Duffy's Lucky Escape - Teaching Ideas

Buy This Book * More books by Ellie Jackson

Duffy’s Lucky Escape will transport you to a tropical paradise where Duffy the Sea Turtle lives amongst beautiful coral reefs and colourful fish, only for Duffy to learn that not all that floats is food.

You can find more ideas, information and free digital resources, powerpoints and reading guides for this book as well as the other books in the Wild Tribe Heroes series on the author’s website www.wildtribeheroes.com/teaching-resources. It is free to register for the resources.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

Choose one of the illustrations in the book and write a detailed description of what you can see.
Think of some speech / thought bubbles for one of the illustrations. What might the characters be saying or thinking?
Watch this video of a sea turtle swimming and think of verbs and adverbs to describe how it moves.

Listen to this interview with the author. Can you think of questions that you would like to ask her?

Read other books by Ellie Jackson. Why do you think she has written stories about different environmental issues?
Write a story that is set in the ocean or is based on an environmental issue.
Plan a fundraising event to raise money for environmental charities. Make persuasive posters and write letters to encourage people to support your event.
Write a letter to a newspaper, a council or a member of parliament to explain how you feel about plastic pollution and to ask for support to improve the environment.
Write a set of instructions to encourage people to carry out their own beach clean safely.
Write an acrostic poem based on the word TURTLE or POLLUTION.
Retell the story (or a part of it) from Duffy’s point of view.
Write a newspaper report about Duffy’s rescue and return to the sea.
Write a new blurb for this book to encourage people to read it.
Write a review of Duffy’s Lucky Escape for a bookshop or an online store.
If it is suitable for your children, watch this animation about turtles and retell the story from the point of view of one of the characters.

Maths

How many different types of plastic do you use in a day (or a week)? Carry out a survey to record this information.
Investigate the sizes of different turtles. Could you create some life-size drawings or models of them?
Find out the weights of different types of turtles. Show this information in the form of a graph and compare it to your own weight / mass.

Science

Write a report about turtles using information from the book and from your own research. Where do they live? What do they eat? How are they adapted to their habitats? Could you present this information in the form of a fact file, a written report, a double-page spread, a multimedia presentation, an audio report or a video?
Draw a diagram of a turtle and label its body parts. How does each part help it to survive? DKfindout! has some useful information for your children.
Learn about the different types of turtles. How are they similar / different?
Make a food chain or a food web that includes sea turtles. What do they eat? What predators do they have?
Some species of turtles are ‘endangered’ or ‘critically endangered’. What do these terms mean? Can you find out about other animals that are also endangered? What can we do to help them?

Computing

Make a game in which a sea turtle has to avoid plastic pollution to reach their food.
Use publishing software to design a poster that encourages people to clean marine litter and plastic pollution when they visit the beach.
Record a video that explains different things that people can do to help save turtles.
Make a stop motion animation about a turtle encountering some plastic pollution.

Design Technology

Make a model of a sea turtle using recycled materials.
Design a machine that could collect marine litter and plastic pollution without harming animals and plants living in the sea.

Art

Create your own illustrations or paintings of turtles or other sea creatures.

Music

Imagine that a movie version of ‘Duffy’s Lucky Escape’ is being made. Could you compose a melody for it?
Listen to the soundtrack of animations / movies that are based underwater (e.g. Finding Nemo).

Geography

Make a list of things that people can do to help improve our environment.
Make a list of other environmental issues that affect our planet and the plants and animals living on it.

History

Investigate the reasons why humans have hunted turtles in the past. Why is this illegal in many countries today? What are people doing today to help sea turtles survive?

Physical education

Plan your own dance routine or performance based on sea turtles / environmental issues.

PSHE

Research charities that try to help environmental issues. What do they do? How can you get involved?

Duffy’s Lucky Escape