Little Foxes by Michael Morpurgo - Activity Pack

'Little Foxes' First Impressions

Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

Read this extract from Chapter 1 of ‘Little Foxes’ (p.2). Here, Police Constable Fazackerly discovers a box on top of the steps of the police station.

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Quick Warm-Up Activity Work with a partner. You have two minutes to find and copy a word from the extract that has a similar meaning to…

draped sizeable inspect contagious Challenge: Add another synonym that the author could have used.

Discussion Activity

Be a Detective: Guess the Question

1. I think he would have felt extremely shocked and confused.

2. high-pitched

3. The baby’s giggle was so infectious that it made him feel happy.

4. I think he will try and investigate where the baby’s parents are.

Challenge: Create your own answers for your partner. Can they guess the question?

Try and create answers that will encourage your partner to think of questions that will target retrieval and inference skills and their understanding of the vocabulary.

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Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

Below are answers from some questions about the extract. You have to work out what the questions could be.

‘Little Foxes’ Adult Guidance

The ‘Little Foxes’ activity pack contains an adult guidance sheet which includes an overview of the story and key skill questions that can be used to target pupils’ understanding as you are reading the book.

Additionally, there is an activity sheet for children who may have not read the whole text before. This contains an extract from the text, a warm-up synonym task and a discussion activity.

Overview

Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

Billy has a lonely and difficult childhood but he really feels at peace when he visits the wilderness by the canal. He feels protective of the nature there and watches the birds and a family of foxes. However, when the last fox cub is at risk, Billy does everything he can to protect him and they run off on an adventure together.

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‘Little Foxes’

Key Skills Questions Predict

Before reading: What themes do you think will be present in the story from the title and the cover?

Predict

pp.1-4: What do you think Police Constable Fazackerly’s first thought was as he peered into the box?

Chapter 1: Summarise Billy Bunch’s childhood in 30 words or fewer.

Summarise

?

Retrieve

Explain Vocabulary p.41: Which word shows that the trees were bare?

p.50. …he understood that Billy was a benign presence that held no

Discuss Authorial Choices

threat for them.

What does the author mean by the phrase ‘benign presence’?

Compare and Contrast Chapter 5: Comment on how the foxes' interaction with Billy begins to change.

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Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

pp.16-17: Name two things that Billy liked to do in the wilderness.

‘Little Foxes’

Key Skills Questions pp.84-86: Find a word which shows that Aunty May does not like foxes.

Discuss Authorial Choices

pp.100-105: Why do you think Billy prioritised keeping the fox safe over his own safety?

p.113: Why do you think Billy pretends the fox is a sheepdog?

Infer

Infer

Summarise

Chapter 9: Summarise the different threats that Billy and the fox faced.

pp.157-158: Find a phrase which shows that Billy would not surrender.

Chapter 12: What similarities are there between Billy and Joe?

Why do you think the author structured the story so that Police Constable Fazackerly appeared at the beginning and at the end of the story?

Explain Vocabulary

Compare and Contrast Compare and Contrast

Why do you think the author included the appearance of the swan at the end of the story? What does it symbolise?

Infer

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Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

p.97: Why do you think the author used the phrase ‘foxed them’?

Explain Vocabulary

Quick Warm-Up Activity Answers Work with a partner. You have two minutes to find and copy a word from the extract that has a similar meaning to…

Example Answers

draped

swathed

swaddled

sizeable

voluminous

full

inspect

investigate

inquire

contagious

infectious

spreading

Be a Detective: Guess the Question

Accept any reasonable question, provided it is suitable for the answer, such as: 1. How do you think Police Constable Fazackerly felt when he peered inside the box?

I think he would have felt extremely shocked and confused.

2. Find another word for ‘shrill’. high-pitched 3. Why do you think the police constable laughed?

The baby’s giggle was so infectious that it made him feel happy.

4. What do you think Police Constable Fazackerly will do next?

I think he will try and investigate where the baby’s parents are.

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Little Foxes: Text copyright © 1984 Michael Morpurgo; Cover illustration copyright © 2017 David Dean; Inside illustrations copyright © 1984 Gareth Floyd

Discussion Activity Example Answers