
Session 1 · AUTHOR: Understand
Nyari: The Voice in the Tides
- 15 minRead 'Nyari: The Voice in the Tides' aloud. Pause after each part to predict.
- 15 minInference chart: what do we learn about Nyari, Sahli and the Root Quiet from what they do and say, not from what we're told?
- 15 minCircle talk: was Nyari right to change the Chelari without asking? Use evidence from the story. Agree, disagree, or 'yes, but…'.
- 5 minWrite the story's theme in one sentence, such as 'Helping someone without asking can…'.
Session 2 · AUTHOR: Techniques
Worldbuilding
- 10 minRead 'Building a world'. Discuss the iceberg idea: you know much more about your world than you tell the reader.
- 25 minStart your world bible: place, environment, technology, society, one big rule, one problem.
- 10 minDraw a quick map or diagram of your world.
- 5 minKuaka asks one question about your world's rules. Note your answer.
Getting started
Build your world by changing just one thing about your own town.
Stretch
Invent five words people in your world would use, and show their meaning through a sentence rather than a definition.
Checkpoint
Everyone has explained a theme from Nyari with evidence and started a world bible with a map.
Activities for this week
- Light-pulse messages: How could a creature with no words share an idea, like the Chelari in the Nyari story?
- World bible and map: What do you need to know about your world before you can write in it?
- Ethics circle: Is it right to change someone 'for their own good' without asking them?
Useful this week
- Services to Schools ↗ Borrow a science fiction book box and find reading ideas.
- NASA Space Place ↗ Real facts about planets, moons and stars to build believable worlds.
- Europa: Jupiter's ocean world ↗ Why scientists think there's an ocean under Europa's ice.