ideas for studying malkin moonlight with year 4, 5 and 6

Classroom pack

Ideas for studying Malkin Moonlight with year 4, 5 and 6 pupils, written by author and

English teacher

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Classroom pack

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About the bookMalkin Moonlight is a very special cat. Told as a small black kitten that he is destined for great things, Malkin sets out on an adventure to find the place where he belongs. But with danger at every turn, will Malkin’s bravery and kindness be enough? Will he ever find a family and a home of his own?

An animal adventure story destined to become a classic!

ContentsIn this pack you’ll find lots of conversation starters and creative writing exercises around Malkin Moonlight, written by the author herself, Emma Cox! •p.3–quick-startideas •p.4onwards–chapterbychapterreadingandwritingactivities

About the author Emma Cox is Head of English at an independent school in Devon and also works as a Gifted and Talented associate lecturer at Exeter University. Being creative has been a lifelong love for Emma. She has been writing since the age of four and spends every weekend and school holidays creating new stories. Malkin Moonlight is her first novel, and won the inaugural National Literacy Trust New Children’s Author Prize.



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Quick-start ideasEvery journey starts with one paw step ...

Can you write a story opening that begins with this line?

A sense of place

In chapter 2 we get to know Malkin’s world. Try writing a description of a place while you are sitting in it, and also try to write a description of a place from memory.

The environment

In chapter 12 we see some of the damage that can be done to our wildlife by being careless and doing things like dropping litter. Do a piece of information writing about green issues in your local area.

Create your own cat character

In Malkin Moonlight we meet lots of different cats. Invent your own! Draw the cat first. Are they Wild or Domestic? Name them. Give them a character and special skills. Use all your senses to describe how they feel.

Create a bad character

In chapter 22 we meet Toxic and the Putrescibles. Create a nemesis for your own cat character.

Read on for more reading and writing activities, chapter by chapter



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Reading and writing activitiesChapter 1

Every journey starts with one paw step ...

Can you write a story opening that begins with this line? You can choose any animal that has paws! You don’t needtowritethewholestory–justthinkaboutthestartofastory,theopeningpageortwo.Trytomakeitasstrongandcatchy as you can, so your reader will want to read on.

Sixth sense

Thisisabigthemeinthebook–theideathatacat(andindeedmostanimals)cannavigateusingtheirsensesandjudgedangeroropportunityveryquickly.Youhaveasenselikethistoo.Youfeelitmostwhenyousensetheatmosphereofaplaceforexampleaparty,asportingeventorconcertorabigbuildinglikeacathedraloramosque.Can you write about a time when you felt the sparkle of excitement all about you?

A conversation with the moon

A lot of my story is set at night time. I love the night time. Try writing a story about the moon. If you stepped out intothenightandhadaconversationwiththemoon,whatwouldyousay?Wouldyouhavequestionstoaskher?Whatwould she tell you? Can you hear the stars too? What would they say to you? An illustration of you speaking to the moon or the stars would make your writing even more beautiful.

Chapter 2

A sense of place

I based the setting of this chapter on three places I know really well. One is a pub called The Lighter Inn in Topsham which isareallyprettyplacewherechildrenplayandyoucanwatchtheboatsbobbingonthewater;anotheristhequayinExeter, which I love to walk around. You see lots of swans and there are bullrushes and once I saw a kingfisher. The final is the beach at Teignmouth. I put the three places together to create this chapter.

Is there a place you know really well? Can you describe it? It could be in a city, or the countryside. Indoors or outdoors. It doesn’t matter. Just describe it the very best you can using all your senses. Try writing a description of the place while you are sitting in it, and also try to write a description of a place from memory, like I did.



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Bravery

Inthischapterthegirlcat(Roux)isverybrave.ShehastoovercomeherfearstohelpMalkin.Can you write about a time you were brave? Or you could write about something you are afraid of, and tell your teacher why it scares you. I amscaredofspiders,miceandrats.Thisisanon-fictionpieceofwriting,becauseitisthetruth.

