Year 4 identify messages in the story of ‘The Rainbow Snake’

In English, Year 4 have been reading different stories from South America.This week, we enjoyed discussing and writing our own version of ‘The Rainbow Snake’, which is based in a rainforest setting. The children have been working hard to understand story structure, in order to identify the opening, build up, climax and resolution sections. This encouraged them to think carefully about the purpose of these parts and the effect theyhave on the reader. Next, we used these sections to help us organise our own story writing into clear paragraphs.

In the Rainbow Snake story, the birds of Venezuela were all grey until they found a brightly coloured snake that they were able to take colours from. However, this led to lots of fighting from the birds about who would get which colours. The only bird not to join in the squabbling was the wise cormorant bird, who waited patiently. He was happy to take only the small amount of white that was left over. His comment that, “It is not the colours that make the bird, but his thoughts and actions,” provoked lots of interesting discussion about the meaning behind the story. When asked to summarise the story in just ten words, the children had to think carefully about the main message. Here are some of the children’s thoughtful ideas:

Your thoughts and personality are more important than looks - Danica

You should not judge a book by its cover - Ted

We are all different- you’re special the way you are - Chloe

You should share, not try to take everything for yourself - Sam