KS2 Book Topic – Skellig
Skellig is a mystical creature inhabiting a mundane setting. Considering his true nature will open some challenging debates, and close reading of David Almond’s powerful text can enrich children’s own writing, says Clare Pearson…
Often children’s fiction provides opportunities for us to be transported to amazing alternative worlds inhabited by magical characters with unlimited powers. But what if the line between reality and fantasy was far closer? What if it was in your own back garden? What would you believe?
In David Almond’s award-winning book Skellig, we, along with the main character Michael, slowly uncover an extraordinary secret that will change his life forever.
From the moment we enter the story, the author illustrates perfectly his skill in keeping his audience on tenterhooks. Leading with the ominous line ‘I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon’, Almond then retreats into the mundane details of Michael moving to a new home along with his parents and baby sister.
However, just in case we start to relax, we learn that ‘Doctor Death’ – so called because of his grey face and black spotted hands – has been called to the house. This careful balance between normality and the unknown is maintained throughout.
Dealing with themes of friendship, healing and a belief in the impossible, the book presents an excellent opportunity to stretch upper KS2 pupils in their responses. Skellig is also a great choice for those looking to explore the wider curriculum, offering links to science and the arts.
1 | Introducing the text
Michael’s new home was previously occupied by an elderly pensioner and the family bought it following his death. In the garden (or wilderness as it is better known), Michael discovers an abandoned garage, packed to the ceiling with various abandoned detritus.
Why not start the book by creating an interactive display? Most classrooms won’t accommodate a full-size shed, but a garden storage unit would provide a suitable focal point.
Fill the unit with a haphazard collection of old packing boxes, plant pots, broken furniture, empty bottles and other junk.
This is a great opportunity to hint at some of the ideas the story will explore – amongst the objects try to include an empty packet of aspirin, something owl related and, ideally, an angel or some wings.
Add to the authenticity with some fake cobwebs and perhaps a few (plastic) spiders.
The display will not only provide an opportunity to introduce some of the vocabulary used in the text (wilderness, derelict, abandoned), but can also grow as we learn more about the creature inhabiting it.
2 | The plot
When Michael first ventures into the derelict garage, he finds what he believes to be a tramp – immobile and close to death.
Worrying enough, but in his heart Michael senses that all is not as it seems. With the help of a neighbour, Mina, who is being home-schooled, he slowly begins to learn the truth about Skellig.
As his secret grows, Michael becomes increasingly unable to share it with those around him: his parents are fretting about his baby sister who is constantly in and out of hospital with a heart complaint; his school friends Coot and Leakey are more interested in football; and he fears his teachers would not believe him.
Slowly, sustained by a diet of bluebottles, leftover Chinese takeaway and aspirin, Skellig makes his journey back towards health.
As he grows stronger, he no longer hides his magnificent wings and Michael and Mina are forced to question once again what Skellig truly is – part bird? Angel? Or perhaps something in-between?
3 | Writing activities
Building tension
Use samples from the early chapters of the story to help children unpick how writers create tension.
Highlight examples of techniques: the use of short sentences (Just me.); maintaining anonymity of the threat (something moved, I thought he was dead); negative adjectives (rotten, fallen, rusty, ancient); asking questions (What could it be?); and slow movements (tiptoeing, slowly, carefully).
Support children to experiment with these techniques in their own writing, using a different setting. It would be helpful to provide pictures of a deserted attic, or perhaps you have the perfect eerie storeroom in school to explore?
Developing poetry
The poem ‘Ten Things Found in a Wizard’s Pocket‘ by Ian McMillan provides a simple pattern to support children in exploring the character of Skellig.
Read the original poem then discuss what we know about the Wizard from what he has in his pockets. For example, ‘A bag full of magic mints you can suck forever’ might tell us he is an inventor, or that he likes pleasing people.
Now consider what we know (or suspect) of Skellig and how we can communicate our knowledge through his possessions, from the simple ‘a jar of bluebottle wings’ or ‘a fossilised bird’ to the more complex ‘a gloomy sky filled with rain clouds’ and ‘an ancient myth that no one has yet heard’.
Creative instructions
Skellig has survived on a diet of mini beasts and rainwater. When Michael asks him what he would like, he replies ‘27 and 53’, which Michael identifies as coming from a Chinese takeaway menu.
Get the children to plan a meal that would truly delight Skellig using what we know about his eating habits.