Chapter 3

Friendship

In this chapter Malkin finds his new best friend. Do you remember the time when you first made a friend? It may have been your first day at a new school, or at an activity club you go to. Write down your memories of this special time and what that friend means to you now.Whatdoyoudotogetherthatyouenjoy?Whatsecretsdoyoushare?Why do you love your friends? Why do you get on so well?

Choosing a pet

RouxtalksabouthowshegotherOwnertochooseher.Haveyoueverchosenapet?Writeaboutthatday,howyouchoseyour pet, why you wanted that particular one, and what your pet means to you now. If you don’t have a pet you could writeaboutthepetyouwouldchoose.Itdoesn’tevenhavetobearealanimal–youcouldchooseanything,evenababydragon if you would like one!

Presents

I love getting presents. They make me feel special and loved. Write about the best present you have ever been given, and why it means so much to you.

Extension activity – assonance

‘... makes her feel light and bright all at once’

‘Light and bright’ is an example of assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds inside words. Can you write a few sentences that include assonance? An example is: the purple curtains murmured. Say it aloud. Can you hear the repetition of the ur sound, and how it seems to make the curtains murmur? Or: on a proud round cloud. See how if you say this aloud your mouth makes the round shape of the cloud? It is difficult to write effective assonance. See if you can do it. The sentences do not need to be within the context of a story or poem, although you could challenge yourself to start including some assonance in your writing. Do look out for other examples while you read Malkin Moonlight.



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Chapter 4

Exploring

Have you ever explored somewhere? Or is there a place you would love to explore? It could be the seaside, like Malkin, oritcouldbethejungle,orsomewherethatgrown-upsdon’tthinkexists,likeafairykingdom,ortheplacewhereunicornslive, or where dragons are born and grow up. Write about a place you have explored, in real life, or a place you would love to explore, in your imagination.

Extension activity – similes

‘… weaves her tail around the girl’s ankles like ribbon.’

Whenyoucomparesomething(thecat’stailweaving)withsomethingelse(aribbon),itiscalledasimile.Thecomparison is made using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. When you read Malkin Moonlight, look out for similes. See if you can write your own simile. Including similes in your writing can make it more beautiful.

Chapter 5

Going into another world

Write a short story or poem about going over a wall, or through a door, or a time portal, or cutting a hole in the atmosphere: it doesn’t matter how you get there, just take yourself into another world and look around. What do you see there? Do you love it or is it full of danger? Who or what do you meet? You could write this in any genre youchoose:reallife,fantasy,sci-fi–whateveryouprefer.Youcouldtrytoincludetensionbyusingshortsentencesandexperimenting with punctuation.

Faster than magic

Write a poem that includes this line,orhasthislineasatitle.Trytomakethelinesracequickly.

‘... this is what I was born for.’

How about you? What were you born for?Everysingleoneofusisspecialandunique.Thereisonlyyou,notanotherchild like you. If you close your eyes for a minute, and take some time to think, or look out of the window and daydream, what is it you see? What would you like to be? You don’t have to limit yourself to one thing. In fact, don’t. You’re too young to have made your mind up. But what would you like to achieve, or do? Tell your teacher some ideas about your life if all your dreams could come true.



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Chapter 6

Reading

Do you love reading? What is the best book you have ever read? Explain why this book means so much to you. Readingisabigthemeinthisbookanditreallymatterstothecats,particularlylateroninthestory.

Counting

Rouxlovescounting. If you prefer maths, or another subject, write about that instead. Explain why it means so much to you, and how your brain feels when you are doing it well.

Chapter 7

Helping people

Write about a time when you helped someone, or someone helped you. Or write a short story that includes this line: ‘Oh please can somebody help me? Where are all my friends?’ You can include the line anywhere in the story: start, middle,towardstheend–itdoesnotmatter.IbasedthecharacteroftheminkonthecharacterofTybaltfromRomeo and Juliet. He is a warmonger and does not like peace one bit. He is actually one of my favourite characters in literature, even though he is a baddie.

