Little Red and the Big Bad Croc
This traditional tale is an innovation on Little Red Riding Hood, and it is presented as an audio text. Listen along as you view each of the four illustrated slides and find out who lives 'happily ever after'.
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Text download
There are several ways to access this text:
- Download Little Red and the Big Bad Croc as a PowerPoint slideshow (20.3MB), and press play to hear the audio for each slide.
or - Download Little Red and the Big Bad Croc as a PDF (418KB) (opens in new window) and also download the four audio files for Screen 1 (2.8MB), Screen 2 (2.3MB), Screen 3 (2.1MB) and Screen 4 (2.4MB); play the audio files through your device as you show the PDF.
or - Download Little Red and the Big Bad Croc as a PDF (418KB) (opens in new window) and also download the transcript of Little Red and the Big Bad Croc (159KB); read the transcript aloud as you show the PDF.
Printable worksheets
Teaching & learning sequence
This teaching and learning sequence outlines classroom strategies for Little Red and the Big Bad Croc, including:
- ways to incorporate the ‘Big Six’ core elements of reading development
- fun, engaging and adaptable student activities for a diverse range of abilities
- links to the Australian Curriculum.
| Text features | Cross-curriculum links to the Australian Curriculum |
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Revisit the text
Return to the text several times to look more closely at different aspects of its content, structure and language features. This is a great vehicle for exploring the ‘Big Six’ of literacy in an integrated way, with all components linking to the same text.
Comprehension
Reading is about making meaning. Choose from these comprehension activities to help your students explore the text deeply, make personal connections, develop new understandings and draw conclusions. The activities will also help students analyse the text, think critically about it and form their own opinions.
Story map (whole-group activity)
As a whole class, discuss and summarise the story using a story map structure. On a large chart write down students’ ideas about the first main event that happened in the story. Prompt students to recall the next key event. What happened next? Discuss students’ responses, and then add the next main event onto the story map. Continue until the story is summarised. For example, your story map might look something like this:
Australian Curriculum links
Exploring characters (independent activity)
What is a character? Discuss and draw out that a character is someone in a story who does things; talks, thinks, walks, moves, etc. Identify the four characters in Little Red and the Big Bad Croc (Little Red’s mother, Little Red, Crocodile and Grandma/Ranger Evie). What do we know about these characters?
In small groups have students discuss the three main characters – Little Red, Crocodile and Grandma/Ranger Evie. Have them talk about the following questions: What is each character’s personality? How do you know this? What do they do or say to make you think this?
Have groups share their thoughts in a class discussion and add their ideas to a chart for each character. As students suggest a character trait, encourage them to provide examples from the text to support their idea.
If appropriate for your students, choose one of the characters from Little Red and the Big Bad Croc to analyse more deeply. Draw up a T-chart with two headings: ‘Actions’ and ‘Traits’. Ask students to provide examples of the characters’ actions (words, thoughts and what they did). Now ask students to infer from these actions what type of personality traits the character might have. For example, Little Red heard a sound and decided to leave the safety of the path and investigate, so personality traits could be that she is curious, adventurous and a risk-taker.
Introduce the Exploring characters worksheet, and have students write and/or draw what they know about each of the main characters.
Print the Exploring characters worksheet.
Australian Curriculum links
A lesson learnt (partner activity)
Reinforce that this story is a traditional tale with a twist, and that one of the purposes of a traditional tale is to give people a warning, send them a message, or teach them a lesson.
Ask students to turn to a partner and talk about the message they get from the story. What message or warning does the story send? What lesson does the story teach you? Discuss as a class.
Have pairs of students work together to create a picture that illustrates the message they got from the story. Ask the pairs to take turns talking about their pictures in a small-group setting.
Australian Curriculum links
A tale of two tales (partner/whole-group activity)
Compare the traditional version of Little Red Riding Hood with the innovation by Mae B Bolton, Little Red and the Big Bad Croc. Ask students to talk with a partner about the things that are the same and things that are different.
