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Room on the Broom

room on the broomJulia Donaldson, Alex Scheffler (illus)
Macmillan Children’s Books  
Age 5-7

A witch is flying on her broomstick when a strong wind blows off her hat, then her bow and wand. Luckily three helpful animals find them, wanting only a ride on the broom in return. Will they all fit on the broom? And will the animal friends come to the witch’s rescue when she encounters a fire breathing dragon who fancies eating witch and chips?

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Share the Story

Read aloud
Read the story aloud, stopping every now and then to talk about the pictures and to see if children can predict what might happen next.
Join in
When you read the story again pause so that children can join in with some of the repeated phrases such as ‘Is there room on the broom?…’
Tell the story
As children become familiar with the story they will be able to tell it using the pictures to help them. You will find they begin to use phrases from the story as they do so. It would be fun to retell the story using puppets as well, see below.

Watch the story here


Things to make and do

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  • roomonbroom (1)

Make stick puppets
Make stick puppets for the different characters in the story.  Tell the story using puppets; this is more fun for children if you join in too. See here for how to make stick puppets.

Draw a picture
Draw a picture of the witch and her animal friends on a ‘truly magnificent broom’ or choose another favourite part of the story to draw. Children will enjoy talking about their pictures.

Have fun with rhyme
Spot rhyming pairs in the story, eg room and broom, flew and blew, ground and found. You could carry on finding rhyming pairs with other words as well. Having fun with rhyme will help children become more aware of words and their patterns as they develop as readers.

Make up a spell
Give children a big cooking pot to use as a cauldron. They can collect some ingredients for their own magic spell. Just like the witch in the story they can throw them in, stir them well and mutter a special, magic spell.

Read a poem here.


Find out more

Read about more books by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler here.

* The Gruffalo

The Gruffalo’s Child

* The Snail and the Whale

A Squash and a Squeeze

Stick Man

* See more lovemybooks ideas