The Shouting Girl: L4 Safe Spaces

The Book

The Shouting Girl

Written by Steven Huynh, illustrated by Gehenna Pham, published by Steven De GC

The poem follows a young girl who struggles to express herself calmly, often shouting when she feels frustrated or unheard. Through her journey, she learns to recognise and understand her emotions (AC9HPFP03, AC9HP2P03 – Foundation to Year 2, Health and Physical Education) and works to develop positive strategies for expressing her thoughts and feelings in respectful ways (AC9HPFP02, AC9HP2P02 – Foundation to Year 2, Health and Physical Education).

The story also encourages children to explore characters’ perspectives and emotional responses, fostering empathy (AC9HP2P01 – Health and Physical Education, Years 1 and 2). It helps them define safe and unsafe environments, such as calm corners, through interactions with friends in a classroom, establishing help-seeking strategies in such situations (AC9HP2P05 – Health and Physical Education, Years 1 and 2).

With its poetic language and engaging illustrations, The Shouting Girl helps students understand how rhyme and rhythm create cohesion in a text. It also explores how words and images shape settings and characters, along with other literary features such as lists of three and similes.

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Resource creator

Steven Huynh

Subject

Designing (Design and Technologies), Emotional regulation (Health and Physical Education), Reading comprehension (English Language and Literacy),

Level

Year 2,

Description

In this combined lesson of talk for reading, health, and design, Year 2 students explore safe spaces in The Shouting Girl and create their own calm corner design. They compare Kim’s Zen corner and Jim’s green box to inspire their thinking and strengthen their emotional regulation strategies.

Learning Intentions

• We are exploring safe spaces in the text to understand how they help us regulate.

Successful Criteria

• I can explain how safe spaces help them feel safe and calm.
• I can compare the two calm corners using a Venn diagram.
• I can design my own calm corner that helps people regulate their feelings.

Curriculum Alignment

AC9E2LA08 9.0 (English Language and Literacy Year 2): Understand that images add to or multiply the meanings of a text

• identifying images and graphics in a text that add ideas or information not included in the written text; for example, a map or table in a factual text or an illustration in a story, which gives clues about the setting
• identifying visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and considering how these images add to or multiply the meaning of accompanying words

AC9E2LY05 9.0 (English Language and Literacy Year 2): Use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning

• listening for specific information and providing key facts or points from an informative or persuasive text
• listening and responding to detailed instructions
• integrating information from print, images and prior knowledge to make supportable inferences
• identifying the main idea of a text
• predicting vocabulary that is likely to be in a text, based on the topic and the purpose of the text; for example, predicting that “station” and “arrive” would be in a text recounting a train journey
• using prior knowledge to make and confirm predictions when reading a text
• using graphic organisers to represent the connections between characters, order of events or sequence of information

AC9HP2P05 9.0 (Health and Physical Education Year 1,Year 2): Identify and demonstrate protective behaviours and help-seeking strategies they can use to help them and others stay safe

• identifying the body’s reaction to a range of situations, including safe and unsafe situations, and comparing the different emotional responses
• identifying and rehearsing strategies they can use when requiring assistance, such as asking an adult they trust, reading signs and symbols to identify safe places, and solving a problem with friends
• proposing strategies they can use at school and home that promote healthy use of digital tools
• recognising photos and locations of safe places and a network of people who can help
• discussing the importance of seeking help when problems are too big to solve by themselves
• exploring how characters in texts use protective behaviours and help-seeking strategies to keep themselves and others safe

AC9TDE2P01 9.0 (Design and Technologies Year 1,Year 2): Generate and communicate design ideas through describing, drawing or modelling, including using digital tools

• comparing and contrasting features of existing products to develop new ideas, for example designing and making a puppet with a movable part after experimenting with other toys with several movable parts
• communicating design ideas by modelling or producing and labelling 2-dimensional drawings using a range of technologies, for example designing a new environment such as a cubbyhouse or animal shelter and showing different views (top view and side view) with descriptions of materials and features
• communicating an opinion about their design ideas, for example expressing own likes and dislikes about a design idea for felt finger puppets including how they have made changes to their design ideas
• describing the results from exploring design ideas, for example recording the results from people taste-testing a food product

Materials

The Shouting Girl by Steven Huynh
Butcher’s paper for a class Venn diagram (or our Venn diagram template)
Calm corner design worksheet (one per student)
Pencils, crayons, textas

Instructions

Warm-up

Discuss these questions with year 2 students
- “Where does Kim go when she is angry? Why?”
- “What about Jim?”

Reading

Teacher models fluent reading of The Shouting Girl for the third time.
Ask students to pay close attention to the illustrations of the calm corners.
Prompt:
- “What do you notice in Kim’s Zen corner?”
- “What’s in Jim’s green box?”

Comparing Calm Corners

Introduce or revise the Venn diagram as a tool for comparing similarities and differences.
As a class, complete a Venn diagram on butcher’s paper comparing Kim’s and Jim’s safe spaces.
Encourage students to keep monitoring the illustrations for new details.

Safe Spaces

Help students understand the idea of a safe space, its purpose, and what it looks like.
- A calm corner is one of safe spaces in the classroom.
- A teddy bear or a family photo are safe spaces.
- Parents and teachers are safe spaces for students.
Encourage discussion around where and how children might find safe spaces in their life.

Activity – Design a Calm Corner

Children choose their space template.
Cut and paste 4–6 calming items into the space.
Circle or put a star on the one they think helps the most.
Add a smiley face or personal drawing if they want.
Adults can assist with scribing or asking reflection questions:
- Why did you pick that one?
- What would you do with it?
- When might you use your calm corner?

Extensions

Create a class gallery of calm corner designs and allow students to present theirs to the class.
Work with students to co-construct a small real calm corner in the classroom using ideas from their designs.

Downloads

	Free Version	Paid Version
Material contents	1 x Lesson 4 (pdf)	1 x Lesson 4 (editable PowerPoint) 1 x Venn Diagram template (pdf) 1 x Calm corner design (pdf)
Instructions	Not included	Included
Redownloads	5 per download	Unlimited
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