Have pairs share their responses, and collate the class’s ideas by creating a large Venn diagram, and adding the students’ ideas to it. Use the Venn diagram to show the characteristics that are the same between the two stories (for example, animal characters that can talk, story sends a message/has a moral, characters include a young girl and her grandma, set in a forest), and the things that are different (for example, in Little Red and the Big Bad Croc the main character is a crocodile, Grandma is a park ranger, and Ranger Evie/Grandma rescues Little Red, and in the traditional Little Red Riding Hood the main character is a wolf, the wolf dresses up in Grandma’s clothes, and the woodcutter rescues Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood).
During the discussion, make a point of comparing the characters of Crocodile and the Big Bad Wolf, and explain that traditional tales often have animal characters that can speak and behave like people.
Discuss who saves Little Red Riding Hood in the traditional tale, and who saves Little Red in Little Red and the Big Bad Croc. Draw out that a strong man, the woodcutter, saves Little Red Riding Hood and that a strong grandmother saves Little Red. Why might the author have changed the ending in this way? What message does that send?
Australian Curriculum links
Innovate (small-group activity)
Revisit Little Red and the Big Bad Croc and highlight the fact that it is an innovation on the traditional tale Little Red Riding Hood. Explain that the main storyline is the same, but there are some differences. How could we create a story based on Little Red Riding Hood? Brainstorm ways to change Little Red Riding Hood so that is becomes a new, slightly different version (an innovation).
Place students into small groups, and have each group write and/or draw their innovation on Little Red Riding Hood on a large sheet of paper.
Invite each small group to share their completed stories with the whole class.
Australian Curriculum links
Phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness)
These activities will help students to hear the sounds and rhythms of language. Guide them as they explore syllables, onset and rime and listen for phonemes – the smallest units of sound within a word. Use the activities to help your students identify the phonemes in words and practise blending, segmenting and manipulating these sounds.
Identifying syllables (whole-group activity)
Use the characters’ names to explore syllables – Mum (1), Grandma (2), Little Red (3), Crocodile (3), Abigail (4), Ranger Evie (4). Have students turn to a partner and take turns saying each character’s name as they clap once for each syllable in the name. Repeat as a whole group.
Which character has the same number of syllables in their name as you have in your name? Invite students to share their answers, and discuss as a group.
Australian Curriculum links
- Foundation: AC9EFLY09
Odd one out (whole-group activity)
Use words from the text to play a game of ‘odd one out’. Do this by saying a set of four words – three with the same initial sound, and one with a different initial sound. Ask students to listen for the word that is the ‘odd one out’ and has a different initial sound. Words you could use include:
- ranger, rope, uniform, relocate
- creek, sunglasses, crocodile, cupcakes
- snap, scaly, cupcakes, smile
- creek, gasped, Grandma, girl.
Differentiate the activity by focusing on end sounds or medial sounds. Words you could use include:
- End sounds
- bank, red, creek, quick
- eyes, teeth, voice, smells
- happily, sunny, ranger, grandmotherly
- Medial sounds
- red, snap, fled, bed
- teeth, creek, team, north
- path, house, shout, mouth.
Australian Curriculum links
Phonics
Evidence shows that children learn best about the relationship between phonemes and graphemes when instruction occurs through a daily structured synthetic phonics program (also known as systematic synthetic phonics). Knowing about these relationships will help students to decode, and this is crucial for their continued reading development.
In addition to your phonics program, it is helpful to expose students to letter–sound relationships they come across in other contexts, such as during shared reading experiences. Choose activities that are relevant to your students so they can practise and reinforce already learnt concepts, so as to build automaticity in recognising letter–sound relationships.
Matching letters to sounds (whole-group activity)
Say the title of the story, Little Red and the Big Bad Croc. Ask students to listen for the sounds they hear in each word. What sounds do you hear in the word ‘little’? (l-i-t-l) Repeat with the other words in the title.
Invite a student to write the word ‘red’ on a chart. Encourage them to listen for each sound they hear in the word, and write one letter for each of those sounds. As a whole group, blend the sound each letter makes from left to right to read the word ‘red’.
