Make a collection of words that could be used to describe the lion and the unicorn. Use a thesaurus to find appropriate synonyms. There is a Spelling Seed session for every week of the associated Writing Root. Coverage: Word List Words

Shirley’s ability to draw children was spotted by a children’s books editor while she was still a student at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford. Initially, she mainly illustrated other people’s stories, starting with Noel Streatfeild’s The Bell Family in 1954, and including most notably Dorothy Edwards’s My Naughty Little Sister books when they were republished in the late 1960s. She also illustrated books by Alison Uttley, Ian Serraillier and Margaret Mahy. Lenny felt numb” means that he could not feel anything. I think he felt that way because he thought that Joyce made Winnie cry.

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What jobs do the women in the book do? How has the war changed their lives? Look at the broader experience of women during the war using this lesson plan and wartime posters. Sort characters in the book depending on their attitude to Lenny. Who is kind to him? Who is unkind? List other stories, books and films that have lions and / or unicorns in them. What are the similarities and differences between them in this story and others? She then studied at the Ruskin in Oxford. According to her autobiography, A Life Drawing (2002), her application to Oxford was based on the misinformation that the city had an ice rink and she “rather fancied myself on ice”. At Ruskin, she studied life drawing, laying the foundation for so much of her later illustrations.

Her exceptional contribution to children’s books was widely recognised, with awards for individual titles including the Children’s Rights Workshop Other award, a prize that celebrated diversity in children’s books, for Helpers (1975); and a second Kate Greenaway medal, for Ella’s Big Chance (2003). She received the Eleanor Farjeon award for services to children’s literature in 1984, and was the first winner of the BookTrust lifetime achievement award, in 2015. She was appointed OBE in 1999 and CBE in 2017. Look at famous paintings of fires in London, for example, The Great Fire of London (Unknown artist 1675) or A House Collapsing on Two Firemen by Leonard Rosoman. Have a go at your own fire painting.The name of the book this is “Lion and Unicorn”, it was wrote and illustrated by Shirley Hughes. The first version was published in 1998. But their is an other version published on 7 September 2000 by the publisher Red Fox. Shirley Hughes has received a lot of awards but I don't know if this book has won an award. While the premise of many of Shirley’s books remained constant, she was innovative in the ways of telling them. A wordless picture book, Up and Up (1979), was followed by Chips and Jessie (1985), the first in a series of titles told in comic strip format as a way of helping emerging readers move from just pictures to words. She also collaborated with her daughter, Clara Vulliamy, on the Dixie O'Day series; which saw Shirley with an illustrator for the first time with Shirley writing the text and Clara creating the illustrations. Make a collection of books about World War II, for example, When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and War Boy by Michael Foreman. This is a three-plus week Writing Root using The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes, where children explore the text in its historical context and discuss the themes and imagery within, e.g. the Blitz and evacuees. They explore a range of grammatical concepts including dialogue to create inference about a character, a variety of noun phrases to create description, character comparisons using conjunctions, personification and prepositions to describe a setting. Children write a range of diary entries, letters, character comparisons, setting descriptions and finish by writing their own evacuation narrative. There is also an optional additional opportunity to write a non-chronological report about women in World War 2 (WW2), as well as two optional additional spelling sessions. Synopsis of Text:

Then, Lenny himself must go away, evacuated from his home and family to escape the bombing. Staying in a strange new place, Lenny gathers all his lion bravery, all his unicorn courage, and discovers that magic can happen, even in the most desperate of times. Teaching Ideas and Resources: English The main character name's Lenny, he lives with her mum because his father has gone at war. Lenny is an insecure child but his father’s badge, with lion and unicorn, cheers him up. One day the mother thinks it’s better for Lenny to go to the country to escape the bombing. In country side Lenny lives with 2 girls and the owners in a very big house. She could create a sense of drama out of the smallest thing and resolve it without ever needing to deliver a message. Instead, she relied on children and their parents being largely sensible and so able to solve problems for themselves. In 1952 she married John Vulliamy; he died in 2007. She is survived by their three children, Ed, a journalist, Clara, an author and illustrator, and Tom, a research scientist. In addition to her own work, Shirley battled hard for the cause of illustrators and authors, serving on the management committees of the Society of Authors, Public Lending Right and the Library and Information Services Council.

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Shirley was just the person that those who loved her illustrations would expect her to be. Usually in a hat, she was effortlessly elegant and graceful, and wonderful company: funny, insightful and kind with a laugh that was both loud and heartfelt. Compare the school playground in the book to your playground; what’s the same, and what’s different?

Shirley Hughes illustrated more than 200 children's books and is one of the best-loved writers for children, known for her beloved classics including the Alfie and Annie Rose stories, and Dogger.

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I find this book rather good because it explains the pain of children who leave their parents. Even though this book is for children between 5 and 7 years old, but it's also interesting even for older children. This book is not full of action but it makes you want to help children who have lived through the war and nowadays find it difficult to live without their parents. Try out some of the games being played in the playground. What other playground games could you play?