Classics: The Railway Children

Yay! It is already time for a new classics worksheet, this week the exercises are all about Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children.

This lovely story in which Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis move from a luxury and comfortable London life to a life in the country without their beloved Father is an inspiring story for any child and even for any adult. Soon the three siblings’ lives are interlinked with everything that goes on on the railway line and this results in many exciting adventures. You can read the book with the children you teach, or just read a few chapters and answer the questions on the worksheet. You can also combine reading this story with history lessons about trains, steam engines and life in the early 20th century.

The book has also been made into a movie and more recently into a play, which received many positive reviews. This proves that his classic story is still very much alive in modern times. I am sure the children you teach will enjoy reading this book.

Many other materials on The Railway Children can be found online, so if you want to spend some more teaching it you can.

Enjoy!

And remember, if you have any suggestions for the classics series please let me know!

The Railway Children worksheet: The Railway Children worksheet

Mini matchbox book

This week is more a craft session than a reading or writing session, but you can still involve reading and/or writing if you like. This idea is not mine, I came across it on the internet and thought it was very cute. I tried it myself today and in an hour and a half you can create something very nice. This activity is great for children as a class project, but they can also make their friends, parents or family a unique present. Mother’s day is coming up, so maybe this would be something to organise in class?

What do you need?

• Empty matchboxes (the bigger ones are a bit easier to handle, but it is harder to fit your piece of cardboard around them)
• A piece of cardboard
• Scissors
• Tissue paper (optional, but it might be easier to decorate because it is so flexible)
• Glue (a strong one and a pritt stick)
• Coloured paper, newspaper cut outs, old books, magazines etc. (all for decorative purposes).
• Colouring pens, pencils, etc.
• Ribbon (optional, you can add it as a book mark).

Steps:

1. Take your matchbox and slide the box part out of it. Now cut your match box on one side. See picture for example.
2. Now measure your cardboard and make sure you mark where the folds will be and what the front and back is.
3. Now decorate your cardboard as if it is a real book. You can use all sorts of paper, colours etc. I will also post a link to a YouTube video in which a girl uses tissue paper, this is very easy because it is flexible and will go into the corners easier to give it a smooth cover. I decorated mine with pencils and pens only and did not use paint or anything like that, but of course you can.
4. When you have decorated your book cover you can start to glue the box together. Put the box part back where it was and glue the bottom and one of the sides (the one you did not cut) onto the box. And also attach the loose side to the side of the box. Now you can fold and glue around your book cover and it will start to look more like a little book.
5. Once it is attached you have two sides of the original (match)box that are not decorated. You can attach some paper to it and draw lines on it to make it look like the pages of a book. But you can also decorate it in any other way. (Look at the pictures for inspiration)
6.  Now you can start to think about the inside of your little book box. You can either keep it empty and use it as a box to keep little items in. But you can also use pop-up effects like I did with my castle. There are some more ideas in the YouTube video (link below).
7. You can also attach a little bit of ribbon on the inside. Attach it to the inside of the ‘spine’ and let it fall all the way down, as if you have stuck it between the pages as a book mark.

There are many, many possibilities, try them out yourself and let the children you teach be creative!

Tips:
– Make sure your cardboard is not too thick, because it will make it hard to fold. Mine was a little bit too thick and it was hard to get the folds in the right places and it was tricky to get the glue to dry properly.
– You can ask the children to make a mini version of a book you have just read in class, or maybe of their own favourite book. Tell them to use the outside and inside to tell you more about the story and its characters.
– The result of this project can be a nice present or a nice box to wrap jewelry or other small items in.

Have fun! I really liked it, so I am sure you and the children you teach will too! 🙂 

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmIdec4VBys

Classics: The Cuckoo Clock

Hello everybody,

I thought it would be nice to take a look at some classic children’s books, some of which cannot be missed in the modern day classroom. The coming weeks/ months I will sometimes post classics worksheets for you to use in the classroom.

I kick this classics series off with a worksheet on Mrs. Molesworth’s The Cuckoo Clock, which is one of my personal favourites. You can either read the book in class and then use my worksheet, or you can just read the extracts on the worksheet if you do not have time to read the entire book.

I hope you enjoy reading this (quite unknown) wonder of a children’s book as much as I have.

Enjoy!

If you have any questions, would like any answers to any of the questions on the sheet or if you have any suggestions for my classics series, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Link worksheet: Worksheet The Cuckoo Clock Mrs. Molesworth

Time Capsule

Did you know that some authors are writing a book that none of us will ever read? Margaret Atwood is one of the first authors to write a book to go into a time capsule that will not be opened until the year 2114, because that is when a newly planted forest in Norway is ready to supply the paper for the 100 books. It is a project called Future Library Project and it kicked off in 2014.

This week I thought it would be fun to take inspiration from this initiative and make a time capsule with the children you teach. This is a not a step by step activity so I will talk you through two options to consider. For both options you need a tin box or something else that would not get damaged when you bury if (if that is what you want to do with it). In addition you need pens, pencils and maybe colouring pencils if you want the children to decorate their contribution.

Option 1: Classics

Every era knows its classic books and some are so special they are carried on generation to generation. Use this opportunity to list some English classics the children you teach know about and then ask them what the classics of our time are or should be. Ask the children to take a book in mind that should become a classic according to them and write (and draw) something on a piece of paper about that book. You can use a template in which you set some requirements (for example: main characters, summary, opinion etc.) or you can let the children decide what they want to say about the book. They should, however, keep in mind that the person opening it might not have heard of the book. Collect all the pages and put them in the tin box and bury it somewhere on the school premises maybe accompanied by a letter from the class to the future readers.  You can also attach a creative writing exercise to this activity and ask the children to write a short paragraph about the day the box is found and what the people will think.
You can also decide to bury it somewhere and tell the children you (or another teacher) will open it in 5 years and share it with your class at the time so they can get some reading ideas. Or you can open it again at the end of the children’s school time and see how their opinions have changed. Of course you then need to make sure you know exactly where you buried it.

Option 2: Write your own

This option is more like a creative writing exercise. You can ask the children to write a story set in the current time. This can be written as fiction or non-fiction. This might be fun because it makes the children think about the future and what could have changed when someone finds the box. If you are teaching English this can also be a good exercise to practice tenses. You can even ask the children to pick a theme like transport and write something about transport in 2015 (present tense), something about how it has changed in comparison to the past (past tense) and how they think it will be in the future (future tense). They can accompany their short texts with pictures or drawings. I once did this with 13/14 year old and they really enjoyed this exercise. I divided them into small groups and asked them to pick a theme together (It might be a good idea to check if all the groups picked a different theme); they then wrote the texts together and decorate it accordingly. After you have collected all the contributions you can bury it with the children accompanied by a letter telling the people who will open the box what is in it.

Enjoy!!