Oliver Jeffers - The Heart and the Bottle

Once there was a girl whose life was filled with wonder at the world around her. Then one day something happened that made the girl take her heart and put it in a safe place. However, after that it seemed that the world was emptier than before. But would she know how to get her heart back?

Embark on an enchanting adventure through the pages of a touching story for Key Stage 1, where a curious heart meets the wonder of discovery.

Genre: friendship, emotion

Themes: friendship, emotions, adventure, nature, environment

Age: 5+ years old

Activities

The girl in this story loves finding new things! Ask pupils in groups to plan a trip or activity they could do to find out something new. Where would they go? What are they hoping to learn? What would they need to take? (CC: English)

The heart cannot really be removed from the body because it is very important. Pupils create a poster/presentation/leaflet on the human heart. What does it look like? What is its job? How does it work? How can we keep our hearts healthy? (CC: Science)

The girl feels lots of emotions in this story. Create a list as a class, and then ask pupils to draw a face and add description words for each emotion. What does it look like? How does that emotion feel? When do we feel it? (CC: Art, PSHE)

After reading the story, ask pupils to discuss in group, why did the girl put her heart in the bottle? Was it the best thing to do? And then discuss the ideas they have. (CC: PSHE)

The story starts with ‘Once there was a girl, much like any other…’, ask pupils to write their own story or paragraph using this starting line (could change it to boy if they like!). (CC: English)

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