English Moderate and Hard

Easier Version

The Silent Red Book by Maia Walczak with music by Amy Hiller

A girl comes to a city from far away. No one notices her. No one says hello. They are all too busy living in their own world. But the girl makes a friend...

This week's home learning is based on the short film 'The Silent Red Book'. Before watching the film, explore the opening screenshot together and discuss the words. Questions you might ask:

• Who do you think this book is about?

• What might be different about this book to others?

• Why do we think that?

• What do you think the relationship between the two main characters is? For example, are they friends? How do you know?

• What do you think a story without words might be like?

Day One

Watch the film clip through once and discuss the plot. Discuss the key moments in the story. Which do you remember? Using the table below, record your thoughts and ideas about the key events in the story. You will need to pause the video and watch the time to see where the key moments are.

Day Two

Watch the video up until 45 seconds. Explore this picture together.

Discuss what is happening and how the fox might be feeling. Look at the nine words below and discuss their meaning. Choose three that you feel summarise the feelings of the fox.

Discuss the choices and the reasons for choosing these based on the image. After three have been chosen, write a sentence to go with the picture using each word.

Challenge: use the conjunction ‘because’ to explore the thought process further.

For example: The fox is hungry because it is searching the bins.

Day Three

Watch the video up until 1:37. Discuss how the fox is feeling now. How have its feelings changed across the story?

Write vocabulary in the thought bubbles below to show how the fox is feeling at different points in the story. What has changed from the first picture we looked at?

Lesson 4

Use the pictures and vocabulary generated yesterday to write sentences to show how the fox is feeling at each different point. Use conjunctions to add on extra parts to the sentences. HERE is a BBC home learning lesson on conjunctions if you feel your child needs a little revision before writing today.

The fox is feeling relaxed and safe.

The fox was lonely at the start of the story but now it has a friend.

Explore the use of conjunctions (words used to join two parts of a sentence e.g. but, and, so, because, or).

Lesson 5

Re-watch the film, enjoy the story and discuss the key events.

Choose one from the following writing challenges:

1) The film is called ‘…The Silent Red Book... a story without words’ Write the missing story to go with the film, using descriptive language, conjunctions and staying in the past tense.

2) Write a letter from the fox to the girl thanking her for looking after him and retelling all the amazing things they saw together.

3) Write a blurb for the video, similar to that found on the back of a story book. What is the story about? Who are the main characters and who would you recommend the story to?