A great picture book to explore ‘fitting in’, how we fit into different groups and the way we include people who join us.

KEY QUESTIONS: What makes us belong to a group? What stops us belonging? How do we include others?

 

Background

The picture book Something Else by Kathryn Cave with Chris Riddell illustrations, tells the story of a ‘creature’ who is told he is ‘not like us’. It explores fitting in and how we cope with not fitting in, as well as how we can be friends to someone who is being excluded.

Activity

1. Read through the story together, and ask learners what they notice about the story. After you’ve finished, you could use some of the questions below to help draw out the ideas and issues in the book:

What do they all have in common?

Why is he not like them?

Why do you think that they have said he is ‘not like us’?

When you want to be friends with people, do you ever do the things that they do?

Why don’t they include him?

Can you find any similarities between Something Else and Something?

Why does he tell the new creature to leave?

Why does he change his mind?

Why do you think they welcome the boy who arrives at the end?

2. After reading and discussing, explain that you are going to do an activity based on the differences and similarities in the story. You could use other activities available here such as Change Places, Visible and Invisible Differences, or Strand by me, but a good one for KS1 might be to move around the room and then move to a part of the room if you have a brother, if you have brown hair, etc. Then bring learners back together and discuss how there were some times when they were similar to each other, and some when different. Link to the story, and ask whether Something Else is similar to his friends at school, and then the new creature, and then finally the boy at the end.

3. Discuss why they might treat Something Else differently. What things about us might be weird to some people? The food we eat? Games we play? How we look? If the teacher can give any personal insights or examples here of when they felt really different to everyone else, and how they coped, that will help.

NOTE: The SEAL and the Global Dimension website developed by Development Education Centre South Yorkshire (DECSY) has a number of resources on this topic area, including a story and accompanying activities called Kid Other, which explore the different roles and feelings involved in leaving someone out, and bullying them. In order to use these resources, and others on the site, you need to register but it is free. See the web tab right to visit this site.