Boggis and Bunce Love Food, So
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Teacher’s Notes Pearson EnglishTeacher’s Kids Readers Notes Pearson English Kids Readers Level 4 Suitable for: young learners who have completed up to 200 hours of study in English Type of English: British Headwords: 800 Key words: 15 (see pages 2 and 7 of these Teacher’s Notes) Key grammar: irregular past simple verbs, relative pronouns, could for past ability and possibility, must for obligation Summary of the story drink from the farmers’ storehouses. Little do the Farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean each have a farm. three farmers know all this as they sit outside, They are rich men, but mean. Mr Fox lives under a next to Mr Fox’s hole, waiting in vain for him to tree on a hill above the farms and feeds his family come out. with chickens from Boggis’s farm, ducks from Bunce’s farm and turkeys from Bean’s farm. Bean Background information also grows apples and makes cider from them. Roald Dahl’s popular story Fantastic Mr Fox was first published in 1970. A later edition included the The angry farmers are not happy that Mr Fox is illustrations by Quentin Blake that are also used in always taking their animals, and they decide to the Reader. kill the thief. They shoot at him when he leaves his hole one day, but they only take off his tail. So In 2009, the book was made into a film, with they decide to dig him out, first by hand and then the voices of George Clooney as Mr Fox and with diggers, but the foxes just dig deeper into the Meryl Streep as Mrs Fox. The book has also been ground. But when the farmers stop digging and adapted for theatre and opera. decide to circle the hill with all their men and wait instead, Mr Fox has a problem. How can he leave Did you know … ? his home to feed his family now? He devises a plan. First, Mr Fox and the Small Foxes dig a tunnel to The tree that the Fox family calls home is the floor of Boggis’s chicken house. Mr Fox kills based on a real beech tree in the garden of some chickens and sends his oldest child home the house where Roald Dahl lived, in a little with them. Then, with the help of his friend Badger, village in England. Mr Fox digs a second tunnel to Bunce’s storehouse, In the film, 535 puppets were made. And and sends his other two children home with ducks there were 102 puppets of Mr Fox alone! and vegetables. Finally, he and Badger dig a The director of the film, Wes Anderson, still third tunnel to Bean’s cider house and steal some has the copy of the book Fantastic Mr Fox bottles. that his mother gave to him when he was The Foxes invite their animal friends to a big party. seven years old. They eat and drink, and agree that they can live underground and use the tunnels to take food and 1 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com FANTASTIC MR FOX LEVEL 4 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers The characters Key words Mr Fox is a fox who lives with his family in a wood (see page 7 of these Teacher’s Notes for the Key on a hill above three farms. words in context) Mrs Fox is Mr Fox’s wife. cider (n) mean (adj) The Small Foxes are Mr and Mrs Fox’s three dig (v) / digger (n) other (det) children. duck (n) steal (v) Farmer Boggis is a fat, greedy chicken farmer. fault (n) storehouse (n) Farmer Bunce is a short, greedy duck farmer. fox (n) too (adv) Farmer Bean is a tall, thin turkey and apple gun (n) tunnel (n) farmer. hill (n) turkey (n) Mrs Bean is Farmer Bean’s wife. hole (n) Mabel is a woman who works for Mr and Mrs Bean. Badger is a friend of Mr Fox who lives with his family in the wood. The Rabbits also live in the wood and are guests at Mr Fox’s party. Topics and themes Farm pests Mr Fox takes food from the farms. Family Mrs Fox says that her husband is ‘a Ask the students why he does this. Why doesn’t fantastic fox’ because he always saves his family. he catch food in the wood? Is it understandable Ask the students which qualities in their parents that the farmers want to kill him? What other wild or carers, brothers and sisters are most important animals might make the farmers’ work difficult? to them. What role do the students play in their Which characters in the story do the students families? sympathise with more: the wild animals, the farmers or the farm birds? Why? Right and wrong Badger is worried about stealing. Mr Fox is not. Who do the students agree Animal homes The Fox family lives in a hole with? Can they think of times when other bad under the ground. Ask the students which other behaviour might be acceptable? animals live underground, and where they think other animals and birds live. Animal skills Ask the students what all the foxes do better than the farmers. How is this skill useful to them? Ask students to think about other wild animals. Do they dig? What can they do better than us? Friends and enemies Mr Fox and his family have friends in the wood. What does he do for them? What might they do for him? How do the animals all feel when they are together? The three farmers only seem to have enemies (and employees). Are they happy people? What emotions do they show? 2 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com FANTASTIC MR FOX LEVEL 4 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers Class Activities (After Reading) scissors and thread the string or elastic through the holes, tying knots near the holes so that the Here are some activities to do with your class string or elastic stays securely in place. after reading Fantastic Mr Fox. • The students are now ready to wear their fox masks. 1. Make a fox mask Materials: orange card; white and black • Divide the class into groups to act out scenes construction paper; 3 white or black pipe cleaners from the story. Form groups using the different (chenille stems); safety scissors; glue; string or fox characters and choose scenes. elastic; masking tape (optional) • The students could write down their dialogues • Before the session, make a fox mask following before acting them out, using their own words the instructions. Tell the students that they are in English. going to make a mask for the fox of their choice • Ask for volunteers to perform their dialogue for from the story. the rest of the class wearing their masks. • Talk about the different foxes in the story and 2. Project: Fox Facts ask the students to tell you their favourites. They should choose which fox they like best and Materials: internet access and / or reference they will make a mask of that character. books; large sheets of white card; coloured pens / pencils / paints; safety scissors; glue • Draw the template of a fox mask on the board, as shown in the diagram on page 6 of these • Explain to the students that the red fox, which Teacher’s Notes. Then hand out the materials. the foxes in the story are based on, is the most common species of fox, and it is found in • First, the students draw the mask shape on their Europe, North America, North Africa and Asia. piece of orange card, as per the template on the Ask the students if they have ever seen a fox. board. • Divide the class into pairs. Tell the students that • They cut out the mask shape and the eye holes. they are going to do a project about the red fox, Now they decorate the mask. The students making a Fox Facts poster to learn more about add the white fur area near the fox’s mouth by the animal. cutting out the shape using white construction paper. Then they cut out triangular ear shapes • Give each pair a large sheet of card. The pairs and a round nose using black construction should do their research together, gathering paper. Then they glue all the features except the information about the red fox on the internet or nose onto the mask. Do not include the whiskers in reference books. They should find out about at this stage. the animal’s habitat, what food it eats, whether it is nocturnal, what its lifespan is, what its • Go round the class and help out where characteristics are, and any other important necessary. information. • To make the whiskers, take three pipe cleaners • The students then draw a picture of the fox and pinch and twist them together in the middle. on the poster and colour it, or use pictures Separate them out a little and glue them onto downloaded from the internet to stick onto their the mask in the nose area. Now the black nose poster. Then they write sentences about the fox can be glued on top. to relate all the information they have gathered. • To make the mask ready to wear, the students They should present the information in a fun and make small holes near the eyes using a pencil or interesting way. 3 www.pearsonenglishkidsreaders.com FANTASTIC MR FOX LEVEL 4 Teacher’s Notes Pearson English Kids Readers • Display the posters around the classroom and the students would add this kind of information ask volunteers to discuss what they know about to the section in the diagram where Boggis and the red fox.