Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve learning resources
Creative activities based on Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North and Oliver and the Seawigs
CFE Level 2 (Ages 8-11)
Resource designed by Scottish Book Trustand Jen Buchan, classroom teacher at Stenhouse Primary
Contents
Activities for Cakes in Space
Activities for Oliver and the Seawigs
Activities for Pugs of the Frozen North
About Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve
Sarah McIntyrefirst studied Russian Literature but ten years later went to Camberwell College of Arts and learned how to write and illustrate books. She works with two other artists in their studio in an old police station in Deptford, South London, which they call The Fleece Station because they started out all making comics about sheep. Her comic Vern and Lettuce appeared weekly in The Guardian and it went on to win the Leeds Graphic Novel Award. Her comic strip Shark and Unicorn runs six times a year in The Funday Times. Sarah loves to get both kids and adults drawing, particularly drawing comics.
Sarah also writes her own books, including There’s a Shark in the Bath. She adores raspberry jam, wild hats, enormous wigs and making silly comics with her friends.
Philip Reevewas born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years whilst also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects. Philip then began illustrating and has since provided cartoons for around forty children’s books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series.
Philip has been writing stories since he was five. His first published novel, Mortal Engines, was shortlisted for several awards and was the Gold Award winner at the Nestle Smarties Book Prize 2002 and the winner of the 2003 Blue Peter Book of the Year. Philip is now known as one of the leading writers for young adults, with each book achieving huge sales, glowing review coverage and awards including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (A Darkling Plain), the Booktrust Teenage Award, the Nestle Children’s Book Prize and the CLIP Carnegie Medal (Here Lies Arthur).
Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son, and his interests are walking, drawing, writing and reading.
About these resources
These resources are full of cross-curricular activity suggestions to help you explore Cakes in Space, Oliver and the Seawigsand Pugs of the Frozen North with your pupils in library and classroom activities. Adapt and use as you see fit! The resources have been produced to support the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour with Sarah McIntyre, but you can use them at any point to engage pupils with these fantastic books.
Find out more about the tour here:
Other useful websites which you may wish to use include:
● - Sarah McIntyre’s webpage about Cakes in Space with activities, interviews and movie clips
Cakes in Space
Technologies / Art and Design / Listening and Talking TCH 2-04b, EXA 2-04a, Lit 2-05a
Watch the trailer clip for the novel Cakes in Space: As you watch, take notes about the number of different illustrations shown (10) and the number of backdrops used (2). Take notes about the amount and type of information given to the viewer about the book. Watch the trailer 2 times and then discuss:
●the way in which the illustrations move in and out in front of the backdrops;
●the colours used – why do you think they were chosen and what effect do they have?
●whether or not you would be eager to read the book following the trailer (why/why not?);
●anything that you think should have been included in/omitted from the trailer and why.
Form groups of four to create your own trailer for Cakes in Space. Teachers may wish to look at the Scottish Book Trust’s comprehensive resources on how to create trailers from start to finish. Information can be found at:
Decide upon and create your two backdrops on pieces of A3 paper. Now choose four key images that you think should be included in the trailer. These should show important events or characters from the story. Each draw one of these on A4 card and cut out your image (black pens for outlines and simple colouring pencils may be effective!). You may wish to use the instructions on how to draw Astra, Pilbeam and some cakes, as given at this website: your images to a stick or BBQ skewer.
Now work together to create your trailer script. You may wish to watch the trailer again at this point! Aim to make your trailer last between 30 seconds and 1 minute (you will need to read over and time it to check!). Remember that you want to make members of the public read the book – give them some exciting information but don’t give away much of the plot! Think about the types of information provided in the blurb of books you have read. Ensure that your script refers to the four key images that you created and cut out.
Practise your movie trailer by having one member read the script and the others ensuring the images and backdrops appear at the correct time. Now ask a member of another group to video your movie trailer for you. Once all groups have created their trailers, play them to the class and vote on which they think would most encourage the public to read the book and why. You could screen the trailers to children from other classes to encourage them to read the book and to demonstrate how to create trailers for books they might have read. You could do this, for example, by:
●showing some trailers to the school at assembly before the Authors Live Event;
●holding a lunchtime ‘Trailer Premiere’ event in your library for children to come and watch trailers. There could be a question and answer session with some trailer- makers following the screenings.
