8-10 yrs old
11-13 yrs old
Reading and Writing
Infer characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, justifying inferences with evidence : Point+Evidence+Explanation.
September 24, 2019
Lesson Plan
My Notes
Kensuke's Kingdom World File
Kensuke's Kingdom world in Minecraft to support lessons.
Litcraft Website
LITCRAFT uses the popular Minecraft gaming platform to build accurate scale models of authorial maps from classic works of literature.
Escape
Full lesson plan and additional activities.
Kensuke's Kingdom Extracts
Extracts from Kensuke's Kingdom to support activities.
This series of lessons is designed to help teach English Language Arts concepts through the study of Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.
Shared reading aloud of Chapter 10 from p. 155 to the end of the chapter.
Children work in groups and look closely at the final section of the text. Ask them to pick out key passages that they think are really important and ask them to explain why - e.g. Kensuke’s decision not to leave (p. 158); the three promises Kensuke asks Michael to make (p. 159).
Ask children to work in their groups and come up with their own questions about the last part of the book. If this activity needs to be more structured, give them question topics to focus on e.g. character feelings and emotions, changing relationship between characters etc.
Jigsaw the children so that they are working in different groups. Children use their questions to run a guided reading discussion session. At the end of the session, children could be asked to summarise, and feedback, their key thoughts about the final chapter of the book.
Use their feedback to discuss the changing relationship between Kensuke and Michael as the central thread that runs through the book. Return to Michael’s assertion at the beginning of
the story that he has ‘had to live out a lie’. What do children think this means now that they have finished reading the book?
After this, children revisit their character timeline and complete it showing the how the relationship between Kensuke and Michael changes again in the final chapters of the book.
In-Game Activity: Escape
Although Michael is happy with Kensuke he still wants to escape. Try some of the different things he does to help him get off the island:
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITY:
The children could reply to the letter from Kensuke’s son, as if they are Michael, and use details from the text to tell Kensuke’s son about his father’s life on the island.
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