In the story, ‘SOMEONE nurtured a little piece of wilderness’. Can you write some instructions to teach others how to look after a plant?

The book begins with the sentence, “There was once only the sound of bees and the wind in the wiry grass, the low murmuring of moles in the cool dark earth and the song of birds in the high blue sky.” Could you use this sentence as the starting point for your own story? A breathtaking and magical piece of work, that is wholly original and allows your imagination space to work. Craste makes outstanding use of light to haunting and often poignant effect.' Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - This is a three-week Writing Root using the film (which can be found online) and text of Varmints by Helen Ward and Marc Craste. The sequence of learning starts with children entering the classroom to find seeds and flowers mysteriously left with an urgent letter of appeal from the main protagonist in the text, urging children to look after them and learn all they can about these gifts. Children will go on to plant the seeds and write instructions about the process, collecting subject-specific vocabulary as they go. Children will also dissect the flowers left behind, identifying and labelling the various parts and explaining their various roles in reproduction and pollination. Children will be given opportunities to describe flowers, write letters and make speeches to a secret society of gardeners who plan to change the world through the power of nature. This series of lessons culminates in children writing an explanation text about the life cycle of a plant with a clear structure. Synopsis of Text: Striking, surreal illustrations and a haunting, evocative text tell a mysterious tale of a threatened natural world, and a hopeful new start..

A varmint is an animal that is considered to be a pest. Can you think of animals that this definition might include? Could you write a report about them? Varmints tells an analogy, or parable, that mirrors our history in a condensed form. There are those who love the hum of bees, the whisper of the wind, the wilderness - and then others arrive, with their tall buildings that "scratched the sky where birds once sang. Those gentle sounds faded and were gone." Every day, more newcomers arrived, the noise grew and grew until they couldn't think ... "So they stopped thinking." But someone is nurturing a little piece of wilderness, and at the right time takes it to the right place... and that little bit of wilderness grows. Even those who cannot access the text can understand the story from the pictures. The use of colour telling the reader everything.

This is athree-session spelling seed for the book Varmints by Helen Ward. Below is the coverage from Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum 2014. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Vermin, outsiders, them, the others... Problematic, highly charged language, considering the history of the demonisation of migrants and ‘foreigners’.I haven't even had a chacne to read this yet but the art for this is so beguilingly gorgeous that i can't help but give it 5 stars already. This story has been turned into a short film. Watch it and compare it with the book. Which do you prefer? Why? Helen Ward trained as an illustrator at Brighton School of Art, under the direction of well-known children's illustrators such as Raymond Briggs, Justin Todd, Chris McEwan and John Vernon Lord. In 1985, her final year at Brighton, Helen was awarded the first Walker Prize for Children's Illustration.

Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments This book demands attention. From the curious creature staring out at the reader on the cover, to its large physical nature and wild typography and breath-taking art, Ward and Marc Craste's creation needs a patient orator and audience. A variety of themes could be interpreted - loss of natural habitat through urbanisation, loss of identity, societal collapse, Communism(?!), enduringly persistent hope and the joy of love - but therein lies the crux of reader response and exploratory talk. Varmints reminds me of Helen Ward's The Tin Forest also.One of the creatures grows plants in his home. What do plants need to grow? Can you grow some of your own?