Use the word ‘red’ to have students practise manipulating phonemes. What would happen if I wrote this word with a ‘b’ at the beginning, instead of an ‘r’? Write the word ‘bed’ on the chart and have the group blend the letters from left to right to read the new word, ‘bed’.
Repeat by changing the vowel to make new words (rod, rid), and then changing the end sound of one of these to make new words (for example, ‘rod’ to ‘rot’, ‘rob’).
Repeat the whole activity by focusing on the other words from the title: ‘big’, ‘bad’ and ‘croc’.
Australian Curriculum links
Vowels sounds (whole-group activity)
Write the following character names onto a chart: Little Red, Crocodile, Grandma and Ranger Evie. Use these words to explore syllables, and locate the vowel or vowels in each syllable.
Recap what a vowel is and explain that the letters a, e, i, o and u are vowels, and that in some words the letter y acts as a vowel.
Focus on one of the character’s names and highlight the first syllables in it: What letter or letters make the vowel sound in this syllable? Invite students to identify and underline the vowel or vowels in each syllable.
Point out that every syllable in a word has a vowel sound in it, and that this vowel sound is made by one or more vowels. Invite a student to underline the vowel sounds in each word.
Have students identify the vowel sound and the letter or letters that make these sounds in each syllable of their own names.
Australian Curriculum links
Oral language
Oral language development begins at birth, and having a rich oral language is beneficial as a foundational and ongoing resource for literacy development. Oral language is embedded throughout the shared reading experience as students listen and respond to quality texts.
It is also valuable to involve students in specific activities that will continue to improve their oral language skills. Choose from these activities that support students to develop and practise important communication skills.
Retelling Little Red and the Big Bad Croc (partner activity)
Listen again to the audio of Little Red and the Big Bad Croc. Have students take turns retelling the story to a partner. Encourage students retelling the story to speak in whole sentences using a clear, smooth voice. Also encourage the audience to use positive listening behaviours such as making eye contact and facing the speaker.
Invite EAL/D and CALD students to tell traditional stories from their culture to the class. Talk about the similarities and differences between the stories.
Australian Curriculum links
Puppet play (small-group activity)
Have students work in groups of four to complete the Make stick puppets printable worksheet. Ask students to colour in the illustrations, cut them out and tape them onto wooden craft sticks to create a stick puppet of each character.
Each group can either retell Little Red and the Big Bad Croc using the puppets, or create their own story using the characters from the story. Have groups practise their puppet plays before presenting to the class.
Print the Make stick puppets worksheet.
Australian Curriculum links
Little Red Q and A (whole-group activity)
Ask students to imagine they could meet the characters from Little Red and the Big Bad Croc and ask them questions. What things would you like to ask Little Red? What would you ask Crocodile? What would you ask Ranger Evie? Discuss as a group.
Invite students to take on the role of one of the characters from the story. Choose students to pretend to be Little Red, Crocodile and Ranger Evie, and have them sit on chairs in front of the class. Choose students from the rest of the group to ask these characters questions. Encourage the students to ‘put themselves in their character’s shoes’ and answer the question as if they were that character.
Provide time for other students to role-play being a character from the story.
Australian Curriculum links
Fluency
Activities aimed at teaching and practising fluency are important for students on their journey towards becoming independent readers. Explicitly modelling fluency and providing opportunities for students to practise reading aloud are integral to this.
Reading role-model (partner activity)
Replay some or all of the audio of Little Red and the Big Bad Croc before asking students their opinion about it. What do you like about how this story was read? What did the reader do to make it exciting? What makes it interesting to listen to? Discuss and draw out that the voice actor who recorded this reading made it interesting and exciting by:
- using a clear, smooth voice that is easy to understand
- changing her voice’s pace (how fast or slow she read) and the volume (how loudly or softly she read)
- changing her voice so that each character sounded different (had a ‘character voice’).
Have students focus on reading and speaking fluently by completing some or all of the following activities. Encourage them to keep in mind the things they have learnt by listening to the reading of Little Red and the Big Bad Croc as they do each activity.
- Work with a partner, and practise reading a book they know well to each other. Encourage students to give positive feedback to their partner after they have read.
- Create an audio recording of a reading of a book, and then share their recordings with the whole class.
