'Nicholas Was...' Christmas activities

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Teachit Author
Nicholas Was short story lesson
Main Subject
Key stage
Category
English
Resource type
Student activity
Author
Neil Gaiman

Students explore the themes, style, language and form of Neil Gaiman's festive flash fiction story 'Nicholas Was …'.

This popular resource includes a link to Gaiman's super short story and a series of collaborative activities for students to complete as they work out the subject of the cryptic story and consider Gaiman's style and language. 

Students can then watch a short animation of the story and create their own graphic story version.

A perfect Christmas lesson for KS3! 

Example activities from the lesson worksheet: 

‘Endless Night’

Draw a sketch illustrating what image is conjured in your head after reading this extract. Pick out a phrase/ group of words from the extract which prompted this image!

‘incomprehensible rituals’

Using your knowledge from the text and your imagination, create your own ‘incomprehensible ritual’. For example, a ritual could be that every year the dwarves celebrate their birthdays through chanting, dancing and midnight bonfires.

Task 2

Change the form of the text into a graphic story. A graphic story is a narrative based around the images — the images tell the story!

For each paragraph, take a photograph, find a photograph or draw a picture which represents the paragraph’s contents. Underneath each image select a relevant key phrase or words for your image.

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16/12/2020

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11/12/2019

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16/12/2020

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03/03/2020

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22/01/2020

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11/12/2019

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14/11/2018

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27/08/2018

Hmm, I wouldn't exactly call this resource 'lovely'!

Becky Fensome

07/11/2017

5

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