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A TEACHER'S GUIDE TO TARANTULA TIDE by Sharon Tregenza

Themes/issues addressed in this book: Friendship, exotic creatures, island life, Shetland, coping with the death of a parent
Book Summary: Shetland should be a great place for a holiday, but Jack is harbouring a secret, and he's less than enthusiastic to be there. When he meets Izzie and her exotic pets, things start to liven up. They fi nd a tarantula underneath the fridge and after that, they start to notice all kinds of odd things happening around them. Who is loitering on the beach at night? Are the well-dressed professor and the scruffy tramp really the same person? And where exactly does Sheila, the vet, fit into the picture? This award-winning
novel mixes humour, drama, and a fantastic location to create a thought-provoking
adventure which centres on the lucrative smuggling of exotic creatures.

 BEFORE READING --Group Activities:

•  Discussion: talk about Shetland and its Viking past. Do you feel more like a Viking
or a Scot or a bit of both?
•  Discussion: what type of creature is a tarantula? How do you feel about spiders?
•  Discussion: what do you know about smuggling? Do you think that islands like the
Shetlands would be a good place to operate a smuggling ring? Why?

AFTER READING-- Individual Work

• Write a paragraph on the thoughts and feelings you had when:
 a) Jack came face-to-face with the tarantula (chapter 1/chapter 2)
 b) The Eigg man told Jack & Izzie about the smuggling (chapter 5)
 c) You found out that Jack's father is dead (chapter 10)
 d) You found out that Sheila is behind the smuggling (chapter 11)
•  Draw or paint a picture of one of the following:
 a) A Mexican red-kneed tarantula like Octavia
 b) A chameleon like Karma
 c) An Oriental Fire-Bellied Toad like Bombina
•  Write at least four paragraphs on the mini 'Up Helly Aa' that Jack uses to say good-
bye to his father. Do you think this helped Jack come to terms with his father's death?
How? Why do you think Jack lied about his father's death?
•  Imagine you are writing an email to a friend on the mainland who doesn't know
what 'Up Helly Aa' is. Tell them about it - how it started, and what you do.

 

CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS COVERED

5-14 Curriculum, Scotland
Years: P4-P7
Listening:
Listening in Groups
Listening for Information, including instructions and directions

 

Reading:

Reading for information, reading to reflect, awareness of genre.

Talking:

Talking in groups, talking about texts, talking about experiences, including feelings and opinions

Writing:
Functional
Imaginative
Group Activities:
•  Class project: what kind of creatures might you find in the wild in the Shetlands? Using the Internet and your school library, try to find twenty different types of creature - birds, insects and mammals - and create a fact-file about them. You might like to include facts such as: what characteristics they have; where you might find them in the islands and when; how long their life span is, and so on.
•  Group discussion and activity: how do you think someone like Jack would adapt if he had to move from a city like Edinburgh to Shetland? What do you think he'd miss? Write a list of ten pros and cons of living on the Shetland Islands.
•  Class project: visit the Clickimin Broch for inspiration and make a broch settlement display for your class. Take some photographs and write down anything you notice that you think might help you with the project. Using a variety of materials (papier-mâché, plasticine, stones, grass etc) create a complete broch and a little community around it. You can even include people and animals!

 Vocabulary:

• Check you know what the following words mean: antibiotic didgeridoo galley  Norse  satellite  tier broch  expedition hysterical paranoid  silhouette venom circumstantial frantic  illegal  quarantine stereotypical Viking

 

Download this Teachers Guide here as a PDF FILE

http://www.sharontregenza.com/TGTarantulaTideShetland.pdf