© Rdsc/Qb/Nhm 2020 Contents

1 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 CONTENTS

Ready your backpack, pop those binoculars in your pocket and don’t forget your pen. Tick off the activities you have completed in the boxes on the left!

3 Calling all explorers! CALLING ALL 4 Meet the characters EXPLORERS! 6 Word search

7 Miss Spider's maze Have an extraordinary adventure with the Natural 8 Become a bug explorer History Museum and Roald Dahl! Embark on an intrepid expedition in-store and online. Tunnel through 10 Meet the scientist Fantastic Mr Fox’s Den, stomp through Mugglewump’s 11 Centipede's new shoes jungle and watch out for The Enormous Crocodile in the squelchy muddy river! 12 The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me

14 Dot-to-Croc Discover your favourite Roald Dahl creatures and learn fascinating facts about their real life counterparts 15 Match the pairs courtesy of the Natural History Museum. 16 Mirrored messages 17 Fantastic colouring

18 Draw your own animal

2 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 3 MUGGLE-WUMP MEET THE FOUND IN THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE, THE TWITS CHARACTERS Muggle-Wump the Monkey is a very generous fellow with rather terrible luck, encountering both the nasty Enormous Crocodile and the terrible Twits. But Muggle-Wump is a pretty marvellous monkey, so tricksy Twits and crafty Crocs had better beware.

There are more than 473 species of FUN FACT! monkeys in the world today.

THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE GIRAFFE FOUND IN THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE FOUND IN THE GIRAFFE AND THE PELLY AND ME The Enormous Crocodile is just about the beastliest crocodile in all of Africa. Venturing out of his home in the The Giraffe in The Giraffe and the Pelly and muddy river, there’s only one thing The Enormous Me is a very special giraffe indeed. With her superior Crocodile is after - a yummy tasting child! neck she is invaluable in helping her friends the Pelly, the Monkey and Billy in their adventure. Crocodiles can swim at 10mph with FUN FACT! the help of their powerful tail. FUN FACT! Giraffes are the world’s tallest mammals.

FANTASTIC MR FOX MISS SPIDER FOUND IN FANTASTIC MR FOX FOUND IN JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH Mr Fox is very, very clever. Far too clever for three nasty local farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Even the Poor Miss Spider is a very lovely and helpful, if often most cunning of foxes sometimes get into trouble, misunderstood, creature and her incredible thread however, and when he angers the farmers Mr Fox is in helps to get James and his friends out of a rather sticky quite a bit of trouble indeed. situation.

Garden spiders spin orb webs to FUN FACT! A group of foxes is called a skulk. FUN FACT! catch their prey.

4 5 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 WORD SEARCH MISS SPIDER'S MAZE

The sneaky creatures in our collection have hidden themselves in the word Help Miss Spider avoid the sticky lines of the maze and search below. Can you find them all? navigate herself to the centre to of her web.

START

MONKEY SPIDER CROCODILE FOX PELICAN GIRAFFE ELEPHANT TORTOISE DID YOU KNOW THAT SPIDER WEBS AREN’T ACTUALLY STICKY? CENTIPEDE LADYBIRD The spider drops a sticky substance onto the web and then sends vibrations down the strands by plucking them to spread out the sticky blobs evenly and catch its prey. When moving around the web, the spider steps between these blobs to avoid becoming stuck itself. Terrifico!

6 7 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 BECOME A BUG EXPLORER TOP TIPS FOR BUG EXPLORING:

Before the start of their adventure in BUGS TO SPOT: James and the Giant Peach, Bugs are much smaller than you. Be very careful if picking James’ insect friends live under the any bugs up and always return them to their homes when Snails and slugs peach tree. In real life, however, done. Woodlice bugs live in all sorts of places. Take a A clear container, a spoon to gently scoop bugs up and a look in your nearest green space to magnifying glass can come in very handy for taking a Sandhoppers see if you can discover some of closer look. James’ friends, as well as many Centipedes Take care to avoid any insects that may bite or sting. others. Explore habitats such as: Millipedes IN THE AIR FUN FACTS! Spiders ON A LEAF OR FLOWER Garden spiders vary in colour but they all have a white, cross- Beetles ON OR UNDER FALLEN shaped group of spots on their abdomen formed by their own poo! Earthworms BRANCHES, LOGS OR LEAVES Earthworms do not have lungs. Instead they breathe through their Butterflies ON THE PATH skin. That’s why it’s important they stay moist. Moths ON A PLANT Grasshoppers can jump about 25cm high and around 1 metre Bees long. If humans could jump as far as grasshoppers do, relative to UNDER A ROCK size, we could leap more than the length of a football field! IN THE SOIL As well as the more common red and black ladybirds, they also IN OR BY A POND come in other colours such as black and yellow, white and brown, or even striped.

Centipede comes from Latin language and means hundred legs. However, most centipedes have less than 100 legs. Usually they have 15-55 pairs of legs.

8 9 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 MEET THE SCIENTIST! CENTIPEDE’S NEW SHOES

The Centipede in James and the Giant Peach likes to boast about having 100 legs, but really he only has 42! Use the outline below to design JAN BECCALONI some fancy new footwear for him - why not get outside and see if you can get any inspiration or materials to stick on from the world around you? FAVOURITE SPIDER: Goliath Birdeater - the BIGGEST spider in the world by mass! FUN FACT: Has a pet spider called Mariah Hairy!