Chapter 8

Create a bad character

Create an enemy or a nemesis. Draw them first. Make it look like a photograph, with a paper clip holding it to the page,thendescribethepersonasiftheirpicturehasfallenfromapolicefile.Makeitsoundlikeapieceofnon-fictionwriting, as if they were a real person. Label if they have any special powers, or fighting skills. Do they have a catchphrase? Couldyouinventaspecialpieceofequipmenttheyusetodobad?Whatistheirevilmotivation?Dotheyhaveaparticularenemy(agoodperson)whomtheywanttodestroy?Orisitabiggerthing?Perhapstheywanttoharmtheworlditself.

Chapter 9

Nine lives

In this chapter I imagined what it would feel like for a cat to lose a life and pass into the next one. Would you like to have a go? Good. It does not have to be a long piece of writing at all. Can you write from the moment a cat is losing a life, until the moment it passes and he or she comes round into their new life, which is fresh and beautiful?



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Chapters 10 & 11

The environment

In these chapters we see some of the damage we can do to our wildlife by being careless and doing things like dropping litter. I am sure at your school you have green initiatives to help save our planet and keep it beautiful. Today you could either write a poem about our beautiful planet, or you could do a piece of information writing about green issues in your local area.Itmightbeaprojectyouhaveactuallybeeninvolvedin,orsomethingyoufeelstrongly about. Do some research into protecting your local wildlife and the environment the animals live in. Do you have any rare animals in your local habitat? If you live in a big busy city you could research a local park, or an area by the water, or write about pollution and what could be done to reduce it. Wherever we live we need to look after the animals therejustasweneedtolookaftertheairthatwebreathe.

Chapters 12 & 13

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Do you know any plays or poems by Shakespeare? In these chapters I was thinking of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Write as a fairy and how she or he feels flying through the most magical night of them all: Midsummer Night. I love to imagine how flying feels, with the wind working for you, and the touch of it on your wings and on your skin, and how light and bright it must feel, with the stars as your friends, travelling on wind currents, going to a place you have been called to go. Please remember though that not all fairies are good. In fact, some are downright tricksy. You could choose to write as one of the naughtier fairies who are bound for mischief. You could write in first or third person for this.

Chapter 14

Home

The theme in this chapter is home. You could write about your own home, and what it means to you. You could describe your bedroom, and your family and your pets. Or you could write as an animal looking for a home, a special place where they can feel warm and loved. Perhaps they have never felt this feeling before, but there is a craving inside, so they know it exists, if only they could find it.



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Chapter 15

‘Meet me at midnight’

Write a poem or a short story called Meet Me At Midnight. Put the light of a magical moon within it and include the colours ofmidnight(thinkofinkybluesaswellasblack)andthemoon(whichdoesnotneedtobewhite–haveyoueverseenanorangemoon,forexample?).Whatshapewillyourmoonbe?Trytocreateasoftlymagicaltone(mood)toyourpoem.Experiment a little with alliteration. Perhaps you could include some assonance, and a simile.

Extension activity – metaphors

A metaphor is like a simile, but you compare two things without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. Shakespeare does it when he says: ‘All the world’s a stage’. He doesn’t say the world is like a stage, he says it is a stage, and we are all actors on that stage. It is as if he is watching us from high up in the sky, looking at us walking across the stage that is the world, acting our parts, living our lives. I often create metaphors with the children I teach by, for example, holding up an orange andsaying:Thisisnotanorange,itis(forexample)aplanetandIamagiant.Oranegg:Thisisnotanegg,itisthekeeper of secrets. Once I had a naughty child who smashed the egg and said: This is not an egg, it is a disaster. It was a good metaphor.

