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funny fish / the bear

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Malamander is set in a seaside town and is set at the Grand Nautilus Hotel where Herbert works.  Herbert is set with the task of sorting out lost property in the hotel in which one day he finds a baby girl called Violet. Violets’ parents had left her at the hotel as a baby and she is determined to find out what happened to them and why they left her here. With the help of Herbert they go on an adventure in which they discover a lot more about the town they live in than they thought they would . Secrets are uncovered and all the clues they are given lead to the local sea monster called   Malamander. This leads to debate of wether Malamander is real as they go on a hunt to find the sea monster . The first activity children could take part in is that they can make predictions about what they think the book will be about. Children can predict what they think the book will be like based on the blurb and cover and what information they grasp from the first chapter. I would question children on why they think these things about the book. This activity is a good way to asses children’s skills in making connections between what it says on the blurb and within the first chapter. In addition to this once as class we reach the second to last chapter , children could write their own last chapter in what they would like to happen in the end. By doing this activity children are able to use their imagination and create their own ending . This activity challenges the children to think outside the box and challenge the idea of what they expect would happen as it is completely up to them. Doing this activity there is the opportunity to discuss how authors write last chapters to either close the book completely or leave the reader wanting to know more and we can look at different ways they do this. A final activity I came up with is for children to make a newspaper article describing residents frustration sin hereby and Violet going on the adventure to find Malamander. The article can be written with different residents opinions and worries. This activity would challenge children to use a formal tone and also to look into wether it would be  bias as it would be written as a community newspaper. After reading Malamander it was clear to see this is a KS2 text. I would use this book in Year 5 or 6 as the activities which go along with it are aimed at upper KS2.

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Wild boy is the story of boy who is covered In hair almost bear like. He grew up in an orphanage where he is treated horribly. After spending time in the orphanage a man called Augustus Finch takes him away to join his ‘freak show,' spending time on the road he spends a lot of time observing the crowds which come to watch them . Wild boy witnesses one night a girl named Clarissa trying to steal from another man. After stopping Clarissa Wild boy , Clarissa and his friend Sir Oswald end up witnessing the murder of a man called Professor Wollestonecraft. Quickly all three of them become suspects in a murder mystery and end up going on the run whilst trying to discover the real killer . I found this book quite a challenging read as there is a lot of context to take in before you reach the murder mystery part of the book. I would use this text with a year 6 class based upon the fact it is a longer read and the context of the story being more challenging , requiring more engagement with the book. After reading the book some activities I came up with which I think would be beneficial for children to take part in alongside reading the book . The first activity I came up with is after reading chapter 6 of the book where Wild Boy is debating how he feels about being in the ‘Freak show’ have the children put their hands up for wether they are for or against Wild Boy staying or leaving the ‘Freak Show’. Whilst doing this add children’s ideas to why they think for or against on the board split into two collums. In partners on for and one against children can write a speech with counter arguments together using language highlighted as being persuasive which will have been discussed with the class before the activity. Furthermore, another activity I would like the children to also take part in is researching the 1840s and what London was like then. As the book is set at this time children would be able to create research poster on what it was like at this time and especially on how children were treated in London at this time. This activity helps the children grasp what it was like and the environment the book wants to take you to. This then leads to  my final activity of children writing a diary entry as though they are one of the children in the orphanage describing what wild boy is like and what it is like living there. Children can take part in this activity once they have completed research and have a better understanding of what 1840s London/orphanages were like.

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Skellig is an upper key stage two text which focuses on following the journey of Michael as he moves into his new house which needs renovating . During this time he spends a lot of time on his own exploring as his baby sister is In and out of hospital and Mum and Dads attention lies with her. When exploring he discovers a mysterious character in his garage who has clearly been their years , them being Skellig. Michael then becomes fiends with a girl who lives on his street and he introduces her to Skellig ; with the girls help they move him into her Grandmas house to help him get better. By the end of the story his little sister is better and so is Skellig who in the end disappears . One of the activities I would do with the children based around this book is have them write a descriptive piece of writing describing an abandoned place and writing from the perspective they live their. This activity links well with the book as Skellig lives in the abandoned garage and the author describes to the reader what it is like. The children can choose from different pictures of abandoned places to write about . Furthermore , another activity I would do with children is have them draw and write a character profile of what they think Skellig looks like and have them explain why they think Skellig looks this way . This activity is really good for seeing different ways the children each idvidually have interpreted the text and can lead to lots of why questions in why they think Skellig would look like that which they can then explain below their drawing . The final activity I would do which is revolving around this book is based on the first chapter of the book . As the children haven’t been introduced into the main part of the story yet I would do an activity based around persuasive writing . In the beginning of the book they are in the process of buying the house and the meet with the estate agent . Children can pretend to be estate agents and write down points or speech that they can read to their classmates trying to persuade them to buy said house .

