Chatterbooks Activity Pack ‘Timelines & Time Travel’

Quarto Kids

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Timelines and Time Travel: About the pack This Chatterbooks Activity Pack features three books full of facts and illustrations covering a wide canvas of events and presenting them in clear and accessible timelines. The books are: Diary of a Time Traveller: Augustus, a fictional character, goes back in time on a global adventure spanning a million years; involving key people, places and events in history. 50 Things You Should Know About the First World War: An introduction to WW1. ‘In 1914 a war broke out that was to touch every corner of the globe.’ 50 Things You Should Know About the Second World War: An introduction to WW2. ‘When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 a war broke out that was to prove the most costly in human history.’ In this pack are details about the three books and their authors, together with discussion and activity ideas for your Chatterbooks group, inspired by the books and the events they describe. There is also a further reading list of both fiction and non-fiction featuring the themes of the pack: time travel, and the two World Wars. It’s brought to you by The Reading Agency and their Children’s Reading Partners Wide Eyed Editions and QED; imprints of Quarto Kids.

Chatterbooks [www.chatterbooks.org.uk] is a reading group programme for children aged 4 to 14 years. It is coordinated by The Reading Agency and its patron is author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Chatterbooks groups run in libraries and schools, supporting and inspiring children’s literacy development by encouraging them to have a really good time reading and talking about books. The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more through programmes for adults, young people and Children – including the Summer Reading Challenge, and Chatterbooks. See www.readingagency.org.uk Children’s Reading Partners is a national partnership of children’s publishers and libraries working together to bring reading promotions and author events to as many children and young people as possible.

Contents 3 The books, the authors and illustrator, and reviews from readers 6 Ideas for activities and discussion with your Chatterbooks group 12 More books

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The books

Diary of a Time Traveller Nicholas Stevenson and David Long 978-1847806369

Meet some of history's most illustrious and interesting characters in this book visiting key moments of the past from around the world. When young Augustus falls asleep in history class, Professor Tempo decides to teach him a lesson and show him that history isn't boring at all!

Professor Tempo gives Augustus a magic diary and all he needs to do is write a time and place from history inside it to travel there. Together they head out on a whistle-stop tour of history through the ages to meet some of the world's finest explorers, inventors, leaders, writers, composers and painters, including; Albert Einstein, Mozart, Louis XIV, Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, Christopher Columbus Genghis Khan, Emperor Titus in Rome, athletes at the very first Olympic Games, Tutankhamen in Egypt and even Palaeolithic man as he discovers fire. Each illustrated spread introduces a different time and place, with an introductory text from Augustus explaining the sights and sounds with accompanying captions from the Professor which provide key facts. A character index at the rear gives a short biography of all the historical characters featured, and a timeline helps to contextualise the different time periods covered.

Author DAVID LONG is an experienced writer specialising in history, and has written for The Sunday Times, The Times, the Sunday Mirror, the London Evening Standard and the Sunday People. He also won the Independent Publisher's Book Award for a book he ghost-wrote. He lives and works in East Anglia. Young London-based illustrator NICHOLAS STEVENSON won silver at the 2013 Serco Prize. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Anorak Magazine and Urban Outfitters.

There are quirky coloured illustrations on each double-page spread – and chatty and subjective descriptions from Augustus. At the front is of the book is a timeline drawn in a spiral-vortex moving inwards towards the present day.

Review from a reader: A really interesting take on history with fantastic, colourful illustrations. Covers a broad selection of events, including the discovery of the new world, the invention of the printing press and the Great Wall of China. Would make a great gift for budding historians from Key Stage 2 up.

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50 Things You Should Know About the First World War Jim Eldridge 978-1781715895 50 Things You Should Know About the First World War is the perfect introduction to a tragic chapter in world history, published to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. By the time the armistice was signed on 11th November 1918, 65 million men from around the world had joined up to fight. Around 9 million of them died – many of whom were under the age of 30.

This book explains in chronological order why events unfolded, who the key figures were for the Allies and the Central Powers, how devastation spread on all fronts and the impact of the war on the lives of everyone.

Jim Eldridge is an author and scriptwriter who has published 90 books, selling over 3 million copies! He has also had over 250 TV and 250 radio scripts broadcast in the UK and across the world. See www.jimeldridge.com

50 Things You Should Know About the Second World War Simon Adams 978-1784930356 The perfect introduction to the Second World War, this book breaks down six years of conflict into 50 manageable facts. Each year of the war is introduced with a timeline featuring the key events and a map showing where the fighting took place and which countries were involved. All major events and battles are featured as well as entries about the home front, weapons and the cost of war, giving a

comprehensive and international introduction. Events are recounted in succinct and easy-to-understand text while photographs bring the past vividly to life with fact panels providing fascinating snippets of extra information.

