Printer-friendly versionDiscussion topics and writing themes that can be explored with the story Crocodile and Ghost Bat Have a Hullabaloo. This story and accompanying activities are excerpted from Teaching Tolerance’s curriculum, Rhinos and Raspberries, Tolerance Tales for the Early Grades.
Discussion or Writing Themes
Many themes can be explored with Crocodile and Ghost Bat Have a Hullabaloo:
- Community (a large community of diverse animals struggling to work together)
- Gossip, name-calling and unkind words (interactions throughout the story)
- Peacemaking (intervention to end the quarreling)
- Cliques and ostracism (one group judging or arguing with another, identifying its own group as better than another; and stereotypes and how damaging and incorrect they can be)
Sample Discussion Questions
- Why do you think some people call other people names?
- Walu, the sun, hid behind a cloud during the fight, while Namarrkun made thunder and lightning. Are these the best ways to respond to an argument?
- If you were one of the animals, what would you have done to stop the name-calling?
- Think of a time when someone called you a name. What could you have said so the person would know how you felt? Do you think that would have helped that person learn not to call people names?
Follow-Up Activity, For All Grades
Discuss, as a class, the hurtfulness of name-calling. Then ask the
students to develop a No Name-Calling contract, something everyone in
class can sign — similar to the Declaration of Independence. Post it in
the classroom, and refer back to it as needed throughout the year.