- Create an audio recording of a retelling of a traditional tale or other family or cultural story they know well. Encourage them to use ‘character voices’ and to speak clearly and smoothly.
Australian Curriculum links
Vocabulary
Having a rich, broad vocabulary assists students when they tackle new texts. These vocabulary activities will help them to build their growing bank of words.
The activities introduce students to new Tier 2 and Tier 3 words, as well as exploring word families and a range of different word types.
Text type words (whole-group activity)
Examine the words and phrases in Little Red and the Big Bad Croc that are typical of traditional tales. What is the opening line? Have you heard this before? What is said near the end of the story that you hear in many stories like this? Highlight and discuss the use of the phrases ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘happily ever after’. Explain that these phrases are often found in traditional tales. What does this tell us about the setting of traditional tales? Explain that traditional tales have no actual time setting – they are timeless. This means that the story, and the messages in the story, often stay relevant to people across many hundreds of years.
What phrases are repeated in this story? Highlight the repeated dialogue between Little Red and Crocodile: ‘Grandma, what big eyes you have’ and ‘All the better to see you with …’ Explain that traditional tales often have repeated phrases. Discuss other examples such as ‘I’ll huff and I’ll puff …’ from The Three Little Pigs, and ‘Too hot … too cold … just right’ from Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Australian Curriculum links
Adjectives (independent activity)
Revise what an adjective is – a word that describes something, for example, how it looks (such as its size, colour and shape).
Ask students to listen carefully to the audio in slides one and two, and identify adjectives used to describe Little Red (little, brave, inquisitive) and Crocodile (Big Bad, scaly). Have them share these with the group and list them on a chart. What other words can we use to describe Little Red and Crocodile? Use students’ ideas to add to the list of adjectives.
Have students draw a picture of one of the characters from the story. Ask them to put adjectives (or adjectival phrases) next to their picture to describe the character they have drawn.
Collate students’ pictures and create a class book to share.
Australian Curriculum links
Figuring out phrases (whole-group activity)
Replay the audio for slide 1. Ask students to listen carefully for interesting phrases that describe Little Red’s actions. What phrases describe how Little Red does things? What phrases do you find interesting? Discuss and draw out the use of phrases to describe, and the use of figurative language such as ‘floated along the path’, ‘quick as a flash’, ‘stopped dead in her tracks’ and ‘eyes grew wide’.
Discuss the meaning of each phrase, and illustrate the way these phrases are used to help explain how something happens. For example, Little Red didn’t actually float along, but this phrase paints an image in our minds of Little Red walking in a way that shows she is feeling happy and light – as if her feet don’t touch the ground.
Play the audio of slide 2, and explore the meaning of the phrase ‘stomach did a flip’. Play the slide 4 audio, and explore the meaning the phrase ‘in the blink of an eye’.
Explain again that these words and phrases are used to help you to imagine what is happening – they ‘paint a picture’ in our minds as we read.
Australian Curriculum links
Talking Tier 2 (whole-group activity)
Highlight Tier 2 words from the text that are appropriate for your students to explore. For example, you could use some or all of these words:
Slide 1: brave, inquisitive, hesitated, investigate, inhaled, disbelief
Slide 2: bathing, divine, smoothly, brief, glance, scrambled
Slide 3: relief, croaky, dimly, gasped, fled, lunged, escaped
Slide 4: looped, clamped, relocate, grandmotherly.
Choose one word at a time to be the ‘focus word’. Play the audio from the slide number where the focus word can be heard in context, and ask students to listen carefully for it.
Discuss the meaning of the focus word in the context it is used. What does the word mean? Have students talk about this with a partner, and then have them share their ideas with the group. Explore the word further by:
- discussing other meanings the focus word might have
- inviting a student to draw a picture on a chart that symbolises the word for them
- having students turn to a partner and take turns saying the word in a sentence
- discussing synonyms and antonyms of the word. What other words have a similar meaning to our focus word? Is there a word that means the opposite to this word? Write these words on a chart.
Repeat with other words when and if this is suitable for your students.
Australian Curriculum links