The Fox and The Ghost King by Michael Morpurgo - Teaching Resources (KS2)

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the FOX and the GHOST KING 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 used 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.

The Fox and the Ghost King

In a cosy den under a garden shed lives a family of foxes. They love to watch football – all foxes do. But their favourite team keeps losing and losing, and it seems like things will never look up.

That is, until Daddy Fox finds the ghost of a king, buried underneath a car park. A king who wishes only to be free.

“Release me,” says the Ghost King, “and I can do anything. Just tell me your greatest wish.”

For these football-loving foxes, might everything be about to change…?

Using the resource This resource shares the opening to the story, where we meet the boss cub and his family.

After reading the text, there are suggested discussion activities considering: • Making predictions based on information in a text • Specific vocabulary choices made by an author, using superlative adjectives to create characters • Author’s craft and effective features of evocative descriptive writing Depending on time and the needs of your class, you may want to work through all of these interrelated activities or focus on just one.

There is also a sheet with a writing challenge based on the extract. For The Fox and the Ghost King it focuses on narrative writing. 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 this is the start of the book The Fox and the Ghost King by Michael Morpurgo.

• Read aloud together (either with the

teacher reading aloud and children following, children reading together as a class or children reading together in pairs).

• Ask the children:

- who is telling the story? (the oldest fox cub) - what is he like? (energetic, lively, confident, perhaps a bit naughty!)

• Ask the children to talk to a partner.

Based on the opening extract, the blurb and the front cover, what do they think the story will be about? Share predictions as a class.

• Look at key words in the text

again – oldest, friskiest, peskiest, pushiest. Remind the children that these are superlatives: adjectives that show the most of any quality.

• Ask the children what these tell the reader about the fox cub.

Slide 4 • Recap the definitions with the children, ensuring that they understand. Ask whether the fox is the oldest fox in the world (no, just the oldest of his brothers and sisters!)

• Ask the children what the effect of using

four superlatives close together is. How might the repetition help to build a clear idea of what the fox cub is like? Why might this be especially useful at the start of the story?

• Ask the children to work with a partner.

What kind of adventures might a fox who is all of these things have? Why might they be good character traits for a character in a story? Share answers with the rest of the class.

Slide 5 • Return to the front cover and blurb.

• Ask the children if they would like to

read The Fox and the Ghost King 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).