Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett
A lower Key Stage 2 - Literacy – Geography – PSHE Linked Learning Lesson Sequence
Curriculum areas
• English:
The New Primary Framework for Literacy:
* Year 3, Strand 4: Use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues
* Year 3, Strand 7: Infer characters’ feelings in fiction and consequences in logical explanations
* Year 3, Strand 8: Empathise with characters and debate moral dilemmas portrayed in texts
* Year 3, Strand 11: Compose sentences using adjectives, verbs and nouns for precision, clarity and impact
• Geography:
* Geography enquiry & skills, 2c: to use atlases and globes, and maps and plans at a range of scales…
* Geography enquiry & skills, 2d: to use secondary sources of information, including aerial photographs (for example, stories)
* Knowledge & Understanding of Places, 3c: to describe where places are
• PSHE:
* Preparing to play an active role as citizens, 2b:how to take part in making and changing rules.
* Developing good relationships and respecting the differences between people, 4c:to be aware of different types of relationship, including marriage and those between friends and families.
Meerkat Mail: Story Synopsis
Sunny lives on an arid plain with his extensive and loving meerkat family; they work together, play together and together do their best to stay away from Jackals!
But Sunny is starting to feel claustrophobic and decides to set off to stay with his mongoose cousins and explore the outside world.
He journeys through rain and shine and light and dark, reporting back to his family via a series of postcards. However, Sunny ultimately realises that the place he loves best is his very own home in the desert.
This book from Kate Greenaway winner Emily Gravett is full of distinctive illustrations and lift-the-flap postcards. Children, will also enjoy spotting the shadowy jackal lurking in the background of each picture.
Suggested Teaching Sequence
Note: a range of activities is suggested for each lesson. It is not essential to undertake all the activities identified; the activities will depend on the outcomes you wish to achieve with your class and the time you can commit.
Lesson 1: Can I recognise how a story is structured?
* Shared read of Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett, including the letters.
Key questions: Who is the main character? How do we know this?
Where does Sunny live?
* Create a pictorial timeline showing the story structure based on the days of the week that Sunny travels.
* Locate key places in atlases or using Google Earth. Look at documentary clips about these destinations and/ or show a clip from ‘Meerkat Manor’.
* Using a key, children to identify the UK, Europe, Africa, the Kalahari Desert, Liberia and Madagascar on a map of the world. Plot a possible route that Sunny could have taken. How far away does Sunny live from us? How is Sunny’s habitat different from the UK?
Learning outcomes:
• A timeline showing the story structure
• A map identifying the key places in the story
Lesson 2: Can I identify the main purposes of a family?
* Re-read Meerkat Mail to the class.
Key questions: What activities do the meerkats in the story do that the children also do?
Do real meerkats do activities like the illustrations?
In what ways is the text like real life – do meerkats work, play, eat. learn and sleep together?
Is the family the only type of community where these activities happen?
* Discuss different relationships. Look at the photos inside the front cover. Have the names of the characters written on to pieces of card and ask for volunteers to sort them into a family tree. Each child should then write a short description of one of the characters including name, appearance, home etc on to a post it note and stick to the family tree.
* Homework task: children to research their own family tree with photos. Either complete at home, or bring in notes and photos to create a family tree in class. Discuss why children, as well as young animals, need homes and families.
Learning outcomes:
• A class family tree for the characters in Meerkat Mail which shows character awareness
• Individual pupil family trees recognising the importance of family relationships
Lesson 3: Can I identify the feelings of a character in a story?
* Look back at the story timeline created in Lesson 1. Read the line. ‘Sometimes, Sunny wishes that he could live somewhere else.’
Key questions: Why did Sunny feel like this?
How do we know that Sunny was concerned about his mum (see leavingnote)?
What else could Sunny have done at this point?
Was he being a ‘good’ mongoose’ and following the mongoose motto of ‘Stay safe, stay together’?
* Conscience alley drama activity. Divide the class into two groups. One half must try to persuade Sunny that he should stay at home, the other that he should leave. Each child is given a slip of paper and writes down a reason that Sunny might give in line with their side of the argument – children can work in pairs or small groups to do this. Once each child has an argument, the two halves should form two lines facing each other. The teacher and/or a volunteer take on the role of Sunny, who then walks down the middle of the alley whilst the two lines take it in turns to persuade Sunny to their viewpoint. Sunny decides on whether he has been persuaded to stay or leave.