CreatingTextsENG 2-27a
Throughout the novel, Reeve and McIntyre use a range of similes and alliteration to describe characters, settings and feelings. Discuss what these tools are and why authors use them in their writing. Create a simile, remembering to use ‘like’ or ‘as’ to compare yourself to something, and an example of alliteration to describe yourself. Write these onto a piece of scrap paper and fold it in half. Keep it anonymous! Put everyone’s examples into a bag. Take it in turns to pull out one piece of paper and try to decide who is being described in the simile and alliteration. Do this until all class members have had a go.
Using Additional Resource 1, make a note of similes found in the novel, as indicated in the page numbers in the first column of Table 1. Write the similes you find into the second column in the table. Now choose five of the similes and create your own, alternative versions. Write these in the third column beside the similes you have chosen. Be as original as you can!
The authors also use alliteration in the novel, especially when describing the different types of cake. Record these in the second table in Additional Resource 1. Now choose your favourite type of cake and create an alliterative phrase of your own to describe it. Write this into the space at the bottom of the table. Try to make your cake sound as mouth-watering and enticing as you can!
Sciences SCN 2-08a
Read pages 14 – 16 of the text, which describe the effects of gravity on the people and objects in the shuttle as it enters space. Read this short interview with Sarah McIntyre in which she states that remembering about weightlessness when writing the book was one of the biggest challenges! ( ). Watch this short clip about an astronaut’s experience of weightlessness in space:
Now work in groups of three to carry out the gravity experiment in Additional Resources 2. Before completing the ‘Conclusion’ part of the experiment, discuss your group’s findings with the class. Work through this clip about the effect of gravity on different objects on earth: this, learn about Galileo’s famous Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment here:
Now complete the Conclusion to your experiment to show what you have learnt about the way gravity acts on objects of different weight.
Technologies / Literacy and English TCH 2-01a, TCH 2-14a, Lit 2-28a
Throughout the novel, we learn about different types of robot and their functions. If you were to design a robot to be part of your everyday life, what would you want it to do? Think about how it could make your life easier, help the environment, or to help with a medical condition, for example. You may wish to look at some robotic developments found at this website to give you ideas:
Working in pairs, draw a labelled sketch of your robot and create a leaflet describing its appearance, the materials from which it is made (could it be eco-friendly?), its function and any warnings for users (think about how disastrously the Nom-O-Tron behaved when it was given unclear instructions!). Create a model of your robot using junk, lego, clay or modroc, for example. Create a Dragon’s Den style show, where you present to a panel of Dragons (another class or a panel of teachers) and persuade them to fund your robot project.
Sciences SCN 2-06a
In the novel, we learn that it will take Astra and her family 199 years to reach Nova Mundi. Look at this website to find out how many years it would take you to fly in a jet or to drive to the different planets, setting off from the sun at the centre of the solar system each time: Work with a partner to design and complete a table to record your findings.
Imagine you were going on an epic voyage to space and were allowed to take 3 possessions with you for the journey. What would you take and why? Discuss your ideas in groups. Were there any similarities? Did anyone have anything surprising packed to take with them? Can you agree on 3 items?
Other space activities
If you’re looking for more creative activities centred around space, check out our Lucy Hawking event and resources (you can find the link to the resources further down the page):
If you and your pupils loved Cakes in Space
Check out our list of 10 awesome reads set in space:
Activities for Oliver and the Seawigs
Researching the oceansLit 2-14a, Lit 2-25a
In this task your pupils will find out all about the creatures living in various oceans! To pique their curiosity, you could start off by showing them the following National Geographic gallery:
Explain that there are five oceans in the world, and that the creatures living in each one can be very different. You can show your pupils where each ocean is using this infographic:
Divide your pupils into groups. Assign each group an ocean to research (you may want to leave out the Southern Ocean, as this is really just made up of the southernmost parts of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans).You may also choose to narrow down their areas of research by giving them a certain number of things to find out about. For instance, they could research three species which are only found in each ocean.
