to life:

• Silently flying through the dark night sky, using your excellent vision to look for prey on the ground.

• Swooping down to get food and grabbing a mouse in your talons. • Turning your head right around to look behind you.• Perching on a branch in a high tree at night, looking over the world (hear from

children what they imagine they see).• Tipping your head back and swallowing a mouse or vole whole• Regurgitating pellets - balls of bone and fur that they can’t digest.• Falling asleep standing up.• Feeding a baby owl.• Hatching from an egg - not yet able to stand up, trying out flying, flapping wings

and trying to take off.

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Guidedimprovisation• In pairs, ask the children to imagine they are a mother and father owl in a hollow in a tree. You

could use some images of woodlands, a tree and a hollow in the trunk where an Owl family might live, to help the children imagine. Narrate the following as they act out each moment in pairs (you could underscore this with some music):

As the sun sets on the day, the owls wake up and ruffle their feathers and stretch their wings.Looking out of their tree they see the people in their houses drawing their curtains, getting ready to sleep.They check on the eggs that they are sitting on.The father owl flies out of the hollow, gliding silently over the woodlands and fields looking for food. The mother owl stays behind, sitting on the eggs, keeping them warm. The father owl returns with food for them both to eat.Back and forth, back and forth the father owl goes, bringing different things to eat.At the end of the night both are tired and they get ready to sleep through the day.

Pairedconversations• Ask the children to imagine what the owls might say to their eggs before they go to sleep. What

hopes might they have for with their new chick when it hatches? Might they have any worries? Ask the pairs to improvise the conversation between the owls - listen back to a few of them.

• Gather back together and have a whole group discussion about what they hope for when their chicks are hatched and grow up.

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SECTiOn THREE: gOing On A CAmPing TRiPAimSTo place the children in role as campers from which they can explore the countryside and nocturnal creatures.To create a drama exploring a first taste of independence and feelings around fear, anticipation and excitement.

Stage1places the children in-role as a class going on a school camping trip and explores preparations for leaving and setting up camp.Stage2 continues the drama as the children prepare for their night time adventure to study nocturnal animals and try to help one pupil (teacher-in-role) who doesn’t want to go.

STRATEgiESRole play, improvisation, thought-tracking, teacher-in-role.

RESOURCESImages of camping equipment (can be found online).Information about nocturnal animals (at the back of this pack). Chris Packham has a useful guide to spotting nocturnal animals which you may want to draw upon. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/18/-sp-chris-packham-guide-britain-nocturnal-creatures

TimE2 x 45 min sessions

STAgE OnE Openingdiscussion• Explain that we’re going to imagine that we are going on a school camping trip and that we

are a bit older than we are now (in Key Stage Two). Tell them that as well as having fun in the countryside, we are going on the trip so that we can study daytime and night time animals.

• Ask the children what happens when you go camping – has anyone been camping? What type of thing do you do on a camping trip? Let them share ideas with a partner before feeding back.

Stop/Go• Play a game of Stop/Go. On the Stop, add in images of the type of things you might do on a

camping trip, e.g. putting up your tent, climbing trees, swimming in the river, making a campfire, incorporating their suggestions into the game.

Nocturnalanimals• After the game, talk about the fact that one of the main reasons the school has organised the

trip is so that the children can study nocturnal creatures that live in the countryside that we don’t see in the city: animals that live in the fields of long grass, in the woodlands, under the leaves, up in the trees or by the side of the rivers. Ask the children what kind of animals we might expect to

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see at night time. How might we be able to spot them in the wild? Introduce the idea that we will go on a night walk to look for them.

Preparingforthetrip• Ask what we might need to wear to go on a camping trip. In a circle, mime putting on the items

of clothing they suggest as a group, describing each as you do.• Next explain that there are certain things we need to take on the trip, ask for suggestions of what

these might be, but also introduce some key artefacts here – a tent, sleeping bag, torch, campinggas, hot water bottle etc. Or you could look at some images of equipment and ask the children to work out what each might be for (there are nice visual resources available online). Together with the children mime packing the equipment; either into a large bag in the middle of the room, or children can mime packing smaller items into their own bags.

