KS2 School Author Visits

Here at Dinosaur Books, we publish many middle grade stories that make perfect class readers for KS2 teachers, including our middle grade historical fiction, so it is always wonderful to see specialist teacher resource companies producing activities that link our books to the KS2 curriculum.

Expert Resources for KS2

The lovely folk at KS2 Gems, an expert resources company, have created some fantastic activities to accompany two of our historical fiction titles - Freedom for Bron and Children of the Benin Kingdom. The resources are focused on reading skills, as set out in the English National Curriculum – so in addition to enriching the history curriculum, these resources enable teachers to use our books more easily, to support children’s reading skills too! KS2 Gems has kindly made it possible to sample a snapshot of the resources here.

Black History Month resources for KS2

As an educator, there’s a lot to consider for Black History Month (I am quite sure that there’s a lot to think about all the time)! Perhaps the most important thing to do is not to confine history that involves Black people to just one month, or one topic. We commissioned Children of the Benin Kingdom as an uplifting, exciting adventure story that immerses readers in this wonderful West African civilisation - which is a key part of West African, and therefore Black history. You can read more about our commissioning process in the CILIP’s (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals’) Pen & Inc magazine. And as KS2 Gems has proved, the book can not only expand and diversity historical knowledge (in a truly exciting way), but also support reading skills, via targeted resources. So a perfect class reader all year round!

Anglo-Saxon topic resources for KS2

Freedom for Bron, our Anglo-Saxon fiction for KS2 is becoming ever more popular with teachers. We’ve asked a few for feedback on what the children really enjoy, and what’s emerged is that they love the friendship between Bron, the enslaved young Saxon who makes a bid for freedom and the awe-inspiring warriors that he meets: Sigwyn, the neice of a local king, and Beogard a grizzled old lord. Their joint mission is to bring peace to the warring Saxons and Jutes and avert a war - but of course along the way the children learn much about themselves and readers learn a lot about the early Anglo-Saxon period. Once again, the KS2 Gems resources show that a historical fiction can not only enrich historical knowledge - but support reading skills too. Result!