Wonder

Wonder by R. J Palacio

“I know I’m not an ordinary kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice-cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an Xbox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.”

This book is an emotional, important tale of a 10-year-old boy with ‘mandibulofacial dysotosis’ or ‘Treacher-Collins syndrome’ – or in plain English ‘rare facial birth disfigurement’.

Main Focus: Subjunctive Form

This resources is based on chapter one of the Wonder book by R. J. Palacio and covers subjunctive form.

The subjunctive mood shows a wish or a doubt. Subjunctive form can also be used to show urgency or importance.

Your Ks2 class will identify the subjunctive used linked to the characters.

Main Focus: Idioms

This Wonder resource in based on Choose Kind, P45 and idioms.

In this chapter, Mr Browne talks about precepts with the class.  He says, ‘a precept is anything that helps guide us when making decisions about important things.’

An idiom is a word or phrase which means something different from its literal meaning.  For example – it’s raining cats and dogs.  This means it is raining a lot, not that cats and dogs are falling from the clouds!

Your Year 5 | Year 6 class will identify the idioms used and write explanations.

Main Focus: Figurative Language

This literacy resource explores the figurative language used in pages 37-53 in the story Wonder  by R. J. Palacio.

Your Ks2 class will explore the language used and delve deeper into the author’s intentions and the impact that has on the reader.

Similes are also explored in this resource.

Main Focus: Shifts in Formality

This activity is based on Letters, Emails, Facebook, Texts p160

Your Year 5 | Year 6 class will complete the following activities and explore the shifts in formalities the author has used.

Your KS2 class will explore: synonyms, repetitive language, words and meanings, translating text to Standard English, write explanations, dialogue and more.

Main Focus: Shun Sounding Words

This Year 5 | Year 6 resource cover shun sounding words linked to The Drop Off, p289 of Wonder by R. J. Palacio.

The endings –ion and –ian often have t, c, ss or s before them and the whole ending is added to the root word.

The children will complete the sentences by adding in the correct words.

Main Focus: Colons

This activity is based on Part 6.

Colons can be used to introduce some more information about something mentioned earlier in the sentence.

The start of the sentence needs to be a main clause, followed by a colon, then the explanation.

Auggie disliked school events which included parents:the Thanksgiving Sharing Festival was the worst one.

Your Year 5/ Year 6 class will explore clauses, colons and explanations as well as be given practice at rewriting sentences to include colons.

Main Focus: Comprehension - P103-108

This comprehension is based on pages 103 to 108 of the book Wonder.

Your Ks2 children will answer questions based on vocabulary, retrieval and inference based on the text.

Main Focus: Comprehension - p303-306

This comprehension resources focuses on p103 to p108 of the book Wonder.

Your KS2 class will answer questions based on vocabulary, retrieval and inference based on the pages. The questions have also been divided up into categories of question types.

Main Focus: Song Comprehension

This is a brilliant comprehension resource linked to the song by Natalie Merchant.

Your Year 5 / Year 6 children will answer questions linked to: retrieval, vocabulary and inference based on the song.

They will develop their literacy skills further by developing their understanding of the vocabulary used, find synonyms, write explanations, use and apply their knowledge and more.