Today I’m attaching the two final activity sheets based on my children’s novel The Glassmaker’s Children.
There are 16 in all – one for each chapter of the book – and you can find links to all of them in previous posts on this site.
Each is designed to encourage 8-12 year olds to read carefully, build literacy skills and find other ways of interpreting or reacting to the text and the ideas in the story.
The novel is an adventure story about changes. It’s based around a boy called Stellan and his younger sister, covering the break-up of their parents’ relationship, their relocation to a new home and the ways in which both of them deal with the issues surrounding their feelings about their estranged father. I’ve tried to tell the tale with compassion and warmth and to empower children to feel good about themselves and to recognise and celebrate their own inner strength as well as the power of friendship. There’s a fair sprinkling of magic thrown in, too – the kind of magic we can all create when we learn a few simple tricks.
I hope your children enjoy the book and the activities.
Here are the links:
This is probably the most difficult chapter of the book as it explores philosophical issues that many adults may not have fully considered. I hope that the text and the question sheet, used together, will allow young people to begin to formulate their own ideas about the key issues of life, death and all that lies between and beyond them.
These resources focus on Chapters 12 and 13 of the book and include suggestions for everything from English vocabulary building, through life skills for coping in a worrying situation to making a storyboard or a miniature garden!
This chapter, called The Dreaming Place, sees Martha, Ruby Rose and finally Stellan decide where to make their new home. It also explores some of the enigmatic Misty’s theories. She helps Ruby to imagine where she was before being born into her family – and leaves Stellan with many questions.
By this point in the story, the family find themselves in Wales. Stellan’s discovery that in this place he is a ‘foreigner’ gives him a great deal to think about.
Another in the series of Learning Resources, based on my children’s book The Glassmaker’s Children, which is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle eBook format.
This particular chapter, though, may raise some issues in the minds of children who have experienced big life changes or a family split.
A new week of home learning dawns for many families in lockdown. And of course there are large numbers of people who choose to home educate all the time.
