Finding

Student Activities

In-Game Activity: Finding

Start by loading the Kensuke's Kingdom Minecraft world file found in the resources section.

Using the map from the front of the book move around the island and find the beacons. At  each one read the extract from the text. Then read the question in the journal and write your  own answer there.

The beacons can be found at or near:

• Michael’s cave on the West (also find and release the dog, Stella)
  • “I found a small cave at one end of the beach with a dry sandy floor. I lay down and tried to sleep but Stella would not let me. She whined at me in her hunger and thirsty so that I slept only fitfully.” p.59.
  • Q: Why can’t Michael sleep? What does “fitfully” mean?
• Somewhere on the red sand border that runs across the island.
  • “Kensuke. I , Kensuke. My island.” And he brought his hand down sharply like a chopper,  separating the island in two. “I, Kensuke. Here. You, boy. Here.” P. 72.
  • Q: What is Kensuke trying to say? How is his hand “like a chopper?”
• Follow the sandy path up the island through the forest to Kensuke’s cave. The beacon  is at a little cross-roads.
  • “The cave house must have been entirely furnished by him, fashioned mostly from flotsam:  the chests, the workbench, the shelves and the table.
  • Q: What does this description tell you about Kensuke? What is “flotsam”?
• By Kensuke’s boat (outrigger) to the East of his cave.
  • “he picked up two of his fishing rods and a net, and led the way. “Today we catch big fish,  Mica, not small fish.”
  • Q: What does the outrigger allow Kensuke to do?

Follow up writing activity: Carry on Michael’s Ship’s Log

Write about being thrown overboard and discovering the island.

*This writing activity will develop over a sequence of lessons. It will involve engagement with first person writing and form, and the use of different sentence types taken from the Y6 objectives.

Follow Up /Cross-curricular activity: Focus on the work of the Japanese artist Hokusai.

The children could recreate their own version of the famous wave painting linking in with Michael being thrown overboard.