Blood Buns and Scarecrows
Book Band Gold B
RR Level 22
Genre Fantasy fiction
Length 32pp (760 words)
Letters and Sounds Phase 6
NC Level 2B
APP Level 2, Secure
Phonics Bug Up to Unit 30
Interest words journey, apologised,
revenge, shriek
Plot Summary
Shopping with Grandpa Fang is NEVER dull, thinks Small Fang.
And he is not wrong. On a trip to buy Blood Buns (jam doughnuts)
Grandpa Fang loses his fangs, knocks over a huge pile of tins,
causes a cake catastrophe and terrifies the local children. Farmer
Pickles brings Grandpa’s fangs revealing that he had lost them trying
to eat the scarecrow.
Curr. Ref.
Objectives
APP Assessment Focus
7:5 (PNS)
Reading
ENG 1-19a (CfE) Explore how particular
RS8 (W)
words are used
R8 (NI)
AF5: some effective
language choices noted
(L2/bullet 1)
2:3 (PNS)
LIT 1-02a (CfE)
OS13 (W)
T&L 2 (NI)
Speaking and Listening
Respond to presentations
by … repeating
some highlights and
responding constructively
AF4: show awareness of
ways in which speakers
vary talk, and why (L2)
9:4 (PNS)
LIT 1-26a (CfE)
WS5 (W)
W2 (NI)
Writing
Make adventurous word
and language choices
appropriate to the style
and purpose of the text
AF7: some adventurous
word choices (L2/bullet 2)
Key
AF = Assessment Focuses for APP in Reading, Speaking & Listening
and Writing
APP = Assessing Pupils’ Progress, QCA (2009)
CfE = The Curriculum for Excellence (2009)
PCM
NI = Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum Foundation Stage (2007)
PNS = Strand objectives from the Primary National Strategies (2006)
W = Foundation Phase Framework for children’s learning for 3 to
7-year-olds in Wales (2008)
Session 1 Reading
Before Reading
Phonics for Reading
Pick a word from the story which you think the children will
struggle to decode – for example, delicious. Find the word in the
book (e.g. delicious is on page 32) and ask the children to read
the sentence it is in, leaving a gap for the word. Help the children
to use their knowledge of phonics to decode the word, e.g. by
pointing out that the ‘c’ in ‘delicious’ has a /sh/ sound.
Walkthrough
Talk about the front and back covers and the chapter headings.
Encourage predictions:
• What do the children think the blood buns could be?
• Have the children read any other Fang Family books? How do
they think Grandpa will behave?
• Read the chapter headings and make predictions. Check that the
children understand what the word revenge (page 20) means.
During Reading
While the children read, ask them to think about the main question.
Main question: What words does the author use to describe how
the characters talk? (AF5)
Additional prompts to help you sample the children’s reading:
Page 7:
Ask the children to explain how the jam doughnuts
are like blood buns. Is ‘blood bun’ a good
description? (AF5)
Page 10:
Check that children can use their decoding skills to
read grumbled and crumpled. (AF1)
Page 11:
Why do the children think the author says Grandpa
speaks slyly? What is Grandpa planning? (AF5, AF3)
Page 13:
Draw the children’s attention to the phrase ‘as
blind as a bat’ and talk about how it describes
Grandpa’s poor eyesight. Point out that it is a joke
because he can turn into a bat. (AF5)
Page 18:
Ask the children to predict where Grandpa’s false
fangs could be. (AF3)
Page 20:
Why do the children think the author uses the word
dribbled to describe how Grandpa talks? (AF5)
After Reading (collecting evidence for AF5)
Discuss the main question as a group. Look in the text to find
out why Grandpa wants Small Fang to go ahead. (He thinks he
has seen something tasty.) Look at the word slyly and discuss
Grandpa’s intentions. Why doesn’t he want Small Fang to know
what he is doing?
Ask the children to look through the book and find three good
words that help us imagine how the characters speak.
Which part of the story do the children think is funniest, and why?
Quick Finishers
Why do you think Grandpa looks at
Small Fang guiltily on page 32?
Would you like to go late-night
shopping with Grandpa and Small
Fang? What would you buy?
Session 2 Speaking and Listening & Writing
Phonics for Writing
Give the children two minutes to flip through the book and collect
as many describing words ending in ‘y’ or ‘ly’ as possible. Write
the children’s words on the board (e.g. actually, slyly, suddenly,
smelly, easy, tasty, carefully, wickedly, hungry, angry, creaky, tatty,
guiltily). Write them in two lists (‘y’ words and ‘ly’ words) and look
together at how the words are formed. Do you have to change
the root word before adding ‘y’ or ‘ly’? (e.g. ‘hunger’ becomes
‘hungry’, ‘anger’ becomes ‘angry’.) What happens if the root word
ends in ‘e’, like ‘ease/easy’ or ‘taste/tasty’?
Speaking and Listening
Look at the picture of Grandpa holding the dripping buns (page 27).
Talk about why this could be scary for the children in the story.
Say, “The jam from the buns dripped like a river of sticky blood.”
Encourage the children to think of other similes to describe the jam
dripping down Grandpa’s hands.
Discuss the children’s suggestions and encourage them to say what
they like about each other’s similes. (AF4)
Writing
Ask the children to write a simile to describe Grandpa holding the
dripping doughnuts (page 27). (AF7)
Remind the children of the simile on page 13, ‘as blind as a bat.’
Using the PCM, ask the children to write some more similes to
describe Grandpa. (AF7)
Making Links
Find out about how to look after
your teeth.