The Paper Dolls

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My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. This is a beautiful story about a young girl who makes five paper dolls, and goes on imaginative adventures with them. The girl and the dolls go on a bus, to a farmyard and even have a close encounter with a crocodile (played by her mother). All the while the dolls shout “We're holding hands and won't let go” throughout the story. Until a boy a boy comes along and snips the dolls into pieces. Sending the dolls flying into the girls mind where her grandma and favourite toys live. The girl then grows up to become a mother herself who helps her daughter make five paper dolls. The Paper Dolls is a wonderful story of childhood, memory and the power of imagination from the author of The Gruffalo, and illustrating talent Rebecca Cobb. Our brilliant resource includes two type of worksheets: one that features two bigger paper dolls, that can be printed on an A4 paper, and the other one that puts together eight smaller paper dolls on an A4 paper. You can use our paper doll cut out templates for loads of activities. You can ask them to write some facts about themselves on the dolls, like we suggested above. Or, you can ask them to create their own paper dolls, by colouring and drawing the templates as they like.

The next set of questions concerns memory. After the boy snips the paper dolls and the dolls regather themselves in the little girl’s memory, they apparently encounter other items in the little girl’s memory. They find “white mice and fireworks, and a starfish soap, and a kind granny, and the butterfly hairslide, and more and more lovely things each day and each year.” Students are asked about the nature of memory. What is memory and where is it? Why does it exist? Why does it seem to hold some things that are imaginary (like the white mice) and some things that were once real (like the kind granny and the butterfly hairslide)? Paper People Chain Template - Create a paper people chain with the help of your children using this easy template. They can colour the people after they cut the chain out of the template. This colourful chain will look lovely in your classroom. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.Creativity can often help a child to develop their problem-solving skills and adapt to new ways of thinking. Well, the book is simply about a young girl with five paper dolls who then goes on an imaginary adventures with them - until a boy came along and cut the dolls into pieces. Allowing children to be creative is vital in allowing them to express themselves. Being creative can often help children to express and cope with their feelings. Are there things, people, or places in your memory that don’t exist in the real world anymore? Can you give some examples?

Find out about the record breaking longest chain of paper dolls made in 2013 here Maybe you could make a really long chain of paper dolls too! Maybe some friends could help. Read more books by author Julia Donaldson here Titles with activities on LoveMyBooks are: The Gruffalo Room on the Broom The Snail and the Whale Tyrannosaurus Drip What the Ladybird HeardThe Paper Dolls is the story of a young girl who makes some paper dolls which she plays with and takes them on adventures but one day when a boy cuts them up they end up in her memory instead.