Simon Adams is a writer and editor of children’s non-fiction and reference books. He specialises in history, politics and current affairs and has written extensively on exploration, music and the arts. He is also an editorial consultant on various history and other titles. He lives in London. In each book the facts are presented in chapters as a year by year timeline. Within each chapter is a more detailed timeline of events during that year. The maps of the fighting locations also clearly tell the story of the evolvement of the war.

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Reviews from readers:

50 Things You Should Know About the First World War

Packed with information, succinctly and attractively presented, this is an excellent way for children to learn about the key events of World War II. (...) Easy to read and remember, this is perfect for KS2 history. Parents in touch

The main 50 points aren't all just regarding key events – Verdun, Vimy Ridge et al. They bring many of the relevant areas of the war to life – from the women left working on the home front or the Italian situation to the use of tanks, planes, propaganda, chemical warfare… Quite often you get the empathy of the people alive through the decade, and therefore this book would hit many points on a teacher's curriculum. John Lloyd thebookbag.co.uk

It is another valuable contribution to the growing number of books published to celebrate World War I for primary school classrooms. The production is familiar with the text broken into easily managed chunks set beside - or over - photographs and paintings from the period… It is refreshing to be offered a serious approach that is accessible at a time when it is assumed that young readers can only cope if the material is relentlessly funny. A clear, concise and very readable introduction to a complicated period that will hopefully encourage both an understanding of this cataclysmic war and a desire to learn more about it. Ferelith Hordon, Books for Keeps

50 Things You Should Know About the Second World War

This was a really interesting book and I learned lots of new facts about the Second World War. I knew some things already as my great granddad fought in this war and my grandma had kept some of his uniform, badges and medals. I learned more about the weapons they used and the main people who helped win the war including Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. Each fact has lots of bits of information and pictures to go with it, so it makes it easy to read. I took this book to school and it was very helpful. Josh, Guardian Children’s Books

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Timelines and Time Travel:

Ideas for Activities and Discussion with your Chatterbooks Groups

Get together a collection of history books, including books about the two world wars making sure you have a selection of both fiction and non-fiction. (See the suggestions in More Books at the end of this pack.) Have pens and sheets of flipchart paper for collecting people’s thoughts, ideas and discussion contributions.

Where would you travel in time?!

On the back cover of the Diary of a Time Traveller it says: If you had a magic diary that could transport you to any time and place in history, where would you go? The Colosseum in Roman times? The Olympic Games in ancient Greece? The Great Wall of China?

Talk with your group about this. Think about all the times and places mentioned in the book, and collect on a flipchart more suggestions about where you might like to travel. Here are some examples: the Battle of Hastings, the Great Fire of London, your own home town in Tudor or Victorian times…

Sort people into groups, pairs or work individually to decide on a particular time and place, and then ask them to find out as much as they can about it. Ask them to have a go at writing a short piece about it, imagining they’re actually there using the chatty style which Augustus adopts in the book – it could be as a diary entry, a blog or an email. They could also do drawings, with captions, to give more information.

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Time travel wordsearches Here are two wordsearches with words from the books featured in this pack. How many you can find! The words go across, up, down, and from left to right. From Diary of a Time Traveller: OLYMPICS, PHARAOH, GLADIATORS, SILK ROAD, CHAUCER, COLUMBUS, EINSTEIN, MARIE CURIE, SUFFRAGETTES, MOON LANDING

S U F F R A G E T T E S S A Z S U M Z P Z Q L Y W F R Z X V M I B B X G X W A F G B V X Z A S L M V G W V Z D Z P S F H J L I K U X W V Q E I N S T E I N V F R L Z X V Q X A V S C I P M Y L O O A Z M X Z T B M Q X H M J F A C F Q W Z X O M X Z W A N U Q D Z D B V F J R K Z W Q R Z V D Q X V M R P Z S X B B X A G J W Z M O O N L A N D I N G O I M Q V Z J V X B W R E C U A H C B M F M W Q Z V X T P N Q Z X B V O B M A R I E C U R I E Q W V B X K From 50 Things You Should Know About … TRENCHES, BATTLE OF MONS, CHRISTMAS TRUCE, TANKS, ARMISTICE, HITLER, AIR RAIDS, ALLIES, HOLOCAUST, ATOMIC BOMB, GUNS

