Booktrust Teaching Sequence for: Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett Title: Meerkat Mail Author: Emily Gravett First published: 2007 Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 978-1405090759 (Paperback edition) Ideal for use with: Younger pupils at Key Stage 2. This guide provides ideas and suggestions for some fun and creative classroom activities linking to English, Geography and PSHE. About the book Sunny lives on an arid plain with his extensive and loving meerkat family; they work together, play together and do their best to stay away from jackals. But Sunny is starting to feel claustrophobic and decides to set off to visit with his mongoose cousins and explore the world. He journeys through rain and shine and light and dark, always reporting back to his family via a series of postcards. However, at the end of his journey, Sunny ultimately realises that the place he loves best is his very own home in the desert. This book from Kate Greenaway winner Emily Gravett is full of distinctive illustrations and lift-the-flap postcards. Children will enjoy looking at all the details in the illustrations, and especially spotting the shadowy jackal lurking in the background of each picture. 1 www.booktrust.org.uk About the author Emily Gravett was born in Brighton. After leaving school with few qualifications, she spent eight years living on the road before winning a place on the BA Illustration course at Brighton University. She won the Macmillan Prize for Illustration and the Kate Greenaway Medal with her first picture book, Wolves, which was published in April 2005, and has gone on to win many other awards. In 2008, she was named as one of Booktrust’s 10 Best New Illustrators. Today she lives in Brighton with her daughter Oleander, partner Mik and her two pet rats, Buttons and Mr Moo. Find out more about Emily Gravett • Visit Emily Gravett’s official website: www.emilygravett.com • See a gallery of Emily’s illustrations: www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/ show/gallery/Illustrators%20Gallery/ Emily-Gravett-Gallery • Read an interview with Emily: www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/ show/feature/Features%20Interviews/ Interview-with-Emily-Gravett • Watch a video of a drawing workshop with Emily: www.youtube. com/watch?v=nrO-6fRO8gM • Watch videos of Emily discussing picture books with fellow illustrators Anthony Browne and Catherine Rayner: http://www. childrenslaureate.org.uk/show/feature/Picture-book-event Teaching ideas Make a Meerkat Mail Map • Read Meerkat Mail together as a class, and then talk about Sunny’s home. Look up the location of the Kalahari Desert in an atlas; or watch some Meerkat Manor video clips (available online at www.animalplanet.co.uk) to find out more about the area. • What is Sunny’s home environment like? As a class, make a list of words to describe it e.g. hot, dry, dusty, sandy, empty… • Look together at the photographs in the front cover of the book. Write the name of each character onto a slip of card, and have children arrange the name cards to create a meerkat family tree. • Working either independently, or as a group, ask children to create a timeline showing where Sunny is on each day of the week, using the information in the book as a guide. Look up each of the different locations using an atlas, or Google Earth (www.earth. google.com). • Allocate each child one of the characters, and ask them to draw a picture of them and then use the book to make a short list of facts about them eg. their name, their appearance, their home etc. Add the pictures and information to the family tree. • Allocate pairs or small groups of children one of the locations, and ask them to find out a few simple facts about it using books or the internet, e.g. what is the habitat like? What kinds of animals live there? What is the weather like? Talk about the different problems Sunny faces in each location. • On a large map of the world, trace out the route of Sunny’s journey. You could do this by marking each destination with a coloured pin or marker, and then connecting the pins. Children could also measure the route to find out how far Sunny travels. • Add a picture of each location (look in holiday brochures or search the internet) to the appropriate marker on the map, along with the facts that the children have found out. Fascinating families • Share Meerkat Mail as a class and then talk about the lives of the meerkat family. Discuss the following questions: 2 »» What kinds of activities do the meerkats in the story do? eg. working, playing, eating, sleeping… »» Do you think real meerkats do these activities? »» Which of these activities do children also do? »» In what ways is the meerkat family like a human family? »» Why are homes and families important – both to the meerkats and to us? www.booktrust.org.uk • A homework task: ask children to research and create their own family trees. These could either be completed at home, or children could bring in notes and photographs to create their family trees in class. Make a display of all your finished family trees. Feelings and emotions • Look together at the page with the line ‘Sometimes, Sunny wishes that he could live somewhere else’ and talk about how Sunny is feeling. Discuss the following questions: »» Why do you think Sunny feels like this? »» How do we know that Sunny feels concerned about his Mum? (look at his leaving note for ideas) »» Is there anything that Sunny could have done instead of leaving? • Divide the class into two groups and use the conscience alley technique to gain an understanding of Sunny’s feelings. One group must persuade Sunny to stay at home, the other group that he should leave. • The two groups form two lines facing each other, whilst one person taking on the role of Sunny walks down the middle of the alley, and the children take it in turns to persuade them of their viewpoint. When they reach the end of the alley, the person representing Sunny decides on