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This book is the first in a series of books which follow the adventures of Flat Stanley. Within this book it follows Stanley from the day he got flattened , whilst he is flat he goes on different adventures the first one being to California by envelope to visit his friend and being posted back to. Furthermore , he also is rolled up and carried by his Dad in the busy city. The final adventure in this book is where he is placed in a museum picture to help catch thieves . After this people start to make fun of him so his brother blows him back up to normal size by using a balloon pump. This book is a lot more lengthy compared to some other texts I have looked at in KS1; it is also without illustrations. I would use this book in year 2 as it is a good book to use as a class read and is very engaging for the children as a lengthier read as each chapter is a different adventure. Some activities I think would be ideal to do based around this book are , to have the children write a letter as though they are Stanley when he is in California telling them about his journey to get there when he was in the envelope . This could  be over 2 lessons with the first lesson focusing on letter writing and how to format a letter and what needs to be in one. From reading the book I discovered that the chapter on the museum had a lot of depth to it and could be crossed over with history or art. Children could create an information leaflet on the museum and point out key pieces of art which are inside the museum . My final idea for a lesson would be for the children to create a newspaper bulletin explaining how the robbers were captured. This would really help enhance the children’s descriptive skills in describing events and enticing a reader into wanting to carry on reading the article .

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I found this book a breath of fresh air and so different to any children’s books I have previously read. The synopsis of this book is that , the crayons have all wrote individual letters to Duncan explaining their frustrations or reasons they are unhappy , which all come down to the way Duncan is using his crayons. At the end of the book after Duncan has read each of the crayons letters he shows us a drawing where he has used the colours all in different ways and the picture ends up looking amazing . This book is a KS1 text which I believe would be good to use in year 2 . Compared to other KS1 texts this book doesn’t use pictures to help display emotions it is all through writing and the use of words and being able to read between the lines at how the characters feel . This is why I would use this text in Year 2. Moving forward some activities I think would be beneficial for children to do about this text is , for the  teacher to read the title of the first page of the book which is the red crayons letter . From this as a class they can unpick wether they think all the crayons are going to be angry like red and wether the way the letter is wrote shows before reading it that red is angry . I think this would be a good activity to do when starting the book as it develops the children’s ideas on linking things together , for example the colour red with anger and the capital letters and punctuation which is used in this letter to display the feelings without having to read more. From reading this book I noticed how it could be useful in helping the children work o their persuasive writing skills .There are two activities which I think would work. The first activity being to write from the point of view of an object in the classroom whether this be a chair or a pencil and write why they want to quit . I also think the activity of having the children write a persuasive  letter to their peers on why their favourite colour is the best is a really good activity to enhance the children’s persuasive writing skills.

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Pumpkin soup is a picture book which is revolved around 3 friends who live together , ( Duck , Squirrel and Cat ) . The underlying message of the book is that you should never leave your friends out and their is always ways you can adapt things to make sure everyone is included . Children are able to understand this through the tale as they are able to see how upset Duck is when they aren’t included when making the Pumpkin soup. Unfortunately due to feeling left out Duck runs away from their home , leaving Squirrel and Cat feeling upset and guilty . As the feeling go guilt starts to creep up even more on Squirrel and Cat they decide to go out and look for Duck , unfortunately they had no luck and couldn’t find them . As they start to fear the worst and think Duck has brand new friends , they notice the light is on in their house and that Duck is home ! As a sense of relief is felt they all decide to make their favourite Pumpkin Soup together and it turns out to be the best Pumpkin Soup they have ever had. After reading this book I was able to see that this book is aimed at a KS1 audience . Throughout the book there was lots of illustrations which ran alongside the text to help children unpick the emotions of the characters in the book. Furthermore , the text also displayed lots of descriptive and verbs which would be ideal to use in KS1 to help them develop their own writing in these areas. I personally would use this book in a year 1 class as there isn’t enough challenging language for year 2 , but also it is a great book to run alongside PSHE in learning about friendships and how actions can make people feel a certain way and how to make a good friendship . This would make the book ideal for year 1 as they would just be starting to learn about relationships . After reading this book ,an activity which I think would be suitable and effective for the children to take part in is , using the book as a whole class read and having children write on whiteboards what they think will happen next and why they think this will happen . Within the book there are good points where children could guess what happens next with the prior knowledge they already have from listening and looking at the pictures in the book . This would help developed the children’s skills of picking up on characters emotions wether that be through pictures or the words used in the book. Moving on from using the book as a class read another activity I would do with the children is to have children write out their own set of instructions for making Pumpkin soup. I would do this task as a class with us picking out examples of the verbs In the book which tell us the instructions. After this I would write out an example of a structure the children can follow and the last of verbs they could use when writing their instructions. This activity can be adapted for lesser Abel children by giving them the example in front of them and having them write in the verbs which would fit the sentence and make it an instruction . My final activity I would do with the children links to PSHE . This activity would be having the children sit round and discuss wether they have ever been in. Situation like duck and discuss how it made them feel . As a whole class we can then discuss why we shouldn’t leave our friends out and put some rules in place for what we should do if we see on of our classmates being left out .