Lesson plan:

View an animated feature story from Lift Off

Watch the story without any sound and predict what the story will be about, who will be telling the story and what it will sound like. Think of words that could describe the story, e.g. sad, funny, noisy, eventful, slow-moving. Watch the story and see how close the predictions were. Talk about the use of sound effects to illustrate the mood of the story. Classify the sound of the story using words like fast, soft, slow, repetitive.

Discuss the story

Discuss what happened in the story. Make a timeline of events. Students could illustrate this and display as a wall frieze. Consider some of the following techniques to encourage students to retell the story:

• plan a television news report about the story and present it to the class
• design a poster about the story much like an advertisement for a film
• develop a storyboard for the story using six to eight segments
• make puppets and develop a play based on the story
• retell the story on audiotape for a class of younger students.

Do some creative writing

List the main characters. Students select a character from the story and write a day in the life of ... or a letter from this character to a relative or a wanted poster or design a new wardrobe.

Compare two stories

Compare and contrast two quite different feature stories, e.g. Hunting the not fair from That's not fair and Grandma's knee from Threads or Baby from Under pressure and Mrs Talkalot from In your shoes. List all the differences, e.g. use of colour, sound, camera movement, narration, topic.

Describe the choice of animation style. Why was it chosen? What else might have been appropriate? Have a go at depicting a favourite scene from the story using the animator's style.

Talk about the work of animators and the choices they make in animating a story. Watch two animated feature stories and compare and contrast animation styles. List three reasons why the students think the animation style was chosen.

Compare with the book

Choose one of the stories that is available in book form to read to the class and compare with the animation e.g.

• Felix and Alexander by Terry Denton and animated in Real friends, or
• How the bird got its colours by May Albert and animated in Lost

Compare the two different media (book, animation). Discuss the similarities and differences in presentation. Have a vote of which medium the students thought worked best and why.

Create the next chapter in the story

Discuss students' reactions to the story. How did they feel and why? What did the writer and illustrator do to evoke their feelings? Does the mood change? As a class plan the next chapter of this story. Write down the main storyline and plot main events. This could be developed into a class book.

The animated feature story titles are:
(Note: The numbering system used below, e.g. A load of old rubbish 1:1A refers to 'Title ... Lift Off Series 1 ep 1 Part A).

* Adapted from an existing book
# Made into a picture book from Lift Off series

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