Standalone Activities

On this page, you will find activities and and resources that stand alone. You can use them for individual tasks, stretch activites, or combine them to make a longer lesson.

An introduction to Walter Scott

All the activities in this resource have been inspired by Walter Scott. Your pupils might be interested to know more about his life and work. This PowerPoint goes through Walter Scott's life with discussion questions designed to help the pupils connect Scott to their own interests and lives. It is recommended that you choose a few discussion questions to use in class and delete the others. This teacher's note gives additional information about Walter Scott and this resource.

We would be very grateful if you could fill out this evaluation form after using any of these standalone resources. 

Story cards

Story cards can be used in a range of storytelling and creative writing activities. Each card has a picture of an item from either the University of Aberdeen's collections or Abbotsford, Scott's home in the Scottish Borders, a quotation from Walter Scott, and three prompt questions. Use the cards to get pupils talking to each other, or invite them to create their own scenarios and stories. Click here for the full set.

Booklet

This short booklet uses a couple of verses from a funny poem about a man hiding in a cupboard to introduce younger pupils to poetry and help them write their own short poem. Screenreaders will probably not read the booklet in the correct order, so please click here for an audio version.

Game

This board game introduces pupils to the world of Walter Scott. They begin by reading a couple of lines of Scott's poetry and then make their way around the board. At times, they may land on a "tasks" square, where they will read a bit of information about Scott and do an activity. The first pupil to make it all the way around the board wins.

In addition to the board and the cards, you will need dice and counters for this game. Pupils should also have some scrap paper and pencils for some of the activities. 

A Scottish story (prose)

This resource focuses on a short story written in Scots by Walter Scott. Pupils can read sections of the story and answer questions. The accompanying PowerPoint guides pupils to think about the different languages spoken in Scotland, including Scots.

Click here for the lesson.

Click here for the accompanying PowerPoint.

Click here for the story as an ebook.

Scottish writers

This poster and corresponding lesson are designed to give the pupils some background on Scottish literature. The poster includes quotations from seven Scottish writers across time. 

Click here for the poster on Scottish writers.

Click here for the lesson plan on Scottish writers. 

Story quest

In this activity, pupils can look at the story map to find information about places where Walter Scott lived, visited, and wrote about. They can use the information to find the name of Walter Scott's dog.

Click here for a link to the storymap website.
Click here for the activity.