8-10 yrs old
11-13 yrs old
Reading and Writing
Imagine you were shipwrecked here. What message in a bottle would you write?
September 24, 2019
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.
Message In a Bottle
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.
Students re-read p.117-112. They summarise Kensuke’s backstory and then go back and highlight particular details.
Students draw pictures and use quotations from the text to chart Kensuke’s back story.
After they have done this, students should revisit the grid that they created about Kensuke in Activity Two and add information to answer some of the questions that they had about Kensuke when they first encountered him in the novel.
Students should read to the end of the chapter and summarise the way that Michael and Kensuke’s relationship changes again. They should add this information to their character timeline.
In-Game Activity: Message in a Bottle
Like other shipwrecked sailors, Michael tries to send a message.
1. Go to the beach on the east of the island. You need to find 14 letters scattered on the sand. Gather these together to make a three word message:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __.
2. Now use whatever you wish to write your own message on the sand that could be seen from the air.
3. Imagine you were shipwrecked here. What message in a bottle would you write?
YOUR MESSAGE
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES:
In-Game Follow up: students could create their own messages in a bottle to send to Kensuke, where Michael explains to Kensuke why he still wanted to leave the island even though they had become friends.
Follow Up Activity: students research about Nagasaki. They create a non-chronological report about Nagasaki.
Cross-curricular activity: Finding out more about Nagasaki and the Japanese involvement in WWII.