C Q W R S N O M F O E L T T A B H M Z W N Q Z Y Y F Z X Q W I Z R B X Q U W Z E C I T S I M R A I V X Z G B P Z X S F H J L R X S X W B Q R Y Z Q X V N M V A Q T R E N C H E S Z V J G D Z I V M A Z B X Z V B P Q X Z M J D K A T O M I C B O M B Q W X Z S X S D X V F J M K G W R E L T I H T S U A C O L O H B X F G J X Z R G X F B Z X F B J Z Y P M Q V U J P X A L L I E S Q Z X P B F C K Z B Q X F F J P B W Z V O B E P X T A N K S Z X P V Q B X K

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Changing history

If you were a time traveller and had the power to change something when you got to your chosen place and time, what might you do? Perhaps you could bring some knowledge, or an actual object, from our present day. What difference might this make to the course of history, or would it simply confuse the people in the past?

Have a look at our Chatterbooks Compton Valance activity pack. It’s all about a boy called Compton Valance and his time travelling sandwich where you will find ideas and templates for more time travelling activities with your group.

Back from the future!

First of all think about what life might be like in the future if you were to time travel forwards. Collect people’s ideas on a flipchart. Would there be amazing technology? Or things breaking down? Lots of space travel? Has global warming had an effect? Decide on a future scenario and make notes about it together or draw it.

Ask your group to imagine they are a person living in that future who gets to time travel back to the 21st century – our present day! They could arrive at a particular event, such as the Olympics, or something every day like a school lesson, a party, a family meal, or a football match. How would things seem to them? What things would they especially notice – might they find them strange? Why?

Your own personal timeline

Create your own timeline! Think about all the kind of things you want to add into it – see the example below. You could use this template, move it to a fresh sheet of paper, enlarge it, and set it as landscape in order to give much more space for writing things in.

When you’ve decided on the special things – the milestones – in your life, log them on your timeline with the year and full date of when they happened and add in details about them. Then see if you can find out national or world events which happened in those same years and log them too.

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My Timeline Year Personal milestones

Born Started nursery school

Started primary school

Learned to swim

Discovered Harry Potter

UK or world event

There is a lot to talk about when you're filling in your timeline!

Which personal event or time would people most like to go back to?

Which one would they not like to go back to? Why not?!

Are there any milestones which you would do differently now?

How many things do you know about WW1 and WW2?

On a flipchart, and focussing on one or each of the world wars, ask your group to come up with as many things as possible which they know about this war, e.g. WW1: trenches, gas, poppies, shell-shock; WW2: air-raids, Hitler, Nazis, Dunkirk.

Spend some time browsing the books and ask your group which themes they would like to explore further. They could create their own fact sheets: e.g. 20/50 things you should know about battles/the home front/spies and spying in the First/Second World War.

Below is a simple fact sheet which people can adapt to use for their research. When they are complete, they could be collated as your Chatterbooks group’s own ‘Things You Should Know’ book.

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Fact sheet:

(50) THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT………………… IN THE ………..WORLD WAR

1.

2.

3.

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Presenting the facts

Look at one or all of the three books featured in this pack and talk about the way that the information is presented e.g.

Diary of a Time Traveller: double page spread illustrations with captions and diary style inserts

50 Things You Should Know…: Timelines within timelines, maps, small chunks of text, photographs

Compare these with other non-fiction history books presenting information in different ways (See some suggested titles in More books at the end of this pack) – e.g. One Boy’s War: illustrations with first person narrative text War Game: illustrations with third person narrative First World War (Brocklehurst/Usborne): pages of text with photographs and illustrations, and additional text down the sides

Which approaches do people prefer?

Talk about how we each prefer to get our information – do people like narrative? Lots of ‘sound bites’? Diagrams? Illustrations? Photographs? As a story? Lots of informative text? Each of us has our own learning style!

Have a look at our Chatterbooks World War One activity pack

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More Books …..

