Suggested Teaching Notes for ‘Mr Crocodile’s Cooking Class’
Written by Dianne Ellis
Illustrated by Janet Davies
Level
Kindergarten
to Year 2
Key Themes
- Learning new skills
- Encouragement
- Practise and Persistence
- Acceptance and Inclusion
- Initiative and Creativity
- Australian animals
About the Book
Mr Crocodile loves sponge cake and he’s quite excited when Mrs Crocodile suggests he learns to cook. What a wonderful idea! He can make his own cake every day. But when he goes along to cooking classes, he realises it is harder than he thinks. He burns his omelette, his scones sink, he over-fluffs his meringue and his classmates laugh at him. Mr Crocodile is ready to give up. But Mrs Crocodile encourages him to practise his cooking and before too long, he wins Chef’s encouragement award and goes on to create some yummy dishes for his friends. A delightful story of encouragement, perseverance and having belief in yourself.
About the Author
Dianne lives in Austinmer on the south coast of NSW. This is her fourth published children’s book and Dianne loves to deliver sound positive messages in her books. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors, the South Coast Writers’ Centre and the Children’s Book Council of Australia, where she has presented for many years at the CBCA’s annual Kids Day Out and Literary Lunches for school children. She enjoys speaking at preschools, schools, libraries, bookshops and literary festivals and she’s always keen to promote her books.
Suggested Learning Activities and Teacher Discussion Notes from Author
There’s five words that are repeated through this book that give a clue to one of the main themes. Can you find them? (Don’t give up. Keep trying.)
Why do you think the author highlights and repeats these words?
Make a list of other animals in this story.
Where are these animals from? Locate on a map of Australia where some of these animals need to live and why.
Make a list of food Mr Crocodile learned to cook at his lessons.
What other food did Mr Crocodile create and cook when his friends came to lunch.
In what way do you see yourself similar to Mr Crocodile. Discuss with class.
This book is about practising a new skill so you can ultimately succeed. Share an example from your own experience of a skill that you had to practise in order to be good at it.
List some skills that you would love to be good at in the future.
Talk about the importance of patience and practise with class. Discuss people in different walks of life who have achieved their goals through patience and practise.
Students to cut out a crocodile shape and decorate it with patterns, pictures and words that represent him/her as an individual.
Revise the importance of the first five key themes ie learning new skills; encouragement; practise and persistence; acceptance and inclusion; initiative and creativity.
Students to research and talk about someone they look up to who has succeeded in reaching his/her goal.
Using the word: S P E C I A L. Students to suggest/write as many words as they can commencing with each individual letter that describes important positive personality traits generated from reading this book. For example, skills, perseverance, practise, encouragement, creative, ideas, acceptance, learning, listening, etc.
About the Author
