The following sparks are based on the book.

Sparks for inference – Chapter 2 ‘The Return of the Iron Man’

Read p11-12 up to ‘His little sister began to cry.’

Depending on age and experience, you could use a version of Forum Theatre to depict Hogarth telling his family that he has seen the Iron Man:

Some children to represent the characters (the actors) in the scene and the rest of the group to direct.

The ‘directors’ are to arrange the characters into a still image of the scene (this can be at a distance to each other or done symbolically with the characters remaining in their usual places).

The directors are to collectively decide what Hogarth and the other characters might say to each other if the image was brought to life.

Ask the children playing the characters to bring the scene to life for a few seconds by saying the suggested lines.

You can replay the scene multiple times, trying out different possibilities with suggestions from the whole group.

You could invite children to replace the volunteers at certain points in the discussion. Children could then work in smaller groups to recreate the scene for themselves.

Please find a full unit of learning for this book under our free resources section. It is suitable for Years 2 and 3.