AUTHOR TITLE PUBLISHER ISBN

Stories about time travel

Blackman Thief! Corgi 978-0552551656

Matt Brown & Lizzie Finlay

Compton Valance: Super F.A.R.T.S v the Master of Time

Usborne 978-1409590477

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl Time Paradox Puffin 978-0141339122

Madeleine L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time Puffin 978-0141354934

Philippa Pearce Tom’s Midnight Garden OUP 978-0192734501

Susan Price The Sterkarm Handshake Point 978-0439978965

Alison Uttley A Traveller in Time Puffin 978-0141361116

H G Wells The Time Machine Create Space 978-1497415577

World War 1 – fiction

Sam Angus Soldier Dog Macmillan 978-1447220053

John Boyne Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

Corgi 978-0552570589

Theresa Breslin Ghost Soldier Corgi 978-0552569187

Michael Foreman The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha Templar 978-1848778979

Sonya Hartnett The Silver Donkey Walker 978-1406304299

Janis Mackay The Reluctant Time Traveller Kelpies 978-1782501114

Catherine MacPhail Stars Shall Be Bright Barrington Stoke 978-1781124697

Michael Morpurgo War Horse Egmont 978-1405226660

Kate Saunders Five Children on the Western Front

Faber 978-0571323180

World War 1 – non-fiction

Barroux & Sarah Ardizzone (trans)

Line of Fire: Diary of an Unknown Soldier

Phoenix Yard 978-1907912399

Richard Brassey The Story of World War One Orion 978-1444010855

Brocklehurst, Brook and Chisholm

World War One Usborne 978-0794514556

Lynn Huggins-Cooper and Ian Hayward

One Boy’s War Frances Lincoln 978-1847801265

Mick Manning & Brita Granström

Charlie’s War Illustrated: Remembering World War One

Franklin Watts 978-1445110349

Michaela Morgan Walter Tull’s Scrapbook Frances Lincoln 978-1847804914

Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman

War Game Pavilion 978-1843650898

Hilary Robinson ans Martin Impey

Where the Poppies Now Grow Strauss House 978-0957124585

Marcia Williams Archie’s War Walker 978-1406352689

Alex Woolf & Dave Antram

You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Trenches in World War One

Book House 978-1909645226

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World War 2 – fiction

Nina Bawden Carrie’s War Puffin 978-0141354903

John Boyne The Boy in Striped Pyjamas Definitions 978-1862305274

Susan Cooper Dawn of Fear Red Fox 978-1782954798

Paul Gallico The Snow Goose Penguin 978-0140299526

Morris Gleitzman Once Puffin 978-0141320632

Ann Holm I Am David Egmont 978-0749701369

Shirley Hughes The Lion and the Unicorn

Judith Kerr When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit HarperCollins 978-0007274772

Michele Magorian Goodbye Mr Tom Puffin 978-0141354804

Michael Morpurgo An Elephant in the Garden HarperCollins 978-0007339587

Michael Morpurgo Friend or Foe Egmont 978-1405233378

Ian Serraillier The Silver Sword Red Fox 978-0099439493

Robert Westall The Machine Gunners Macmillan 978-1447284161

World War 2 – non-fiction

Louise Borden & Michael Foreman

The Little Ships Frances Lincoln 978-1847800817

Michael Foreman War Boy Pavilion 978-1843650874

Mick Manning & Brita Granström

Taff in the WAAF Frances Lincoln 978-1847804150

Mick Manning & Brita Granström

Tail End Charlie Frances Lincoln 978-1847800756

Jan Pollard Evacuee Scholastic 978-1407157207

Marcia Williams My Secret War Diary Walker 978-1406331998

Wordsearch Answers From Diary of a Time Traveller:

S U F F R A G E T T E S S A Z S U M Z P Z Q L Y W F R Z X V M I B B X G X W A F G B V X Z A S L M V G W V Z D Z P S F H J L I K U X W V Q E I N S T E I N V F R L Z X V Q X A V S C I P M Y L O O A Z M X Z T B M Q X H M J F A C F Q W Z X O M X Z W A N U Q D Z D B V F J R K Z W Q R Z V D Q X V M R P Z S X B B X A G J W Z M O O N L A N D I N G O I M Q V Z J V X B W R E C U A H C B M F M W Q Z V X T P N Q Z X B V O B M A R I E C U R I E Q W V B X K

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From 50 Things You Should Know About …

C Q W R S N O M F O E L T T A B H M Z W N Q Z Y Y F Z X Q W I Z R B X Q U W Z E C I T S I M R A I V X Z G B P Z X S F H J L R X S X W B Q R Y Z Q X V N M V A Q T R E N C H E S Z V J G D Z I V M A Z B X Z V B P Q X Z M J D K A T O M I C B O M B Q W X Z S X S D X V F J M K G W R E L T I H T S U A C O L O H B X F G J X Z R G X F B Z X F B J Z Y P M Q V U J P X A L L I E S Q Z X P B F C K Z B Q X F F J P B W Z V O B E P X T A N K S Z X P V Q B X K