The Enormous Crocodile

tiffani
Summary:

An enormous crocodile really wants to eat a little child and he's up to all kinds of "nasty tricks" to get his hands on one.  Will the creatures in the forest succeed in keeping him from his goal?  The enormous crocodile is silly and funny, but has some great vocabulary so it's not "too easy" for slightly more advanced readers.

Themes:
being a little boy, pranks, April Fools' Day, when pranks go overboard. It's great for boys, but girls also find it entertaining.
Audience:
This is one of Roald Dahl's shortest novellas and it comes with full illustrated pictures. It's got some good vocab and a fun story, but also a lot of repetition (and those pictures!) so it' good for early readers and readers who are easily bored. We find it works well with students in grades 2-5.
Teaching Activities:

In this book, the Enormous Crocodile wants to eat a child.  He talks to several other animals in the jungle and they all think that the Enormous Crocodile is silly/bad for wanting to eat children and that he will fail. The Enormous Crocodile uses a number of silly tricks to try to catch children. He gets close but every time he almost catches a child, one of the animals he bragged to stops him. 

This is a good starting story because:

  • It has pictures.
  • It’s funny.
  • It’s repetitive (so, the kids can start to learn the words)
  • There’s some good vocab
  • It’s got a great ending.

 

Start by pointing out how kids can tell when a paragraph ends.

Let them know that each child will read a paragraph (and some are short!  Just one line of dialog!).  Then the next child will pick up the next paragraph.  Let them know that they are responsible for following along and knowing when it is their turn and just reading.

Words to point out in the beginning:

WordDefinitionPronunciation
enormousHUGE, really big

e-nor-mous

Sounds like:

  • famous
  • fabulous
notsobignot so big, small or smaller 
grinnedsmiled 
gollupa made-up word that means "gulp"goll-up
nastygross 
bitterbad tasting, like something that tastes burntbit-ter
greedywants everything, wants moregree-dy

An important part of reading with a student is reading together and pausing to ask questions to make sure that the student understands.  When to pause and ask some questions:

When to pause:What to say: (Try to make sure they are getting the impact of what's going on)
After: "I woudl like to eat a nice juicy little child."Wait, what does he want to eat?  What do you think of that?
At the end of the first page.Do ou think that the Notsobig one would eat a child too?  Why or why not?
After the first paragraph on the second page.What kind of guy is the Enormous Crocodile?
At the end of the second page.So, the Enormous Crocodile talks a lot about eating children, but does he do it very often? Does he seem to be good at eating children>

General patterns to look for as you read the rest of the book -- and to keep checking in on with the kids:

  • What kind of guy is the Enormous Crocodile?
  • What does he think of himself?
  • What do the other animals think of him?
  • What kinds of clever tricks do you think that the Enormous Crocodile has?
  • How smart is the Enormous Crocodile?
  • How well are his clever tricks working?

Reading Level: