Francesca Simon

Francesca Simon

Francesca Simon was born in St Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Los Angeles. She attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. Following university, she decided to pursue a career as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue.

After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time.

Simon has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular Horrid Henry series, which has now sold over 15 million copies. Horrid Henry is published in 17 countries and is now a successful CITV animation series. In 2011 the first Horrid Henry movie was released. Francesca Simon lives in London with her husband and son.

The activities provided in this resource focus on three texts: Don’t Cook Cinderella, Horrid Henry (the first novel) and Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire. They are designed to be fun, engaging, cross-curricular activities which should enhance the children’s enjoyment and understanding of the author’s work. Please see the websites below for further information about Francesca Simon and other teaching resources and activities.

·  The official Francesca Simon website: http://www.francescasimon.com/

·  The official Horrid Henry website (games, quizzes, audio extracts/short stories):

http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/

·  Look under ‘H’ for Horrid Henry activity ideas: http://www.worldbookday.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=114

·  Great teaching notes and activity ideas to accompany different Horrid Henry novels: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/assets_cm/files/PDF/teaching_guide.pdf

·  Some information about the psychology behind the Simon’s characters and an exploration of the behaviours of Horrid Henry: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/7544620/Francesca-Simon-interview-what-makes-Henry-so-horrid.html

Introducing Francesca Simon: Activities for Early Level Page 2

Introducing Francesca Simon: Activities for First Level Page 2

Don’t Cook Cinderella: Activities for Early Level Page 2

Don’t Cook Cinderella: Activities for First Level Page 3

Horrid Henry: Activities for Early Level Page 4

Horrid Henry: Activities for First Level Page 5

Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire: Activities for Early Level Page 6

Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire: Activities for First Level Page 6

Additional Resources Page 8

Introducing Francesca Simon

Activities for Early Level

·  Look at pictures of the front covers of different Horrid Henry books and discuss what horrid things you think Henry gets up to in each of the books. Use this website to view a wide range of book covers: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/the-books.asp

(Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - LIT 0-19a)

Activities for First Level

·  Discuss the illustrations on the front covers of different Francesca Simon novels (a wide range can be seen here: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/the-books.asp). Discuss what genre you think Simon likes to write and explain what makes you think this from the illustrations. Discuss where else you might have seen illustrations by the same illustrator, Tony Ross.

Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - ENG 1-19a

·  Log on to the Francesca Simon website and read information about her books and all about Horrid Henry: http://www.francescasimon.com/index.asp

ICT to Enhance Learning – TCH 1-03b

·  Read this interview with Francesca Simon to find out about her career and life as a writer: http://clubs-kids.scholastic.co.uk/clubs_content/1467. Try using her writing tip next time you write a story (write the beginning and the end first, and the middle part last).

Writing>Creating Texts>Eng 1-31a

Don’t Cook Cinderella

Activities for Early Level

Listening and Talking

·  Read the sentences on pages 6, 7 and 8 and look at the accompanying illustrations. Discuss who is talking each time. Play a game where you choose one of the characters and give an example of something s/he might say. Sit in a circle and go around the circle, telling your example to the group and pretending to be your chosen character. See if anyone can guess who you are pretending to be!

Talking and Listening>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b / LIT 0-31a

·  Imagine that any character from a story you have read could join your class for the day. In groups, tell each other:

-  Which character you have chosen and why

-  What the character is like

-  What you would do/show/play with him or her if s/he joined your class for the day

Talking and Listening>Creating Texts – LIT 0-9a

Writing

·  Choose 1 character from the story and draw a storyboard to show what happens to him/her throughout his/her day at school, as described in the story.

Writing>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b

Reading

·  Use the character names and circles in Additional Resources 1. Work in groups to cut, sort and paste the characters from the story into Goodies and Baddies.

Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating – LIT 0-19a

·  Think about badly behaved characters that you know from other stories that you have read (The Twits, My Naughty Little Sister, Just William). Think about how you felt when you read these stories and share what you like and dislike about the characters.

Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating – LIT 0-19a

Drama

·  Hold a fairytale school day, where children choose a character from a favourite story and dress up to come to school. Ask children to role play a scene from their chosen fairytale or to mime a key action (biting an apple, looking into a mirror, sewing or sleeping, for example) and encourage other children to guess the fairytale. Allow times in the day when the whole class should behave in role in the classroom. See this website for different activities and resources relating to fairytales: http://www.abcteach.com/directory/theme_units/literature/fairy_tales/

Expressive Arts>Drama>EXA 0-12a

Numeracy and Maths

·  The pupils in both the good and bad classes have a maths lesson during the day. They try to add and subtract amounts of different objects which appear in fairytales (pages 9-11 and 18-20). As a class, make a list of objects or people found in well-known fairytales (apples, 7 dwarves, 3 pigs, magic beans...). Ask children to work in pairs to make up their own fairytale sums for friends to solve. For example, ‘If Little Red Riding Hood has 5 poisoned apples in her basket and eats 2, how many will she have left?’ Children could write these pictorially using the template in Additional Resources 2 and use concrete materials to help solve them.

Number and Number Processes – MNU 0-03a

Homework Activity

·  Choose one of the fairytale characters in the novel and retell the fairytale to a parent or carer at home. Choose one with which you are less familiar and ask a grown-up at home, “Tell me the story of …” so that you find out what happened in the fairytale.

Reading>Enjoyment and Choice>Lit 0-01a

Activities for First Level

Writing

·  Choose one of the characters from the story and write about the school day described in the book from that character’s point of view. Start by thinking about the character’s traits and events that happen to him/her in the original fairytale story. They write your account incorporating these aspects as well as describing the events detailed in the story. Read your account of the day to a friend and see if s/he can identify from which character’s viewpoint you have written.

Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a

·  Read the instructions for The Perfect Way to Roast a Child, given on pages 54 and 55 of the story. Rewrite these as a recipe. Make a list of the ingredients at the start and then put the information about the process into numbered instructions.

Writing>Organising and Using Information – LIT 1-26a

·  Read the sentences given from the points of view of different characters, given on pages 5, 6 and 7 of the story. Take a piece of paper each and write a sentence of your own from one character’s point of view. Put all of the sentences into a bag and sit in a circle. Pass the bag around and pull out one of the sentences each. Guess which character has been written about. The author of the sentence should state if you are right or wrong!

Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a

Art

·  Most of Francesca Simon’s children’s books are illustrated by Tony Ross. You can read about him here: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=102. Look at examples of his illustrations in different Francesca Simon novels. Work with a partner to choose 3 words which you think best describe his work. Investigate the 3 words which other pairs in the class have chosen and identify the 3 most-commonly picked words in the class.

Expressive Arts>Art and Design>Exa 1-07a

·  Look at the pictures of the different fairytale characters in the book (the pages following the Contents page are a good place to look). Choose 1 character and create a WANTED poster. Draw an illustration of the character, and underneath state why s/he is wanted (what did they do), where they might be likely to be found (in a castle or forest, for example) and the reward you will give.

Expressive Arts>Art and Design – Exa 1-04a

Homework Activity

·  Choose a fairytale character which is not mentioned in the novel (Prince Charming, Pinocchio, The Beast) and draw a cartoon strip to show what happens to him/her during a day at the school described in the novel. Use the cartoon strip in Additional Resources 3 to help you. Write a sentence into each of the smaller boxes to explain what is happening. Remember to use speech bubbles, too!

Writing>Creating Texts>Eng 1-31a

Horrid Henry

Activities for Early Level

Listening and Talking

·  On page 8 of the story, children tell their parents about Henry, saying, ‘He’s the boy who…’. Work with a partner to discuss what other terrible things Horrid Henry might have done at school. Draw a picture to show your ideas. As a whole class, show your picture and describe to friends your ideas for what else Horrid Henry might have got up to at school.

Listening and Talking>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b / LIT 0-31a

·  Talk about other naughty characters that you have read about in books. Make a list of these and discuss feelings about the different characters (why we like them, what we don’t like about them, what advice we would give them about how to behave, if we have ever done anything similar, how they are similar or different to Horrid Henry)…

Listening and Talking>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - LIT 0-07a

Reading/Drama

·  Imagine you are going to interview Horrid Henry. Work with a partner to make up 3 questions that you would like to ask him about what he does, why he behaves the way he does, or whether he would like to change, for example. Ask a volunteer to pretend to be Henry and to sit in the Hot Seat. Each pair should ask Henry one of its questions, and Henry to try to respond to them in role. Take turns at asking questions and pretending to be Henry.

Listening and Talking>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating>LIT 0-07a

Expressive Arts>DramaEXA 0-12a

Health and Wellbeing

·  In the first chapter of the book, Henry decides that he wants to be good. Divide a large piece of sugar paper into 2 and on one side, draw pictures to show all of the good things Henry does in this chapter, and on the other side, draw pictures of the bad things he does. Ask some pairs to share some of the ideas on their pages, and then bring the class to a circle. Ask some volunteers to share when they have done something good or when they have done something naughty. Pass a talking object around the circle and ask each child to give a word to describe how it makes them feel when they do something good and how it makes them feel when they do something naughty.

Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing - HWB 0-04a

Homework Activity

·  In chapter 3, Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret make Glop. Tell a parent or what Glop is and then look through the kitchen cupboards together. Talk about all of the things you would put in a Glop recipe from your own kitchen cupboard.

Activities for First Level

Writing

·  In chapter 3, when Henry tries to make Moody Margaret eat the disgusting Glop that they have made, he is interrupted by Perfect Peter. Francesca Simon writes, ‘I dread to think what would have happened next, if they had not been interrupted.’ Write the next part of the story as if Henry and Margaret had not been interrupted by Peter.

Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a

Writing/Technologies

·  Look at the last chapter of the novel – Horrid Henry’s Holiday. Think of a different way in which Henry could sabotage the family camping holiday. Use the Comic Life ICT programme to create a cartoon strip to show what he does and what the outcome is.

Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a / ICT to Enhance Learning TCH 1-04b

Reading/Drama

·  Imagine you are going to interview Horrid Henry. Work with a partner to make up 3 questions that you would like to ask him about what he does, why he behaves the way he does, or whether he would like to change, for example. Use the Bloom’s Taxonomy question starters to make sure you ask different types of questions (see Additional Resource 4). Ask a volunteer to pretend to be Henry and to sit in the Hot Seat. Each pair should ask Henry one of its questions, and Henry to try to respond to them in role. Take turns at asking questions and pretending to be Henry.

Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluation – LIT 1-17a

Expressive Arts>Drama – EXA 1-12a

Health and Wellbeing

·  Throughout many of the Horrid Henry stories, Henry does not think about the consequences of his actions. Discuss what consequences are and then ask children to work with groups of 3. Give each group one card from Additional Resources 5 and explain that they should discuss and role play the possible consequences of the situation described on the card they have been given. Some of the situations will have positive consequences and some may have negative consequences. Ask each group to perform its role play, and ask others to explain what the situation and the possible consequence was. Encourage children to offer other possible consequences for the situation.

Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing>HWB 1-04a