Hello! I work as the senior curator of that spiders are very good mothers? Arachnids at the Natural History They carefully carry their babies Museum. around with them to protect them from predators. Spiders are also A curator is basically someone who very clever, some can camouflage to looks after museum collections, and look (and smell!) just like bird poo to I’m lucky enough to be in charge of avoid being eaten by birds! There is the ARACHNIDS! even one species which actually Most people know that spiders are lives under water in a great big air arachnids, but there are a few other bubble. types of creatures in this group as People often tell me that they find well, such as scorpions, ticks and spiders scary. I think this is a real harvestmen. What makes them shame! So do remember these related to each other is that they all stories to tell your friends who are have two body parts and 8 legs. ARACHNOPHOBIC (scared of I’ve learned loads of fun facts about spiders) – hopefully it might make spiders. For example, did you know change their minds!

10 11 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 THE GIRAFFE, THE PELLY BOOK EXTRACT (PAGES 16 -18) AND ME The Giraffe looked out of her window at me and said, ‘How do you do? What is The Giraffe, the Pelly and the Monkey are all starving and loudly lament the your name?’ lack of their favourite foods, but some of the things they eat in the story are a ‘Billy,’ I told her. little bit different to what the real-life animals like to chomp on. Read on to see what these clever creatures really like to eat! ‘Well, Billy,’ she said, ‘we need your help and we need it fast. We must have some windows to clean. We’ve spent every penny we had on buying this house and we’ve got to PELICANS earn some more money quickly. The Pelly is starving, the Monkey is famished and I am perishing with hunger. The Pelly needs fish. The While fish are high on the menu, pelicans are also known to eat Monkey needs nuts and I am even more difficult to feed. I am a Geraneous crustaceans, amphibians, turtles and even other birds! Giraffe and a Geraneous Giraffe cannot eat anything except the pink and purple flowers of the tinkle-tinkle tree. But those, as I am sure you know, are hard to find and expensive to buy.’

MONKEYS The Pelican cried out, ‘Right now I am so hungry I could eat a stale sardine!

For many monkeys fruit is the primary food that they eat. They often ‘Has anyone seen a stale sardine do not digest the seeds from the fruit so these come out in their poo! Or a bucket of rotten cod? This is part of why monkeys are so important to the habitat - they I’d eat the lot upon the spot, spread the seeds which help the forest vgrow! I’m such a hungry bod!’

Every time the Pelican spoke, the beak I was standing in jiggled madly up and down, and the more excited he got, the more it jiggled.

GIRAFFES The Monkey said, ‘What Pelly’s really crazy about is salmon!’

Giraffes use their long necks and tongues to reach high leaves. A ‘Yes, yes!’ cried the Pelican. ‘Salmon! Oh, glorious salmon! I dream about it all giraffe’s tongue can be up to 45cm long (that’s very long indeed!) day long but I never get any!’ and is used to draw leaves into its mouth. ‘And I dream about walnuts!’ shouted the Monkey. ‘A walnut fresh from the tree is scrumptious-galumptious, so flavory-savory, so sweet to eat that it makes me all wobbly just thinking about it!’

12 13 © RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 DOT-TO-CROC MATCH THE PAIRS

Crocodiles are great predators - they are fast over short distances, they have Whoopsy-splunkers, what a muddle! Can you help draw a line to match each sharp teeth and they have the strongest bite of any animal in the world! animal up to the correct fact below? Join the dots below to find out who is scaring Roly-Poly Bird…

This animal is the tallest of the 1 world’s mammals.

This animal’s eyes are on the top of their head, so when they hide under water they can still see their prey.

2 3 This animal digs dens with 4 5 underground tunnels that can be up to 22 metres long! 6 7

8 9 When this animal is too hot, they 10 flap their ears or hold them out to catch a breeze.

In Esio Trot, Mr Hoppy uses a clever trick to come up with his secret magic Boggis, Bunce and Bean will have to work very hard to catch up to Fantastic spell to help Alfie the tortoise to grow. See if you can be just as clever and Mr Fox, as foxes can reach speeds of around 30 miles per hour! Can you crack the codes below to reveal more fun facts about tortoises! colour in this very speedy fox?

1. ‘PEERC’ A DELLAC SI SESIOTORT FO PUORG A

TORTOISES AND TURTLES HAVE EXISTED SINCE SINCE EXISTED HAVE TURTLES AND TORTOISES THE ERA OF THE DINOSAURS,AROUND 300 300 DINOSAURS,AROUND THE OF ERA THE 2. MILLION YEARS AGO! YEARS MILLION

20-15-18-20-15-9-19-5-19 3-1-14-14-15-20 3. 19-23-9-13

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN - WRITE YOUR OWN 4. SECRET CODE BELOW!

A LITTLE STUCK? Question 1 uses the same trick as Mr Hoppy does when creating his magic spell! And for Question 2,

how many letters are there in the alphabet?

Tortoises cannot swim cannot Tortoises ago! years million 300 around dinosaurs, the of era the since 3. 3.

Tortoises and Turtles have existed existed have Turtles and Tortoises ‘creep’ a called is tortoises of group A 2. 1. Answers:

Now that you’ve met some of our very clever creatures why not have a go at creating your own? Draw them in the space below and tell us a little bit about them. What animal are they? Where do they live? What do they like to do?

WANT TO EXPLORE MORE? Visit the Roald Dahl and Natural History Museum websites to discover even more adventure, fun and story-telling! 18 www.nhm.ac.uk 19 www.roalddahl.com© RDSC/QB/NHM 2020 20