Hassan’s
Story
INTERACTIVE STORY –
TEACHERS’ NOTES
USING THE STORY
Our interactive story will help your pupils learn
about Hassan, a 12-year-old boy growing up in
Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
The resource combines film, sound and simple
games to give pupils a sense of where and
how Hassan lives, the impact of the Ebola crisis
in Sierra Leone and how money raised for
Red Nose Day can help.
ABOUT THE RESOURCE
The interactive story can be found at:
rednoseday.com/schools/primary
The story is in four chapters:
20 mins
1. Meet Hassan
2. Hassan’s favourite things
3.Ebola
4. Hassan’s future
Each chapter includes information about Hassan
that has been designed to capture the interest
and imagination of pupils. Film and images of
Hassan at home, playing with his friends and at
school provide an insight into his life. There are
also a number of fun and informative interactive
tasks to ensure pupils stay engaged.
The complete story should take around 20
minutes for pupils to work through.
This interactive resource has been designed
to be flexible so that pupils can use it in the
classroom or at home. For example, you could:
Use it to reinforce learning after watching a
longer film about Hassan as part of classroom
learning or your Red Nose Day assembly
rednoseday.com/hassan
Look at Chapter 1 of the story on the
whiteboard as a class, then ask the pupils
to work through the rest of the resource
individually or in pairs.
Ask the pupils to work through the
story at home.
When using the resource in the classroom, use
the suggested question prompts in these teachers’
notes to encourage your pupils to think more deeply
and creatively about what they are learning.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
You should be able to use the interactive story in
school without any difficulty. However, if you
encounter problems, please make sure your
computer has Internet Explorer 9 (or above), the
latest version of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome
installed. If you are using an iPad, make sure it is
running iOS7 (or above) and is turned to landscape.
Question Prompts
1
Meet Hassan
In the film, Hassan introduces himself clearly
and confidently. Can you do the same? Say
who you are, how old you are and where you live.
Which country is Hassan from?
What continent is it in?
Which country and continent are you from?
Does Hassan live in a village, town or city?
Would you like to live in a city like
Freetown? Why?
Why does Hassan live with his auntie?
Would you like to live in a house like Hassan’s?
What are the main differences between the
buildings we see in the film and where you live?
2
Hassan’s favourtite
things
What is Hassan’s pet bird called? Do you
have a pet? What is it called and why?
What are Hassan’s favourite foods?
What are your favourite foods? Are any the
same as Hassan’s?
Why do you think foods like burger and pizza
aren’t included in Hassan’s list of favourites?
(They’re not commonly eaten by people in
Sierra Leone.)
What is Hassan’s favourite game? What is
your favourite game? Do you think Hassan
plays this? Why?
What is Hassan’s favourite football team?
Does this surprise you?
3
Ebola
What is Ebola?
Why do you think Ebola spread so quickly in
Freetown, where Hassan lives?
How did soldiers try to stop the disease spreading?
What happened to Hassan’s family?
How long was it before Hassan went back to
school? What did he miss the most when he
couldn’t go to school?
Imagine you hadn’t come to school for the whole
of last year. What would you have missed?
How would you have felt?
4
Hassan’s future
How has Red Nose Day money helped Hassan?
How has Red Nose Day money helped
Hassan’s auntie?
Why is it so important that Hassan’s auntie
is able to earn money?
What does Hassan want to do when he grows up?
Do you think he will achieve this? Why?
What do you want to be when you grow up? If you
couldn’t go to school, would it make a difference?
Overarching questions
What do you think are the main differences
between your life and Hassan’s?
How is Hassan like you? Do you think you
might be friends if you met?
Do you think it’s important that we raise money this
Red Nose Day to help children like Hassan? Why?
Activity ideas
Choose from the following activity ideas to develop and
deepen the pupils’ learning from the interactive story.
HOW WELL DO YOU
KNOW HASSAN?
COUNTRY
FACTSHEETS
Ask the pupils to complete the ‘How well
do you know Hassan?’ activity on the last
page to asess how well they can remember
key facts from the interactive story.
In the interactive story, pupils learn key
facts about Sierra Leone:
As well as testing their recall, this will
help develop their reading skills and
understanding of narrative.
If you ask pupils to use the interactive
story at home, filling in this sheet would
make a great homework task.
FINDING OUT ABOUT
SIERRA LEONE
The interactive story helps to develop pupils’
sense of place by homing in on Africa,
then Sierra Leone and finally Freetown. To
reinforce this, help the pupils locate Sierra
Leone on maps, atlases, globes and using
digital/computer mapping. What are its
neighbouring countries? What is the name
of the ocean that Hassan lives by?
To help pupils understand the geographical
distance between Sierra Leone and the UK,
ask them to look at where Freetown is in
relation to their own home town or city.
How might they travel to visit Hassan?
2
Its flag has green, white and blue
horizontal stripes
It was founded in 1961
The capital city is Freetown
The two main languages spoken
are Krio and English
Its currency is the Leone
Ask pupils to research five key facts about a
country of their choice and create a factsheet
with pictures and words. Why not pick a
particular continent and assign each pupil
a different country? You could then use the
factsheets to create a classroom display or
booklet about the continent.
HASSAN’S
FAVOURITE GAME
Hassan’s favourite game is ‘tent’ – a version
of Swingball played in Sierra Leone.
Why not make this the focus of a fitting
fundraising activity this Red Nose Day?
Arrange for families to bring in their Swingball
sets on Red Nose Day, set them up in plenty
of space and organise a sponsored Swingball
marathon to raise cash! As inspiration,
display the photo from the interactive story
of Hassan playing tent.
How well do you
know Hassan?
Hassan is years old. He lives in , which is the capital city of
Sierra Leone. He has an older called Abubakarr, who is 19 years old.
Hassan lives with his auntie and six cousins.
Sierra Leone was hit by the crisis in May
. The spread
quickly through the city and soldiers searched houses for sick people to take to
. Areas where people had Ebola were and no one was allowed
to leave their house. During this time, Hassan’s got sick, was taken to
hospital and died. Soldiers came to spray the house with and took away the
family’s belongings. Hassan was that they would take him away too.
Schools in Sierra Leone were closed for eight because of the Ebola
crisis and Hassan missed a whole year of school. He missed learning, his and
most of his teachers. Money raised for Relief helped to buy Hassan a
new school so that he could go back to school. His favourite subject is
and when he grows up he wants to be a .
WORD BANK
mum
uniform
Ebola
brother
2014
Freetown
maths
shut down
friends
disease
12
Comic
doctor
scared
months
hospital
chemicals
Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland). Photo credit: Lucille Flood. RND17_251.
Fill in the gaps