Once they have found the species they’d like to research, you can get them to use the What, Where, Why, Who, When and How method of coming up with questions about that species.
When they have finished their research, how they choose to present it is up to you. You could ask them to produce a leaflet, presentation, informative essay, infographic, blog post or even a museum style diorama with labels.
Write a sea poemEng 2-31a
If pupils do the research activity above, they’ll sound find out what diverse and colourful places the oceans are. Why not get them to write a descriptive poem about the wonders that can be found under the sea?
A good approach to descriptive poetry writing is to first of all give the pupils access to a variety of poems and ask them for their favourites. Discuss their favourites, establishing what makes them great poems! You can try the books on this list to start off:
After this, there are different approaches to building the pupils’ descriptive skills – here’s quite an original and hugely effective approach.
Don’t tell the pupils what you are about to do, and don’t explain what you are doing as you do it. Draw a head on the board, and then draw some curly hair on the head. Label the hair with the words ‘hair like spaghetti’. See if the class understands what you are doing: if you don’t think they’re getting it, draw a few more things and label them with similes (e.g., ears like pancakes) until you think they get it. Invite pupils up to the board to contribute their own drawings and similes.[1] After you’ve finished, you can explain what a simile is and get pupils to come up with their own by looking at sea photographs and describing things using similes. Here are some great underwater scenes to inspire descriptive writing:
You could ask different groups of pupils to write poems about the oceans they have researched, describing ocean life which can be found there.
Design your own seawigExa 2-02a
The book features a group of living, breathing islands who compete to see who can put together the best seawig: that is, an assortment of artefacts, structures and plant life gathered from the sea and arranged on the islands’ ‘heads’.
One of the islands, Cliff, is delighted to have the chance to put together a magnificent seawig which boasts the world’s first submarine. If your pupils had the chance to make a seawig, what would they put on there?
Ask your pupils to discuss in groups which items they could include in their seawig. If you’re doing a history project, you could ask them to choose items of historical significance. If you’re doing a project about a country, you could ask pupils to choose buildings or other objects which are significant in that country. Limit them to a certain number and ask them to justify their inclusion of items based on their importance in history.
Your pupils could draw or paint their seawigs, or construct them from recycled material.
After this, you could have a seawig competition or exhibition! Invite another class in to view the seawigs. Have your pupils on hand to explain the items on the seawigs and give their guests some interesting information.
Write a guide for explorersLit 2-14a, Lit 2-25a, MLAN 2-11a, MLAN 2-13b
Oliver’s parents are passionate about exploration. If your pupils could go and explore any country in their world, which would they choose? You could show them some clips from the BBC’s People and Places video series to whet their curiosity about different places:
Ask them to research a country of their choice and write a Lonely Planet-style guide to help others explore that country. You could get them to produce different features to make up their guide: for instance, they could produce a phrasebook in the country’s language, coming up with phrases they think will be useful to travellers.
Do an island project HWB 2-13a, SOC 2-12a, Eng 2-31a, SOC 2-07b,
The world is full of fascinating islands, so why not create a cross-curricular project about some notable islands throughout the world?
●Eigg– this island is heralded for its enthusiastic efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Your pupils can research the things islanders have been doing here: Why not get your pupils to try and reproduce some of the islanders’ smaller projects around your school grounds? They could grow their own seasonal organic vegetables, create a compost heap, or bring in unwanted clothes, books and DVDs to swap with others.
●Staffa – Listen to Mendelssohn’s Hebridean Overture, which was inspired by the island and Staffa, and ask your pupils to tell you what they think the island might be like after they’ve listened to the piece. After this, you can show them the island. This video may help introduce pupils to the island: Ask pupils to use nature as an inspiration to write poems or stories!
●Lanzarote - an island featuring a hot and dry climate and composed of mainly volcanic rock is a great contrast to islands around the UK, and gives your pupils a perfect opportunity to explore how these factors influence aspects of life. Ask pupils to find out what plant species can survive in Lanzarote’s climate and how they adapt to the dry conditions.