The Enormous Crocodile - Lesson 3 - Clever Tricks!

This engaging and comprehensive reading lesson is the third in a series of four lessons exploring Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile. Aimed at Year 2 children, it develops retrieval, inference and explanation skills through the crocodile’s first two clever tricks.

Through a beautifully illustrated slideshow and accompanying worksheet, children explore the coconut-tree and seesaw disguises, consider why the children approach the crocodile, and explain how Humpy-Rumpy and Muggle-Wump prevent his plans from succeeding. They also use clues from the older girl’s words to infer her doubts about the unusual new “seesaw”.

The main activity teaches children to explain how and why events happen. With model answers, discussion prompts and sentence starters, children use story details and “because” to explain why each trick attracts the children and why it ultimately fails.

The lesson includes:

• A retrieval starter revisiting the jungle encounters, with answers;
• Vocabulary activities with animated definitions;
• A reading focus question;
• Six retrieval questions with answers;
• An inference task exploring the older girl’s reaction, with a model response;
• A clearly explained main task, with a model explanation and scaffolded prompts;
• A matching worksheet with sentence starters, writing space and an additional challenge;
• An explanation checklist to support review and improvement;
• A deeper-thinking question exploring which characters act cleverly;
• A final learning review with self-assessment and an exit question.

Original illustrations feature throughout, with answers, suggested responses and teaching guidance provided in the slideshow notes.

Ideal for whole-class or guided reading in Year 2, with opportunities for paired discussion and independent written responses. Children will need access to the section covering Clever Tricks One and Two.