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Farm Boy
www.michaelmorpurgo.com/ morpurgomonth
This is one of 16 activities to try during Michael Morpurgo Month, each of which explores an extract from a different book written by the world famous author. The books are grouped into four themes: natural world, animal adventures, tales retold, and times of war. All the activities can be usedt as either a quick starter or a longer lesson and provide a great opportunity to develop children’s comprehension and vocabulary - not to mention a love of Michael Morpurgo’s books.
Farm Boy
Joey was the last working horse on the farm, and the apple of Grandpa’s eye. In War Horse, Joey was sent away from the farm to be a warhorse in WWI. Grandpa had joined the cavalry in order to find, and fight, with Joey. Farm Boy brings us forward fifty years, with Grandpa not only telling his grandson Joey’s story but also a ‘shameful secret’ which he has held for years… The story is set in Iddesleigh in Devon and lovingly evokes the bonds between farm and farmer; grandson and grandfather.
Using the resource This resource shares an extract from the story, where Grandpa reveals to his grandson that he never learnt to read and write and then asks his grandson to teach him. It then introduces another extract, Grandpa’s first piece of writing: a story for his grandson. After reading the text, there are suggested discussion activities considering author’s craft and expressing a character’s distinctive voice. This is applied to both extracts. There is also a sheet with a writing challenge based on the extract. For Farm Boy it focuses on writing in character. This could be used as a short classroom activity or as homework to consolidate the learning in the teaching session. After reading and discussing the extract some children may be inspired to read the book itself. You could read it aloud as a class novel or direct children to where they can find a copy to read themselves: the book corner, school library, local library or a local bookshop.
Teacher’s notes for the PowerPoint Slide 2 • Share the front cover and blurb to introduce the book and give context.
• Ask children if anyone has read the book before. Does the blurb make them want to read on?
Slide 3 • Tell the children that in this extract, Grandpa is telling his grandson his secret – that he never learnt to read and write.
• Read aloud together (either with the
teacher reading aloud and children following, children reading together as a class or children reading together in pairs).
• Remind the children that this part
of story is direct speech. Grandpa is speaking. If necessary, remind them of the conventions for punctuating direct speech.
• Working with a partner, ask the children
to look through the extract and look for examples of where Michael Morpurgo has written in Grandpa’s voice. The children might suggest:
- use of I and us as pronouns - contractions (she’d, didn’t) - ellipsis (The trouble was…; There was no cause to practise) - informal language (turnip-head)
• Ask children to predict what will happen next.
Slide 4 • Tell the children that Grandpa does learn to write and the first thing that he does is write a story for his grandson.
• Ask the children to work independently
to see if they can spot any of the features used to show Grandpa’s voice in his story. They may suggest:
- use of I and we as pronouns - informal language (littleun) - the multi-clause sentences joined with and, reminiscent of speech Slide 5
• Return to the front cover and blurb. • Ask the children if they would like to read Farm Boy having looked at this extract in detail and thought about Michael Morpurgo’s skillful writing.
• Point children to where they can find a
copy (either any copies you have in the classroom, the school library, or suggest the local library or a bookshop).