Pupil Voice year 5 and 6: The paper bag princess by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko

I always begin the academic year with Pupil Voice lesson plans. the aim is to lay the groundwork for the year of equalities education by promoting an ethos where all children in the school are speaking up, joining in and making their voice heard.

Text: The paper bag princess- Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko Lesson plan by Andrew Moffat / www.equalitiesprimary.com

Resources: -

LI: Challenge assumptions

Success criteria: I can recognise a traditional role / I can choose to be different / I can understand how stories can affect us

Starter: What is an assumption? Children give examples. What fairy tales do we know? What are the key features of a traditional fairy tale? Characters? Events? List on white board.

Main : Read “The paper bag princess” and discuss the story. Ask the following questions: -       How many strong male characters can you think of in fairy tales? -       How many strong female characters can you think of in fairy tales? -       If children always hear stories where boy are heroic and girls are rescued, do you think it has any effect on them growing up?

Activity 1: Refer to the list of fairy tales you made in the starter and consider the roles of male and female characters. For example in Cinderella the male Prince character is upstanding, rich, handsome and rescues Cinderella who in contrast is poor and down-trodden. Her sisters are ugly and cruel. All the women want to marry the prince. Are there common features of male and female roles in other traditional fairy tales? Activity 2: Rewrite a fairy tale where the gender roles are swapped. (Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole is a good start)

Plenary: Are there many stories where gender roles are challenged? Why does everyone know the story of Cinderella? Does everyone know the story of the paper bag princess? Why not? How many books in our library challenge gender stereotypes?  What can we do about that in our school?

AFL questions: What have we learned about today? / One way we can challenge assumptions about gender roles is to…