Chapter 16

Love

This chapter is about love. You could either write about something or somebody you love most in the world and explain why you love it or them so, or you could write a love story about two animals. Sometimes with the children I teach I use a picture or painting on the whiteboard to inspire creative writing. Can you find a picture that seems full of love?

Chapter 17

Fighting

Writing fight scenes is fun. You can experiment with short sentences, or longer ones with commas that make the sentences run on and on. A child I once taught called Lucy said that lots of commas in a long sentence is like running through the woods and stumbling over logs again and again.

Can you write a fight scene between two animals, starting at the moment they first see each other? There is the tension in the air because they both know a fight will come. End it when one wins. I have watched cats fight and they usually do a

Mexican stand off before they begin, moving backwards, thinking about the fight.

Reallyexperimentwithpunctuationtocreatetension.Trywritingsomeshortsentences–perhapssentencesofjustoneword–andsomelongerones.



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Chapter 18

Summer holidays

This chapter is set in the summer holidays. If you are reading this in September you could write about your summer holidays –whatyoudidandwhatyouenjoyedandanythingyoudidnotenjoy–whichisOKtoo–itisimportanttobebored sometimes. Without boredom we would not have the time to sit still and daydream. And if you don’t daydream it is difficult to come up with ideas for stories and poems.

Chapters 19–21

Create your own cat character

InthesechaptersMalkinandRouxmeettheirnewfriendsintheRecyclingCentreandsharetheirstories.Can you create your own cat character? Make him or her distinctive: both in their character and in their physicality, the colour and patternsoftheirfur.Youcouldbaseyourcat’scharacteronafriendthatyouknoworjustletyourimaginationgowild.

• Draw the cat first and write a few lines of description underneath. When I was writing about my cats at home, I was also studying Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot with my year five class at school. In these brilliant poems we learn all about the different kinds of cats there are.

• Are they Wild or Domestic? My first choice was not whether a cat was a boy or girl, it was whether they were Wild or Domestic. A cat can do pretty much anything and live pretty much anywhere. Cats can be pirates, or thieves, orspies,oractors,mathematicalgeniuses,madscientistsworkingwithunknownchemicals(carefulofyourpawsandeyes,wearglovesandgoggles),gentledomesticswhotrainmicetobehavethemselvesorcatswholovetodanceandgo to balls beneath the moon. Young or old. Good or bad.

• Draw your cat in their setting: indoors or outdoors. •Name them. • Give them a character and special skills. Then bring them to life by drawing them in the place where they live,

doingthethingtheydothebest.Trytoincluderunningandjumpingandusingclawsandwhiskersandallthepartsofa body a cat uses to sense the world around them.

• How do they feel? Describe how power feels flowing through your muscles, or the feeling when claws are extended from inside soft paw pads. Consider, also, the feeling of purrs flowing through the body.

Extension activity: metaphors

‘His claws crack back into the crate as he thinks about the new cat.’ This is an example of alliteration, as several words begin with the same letter. It is also an example of onomatopoeia, as we can hear the cracking, creaking sound

of the crate as Foss’s claws go into it. Can you think of some good cat sounds? Try to include some alliteration or onomatopoeia in your writing. Think of words that sound good next to each other and make the noise you

are trying to achieve, whether it is hard and cross, or gentle and soft.



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Chapters 22 & 23

Creating an enemy

In this chapter we meet the Putrescibles. Toxic is the lead one. Could you create an enemy cat for your cat character? Someonetheyareatwarwith.Youcouldexplainthereasonsbehindtheanger–orjustleaveitasaverygood fight scene with lots of movement.

Chapter 24

Peace

What does it mean to you? Do you have a place where you feel peaceful? Or do you do something that makes you feel full of peace and calm? Write about it, or write a poem entitled ‘Peace’. Consider the tone of the poem. Perhaps you wouldliketostartbyjottingdownsomepeacefulwordsthatyouwouldliketoinclude.Youcouldtrytokeepthetonemilkyandcalm,oryoucouldjoltyourreaderbyincludingsomeantonyms:wordsthataretheoppositeofyourpeacefulwords,like war and hatred. This would change the tone of the poem.

