£5.00 (inc. VAT)
KS: Upper KS2
Year Group: Year 6
Literary Theme: Journeys & Migration
Author(s): Shaun Tan
"I was very concerned about using a book with no words for Year 6 - how would it develop vocabulary, how would it stretch and challenge? I was delighted to be proven wrong. The quality of the written work produced by the children was exceptional."
Letters, character descriptions, diaries, short playscripts, guides
Extended own version narrative
17 sessions, 3+ weeks
This is a three-week Writing Root using The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It explores the issue of immigration and the reasons why people have to flee countries and seek asylum. Children will explore characters, emotions, different points of view and the challenges faced by the main character and some of the other characters that have made their way to the new land. Through the sequence of learning, children will write a diary of the little girl as well as short scripts for scenes and narrative passages to describe what is happening at certain points in the book. It includes exemplified grammar activities throughout, and drama techniques, such as thought tapping.
What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown. This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey.
The Arrival has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place.
This wordless picture book is a silent tribute to every displaced person, migrant or refugee who has made a journey. Children will develop empathy for those facing difficult, life-changing circumstances an explore themes such as migration, relationships, community and belonging. Shaun Tan is a beloved, award-winning children’s author-illustrator who brings difficult concepts into sharp focus; children will recognise his distinctive style if they have previously studied The Lost Thing or many of his other well-known titles.
Refugees, immigration, migration, movement, displacement, journeys, community, connection, belonging, wordless, film
Date written: January 2013
Updated: December 2021
A Spelling Seed is available for The Arrival.
This is a spelling seed for the book The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Below is the coverage from Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum 2014.
Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning.
There is a Spelling Seed session for every week of the associated Writing Root.
accommodate, bargain, communicate, foreign, identity, individual, language, pronunciation, queue
Homophones and other words that are often confused
Words with ‘silent’ letters (i.e. letters whose presence cannot be predicted from the pronunciation of the word)
View The Arrival Spelling Seed
