I have used this beautiful picture book by Anthony Browne with children from Year 1 to Year 6. It first came to my attention when my son had to study it as a text for his Year 12 English course.
Voices in the Park tells the story of a visit to a local park, from the perspective of different characters. The story is broken into 4 parts:
- Voice 1: Charles’ Mum
- Voice 2: Smudge’s Dad
- Voice 3: Charles
- Voice 4: Smudge
The text highlights how we can perceive situations differently and may form opinions based on limited knowledge and understanding. Helping our students to appreciate situations from different viewpoints is a step towards developing children that have empathetic understanding and tolerance.
Anthony Browne has excellent resources on his website to support this text. Visit http://www.anthonybrownebooks.com/bibliography/
You will absolutely love the book being retold by Anthony Browne to music by the Adriamus Ensemble. A great study in how music influences mood. Brilliant!
Anthony Browne’s website also includes a nice interactive activity. I will use the map from this activity to explore mapping with Year 1.
Can they code a Beebot to create Voice 5? Possibly Albert, Smudge’s dog or a character of their own creation?
You may like to discuss the book from a creative art perspective.
How does the language, font and the style of artwork change for each voice?
As you explore the concept of perspective further, you might like to try the Visible Thinking Routine Step Inside: Perceive, Know About, Care About. ‘This routine helps students to explore different perspectives and viewpoints as they try to imagine things, events, problems, or issues differently. In some cases this can lead to a more creative understanding of what is being studied‘. (Ron Ritchhart) Visit http://bit.ly/VTstepinside to learn more about this routine.
I have no doubt you will find many other creative ways to explore this book.