Fantastical Creatures

Chatterbooks activity pack

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Contents

About this pack

Top Tips for a Successful Session

Book List

Warm Up Activities

How to Speak Dragonese by Cressida Cowell (YouTube link & pdf attachment)

Septimus Heap by Angie Sage Activity Sheets (pdf attachment)

Wizard’s Apprentice Activity

Dragon Activity

Spells & Potions Activity

Wizard’s Apprentice Diary

About this pack Beware – this pack comes with a warning – it is full of dragons, goblins, ogres, shapeshifters, trolls, giants, and many more fantasy and magical creatures. There is plenty of material to fire imagination and inspire creativity. The booklist is full of adventure and excitement and is guaranteed to suit all tastes and reading abilities. The activities will engage members into lively discussion. Start your session with some fun warm up ice-breakers which aim to get members thinking about books and magical creatures. Then, progress to the longer activities taking Chatterbooks members on an exciting fantasy journey. Have a go at speaking ‘dragonese’ with Cressida Cowell from the award winning How to Train your Dragon series, courtesy of Scholastic. Try out the Septimus Heap activity sheets from Bloomsbury. Let the magic begin...

Top Tips for a Successful Session Look at the pack and use the material to suit your group

Remember that some Chatterbooks children will whizz through all the activities while some Chatterbooks groups will only need a couple of activities to keep them busy throughout the session.

Be flexible and have fun

Photocopy sheets to use as handouts

Use the Chatterbooks ‘Bookbites’ post-its to make simple reviews about the book

Talk to parents and carers at the end of the session to let them know what your group has been doing

Organise activities as individuals, in pairs or as a whole group

Make a display of Fantasy books – use our booklist to help you do this

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Fantasy Creatures Book List

Author Title Publisher ISBN Diterlizzi, Tony The Search for Wondla Simon& Schuster 9780857073006

Funke, Cornelia Reckless Chicken House 9781906427658

Reeve, Philip. Goblins Marion Lloyd Books 9781407115276

Ibbotson, Eva The Ogre of Oglefort Macmillan 9780330513050

Golding, Julia Secret of the Sirens OUP 9780192754608

Golding, Julia The chimera's curse OUP 9780192754639

Golding, Julia Mines of the Minotaur OUP 9780192754622

Golding, Julia The Gorgon's gaze OUP 9780192754615

D'Lacey, Chris The fire within Orchard 9781841215334

Lake, A J The coming of dragons Bloomsbury 9780747570622

Grahame, Kenneth The reluctant dragon Egmont 9781405237291

Melling, David Stone goblins Hodder 9780340930489

Robson, Mark Firestorm Simon & Schuster 9781847380685

Steer, Dugald The dragon's eye Templar 9781840117929

Williams, Tad; Beale, Deborah

The dragons of Ordinary Farm

Quercus 9781847248213

Cowell, Cressida A hero's guide to deadly dragons : by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Hodder 9780340999134

Reeve, Philip No such thing as dragons Marion Lloyd 9781407102443

Umansky, Kaye The dreadful dragon Bloomsbiry 9781408827642

Forward, Toby Dragonborn Walker 9781406320435

Mould, Chris Fangs 'n' fire : ten dramatic dragon tales

Hodder 9780340944769

Hare, Lucinda The dragon whisperer Corgi 9780552560221

Bateson-Hill, Margaret

Dragon racer Catnip 9781846470462

Abnett, Dan Dragon frontier Puffin 9780141342962

Kay, Elizabeth The divide Chicken House 9781903434963

Blade, Adam The complete book of beasts

Orchard 9781408318669

Gates, S P Zilombo Tamarind 9781848530515

Our grateful thanks to Coventry Schools Library Service for selecting the titles for this Fantasy Creatures booklist.

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Warm Up Activities These short and simple activities aim to wake up brains and get your group thinking about words and ideas around the topic. Use big sheets of paper to write and draw on and keep these on hand for the whole session to inspire and motivate.

Real or Imaginary • Have a discussion about real and imaginary/fantasy creatures. • Show the group a flashcard of a real or fantasy creature (see next page) and ask them to decide if it is

a real creature or a fantasy creature. • What other strange real creatures do they know about? And how many other fantasy creatures?

The Power of Five ... Can you think of ... Five books about magical creatures Five authors who write about magical creatures Five magical creatures Five words to describe a dragon Five skills a wizard’s apprentice needs Five magic spells Five magical creature you like Five magical creatures you don’t like Five types of dragons Five names you would call a dragon

Quick Draw Dragons In 60 secs, looking at the paper, draw a dragon with your right hand In 60 secs, looking at the paper, draw a dragon with your left hand In 60 secs, looking at the paper, draw a dragon but not taking your pencil of the paper In 60 secs, not looking at your paper, draw a dragon

How to Speak ‘Dragonese’ Would you like to speak to dragons? Can you translate the following dragon sentences –

‘Nee-ah crappa inna di hoosus pishyou ‘

‘Mi mamo mo likeit yum-yum on di bum’ Watch the video of Cressida Cowell , the expert on anything to do with dragons and author of the award winning How to Train Your Dragon series, teaching the ancient language of ‘Dragonese’ . Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96Kc_R8iKA Consult Cressida Cowell’s Dragonese dictionary which you can find here to expand your Dragonese vocabulary. And try out your Dragonese skills using the activity sheets, too.

Septimus Heap Activity Sheets from Bloomsbury Enter the world of Septimus Heap wizard apprentice through these four exciting activity sheets (sent as a pdf with this Chatterpack) . Try out the ‘Magyk’ - anagram, wordsearch, draw a dragon and storywriting activity.

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Wizard’s Apprentice You have been selected to become a famous Wizard’s Apprentice. Tell us all about it...

Name of your wizard What type of magical pet would you like? What will you call it? Draw your apprentice wizard’s robes What spells do you want to learn? What is your magical mode of transport?

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Wizard’s Apprentice Dragon Draw your Dragon What’s its name? What’s its favourite food? What are its special powers?

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Spell Name:_________________ ____________________________

What it does:_________________ ____________________________

_________________________ _____________________

Potion Name:______________ ___________________________

What it does:________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ __________________________ ________________________

Ingredients List: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Magical Spells & Potions

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Apprentice Wizard’s Diary

Date Time I woke up What I ate today The jobs I did for the wizard What magical creatures did I see? What did I learn today? Time I went to bed

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