Max at Night

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Max is tired and all ready for bed, but when he can’t find the moon to say goodnight to, he sets out to find it. But that’s not as easy as Max had hoped…

English:

• Retell the story from Max’s point of view. Include descriptions that show how he was feeling at different times.
• There are a number of books about Max*.  Could you write a new story about this character?
• Find examples of direct speech in the text. Rewrite these as reported (or indirect) speech.
• How many different types of punctuation can you find in the story? Can you explain why they were used?
• Write some similes and metaphors to describe the night sky.
• Imagine Max woke the sleeping dog. What conversation could they have?
• In this book, Max completes a series of actions and then repeats them in reverse. Could you use this technique in your own story?
• Write a bedtime poem to help Max relax and get to sleep.

Maths:

• Make a timeline that shows the events that took place in the story. Use this to create some word problems for a friend to solve.
• Estimate how far Max goes to say goodnight to the moon. How high does he climb?
• Conduct a survey to find out when your classmates go to bed at night.

Science:

• Why do we have day and night? Find out more about this topic and make a presentation to teach others about it.
• Find out about animal sleep routines. Which animals sleep for the longest time? Which animals are nocturnal? Which animals hibernate?
• Use torches and lights to investigate shadows.
• In this story, Max has trouble sleeping. Find out how sleep helps our bodies and why it is important to us.

Computing:

• Use art software to draw your own illustrations of Max.
• Take some photos of night time scenes.
• Create an animated / narrated version of this story. Here is an example:

Design Technology:

• Could you make a puppet or a model of Max?
• Design a bed that will help Max to sleep.
• Make a pop-up page for the book showing Max exploring a new place on his journey to say goodnight to the moon.

Art:

• What colours are used in the illustrations to show that it is night time? Use similar colours to make your own pictures of a scene at night.
• Draw or paint pictures of the same place at day and at night. How are the pictures the same / different?
• Look at examples of art that show nighttime scenes. Can you try to recreate one of these?

Music:

• Compose a melody that represents a quiet street at night time.
• Sing some bedtime songs and rhymes that might help you to sleep.

Geography:

• Make a map that shows the main locations in the story. Show his journey on the map.

PSHE:

• How does night time make you feel?
• Create a timeline that shows how Max felt at different points in the story.
• What is your bedtime routine? How does this help you to settle at night?