whether he will stay or go based on what the groups have said. • Cut out paper ‘thought bubbles’ and then ask children to write down Sunny’s various different thoughts, ideas and feelings as he departs on his journey. Use different colours to denote the thoughts that encourage him to stay, and those that encourage him to go. Stick all the thought bubbles around a picture or silhouette of Sunny. Create a class charter • Look together at the last page of Meerkat Mail, which shows ‘Stay safe, stay together’ written in the sand, and talk about this meerkat family motto. Discuss the following questions: »» Why have the meerkats chosen this as their motto? »» What do you think Sunny thinks of the motto at the start of the story? »» How have his feelings changed by the end? »» What kind of rules do you think the meerkat family might have that reflect this motto? • Working in small groups, ask children to think about a good set of rules for a happy classroom. They may reflect, but should not be the same as the school rules, and should include ideas specific to their own classroom. Encourage the use of positive phrasing e.g. ‘Listen when someone else is talking’ rather than ‘Don’t talk when someone else is talking’. • Once each group has five or six ideas, talk as a whole class about which rules are the most important. You could have a vote to pick a 3 www.booktrust.org.uk maximum of eight rules to make up your own class charter. • Based on your charter, make a list of ideas for a possible ‘class motto’ reflecting the rules and atmosphere which the children want to encourage in their classroom. When you have chosen your favourite, display the motto in the classroom along with the class charter signed by all the pupils. Imaginary journey • Using an atlas, look together for the continent where the meerkats live. Talk about how a continent is different from a country. Which continent and country do you live in? Which other continents can children identify? • Now imagine you are going on an imaginary class journey like Sunny’s. Talk about the places you would like to visit. These could be either locations children have actually been to (whether locally or on holiday), places they have studied, or places they would like to visit. You could also talk about places where relatives or friends in other countries might live. • Use your atlas or Google Earth to locate the places you plan to visit. Now ask children to create a map for the imaginary journey to display on the classroom wall. • To extend this activity, ask children to draw pictures of the class on the journey, or write a diary about what happens to them on thier trip. The idea can also be used to stimulate imaginative conversations: for example, ask children: »» What different methods of transport might you use on your journey? »» What would you take with you? »» What animals might you see? »» What food might you eat? Write a postcard • As a class, look together at the postcards Sunny sends in Meerkat Mail and talk about the conventions of writing a postcard. Invite children to bring in and share holiday postcards they have received. • Before starting the activity, set up different areas of your classroom, school hall or playground as a series of different destinations from around the world. These could be the same places you have already talked about in the ‘Imaginary Journey’ activity. • Each ‘destination’ should include: its name, its location (you could provide a map), some pictures and some labeled ‘artefacts’ such as a flag, some relevant books, holiday souvenirs, or toys that represent animals or birds from the area. • As a class, visit each of the different areas you have created. Talk about what the pictures and artefacts tell you about each destination. How is it similar or different from where you live? What would children like or dislike most about each destination? • Working in pairs, ask children to role-play visiting one of the destinations, imagining what it would be like and what they would do there. Children then write and draw a postcard back to the rest of the class saying what they saw, and what their feelings were. Encourage children to write the school address on the postcard, and to draw in their own stamps and postmark. • Display the finished postcards with your ‘Imaginary Journey’ map on the classroom wall. • To extend this activity, share some more books about letters or postcards as a class. Try The Jolly Postman and Other People’s Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, or Dear Greenpeace by Simon James. 4 www.booktrust.org.uk More great books by Emily Gravett for Key Stage 2 Wolves (Macmillan) Rabbit borrows a book about wolves from the library. But it’s not long before a sinister figure with sharp claws and a bushy tail starts to creep right off the pages… From the carefully-crafted endpapers to the removable library card in its own rabbitembossed cardboard holder, this highly imaginative and witty book will captivate Key Stage 2 readers. Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears (Macmillan) Little Mouse is scared of most things, from creepy crawlies to loud noises. But on the very last page of this striking picture book, we discover that despite his size, he is still capable of scaring someone much bigger than himself! This delightful book, complete with nibbled pages and fold-out features is ideal for use throughout Key Stage 2 and provides a great stimulus for conversations about children’s own fears and anxieties. The Rabbit Problem (Macmillan) Follow Lonely and Chalk Rabbit through the year as they try to cope with their fast-expanding family. Partly inspired by the thirteenth-century mathematician Fibonnaci, this unusual book takes the form of a calendar, with images of multiplying rabbits each page, as well as beautifully detailed novelty elements from a carrot recipe book to a knitting pattern for a ‘rabbit hoody’. Visit the Booktrust website for more book recommendations and resources: www.booktrust.org.uk