* Use the ideas generated by the conscience alley to fill thought bubbles around a silhouette of Sunny as he is about to depart on his journey. This can either be done as a class or children can do their own posters. If done as a class, complete thought bubbles for both sides of the argument using two different colours. If done individually, most children only complete thoughts reflecting one side of the argument – more able pupils could do both.
Learning outcomes:
• A silhouette of the main character exploring his thoughts at a key point in the story.
Lesson 4: Can we create a class charter and motto?
* Look at the last page of Meerkat Mail which shows the motto ‘Stay safe, Stay together’ written in the sand. Explain that this is the meerkats’ motto.
Key questions: Why have the meerkats chosen this as their motto?
What do you think Sunny thinks of this motto at the start of the story?
Do you think his views of the motto might have changed by the end of the story? Why?
What rules do you think the meerkats have that reflect this motto?
* In groups, children work to decide on what they think a good set of rules should be for a happy classroom. They may reflect, but not be the same as, the school rules, but should include ideas specific to their own classroom. Encourage the use of positive phrasing e.g. ‘Move carefully…’ rather than ‘Don’t run.’
* Once each group has at least five or six ideas, decide as a whole class on the most important ones – up to a maximum of eight class rules.
* Finally, thought shower ideas for a class motto which reflects the rules and atmosphere which the children want to encourage in their classroom. The selected motto should be clearly displayed in the classroom along with the class charter signed by all pupils.
Learning outcomes:
• A class motto and charter reflecting expected standards of behaviour and a caring classroom ethos.
Lesson 5: Can I use an atlas to locate a variety of destinations?
* Review the maps which the children completed in Lesson 1.
Key questions: In which continent do meerkats live?
Which other continents can you identify (using atlases)?
How is a continent different from a country?
Which continent and country do you live in?
* Discuss what address would be used if the children were sending a postcard to the school. Sunny ends his address with ‘Under the Big Blue Sky’ – how could the ‘official’ school address be extended?
* Plan an imaginary class journey. This may include places children have actually visited locally or on holiday, places they have already studied or places they would like to visit. Places where relatives in other countries live might also be relevant and link particularly well to Meerkat Mail. Locate in atlases / Google Earth.
Learning outcomes:
* A map for an imaginary class expedition to places located using atlases / Google Earth.
Lesson 6: Can I write a postcard which shows my thoughts and feelings?
* Set up areas of the classroom / playground as different destinations from the expedition planned in Lesson 5. Each destination should include its name, location, pictures and labelled artefacts. Pupils could contribute towards this if the places are those they have already visited or if they have relatives living there. Visit and discuss each destination as a class.
Key questions: What do the picture and artefacts tell you about the destination?
How does the destination appear to be similar / different to the school location?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages of living there?
* In pairs, children to role play ‘visiting’ a destination, then write a postcard back to the class on what they saw / what their feelings were, modelled on postcards from the book.
* Collect postcards together on a large map showing the class journey.
Learning outcomes:
• A display indicating the locations ‘visited’ on a map.
• Postcards written by the children which describe the locations as well as the feelings experienced by a visitor.
Resources
Key text: Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett, published by Macmillan, ISBN: 1-405-05215-5
Other linked texts:
The Jolly Postman and Other People’s Letters by Janet & Allan Ahlberg, published by Puffin Books, ISBN: 978-0141382609
Little Wolf’s Book of Badness by Ian Whybrow, published by Collins.,ISBN: 978-0007106707
Dear Greenpeace by Simon James, published by Walker Books, ISBN: 978-1844289875
Katie Morag Series by Mairi Hedderwick, published by Bodley Head Children’s Books
Suggested ICT resources:
‘Google Earth’ downloadable free online from earth.google.com
‘Meerkat Manor’ video clips available online from www.animalplanet.co.uk
Other resources: atlases, post it notes, cards with characters’ names, slips of paper for conscience alley, blank postcards, blank maps, large class map, pictures and artefacts of selected locations.