• Remind the class that they will be staying away from home on the trip and for some of the children it is their first ever night away from home. Ask the children to find a space by themselves and to imagine it is the night before the trip and they are packing the last few things into their bag. Ask them to choose:

1. A book which you would like to take with you,2. An edible treat you might not be able to find whilst you’re away,3. And finally something to remind you of home.

• ‘Thought-track’ the children to find out what they have packed – when you tap them on the shoulder ask them to say out loud one of the three items they have just put into their bag.

• Explain that you are now going to take on the role of the group leader and that we’re all going to imagine it’s the morning of the trip.

Arrvingatcamp• Gather the children together for a check-in. In role, ask them about their packing: Have you

remembered everything on the list? Have you brought wellies? Did you have to buy any new equipment or did you have it in your family already? What food have you brought with you? etc. Now ask if they have any further questions about the trip or what we will be doing when we get there. Remind them of why we are going on the trip and the kind of skills and qualities they will need to spot nocturnal animals: being patient and observant etc.

• Narrate the journey to the campsite; getting on the coach and leaving the city behind, seeing the city streets turn to fields.

• Put the children into groups of around four and ask them to act out what happened when they reached the campsite (through mime). You can build other ideas that have come out of your discussions into these moments:

a. First we put up our tents, knocking the tent pegs into the ground with a mallet.b. We unzip the tents and put our sleeping bags inside and try them out to make sure they are comfortable. c. We cook our dinner on the camping stove. d. We gather firewood in the forest and make a campfire, then we toast marshmallows.e. Finally, as it gets dark, we get into our tents and sleeping bags and lie down. We listen to all the unfamiliar sounds outside the tents.

• You could play some recordings of night-time countryside sound effects whils the children are lying down.

• Thought-track children in this moment. Having done these moments once you could ask the children to practice doing them again; rehearsing them so they are happy with them, and then ask half the class to show their images to the other half of the class.

• Ask the children who are audience what they notice in the other children’s work.

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STAgE TwOThis stage will require two adults to be in-role (one as group leader and one as a nervous camper - so you will need to prepare a TA or another member of staff beforehand).

Researchingnocturnalanimals• With children in the same small groups, explain that each group is going to have a nocturnal

creature to investigate. Allocate a group either owls,badgers,hedgehogs,foxes or bats. Give each group some information (at the back of this pack) which shows where their animal lives, what they eat and some other information about their habits. Gather back together and share knowledge about the animals. Ask the groups questions about their animal in-role as the group leader.

Preparingforthenightwalk• Still in-role, explain that later that night we will go on the night walk to spot noctural animals.

Ask the children to imagine we are sitting around the campfire to prepare for the walk.• Explain that we will go through the gates of the campsite, walk through the field of long grass,

cross a stream and enter the woods. Then we will need to turn our torchers off and stand very still, so that we don’t scare the animals.

• As a whole group, practice turning torches off then standing very still and very quietly. Explain that our eyes will gradually become accustomed to the dark.

Teacherin-role• You will need to have prepped another teacher or TA to take on a new role – someone who is

afraid of the dark and wants to go home. • As the group leader, say that you just need to go and get your bag and leave the campfire. The

other adult in role should now begin to talk to the children, talking about how they are frightened of going out into the woods in the dark. Use the following as a guide and give the children space to respond:

Are we really going out there in the dark woods? But it’s so dark, it’s so black. I don’t like it, it’s not exciting, or fun, it’s nasty. I want to go home. Why do you want to go out into the dark night? What if I get lost? Why don’t you feel scared? The dark is horrible… finish by saying that you are going to pack your bag and go home right away.

• Let the children respond and offer advice – the adult in-role can extend their responses by asking them further questions. They should then thank them for their advice but say that they still want to go home. Then leave the space.

• The teacher-in-role can then return as the group leader and ask the children what has happened to the other camper. Ask what they think is worrying her. Do we think she should go home? Is there anything we could do or say to help her? What can we do or say about the dark?

