Wiz Oz Activity 1: Cyclone Flick Book

Wiz Oz Activity: Cyclone Flick Book

In this first Wiz Oz Activity you will imagine and draw a Cyclone like the one that sweeps Dorothy and her house away from the Kansas prairies in the chapter. Your pictures will appear like a flick book, which is when you put the pictures all together and move them from beginning to end to show the action of the story happening.

Before you begin...

Did you know, the word Cyclone, means a storm or wind that rotates? It comes from the Greek word meaning to 'To go Round'. It is in the eye of the storm or at its centre and where the wind is fairly light and has blue skies within it, contrasting from the storm that blows around it. A cyclone can be tropical and last for several days.

A cyclone is different from a tornado, which is much lighter but people in America thought at the time in which L Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz
in the 1930's, that they were the same thing. A Tornado needs moist air dry air for it to start, and then it creates a vacuum of air like a funnel that is then channelled up into the earths atmosphere. A Tornado is an extremely powerful force of nature, that can uproot trees and farms.
In the first chapter Dorothy and her little dog Totto experience the tropical force of the Cyclone that sweeps away the farmhouse in the midst of the great Kansas priairies, where she lives with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. The Cyclone that send the House swirling into the air and away from her Kansas home drops her in the strange land of the Munchkins. In this Wiz Oz Activity you will imagine a tropical storm or cyclone approaching your home and  sweeping your away to a strange country. You can pretend  to be Dorothy if you wish!

Wiz Oz Activity:

Firstly switch on your imagination

Start off with a pencil and four pieces of paper.

Picture 1.

Draw  your home and where you live. You can draw the vast prairie land and the farmhouse in which Little Dorothy lives with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em if you wish.

• Imagine like Dorothy you are in your bedroom inside your house . What are you doing? Maybe you are you playing with your toys or tidying up your clothes. Draw one simple activity you could be doing?

Picture 2.

Imagine a cyclone in your 'minds eye' an expression that means how you imagine a scene to be. How does you hear or see it? Maybe you see some vapour and mist on the window pain, you can hear the wind howling like there is a storm approaching (a cyclone) and the floor beneath your feet begins to shudder, like the wind is shaking the house. Draw some swirling wind or water vapour to show a Cyclone  outside the bedroom moving the house.

Picture 3.

• Imagine as Dorothy you are inside your bedroom searching for where you will go to find shelter. In the chapter Dorothy goes down the trap door. Where would you go? maybe a spare cupboard or under a table. How will you hide? Maybe curled up with a blanket. Draw where you are hiding and one simple thing that you will use to help protect you from the storm.

Picture 4.

• Imagine, where the storm will put you down once it has whisked away your house. In the chapter the Cyclone puts little Dorothy down in the land of the Munchkins that but where will it put you down?  Draw this strange and new place. Think about the colour of the landscape and the type of nature that you will discover  like grey rocks and pink flowers. You can imagine a green country like where the Munchkin people live, or  somewhere completely different!
• Once you have drawn all four of your Wiz Oz Cyclone pictures, put them back to back.Flick through the pictures to help you remember the simple series of actions as your are blown away by the Cyclone inside your house to a strange and far off land!

I hope you this Wiz Oz Activity helps to bring the first chapter to life for you

Bye Bye

N*

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