With the short sentences and colourful pages I think it would be a great book for myself read aloud to the children. Once reading to the children I would give them 3 tasks related to the book and hopefully generate some good group discussion. 

 

-       I would ask the children if they could identify the “moral of the story” firstly with a partner then sharing their ideas with the class. 

 

-       Then because the book has some great illustrations ask them if they can recall any of the ways penguin originally tried to fly and the places the boy went to try and find his friend. 

 

-       Finally, I would then get the children back onto their tables where they would create a storyboard with them and the penguin about something that they have always wanted to do and create their own adventure along similar lines to Up and Down. 

 

I would use this book as a read aloud to the whole class. The book has good illustrations that follow and tell the story just as much as the words. I would then set tasks in relation to the story. 

 

-       The topic of the book is very sensitive so I would have to make a quick formative assessment before my first question, which would be. Does anyone know why the author wrote the book? Then judging from the response, I would then go on to explain the moral and how we understand what the book is telling us. 

 

-       I would then move the children back to their seats and ask them to design a poster that summarises the story. 

 

-       Once I am happy that pupils have good understanding of what the story was telling us I would ask if anyone has someone similar to great grandma Eileen that they would like to share. I would then ask is there anything in the story they saw that their person did just like great grandma Eileen. The aim from that is to help the children understand we are to celebrate life; it will also hopefully help them understand their emotions. 

 

I interpret the story as a fun and expressive book that lets the reader know it’s okay not to fit in with every day “normality”.  I also think that it tells the reader it is okay to be “different” and has been done beautifully in this book. For children that are deemed to be “different” this is the perfect story to let them know it’s good to be “different”. 

 

-       My first task would be asking the children to write a second book of what happened next to the girl and continue her story as she got older. 

 

-       I would get them to design a front cover to their new book and a brief blurb that would fit nicely on the back of the book. 

 

-       Finally, I would ask them how they might have felt if they were the girl being taken away, would they be, happy, sad would they adapt or rebel? Asking this question I would hope for a few different answers that could feed a good class discussion. 

 

I would try and get as many copies as available to me and do a whole class read along. Together we would read a chapter a day with the children taking part in reading a paragraph each if they are able to. With what I believe to be a lengthy book for a KS2 book I would ask questions after each chapter and get the children to do activates as we go along. 

 

-       One of the questions I would ask after a chapter would be what do they think will happen next and where do they think the story will go?

 

-       With you not knowing who the person is that wants to befriend Ahmet another activity I would do is to imagine who the person is and draw them. I would do this a few times as we read the story as more and more is revealed about the character as you go along. 

 

-       Once we had finished the book, I would ask the children firstly what they thought of the story and secondly ask them to plot out on a storyboard of what they would think/want to happen to Ahmet and his new friends in the first chapter of a follow on book. I would also get them to design a front cover to go along with their new story. 

 

-       I would ask a question at the end of each chapter, how do you think Cecilia feels at this moment? Or how do you think you would feel if you was Cecilia? 

 

 

-       Another task I would do is get them to write a conversation between themselves and Cecilia something they would talk about on the playground. This will help my gauge if they are understanding the story and the character and the characters needs before we move on. 

 

-       Finally, another task a bit more creative I would get the children to redesign her superhero’s costume and draw themselves in as her side kick and what problems they would resolve. 

 

-       My first task I would print a copy of one of the pages. I would first ask the children to highlight adjectives and verbs with different colour highlighters. I would make sure then that all the children understood what a verb and adjective was, I would then ask the children to replace the verb and adjectives with their own to re write that page in the book. 

 

-       Sticking to the literacy task I would then ask the children to write a second part the story seeing how Kai gets on with his new friends that he has made. 

 

-       Finally I would ask the children to design a new front cover and write a blurb for the next part of the story they have just written.