The Selfish Giant St Sylvester’s, Elgin, Scotland. Comenius Project September 2010

Every day the children used to go and play in the giant’s garden. It was a beautiful garden with flowers which danced and sparkled through the tall green grass beneath the blossoms and fruit trees.

One day the giant returned. “What are you doing here?” he shouted in a very gruff voice. My garden is my own garden and nobody will play in it but me!” The children ran away and the giant built a high wall around the garden with a sign.

He was a very Selfish Giant!

Now the children had nowhere to play. “How happy we were !” They sighed to one another as the wandered around the high wall of the giant’s garden.

The Spring returned, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds.

Only in the giant’s garden it was still winter…

Without the children’s laughter the trees forgot to blossom and the trees stood silent with frost. Only the snow, wind and hail were happy and decided to stay in the garden all year round.

But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. 'He is too selfish,' she said.

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then he noticed that the north wind and hail were quiet and the air was filled with a sweet perfume.

Then he saw the most wonderful sight… Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and the birds twittered happily.

Only in one corner it was still Winter. In it was a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly.

Now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever. The Giant's heart melted as he looked out. 'How selfish I have been!' he said.

He crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became Winter again.

And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him.

And the children came running back, and with them came the Spring. 'It is your garden now, little children,' said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. And when the people were gong to market at twelve o'clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen. And the giant was never selfish again.

Key Competences Key Competence Activity Learning to learn Children memorised the words of the songs for our musical. Children worked in groups to organise the creating of props and costumes. Children designed and undertook an experiment to learn more about our weather systems. Children took part in self and peer assessment. Children were part of the planning process in each activity and had voice in creating next steps in learning. Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competences Children got together in working groups to produce props and costumes. Children explored the wonder of God’s natural world and discussed how to protect it. Children created a rap to give a positive message about racism. Entrepreneurship Children made posters to advertise the play. Children planted apple trees in the garden. Children created an area in the classroom to allow tadpoles to thrive and observed them as they went through metamorphosis. Cultural Expression Children performed a musical for parents and the community. They wrote creative stories. Children undertook various drawing activities from nature such as daises and butterflies and trees as they changed throughout each season.

Key Competences Key CompetenceActivity Communication in the mother tongue Children came up with vocabulary to describe emotions. Children wrote stories in which they described their own and others’ emotions. Children discussed what they had learned about respect with peers and teachers. Children wrote poetry about racism. Communication in foreign languages Children explored language for describing animals and the weather in French. Mathematical literacy and competence in science and technology Children observed and recorded the stages of metamorphosis in a tadpole to a frog. Children studied the appearance habitat, diet of various plants, insects and animals. Children explored symmetry in nature. Children observed and recorded the weather and made graphs to display it. Children used information handling skills to find out about wildlife in our garden and display results. Digital competence Children created Power point presentations, They used digital cameras to record their work Children used the internet to research various living things. Children recorded one another discussing what they had leaned.