Where the Wild Things Are: using a rich text and the Forest School ethos to teach English and drama

This lower KS2 unit draws on Forest School and drama approaches to investigate the themes, issues and vocabulary in a well-loved rich text. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was first published in 1963. Controversy surrounded it at first, due to its exploration of childhood anger, but it still regularly appears in lists of top picture books the world over. The main character, Max, has a flight of fancy in a wild forest landscape, which is a nice fit with the Forest School ethos of allowing children to make their own discoveries and links.