Create some captions, speech and thought bubbles to accompany the beautiful illustrations in the book. One of the reasons I love Wiesner’s work is that he comes up with ideas I would never think about. A mysterious camera would be something a child would want to keep so the lesson here is to see if the boy understands the long-term goal of the obviously amazing camera. An enjoyable read.

Divide the class into small groups. Give each a selection of three items, plus access to as many clothes pegs as they need. Wave by Suzy Lee – a wordless picture book to encourage thoughtful exploration, discussion and the development of visual literacy. How many different creatures and plants can you identify in the illustrations? Can you write a report about one (or more) of them? In David Wiesner’s Flotsam, a boy finds a camera on a beach, which contains images of a fantastical underwater world of invented creatures. This wordless picturebook explores natural sciences from specimens to things like floating and sinking; biodegradability and ocean currents. There are also numerous opportunities for writing, drama, music, art and dance… The book is completely devoid of any dialogue - which is its great advantage: although a few English words on its cards they are not essential to understanding and enjoying the story. This allows for Flotsam to be enjoyed by all as it is not bound by any language, like classical music.The activity was beautifully simple and inclusive for all the children. I was blown away with the ideas and the reasoning they had behind them. I will be definitely using these grids for other activities again in the future. Flotsam" by David Wiesner is a wordless picture book. The story takes place at the shore. It is mostly told through the perspective of the camera after a young boy finds the vintage camera on the beach. He develops the film and it tells an adventurous and imaginative story of all the places the camera has been. Children will enjoy getting an overview of the story as a class, then exploring the book individually afterwards. Pair them, asking them to mirror each other’s movements, then progress to a ‘conversation’, where one child makes a movement answered by a different movement from their partner. Flotsam is a children's wordless picture book written and illustrated by David Wiesner. Published by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin in 2006, it was the 2007 winner of the Caldecott Medal; [1] the third win for David Wiesner. The book contains illustrations of underwater life with no text to accompany them.

The story begins with a curious boy who is visiting the beach. He has an interest in beach life and brings a multitude of exploration tools with him. As he’s exploring, a wave comes, and brings with it a strange looking camera. It resembles an underwater camera. He takes out the film and decides to have the film developed at the one hour photo department. The pictures he gets from the camera are amazing and show pictures of underwater sea life, including some strange mechanical fish. Within the photos he notices something strange and uses his microscope to figure it out. What he sees is surprising. Follow along in the story to see what he decides to do with it.A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam-anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep. Text Rationale: E.T., the Storybook of the Green Planet by William Kotzwinkle; based on the film story by Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison I have become a big fan of David Wiesner’s children’s books, probably because one doesn’t need to be a child to enjoy them. They are collectibles and such pleasures to enjoy. There aren’t words, but the wonderful illustrations always tell the stories by themselves. Identify the geographical features of beaches and coastlines. Can you create a report about some of them?

Take the initial sequence of images where the boy is swamped by the wave and finds the camera, and the sequence at the end, where the boy is again splashed by the wave (which reclaims his pictures). Talk about the images with your class. How would it feel to be experiencing these events? Make a collection of old photographic portraits – the sort available cheaply in postcard form from antique markets work well. Look at a map and find your closest beach. How far away is it? How could you travel there? How long might the journey take?Flotsam is a great example of a wordless picture book that creates engagement through its detailed sequence of images, rather than its text and, as such, requires a high level of inference. The author and illustrator, David Wiesner, is famous for creating other wordless texts, such as Tuesday and Free Fall. Flotsam won the Caldecott Medal in 2007 as well as being recognised by several other awards, and was chosen as the New York Times best illustrated children’s book that year. At heart it is a humorous fantasy story that also looks closely at the cyclical nature of life, as well as the ultimate power of nature. Links and themes:

Create your own incredible pictures that show images that might have been taken by the underwater camera.David Wiesner’s wordless, imaginative and exuberantly detailed picture book, Flotsam (Clarion Books, 2006), is a joy to share with children at KS2. Wordless, seasides, adventures, mystery, cameras, oceans, under the sea, life cycles, human connection Make a glossary of sea-themed words, including vocabulary from the book’s title and blurb (e.g. flotsam, floating, ashore, barnacle). Themes include imaginative undersea worlds; invented creatures; light and cameras; microscopes and collections of natural specimens; floating and sinking; biodegradability and rubbish; geography and ocean currents; historical timelines and community cohesion; as well as numerous opportunities for writing, drama, music, art and dance. 1 | Plot synopsis