• Find a solution to your drama. It may be that some other children will stay behind at the camp so that the person who is afraid doesn’t feel they have to leave the camp altogether. Or he or she may be persuaded to go on the night expedition with certain things in place that make them feel safe. Use this part of the drama to address genuine concerns and fears that the children have; reassure them that not everyone is ready for independence or to face difficult challenges at the same time in their lives. As a group, identifying what might help the scared person in our drama will allow for children to share their own fears, as well as their bravery and solutions to this kind of problem.

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Thenightwalk-storymaking• Give children the opportunity to make up a story about what happened during the night walk.

They can incorporate ideas about the nocturnal animals and about the person who was feeling nervous, but they can also use their imaginations to create new situations and scenarios.

• Repeat the Helicopter Technique approach, where an adult scribes the story for each child. • You can then act the stories out as a group, with the author of each story deciding which part

they would like to play.

THE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARK - RESOURCES

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BarnOwls...• Eat mostly voles, shrews, mice and sometimes even rats!• Swallow their food whole, then cough up bits of fur and bone as an owl pellet.• Often live in hollow trees.• Make a screeching noise – they don’t hoot (that’s tawny owls).• Have very long legs and talons to help them to catch prey hiding in long grass.• Hunt at night. Thir feathers are very soft – this helps them to fly silently.• Have excellent hearing and eyesight. They can spot a mouse moving in the dark

from very far away.• Have a heart-shaped ruff around their face. It collects sound in the same way as

human ears do.• Baby barn owls are called owlets.

bARn OwlS

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bAdgERS

Badgers...• Live in tunnels under the ground which are called setts. • Live in family groups, usually between 5 to 10 badgers live together.• Collect straw, leaves, grass and bracken to make bedding and to keep

themselves and their cubs warm.• Mostly eat worms, sometimes eating as many as 200 worms in a single night.

They also eat snails, slugs, insects and fruit.• Have very poor eyesight so use their sense of smell to find food. They also use

smell to communicate with each other, making different smells as messages such as warnings to other badgers.

• Are quite shy and can be hard to spot.• Baby badgers are called cubs.

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bATS

Bats...

• Live in roosts which are usually made in trees and caves. • Eat insects, catching and eating the insects mid-air. Sometimes they catch their

food while hanging upside down. • Can eat up to 3,000 tiny insects in one night.• Bats use their hearing to help them navigate and find food. They make shouting

sounds and use the echoes to work out what is around them. The echo can tell them the size and shape of an insect and which way it is going. (This is called echolocation - locating things by their echoes).

• Bats hibernate during winter; they go into a deep sleep called ‘torpor.’• Bats have one baby at a time called a pup. Bats can live for up to 30 years!

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Foxes...• Live in lots of different places, including the countryside and the city.• Live in burrows or dens where they shelter, look after their pups and store their

food. • Hunt on their own and eat mice, birds, rabbits and other small animals. • They also eat fruit and vegetables, frogs, fish and worms. They are scavengers and

are always on the lookout for food. • Have very good eyesight, sense of smell and hearing for hunting for food at night. • Can make 28 different types of sounds to communicate with each other.• When a group of foxes are together it is called a ‘skulk’.

FOXES

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HEdgEHOgS

Hedgehogs...• Eat worms, snails, slugs and insects.• Live in hedgerows, fields, parks, town and country gardens.• Have sharp spines that are actually stiff hollow hairs. They are not poisonous. Most

hedgehogs have about 5,000 spines at any one time.• Roll into a tight ball if they are scared to protect themselves.• Communicate through a combination of snuffles, grunts and squeals.• Have weak eyesight but a strong sense of hearing and smell. They can swim, climb

and run surprising quickly.• Go into hibernation over the winter.• A baby hedgehog is called a hoglet.

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USEFUl vidEOSWatchabarnowlhatching:www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPACjB14Nww

Withmotherowl–hatching:www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLfHDQefvDk

HeligansBarnOwlsraisetheiryoungOwlets: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWP5JbbRQxc

Livewebcamsofbarnowls(seasonal):http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/42/Barn_Owls/

THE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARK - RESOURCES

THE Owl wHO wAS AFRAid OF THE dARKAUnicornproduction

By Jill TomlinsonDirected by Lee LyfordResource pack written by Catherine GreenwoodDeveloped with Ella Macfadyen and pupils and staff at Christopher Hatton Primary School.