Free teaching resources from HarperCollins Children's Books, publisher of timeless classics such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, as well as perennial family favourites like Judith Kerr’s The Tiger who Came to Tea and Michael Bond's Paddington. HarperCollins Children's Books is also home to some of the most popular authors in children’s literature today, including David Walliams, Derek Landy, Michael Morpurgo, Louise Rennison and Oliver Jeffers.
Free teaching resources from HarperCollins Children's Books, publisher of timeless classics such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, as well as perennial family favourites like Judith Kerr’s The Tiger who Came to Tea and Michael Bond's Paddington. HarperCollins Children's Books is also home to some of the most popular authors in children’s literature today, including David Walliams, Derek Landy, Michael Morpurgo, Louise Rennison and Oliver Jeffers.
Making deductions, reading between the lines, about the main characters. As you read the novel try to add more details to the two columns on Scarlet and the two columns about Ivy.
Task: Chapter Eleven is full of exciting action as the Wicked Witch of the West tries to defeat the group of friends. Use the chapter to describe how the friends manage to thwart each of the Witch’s attacks.
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS1)
Understand both the books that they can already read accurately and fluently and those that they listen to by:
drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
answering and asking questions
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS2)
Understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:
checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context
asking questions to improve their understanding
This year, World Earth Day (22nd April 2018), is all about telling people to end plastic pollution. The way people make and later get rid of plastic items is bad for the environment. Lots of plastic items are made from petroleum which is believed to contribute towards climate change.
Many companies are trying to find ways to make ‘clean’ energy and this will mean that less plastic can be made. When plastic items are thrown away, they cannot be broken down by the bacteria that breaks up most waste. Some plastic items can be recycled but many cannot. These thrown away plastic items end up in land fill sites and even in the ocean.
The Lorax is the original eco warrior and his message still rings loud today, in this fable about the dangers of destroying our forests, told in the trademark rhyme of the irrepressible Dr. Seuss.
These activities allow children to explore different materials, create an ‘End Plastic Pollution’ poster, create a comic strip, design a reusable shopping bag, storyboard a TV advert plus reading comprehension tasks for upper and lower KS2.
Who would you most like to visit you at teatime? Have you ever wanted your favourite animal to ring the doorbell? Is there a person you've always wanted to meet? Or would your favourite visitor just be your best friend? Draw your favourite teatime guest in the space below.
TASK: The journey along the yellow brick road has been full of dangers, for example, in Chapter Eight the raging river and the sleepy poppies. Make a warning poster for one or more of the dangers along the yellow brick road.
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS1)
Understand both the books that they can already read accurately and fluently and those that they listen to by:
drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and material, both those that they listen to and those that they read independently for themselves
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS2)
Understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:
summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas
identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
How many real silly words can you think of for each word type?
Compete with your friends to see who can think of the silliest word. (Remember: “Morris, we’re not allowing rude words!”)
Sam made his skateboat using:
• Six large planks of wood.
• A hammer and some nails.
• Six coils of rope.
• A roll of gaffer tape.
• Two brooms.
• Four skateboards.
What every day materials can you use to make a boat-raft for the guinea pigs sailing off the coast of Peru towards the UK? Label all the parts you have used, explain what they do and give your boat-raft a name.
Try to imagine Sam’s birthdays from Ruby’s perspective.
Write Ruby’s diary entry for one day of Sam’s birthday year – you can pick one of the birthdays described
in the book, or make up one of your own.
Thinking about the sense of place, work with a partner to complete this task.
a) Does the writer want us to like or dislike
the place? Give a reason for your response.
b) Why does the writer want the reader to
recognise: the size of the place? What words or phrases do you think emphasise this?
Either: Write your own diary extracts, written in a chatty informal style using the first person ‘I’, based on some of your own school highlights – you plan to hide this secret diary hidden in a disused locker knowing it will not be found for many years.
Or: Write some extracts of Scarlet’s diary written at Rosemoor Asylum for Young females.
To help set a sense of place if you are writing as Scarlet (80 years ago) as a prisoner in an Asylum, look at the rough map Scarlet could have managed to draw based on what she can see from her tiny room, other rooms she has been taken to and sounds that she could have heard.
“Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. An action,
person, place, word, or object can all have a symbolic meaning.” (examples.yourdictionary.com)
What symbolism could Zada’s background and her battered skateboard represent in contrast
to Sam’s birthday wishes and his brand-new skateboard?
Here is some more developed thinking about what can be found in a mystery story (some of these points may overlap with your earlier ideas).
a) Tick any number of the ones you agree with and add more to the list if you can.
b) With support from the points on the previous page, use the following line, taken
from ‘Ivy and Scarlet, The Lost Twin’, to open your own mystery writing scene.
Then in no more than 500 words either produce an entirely new opening to a story or a scene from the middle of a story.
Think about mystery stories and poems that you have already read or listened to and
films with elements of mystery that you have watched.
What ingredients (features) do you expect to find in the mystery story that you are about to read? Put your ideas in the text boxes below.
Add more boxes if you need to. When finished compare your ideas with a partner.
With a partner work on the graph below:
1. To begin this work you first of all need to discuss how you both feel about Ivy and Scarlet in each of the situations taken from the novel that are presented in the boxes.
2. Looking at your result do you empathise with one of the twins
more than the other? Why do you think that is?
TASK: Use the information in Chapter Two to explain what the main problem in the story is, and what the plan is to resolve it. Think about what has happened to Toto and Dorothy. What do they want to do? What is stopping them from achieving their goal? What do they need to do next? Do you think the plan will work?
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS1)
Understand both the books that they can already read accurately and fluently and those that they listen to by:
checking that the text makes sense to them as they read and correcting inaccurate reading predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
CURRICULUM LINKS: (KS2)
Understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:
drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences
Dr. Seuss loved playing with words and rhymes to create fun, imaginative and engaging poetic stories. We hope these lesson ideas help to encourage a love of performance poetry in children.
Here is a two-part lesson plan. Firstly, exploration and recital of The Cat in the Hat, and then suggestions on how you can support your class in planning and developing their piece of Dr. Seuss inspired performance poetry.