Why do people sometimes go on special journeys as part of their religion? Can you find out more about these?

How many forms of transport are used during this story? Look closely at the marvellous flying machines, especially the cogs and pipes and gears. Stop reading when the girl first arrives at the city. Should she go in? Why (not)? Share your thoughts with others and vote on what you think should happen next. There’s also a fun paper lantern project that I put together for the good folks at All the Wonders that your students might enjoy. As you explore the illustrations in the book, try to find features that might be clues about the rest of the story.Choose one double spread – the illustration showing the girl entering the city works well – and talk about what’s going on. What can you see, and what questions do you have? Apart from the boat, the colours in this image are muted. How does this make you feel and what do you think about it? Talk about the characters. If you could take the girl’s place in the picture, what would you hear and touch, and what emotions would you feel? Invent dialogue for the characters, and discuss what might be going to happen next. Do you think the girl can see things that we (as readers) cannot? Imagine that you had a pen that could be used to draw (and create) real objects. What would you draw? Could you write a new story based on this concept? The characters in this book are amazingly expressive. Look at their postures and gestures and discuss what this tells you about how they feel. Make a collection of the best words you can find to describe these emotions. Talk about body language and try expressing different emotions physically. Distribute large sheets of paper and some coloured pencils and ask the children to draw a scene from their world Provide some text on laminated cards and ask the children to match the text to the image. This can be done in pairs if working in school. Make explicit the point that artists and writers often make references to other works of art and cultural influences in their work. Here’s a list of some of the things you might find you might discover more:

Bring a red rug into school (the sort you can roll up and carry under one arm) and use it for story sharing in small groups with an adult helper (perhaps in secret locations around the school). Invite children to sit on the rug and talk about the special places they would like to go. Ask an open question, ‘what’s happening in this picture?’ After the children have shared their responses, you may want to prompt them to think more deeply about the picture: Watch this trailer for the book. Could you use multimedia software to create your own book trailer? trying to save a vibrant lilac bird which has been imprisoned. Disaster strikes when, having freed the bird, she is caught by angry guards who throw away her

Footpath Flowers

This ‘visual literacy’ approach to a picture’s content, narrative and composition is an effective way to boost children’s speaking and listening skills and develop their critical abilities, as well as increase their enjoyment of the book.

Learning Objective: Recall number bonds to 10 and and use these to calculate and reason with bonds to 100. The illustrations were created using watercolour paints. Can you try to paint using a similar style? When a young girl draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and goes through it with her red marker, she leaves a drab-colored world and enters a magical world filled with color and adventure. Using a colored marker, she creates ways to navigate this unknown place: a boat, a balloon, a flying carpet, and a tandem bike. Amongst the world’s beauty, there is also danger, and an evil emperor captures the girl. How will she escape? How will she return home? Why not record the stories that emerge and make a collection of books to accompany them? These can be shared with another class or added to your own reading corner. Or you can record descriptions of single spreads and ask children to listen before matching each description to its picture. A girl is bored with her grey house full of grey people doing grey things. Even her grey cat is sleeping and doesn't want to play.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Then she sees a beautiful purple bird getting captured by some samurai-type soldiers. She wants to save the bird. She frees the bird, but ends up imprisoned in a cage herself. The bird frees her by bringing her the red chalk. She draws a red magic carpet and flies away. The purple bird leads her to a purple door. When she goes through it, she discovers the bird's creator - a boy with a purple piece of chalk. Now she is friends with the boy and they will go on many adventures together. Extension: Try the ‘Diving into Mastery’ challenges. There are three levels of challenge here; try the simplest level and move on only if the level of challenge is appropriate. Suggested playlist: Queen: Don’t stop me now, Cliff Richard: Summer Holiday, Moana: How far I’ll go, Proclaimers: I’m gonna be, Fiddler’s Dram: Day trip to Bangor. I'd never heard of Journey. My mom heard about it somewhere, though, and she borrowed it from the library. I borrowed it from her. And I was completely enchanted by it. Let your imagination lead the way and begin your journey. Think of names for the places and things you draw.

When a young girl is desperate for some attention from her family but they appear to be too wrapped up in their own lives to notice her, she draws herself into an imaginary land and can get herself out of any predicament with just a few lines drawn from a magical red crayon. A little girl, bored of the monotonous and lonely routine of everyday life, seeks refuge and excitement in a world created entirely by her imagination. By drawing a Extension Challenge: Children could be asked whether they can find more than one solution. How will they know whether another solution is the same or different to any they have already got? How will they know that they have found all the solutions?

International

Use travel brochures, magazines or the internet to build a collection of photographic images showing some of the cultural references. Copy and laminate them. Talk about the pictures and provides some context using what you know or have read. You could refer to travel guides or books about Japan from the library.