Wanda And The Alien

What would you do if you found an alien? Would you run screaming or try and scare him away? Or would you show him all the best things to do?

In this lovely story about accepting differences and sharing, Wanda and the alien become best friends.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Answer the question on the back of the book… ‘What would you do if you found an alien?’
Have a debate in your class about what to do if an alien were discovered on the school playground.
Retell the story from Wanda’s (or the alien’s) point of view. Remember to include how you were feeling at different points in the story.
Write a sequel to the story, in which the alien’s family all come to meet Wanda.
Write a newspaper article about an alien spaceship that has crashed near to the forest.
Create a poster to persuade people to buy this book.
Write a review of the book. Have you read any similar books about animals and aliens?
Write a letter to the author, telling her what you thought of the book.
There are a number of other books about Wanda and the Alien. Can you read them and then create a new story that includes these characters?
Watch the ‘Wanda and the Alien’ cartoon. Do you prefer the book or the cartoon? Why?

Wanda and the alien play throughout summer and soon autumn comes. Why do we have seasons? How does the weather change in each season? How are the seasons different around the world?
Plan the alien’s route back home. Which planets might he pass on the way?

Retell the story with multimedia software, using images / text / sound.
Watch this animation showing the title sequence from the cartoon version of the books. Could you make your own title sequence?

Design a new rocket to help the alien return to his planet.
Look at the tools in Wanda’s toolkit. What are they called? What does each one do?

The leaves fall off the trees at one point in the story. Can you carry out some leaf rubbings?
Design your own alien.

Play a guided tour of your school / town to introduce the different places to an alien.

When Wanda first meets the alien, she ‘held out a paw in friendship’. What other types of body language can we show? How might this make others think / feel about us?
Why were the animals scared of the alien? What could Wanda and the alien do to reassure them?
How are people different? Why is it good that we are all different? What can we do to help other people accept each other’s differences?