Chapter 25

Write a newspaper article

Write a newspaper article for your local paper about a real or imagined threat to your local environment. Interview your friends and family about it. As a class you could look at some issues that are actually in your local paper. If you feel strongly, you can write a letter about a green issue that is affecting your community, perhaps to your MP.

Chapters 26 & 27

Revenge

Write a short story that includes the line ‘There will be revenge for this’. You can include it anywhere you like within the story.

Chapters 28–31

The Blue Cross

The Blue Cross is important in this book. Have you ever visited an animal shelter? Perhaps that is where you got your own pet.Dosomenon-fictionwritingabout a visit to an animal shelter you’ve had, or, if your pet did not come from there you could write about the day they came home and how you felt to have a new pet to love. What does your pet mean

to you? If you don’t have a pet, perhaps one of your friends has a pet you like playing with. Tell your teacher all about them.



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Chapter 32

Write a six-line poem

I have chosen six words from this chapter:

rain trapped hunger war enemies friends

Iwouldlikeyoutowriteasix-linepoem.Eachlinemustcontainoneofthewordsabove,inthatorder:soline1mustcontain the word ‘rain’, all the way through to line 6 which must contain the word ‘friends’. The word can be anywhere in the line.

Once you have done that, leave some white space, then do the same thing, but in the reverse order. Line 1 must contain ‘friends’, line 2 ‘enemies’, etc, all the way through to line 6 which will contain ‘rain’.

Readyourpoemthroughandeditit.Imagineeachwordcosts£1foryoutouse.Wouldyoucutoutsomeofthewordstoimprove it?

Chapter 33

Write a speech for Malkin

MalkinhastocreatepeacebetweenthetwosidesoftheRecyclingCentreandtimeisrunningout.Butwhatshouldhesayto persuade his friends? Write a small speech for Malkin, explaining to the others why they should allow the Putrescibles to cometoliveontheirside,beforeMeekeMarshesisflattened,andthedangerousdiggerscome,andthecatsarere-homed,and Calica is separated from her parents.

Chapter 34

Calica

Write from Calica’s point of view describing her home and why she loves it: even though it is a very run down sort of place, it is her home and it is all she has known.



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Chapter 35

Pride

Have you ever achieved something you were very proud of? Write about a time you have done something really well and got the outcome you wanted. It may have been an act of kindness, or it may have been in a competition, in sport, or in school, or at home. It could be anything at all, little or big, but it must be a time when you were proud of yourself, and perhaps others were too.

Chapter 36

Senses

WhenIwrotethischapterIenjoyedturningonandoffdifferentsenses.Youcouldreturntothecatyoucreatedbefore,or write about a new one having a dangerous adventure in which they are forced to turn off and on different senses, but particularly navigate by their sixth sense, and find the way.

Chapter 37

Fireworks

I wrote this chapter on Firework Night. I remember I was standing up in my kitchen with my laptop, looking out of the window and typing without looking at the keypad, trying to capture what fireworks would look like from the point of view of a cat seeing them for the first time.

Write about fireworks and try to capture exactly what they look like to you, using similes and description. Or write about going to a fireworks display and what happened, what you did and saw, and how you felt.

Chapters 38–40

Happy endings

There are lots of different types of endings to stories. Happy ones, sad ones, inconclusive ones. Look back at one of the stories you’ve written while reading Malkin Moonlight.Whatkindofendingdoesithave?Tryre-writingitwithadifferentsort of ending and see what effect it has.

Epilogue

Moon gifts

Could you create your own kitten that has been blessed by the moon? You could start by drawing them and deciding where their marking could be and what special gift it would give them. Then do a little writing

about them.

ideas for studying malkin moonlight with year 4, 5 and 6

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