Famous Five Worksheets and Comprehension

[Yogesh12]

Hi Everyone,

Wondering, if anyone knows where we can get comprehension worksheets for The Famous Five series. I'm particularly looking for Five Go Adventure Again. My 7 year old started reading these and would be great to know how well he's understood it.

Thanx

Rakesh P

[Fiona1986]

There are some Famous Five related activities here: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/famous-five" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but I've never seen anything that you could class as a comprehension worksheet. To my knowledge schools don't use Blyton for teaching, and the copyright holders have never done any official learning aides.

[Katharine]

Maybe you could get hold of some comprehension sheets for other books and just adapt the questions to suit the Famous Five?

At my local school there are standard questions to ask children about the books they are reading, depending on their ages.

[Jack400]

There are some Famous Five related activities here: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/famous-five" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but I've never seen anything that you could class as a comprehension worksheet. To my knowledge schools don't use Blyton for teaching, and the copyright holders have never done any official learning aides.

The School Bookshop Association may be able to help- if it still exists. The 1970s tv series was used - I phoned them to ask what "tie-in" jackets meant. The covers had pictures relevant to the books apparently. (But, don't they usually?)

[pete9012S]

Might these points help?

The reason I want to do this is because next year is the 70th anniversary of the Famous Five. In the UK at Key Stage 2 (Juniors) the book could be read as "long established children's fiction".

We are all so familiar with the book and how the characters and location develop, we can forget what it is like to read the it for the first time. I think that the way we learn about the characters, and the build up to visiting the island are fantastic, and worthy of a book a class should study. The more we can spoonfeed the teachers, the more likely they are to use Blyton in the classroom!

Below are the points that teachers will want to discuss

a. recognise the choice, use and effect of figurative language, vocabulary and patterns of language
b. identify different ways of constructing sentences and their effects
c. identify how character and setting are created, and how plot, narrative structure and themes are developed

...but most of all - enjoy the book!

Viv

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... f=4&t=4215" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

Welcome, Rakesh. Does your son enjoy comprehension-type questions? I think I might have enjoyed the occasional Enid Blyton-based comprehension at that age, as long as I didn't have one on every Blyton book I read. (If referring to it as a "comprehension" might make it seem a bit too much like schoolwork, you could always call it a "quiz"!)

Why not read/re-read Five Go Adventuring Again and devise your own comprehension/quiz questions? Maybe you could ask your son to create a comprehension/quiz for you to complete too. It would be fun to see how similar/different the two sets of questions were. You could talk about the difference between "closed", factual questions (e.g. 'What is the name of the tutor?') and "open" questions which require more thought/analysis/evaluation (e.g. 'What kind of a relationship does George have with her father?') It would also be useful to have questions focussing on vocabulary, story structure and personal response.