As part of the National Curriculum for year 5/6, children are encouraged to read a broader range of more challenging texts. This week we are going to focus on a different author each day to introduce you to authors/ genres that you may not have read before. Most of the authors link to the World Book day £1 books which you can spend your £1 voucher on. The £1 e-vouchers have been emailed to you.
Our challenge is to have read a book by 4 of the six authors before May half term.
WBD challenge
Do you think you can meet the challenge? Put the name of the book you have read on the sheet, and the date you completed it.
Each day we have focused on a different author and we will do it in this order in school. Read all of the excerpts provided each day, and answer the questions so you get a taste of different authors’ styles. Home learners if you want to pick 2 or 3 of the authors for the follow up writing that is fine. Please send us some examples of your work.
Monday 1st March
Today’s author is SITA BRAHMACHARI
Sita Brahmachari won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize with her debut Artichoke Hearts and is one of the most interesting and important voices in children’s books today. Tender Earth was awarded an honour by the International Board of Books for Young People, and her most recent novel, Where The River Runs Gold, published to great acclaim in July 2019. Sita’s books have been shortlisted for the UKLA Book Award, nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and have been translated into many languages around the world. She was the 2015 Booktrust’s Writer in Residence and is the current Writer in Residence at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants. Sita is also an Amnesty International ambassador. She lives in London with her family.
First, Sita suggests, that you GET INTO THE FLOW BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO OR READING THE EXTRACT, imagine that your classroom or the room you’re standing is a river, and everything is flowing around you. What can you see? Sway in and out of the chairs and tables and other objects around the room. Relax and allow anything to come into your mind. When you sit down, write down your ideas.
Next, Watch Sita’s workshop : Inspirations for storytelling flow video
Now read the extract from the book The River Whale using the World Book Day link or this PDF: The-river-whale-extract
Finally, complete the creative challenge from these resources.
Tuesday 2nd March
Today’s author is CRESSIDA COWELL
Cressida Cowell is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once series. How to Train Your Dragon is also an award-winning DreamWorks film franchise. Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust, a trustee for World Book Day and a founder patron of the Children’s Media Foundation. She lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon. Cressida is the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2019-2021).
Cressida’s workshop focuses on
THE MAGIC OF EMPATHY
Cressida Cowell reveals how empathy helps us work together, by discovering the magic of putting yourself in another person’s shoes. Watch this video first.
You can listen to her read the beginning of one of her books in this video
There are lots of ideas from Cressida to build your empathy skills in this Cressida-Cowell-masterclass-resource. In class, we will be focusing on her share a story challenge:
AN INSPIRING SHARE A STORY CHALLENGE FOR YOU
from Cressida Cowell…
Create your own magical creature that others might find scary, but that you have a special relationship with – just like Hiccup’s relationship with the dragon in How to Train Your Dragon.
Make sure that your girl hero or your boy hero has a special bond with this magical creature and, most importantly, has empathy for the creature. Share your story with the rest of the class, your friends and family and see what their reaction is to the relationship that you have created between your character and his or her magical creature.
Wednesday
Todays author is DEREK LANDY
Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children’s story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. “I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave,” he says, “or she would be if she were dead.”
Global sales of the Skulduggery Pleasant books are in excess of 5 million copies and the series can now be read in 36 languages. The awards heaped upon the epic adventure series include the Irish Book of the Decade and the Red House Children’s Book Award. Derek Landy has become a ‘golden god’ to his 70k Facebook followers, a fandom unparalleled for its feverish devotion, and already hungry for the next Derek Landy adventure.
Watch Derek Landy discussing How to Make Characters Real
Now read the extract from the book Skulduggery Pleasant – the Apocalypse King using the World Book Day link or the PDF below
Skulduggery-Pleasant
Read and answer/ think about the questions in the book extract. Now attempt the challenge to create your own character. I would love to read about the character you created.
Resources – questions and challenge
Thursday
Join me today at 11:15am on Teams for a chance to share your favourite book and a short story from me. If you want to dress up as a book character or stay in your pyjamas – that is great. I look forward to seeing you.
Click on the link to join the WBD meeting
Today’s author is JEFF KINNEY
Jeff Kinney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favourite Book. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World – over 200 million Diary of a Wimpy Kid books have been sold worldwide. He is also the creator of Poptropica, named one of Time magazine’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.
I know lots of you already enjoy Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and we have lots in our school library.
Watch Jeff Kinney’s video Telling Funny Stories
Using the link above or the PDF below, read the extract from the book below.
Telling-Funny-Stories-Extract from Diary of a Wimpy Kid – the Meltdown
Read answer the questions about the extract. Now your challenge is to write your own diary entry, making it as funny as
you can. Start by thinking about things that have
happened recently that made you laugh – have
you had a funny moment at school, at home or on
holiday that you remember?
Jeff-Kinney – questions and challenge
Friday
Todays author is
KATHERINE RUNDELL
Katherine Rundell is the bestselling author of five children’s novels and has won the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize among many others. Katherine spent her childhood in Zimbabwe and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. At night she goes climbing, secretly, across the rooftops of Oxford and London. She is also learning, very slowly, to fly a small plane, in the hope it will lead her to adventure.
Watch the video by Katherine Rundell
Imagine a Wild Adventure Katherine Rundell
Read the extract from the book
Skysteppers-extract_compressed
Now answer the questions about the book and then attempt the creative challenge: Choose a character from your favourite book. Write a
story inspired by what might have happened to them
before the story started . . . Remember, there are many
adventures that we go on in life.
Questions and challenge Skysteppers
I hope you have had lots of fun finding out about authors to celebrate World Book Day and feel inspired to read some books by these authors.