Grumpy Frog learning resource

Creative activities to explore Ed Vere’s book in schools and libraries

CfE Level 1 (Age 6-8)

Resource created by Scottish Book Trust

About this resource

This resource is full of cross-curricular activity suggestions to help you find out more about Ed Vere and explore his book Grumpy Frog with your class or book group. Adapt and use these activities as you see fit! Whether you own a class set of the book or just one copy, we hope there’s something in here which inspires you to set up some fun, creative learning around the book.

About Ed Vere and Grumpy Frog

Ed Vere studied fine art at Camberwell College of Art and has been writing and illustrating children’s books since 1999. He is published in both Britain and the US. Ed is also a painter, working from his studio in East London and is represented by galleries in London and Los Angeles. After a year and a half living in Barcelona, Ed now lives and works in London.

Ed’s books include the wonderful Max series, the first of which, Max the Brave, was named one of the Sunday Times’ 100 Modern Children’s Classics. In 2009 Mr. Big was Booktrust’s official Booktime book, reaching 750,000 British school pupils – the largest single print run for a picture book! Ed’s work is consistently funny and poignant and will delight your pupils time and time again.

Published in 2016, Grumpy Frog tells the story of a grumpy green frog who hates every colour that isn’t green and loves to win. But when everything doesn’t go Grumpy Frog’s way, and he encounters a pink rabbit, will Grumpy Frog learn to be accepting, tolerant and able to say sorry?

Activities

Introducing Ed Vere LIT1-09a, LIT 1-11a, LIT 0-19a

Visit Ed’s illustration page on his website with your pupils at His illustrations are simple, bold and colourful. What adjectives would your pupils use to describe the images they see? What kind of books do they think Ed Vere might write?

Go to your class or local library and try to find as many Ed Vere books as you can. Look at the covers of the different books and decide on which book you would most like to read. Tell the class which you have chosen and why.

On his appearance in our Authors Live event, Ed read two of his books – Max the Brave and Max and Bird. Watch the whole event for a draw-along activity with Ed, or check out the BBC for just the readings:

Finally, ask all your pupils to take a look at Grumpy Frog: Who do they think the main character is? What do they expect him to be like?

Story sticksLIT 1-25a, LIT 1-09a, LIT 1-31a

This is a great way to evaluate your pupils understanding of the story and encourage them to recognise the different elements of a book. Write down the key elements of Grumpy Frog - characters, setting, objects, problems and feelings – on lolly sticks. Challenge your pupils to put them in order based on when something is important in the story or is introduced. For example, the first few sticks could be ‘Frog’, ‘He is happy’, ‘He loves green’, etc. This activity can be made simpler or more challenging, for example by adding sticks with conjunctions - ‘then’, ‘but’ - depending on the pupil age group and ability.

This idea can also work really well as a creative writing activity. Perhaps on the other side of the sticks you could write prompts for writing, for instance a character, setting, emotion and an object,that the pupils can create a story around. Check out an example of a teacher who used this format:

Bringing Grumpy Frog to lifeENG 1-03a, LIT 0-19a

Pick a part of the book where a character is feeling a strong emotion. Ask the pupils how they think this part should be read out. What kind of tone and pitch of voice would convey the emotion best?

Have pupils pick a page or two each to read aloud to the rest of the class. In pairs they can try out different voices, different styles, and different emotions. Encourage them to use their voices fully, changing tone, volume and accent if they can. Ask pupils why they made certain decisions, such as shouting or whispering a line. What has the writer done to convey a character’s feelings?

For a role playing activity, assign pupils a character from the book and act the book out. Pupils can act as:

  • Grumpy Frog
  • Grumpy Frog’s friends
  • Crocodile
  • Rabbit
  • Narrator

Read the book alongside the performance, encouraging the pupils to say the things that their characters say. Pupils can also create and hold props and play instruments to create a soundtrack.

For more ideas check out our resource with Pam Wardell on how to turn picture books into plays in the classroom:

But I don’t like pink!EXA 1-02a

Ask your class why they think Frog hated every colour except green. Ask pupils what their favourite colours are and why. Afterwards, ask pupils if there are any colours they dislike.

Have your pupils draw a picture which explains what their favourite colour is and includes things that they know are that colour. For instance, if someone’s favourite colour was yellow, they could draw the sun, a banana or a duck.

Frog’s favourite colour is green. Providing pupils with red, blue and yellow paint (or other art supplies), challenge your pupils to find out which colours mix to make green, and then paint Frog! What other colours can they make with just the three primary colours? Once they’ve had a chance to experiment, include white into the mix and ask them to make pink. Can they paint pink rabbit too?

This could be extended by making colour wheels using paper plates and discussing primary, secondary and tertiary colours, depending on age group. Check out an example here:

Make your own frog pondEXA 1-03a, SCN 1-01a

Ask your pupils what they already know about frogs. Have they ever seen one? Have them research the life cycle of a frog and identify the four main stages: spawn, tadpole, froglet and fully grown frog. If you have access to books on the subject start there, or have them check out these pupil-friendly webpages:

Then, create a frog pond for your classroom or library. They are easy to make and only require a few materials. Check here for a small scale version which you could replicate, or make bigger:

For inside your pond, create frogs at their various stages of life using their newly acquired knowledge! Using egg cartons, bubble wrap and green paint, make eggs, tadpoles, froglets, and adult frogs for your pond. Check out this page for more inspiration:

StorybuildingLit 1-31a, Lit 1-02a, Lit 1-09a

Tell your pupils that they are going to imagine that they are a frog too. They are going to describe what the frog sees, hears, smells, touches and tastes on his way to school, and they should try and describe its thoughts and feelings as it experiences different things.

Gather pupils in small groups if you can – around six pupils is good – and start them off by giving them the stimulus of the frog character. Sometimes for younger pupils it’s great to give them a physical stimulus like a soft toy or a picture to pass round. Ask the pupils open questions to engage their imagination and get the story started: for instance, who is this frog? Where is he going? What does he like?

After this, ask open questions to get ideas from the pupils to help you build the story. As they give you ideas, you can select the ones which are most useful to move the story forward. You should be looking for a problem or surprise for the frog to move things forward. For instance, the frog might meet a lost rabbit on his way. Ask questions to tease this out: what is the weather like? How is he feeling? Who is he with? Choose the plot point the pupils are happiest with.

As the story develops, you need to create some record of it to help pupils keep track of the plot: you can note down developments on the board, use props to signify plot points, or ask pupils to act sections out.

It’s quite important to create an ending that everyone is happy with. How is the conflict of the story resolved? For instance, if the frog met a lost rabbit, what do they decide to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again? How does finding the rabbit’s family make the frog feel?

These storybuilding ideas are taken from The Little Book of Storybuilding: bit.ly/LittleBookStoryBuild

If you and your pupils loved Grumpy FrogLit 1-11a

For more stories with grumpy characters, check out our list of 9 books about tantrums:

Check out our list of books about friendship:

Or for more ‘surprisingly reasonable crocodiles’, have a look at our 10 snappy reads for young readers:

For other fantastic cross-curricular resources visit scottishbooktrust.com/resources.