Years 1&2

LESSON PLAN

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Brilliant ways to bring MAKE BELIEVE to life in your classroom

1Start with a WOW!Pupils will create secret messages.

Make a secret message with white crayon on white card/paper that reads: “Meet me in the hall at (insert PE time here) for your training” and find it in an envelope stuck to the book you have placed on your chair. Discuss why they can’t see the message and then reveal with paint wash. Read the first chapter and then let the class create their own messages.

2Get up, get active. Pupils will work in teams to devise

skill-based practise exercises.

When you have read up to chapter seven, take the class in the hall for Jungle Training! Summarise the types of danger that they may need to escape and write each on a piece of paper. Next, divide the class into teams and give them each a “danger”. Challenge pupils to devise an exercise that will help them practise escape and then teach it to the rest of the class.

3No pencils allowed.Pupils will use their imaginations to

create story dilemmas.

In the story Agent J must defeat the Attack of the Giant Slugs. Ask the pupils to think of words which describe a super hero or a secret agent. Which verbs describe what they do? Can the pupils use some of the vocabulary suggested to create their own “agent” names? Challenge the class to suggest all the ways in which they could save the world – what types of problems might they, as secret agents, need to solve?

Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola books are also full of wonderful imagined adventures, which inspire creative storytelling. In A Dog with Nice Ears, Lola describes her dream dog and pupils will also love designing their own super-pets. Can the children compete to design the best class pet and use persuasive language? Their pets could be a wacky combination of animals…what do they need to do to look after their designer pet?

7 Why not make

this your next book? A Dog With Nice Earsby Lauren ChildPublished by Orchard Books

6 Keep the adventure going…

While reading Attack of the Giant Slugs, ask the children to plot Jack’s adventures on a story map. Tack lining paper around the classroom so the class can take turns adding the next instalment, and encourage them to practise retelling. As you read, the pupils could also make “danger” posters, highlighting all the enemies defeated and dangers escaped – why not use paper plates to make these so they can be physically moved around for further drama activities?

5Word play.Pupils will design a

secret lair.

Read chapters three to five and discuss Agent J’s base camp. Have the class ever made dens before? What did they use? What is the purpose of a den? Depending on space, you could physically make secret lairs with boxes, sheets, bamboo sticks, tables, etc. Alternatively, give the pupils large sheets of dark sugar paper and let them design a blueprint of their fantasy lair, using white crayons/chalk so it looks real!

4The writer’s workshop.

Pupils will create a mini-beast fact-file.

Provide copies of p.198 for the class and read through together. Discuss the interesting facts that Jack has researched about slugs and talk about the ways in which the class could research a mini-beast. Why does Jack imagine that a “giant” slug would pose a threat? Can the pupils create their own fact-file on a different everyday mini-beast and then talk creatively about how, as a “giant”, it would make a great story enemy?

Find more great ideas based on brilliant books at worldbookday.com/resources

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