Pax

Pax by Sara Pennypacker

Peter’s life falls apart after his mother dies in a car crash. The only thing that makes him happy and keeps him going is Pax, the fox he raises from a kit – and his love of baseball. But when Peter’s father goes off to join in the army, Peter must go and live with his grandfather and return Pax to the wild. Neither Peter, nor Pax can bear the separation; both are determined to be reunited.

Main Focus: Different Viewpoints - Chapter 5

This task looks at the different viewpoints of the siblings: Bristle and Runt and focuses on chapter 5 of the story.

Your class are then tasked  to write a recount of the events of the meeting, from Bristle’s point of view. They will use the quotes given to help them structure their recount.

Main Focus: Setting Description - Chapter 7

Your Ks2 class will explore the setting descriptions of: The Den, Forest Undergrowth, The Stream and the Forest in this activity linked to chapter 7 of the book.

Your Year 5 / Year 6 class will look at the aspects the author has mentioned and use that to help with writing their own setting descriptions. 

Main Focus: Character Description Vola - Chapter 8

Your Ks2 class will look at the words and phrases used in the story by the author to learn more about the character Vola in the story.

In this resource, your class will focus on chapter 8 of the story and study the phrases and answer questions to learn more about the character.

Main Focus: Non-Fiction Comprehension

This is a non-fiction resource to accompany the book Pax. 

Your class will read the extract about red foxes and answer questions linked to the text.

This is a great resource to help your class learn a bit more about red foxes and acts as a great starting point to go into an independent study. 

Main Focus: Collective Nouns - Chapter 19

Collective Nouns

Some groups of things have special names, for example a group of elephants is called a herd. Collective nouns can also be used to make your writing more interesting; instead of saying a group of children you could say ‘a chatter of children’.

Your class will learn a few of the common collective nouns for animals as well as think of a few more to improve the quality of the sentences provided.

Main Focus: Atmosphere - Chapters 25 & 26

In this chapter Pax is beginning to embrace his new life.  The author uses powerful verbs and descriptive adverbs and adjectives to portray this. Your ks2 class will underline the ones used in the following extracts.

There are also a few other challenges for your class to complete linked to how the author develops atmosphere.

Main Focus: Non-Chronological Reports

This resource is based on the story and is linked to non-chronological report writing for ks2.

The resource covers activities on: Organisation, Technical Vocabulary and passive voice.

Main Focus: Comprehension - Chapters 28 & 29

This is another comprehension resource that is differentiated, and this time it is linked to chapter 28 and 29 of the Pax story.

Your class must use the story to answer the questions as accurately as they can.

Main Focus: Alternative Endings

In this activity your children will be organising the events in order and then they will write al alternative ending to the story, where something surprising happens to one or more of the characters.