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Rachel Bright and Jim Field

Language: English
Genre: Animals, Humour, Identity
Age group: 3-5, 6-8
Audience: Children, Families
Topics: Empathy

Rachel Bright shares her tips for creating loveable and memorable characters and rhyming stories, and Jim Field will show us how to draw their latest character, Goldy the Gecko! Rachel and Jim are the creators of treasured family favourites The Lion Inside, The Koala Who Could, The Squirrels who Squabbled and many more. In their latest story The Gecko and The Echo, they explore how treating others with kindness makes the world a better place for us all to live in.

Shorter clips of the event are available on the BBC Scotland Learning website(this link will open in a new window).

If you only do one thing...

We know time is tight so here is just one activity you could do with your class before or after watching the event.

Favourite animal fact-file (LIT 1-06a, LIT 1-14a, EXA 1-04a) Rachel talks about how much she loves animals. What’s your favourite animal? Ask the pupils to write a fact file about their favourite animal including: their name, where they live, what they eat, any special skills of features they have. Make sure you draw a picture of them!

Learning resources

Finding time to reflect on the event after it finishes is a great way to ensure that you get the most out of the experience. Here are 10 fun activities that you can use and adapt to any book, even The Gecko and The Echo! We think Goldy the Gecko would particularly love Activity 2 and 3, which are all about movement and sound. Happy TRALALALA-ing!