Classroom activities

1. Ask students to create a story map. Students should identify the key settings and events in the story. They should use a series of illustrations to map the unfolding of events.
2. Ask students to complete the Diary of a day BLM (PDF 1484kb). By focusing on chapter two, students describe how Jo Boy filled his time when he was home sick. Students then compare Joe Boy's life in the 1930s to their own.
3. Ask students to complete The Saw Doctor's wagon BLM (PDF 1333kb). Students create signs and decorate 'gee gaws' to help advertise the Saw Doctor's wagon.
4. Discuss the meaning of 'philosophy' with your students. Read the Saw Doctor's poem (page 49) and discuss its meaning. Ask students to identify their own 'philosophies'. Students should create poems or sayings that capture these beliefs.
5. Ask students to write their own adventure story set during the Great Depression. Gary Crew begins The Saw Doctor with 'In the 1930s ...'. Your students may like to use the same words to start their story.
6. Students can complete an engaging interactive activity about the Saw Doctor's wagon featured in the story.

> Interactive on the Saw Doctor's wagon
(requires Flash version 8, see link below)
> Purchase book