The story is quite simple, but the lessons contained within are quite valuable. It's important to see the potential beauty in all things and also that it is possible to make your dreams come true, if at first the solution is not quite what you expect. Your class must complete the passage by adding in adjective using their knowledge or the word bank. They will then think of descriptions of the old man at the beginning of the story using explicit information like appearance etc. or deeper information linked to his thoughts, feelings and what type of a person he is, always looking for concise explanations too.

Your class will complete the first sheet and make observations using the images. They will then look at the sheets we have created that describes the settings and asks questions for discussion purposes. The story follows an old man who tidies the rubbish in a junkyard and dreams of a better place. With faith, ingenuity and hard work, he transforms it into a wonderland in this poetic modern fable. The Tin Forest was once a Reading Rainbow book. (Can you hear the theme song in your head? If not, listen now! Don’t you feel happier?) There was once a wide, windswept place, near nowhere and close to forgotten that was filled with all the things that no one wanted.The Tin Forest was published in 2001, making it a natural choice for a Reading Rainbow episode about 9/11. The larger theme of the episode was picture books for dark days: “If you’re ever going through a rough time, the students at PS 234 would like to help you out by suggesting some books that will make you feel better,” Burton says, then adds, as he does in every episode, “But you don’t have to take my word for it.” If would be useful for your class to be able to recognise the use of commas for lists and fronted adverbials. Nice story - old man daydreams of a forest with trees, flowers and wild animals and then proactively creates this place from tin. Your class. must be able to punctuate the passage/sentences by adding in capital letters and full stops.

Your Year 2 / Year 3 class will focus on adding in the capital letters, full stops, commas and apostrophe to the sentences or passage. Unless you count the animals. The man’s connection with nature in the midst of his desolation and how nature grows from dreamt to constructed to lived is, I think, why the book endures. After all, I have often, on a hopeless day, taken a walk down a country lane and instantly felt a bit more hopeful. Kau bisa menanyakannya pada Sang Kakek. Sudah lama ia tinggal di antara sampah-sampah besi. Sepi dan sendiri. Burton tells the audience that one way the kids recovered hope after 9/11 was learning they weren’t alone. And that’s what bugs me about The Tin Forest. Over the course of the story the old man changes the forest from something “filled with all the things that no one wanted,” to something “filled with all the things that everyone wanted.” But we never see “everyone.” He’s still alone.We have taken some of the lovely vocabulary used in the book and created a teaching resource for it aimed at Year 2 / Year 3. This wonderful picture book is for anyone who has hope and believes that there is a way. Or for those who believe that our world is without hope and so why care... Di tengah-tengah rasa sepi dan kerinduannya, Sang Kakek tidak mau menyerah. Pikiran dan tangannya yang kreatif menciptakan hutan dari besi. Ia percaya pada perubahan.

In this resource, your class will circle the correct words to complete the sentences. Each sentence gives some information about the old man with some information being obviously apparent and other information based on making simple inferences. I also love the story’s real forest, illustrated first in a book the old man reads, then in his dream, then in isolated patches, then in full color. The primary color is yellow, and it stands in stark contrast to the metallic gray of the tin forest. For me, the art of this book works better than the text. I think I would prefer it as a wordless picture book. Hosted by actor LeVar Burton, Reading Rainbow ran on PBS from 1983-2006. The episode on which The Tin Forest was read ran in 2002. The subject is the aftermath of 9/11, specifically, what happened to the students who attended PS 234 in Manhattan. The theme of the episode, like the theme of the book, is hope.

My kids and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Tin Forest tells a story of a man living on his own, dreaming of that place where plants and animals live in harmony and beauty. But all that was just a dream, as he had nothing else but trash and junk and objects he gathered as years passed.

Setiap hari ia bekerja memilah besi-besi tersebut sambil merindukan kehadiran hewan-hewan hutan yang pernah menemaninya. Burung rangkong, kucing, harimau... Question 11 involves your class putting themselves into the old man’s shoes to determine what he appreciates at the end of the story. Is it the company? The scenery? How alive the forest is? The Tin Forest by Helen Ward is a beautiful and poetic fable written about an old man who lives in a Tin Forest, otherwise known as a rubbish dump of unloved things nobody wanted anymore. The old man wishes for a better place to live. With his own initiative, will he make this junkyard into a wonderland? Question 10 talks about his wish. It could be two answers and hopefully children will recognise that. One day, he finally started to create a forest that's made of these things and soon, a bird happened to visit his place. Such was the joy the old man felt, but also got disappointed and sad when the bird went away.

Curriculum

This is truly a book which gets children talking. It can be viewed as a story about the importance of looking after the Earth, a story about the power of resilience and perseverance or the idea that hope can spring in the darkest of places.