Push pupils beyond a very formulaic recipe (which they could probably have written much further down the school), using Pie Corbett’s ‘Non-fiction: Dragons’ examples (download free here).
Mirror the stylistic features to help children really appeal to their audience. For example, ‘Are you afraid at night of something terrible living in your garage? Do you fear you will be Skellig’s next meal? Well don’t despair, just follow these instructions to help you create the perfect meal!’
Constructing an argument
This is a story that hinges on the choices the characters make. Should Michael tell people about Skellig? Will Michael help Skellig? Can Mina be trusted? And many more opportunities for discussing the pros and cons involved.
Extend this to written work by exploring the issue of home schooling versus attending school. What are the advantages? How would your pupils feel about this if they were Mina?
Get children to work collaboratively to identify as many pros and cons of home schooling versus attending school and record these on separate post-its.
Working in this way allows you to demonstrate how arguments and counter arguments work – if an advantage of home learning is being able to follow a particular interest, what is the downside of this? Lack of breadth in learning?
Work on this orally first, using role-play to try out different points of view. Then challenge pupils to either write in role as Michael or Mina in support of one point of view, or to produce a balanced discussion as a newspaper article.
4 | Crossing the curriculum
Investigating bird life
Mina is an unusual girl and Michael often finds her sitting in the trees observing birds. Extend children’s knowledge of the birds around us by:
- Visiting a local park and using tally charts to survey the different birds, then develop data handling activities to produce graphs and find averages
- Researching different garden birds and producing a class pocket book of birds, to which each child contributes a different non-chronological report
- Designing different bird feed recipes, then testing them out on your local bird population to find the most popular. Perhaps you could market your class special recipe to the rest of the school as part of a young enterprise activity?
- Improving the school outdoor environment by supporting groups of children to construct pre-cut bird box kits, and then fixing them around the school grounds
- Investigating the different feathers birds have and their purposes. Develop this into a project on designing and testing different paper plane designs – have a competition to engage those with a competitive edge!
Exploring the body
Throughout the text, a number of references are made to skeletal structures, digestion and evolution.
Explore the work of the sculptor Antony Gormley. Angel of the North is particularly relevant to the text and will provide inspiration for pupils to sculpt their own small-scale versions from clay.
Reconstruct the human digestion system in the classroom. Use a plastic sandwich box to represent the mouth, add some breakfast cereal, milk and toast, then mash it up with teeth (a potato masher) and add saliva (water in a labelled plastic bottle). Attach a funnel to a long balloon with the end snipped off (oesophagus) and pour your runny mixture down into the stomach (a freezer bag).
Add ‘stomach acid’ and ‘intestinal juices’ from labelled bottles, then use your hands to squeeze the bag to simulate the stomach muscles further breaking down the food.
Pour what should now be a pretty runny breakfast into the intestines (leg of a pair of tights) add some bile (another labelled bottle), then squeeze to demonstrate water and nutrients being removed.
When the ‘waste’ reaches the toe of the tights, be ready for the collective groan as you snip off the toe and squeeze out the leftovers and the children realise which bit of the process this represents (toilet optional)!
Above and beyond
Homework opportunities
At the start of the project, challenge the pupils to take on an independent learning task that will support the themes they encounter within Skellig. Let them choose between:
1. Birds of Prey Choose one bird of prey to research as the basis for a report, include some detailed drawings of the bird and also write a story in the first person, or a diary entry in role as the bird. Perhaps invent a new bird of prey and imagine you are the first person to see it.
2. Dinosaurs Research different dinosaurs that roamed the earth. Present the information found in a variety of ways, such as PowerPoint, fact files, writing a diary in role as a dinosaur, stories, art work, or a news report of a dinosaur sighting.
Educational visits
Organise a trip to a local bird of prey centre to see the birds in action or invite handlers into school to put on a display. It would be great to arrange in advance for them to provide you with some owl pellets to dissect so children can learn more about the owl’s diet and digestive system.
Further reading
- My Name is Mina by David Almond is a prequel to Skellig. Written as a journal from Mina’s point of view, this skilful and imaginative text is the perfect partner to the original book.
- Skellig: The Play is adapted by David Almond and remains true to the text. Why not perform short sections of the play, or get children to convert play script to narrative adding description?
- Skellig (2009, PG). Short excerpts from the film can be used to inspire, but be warned – a number of changes have been made to the original storyline and setting. Perhaps the class could discuss the reasons for this?
Browse KS2 activities for The Dam by David Almond.
