The Hodgeheg

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This is a good story of road safety and overcoming obstacles, which I used with year 3 which they enjoyed and were able to access easily as a class with it being read to them. Max is a hedgehog who lives with his family, but their house is on the wrong side of the road from the park where there is a beautiful lily pond and plenty of juicy slugs! He attempts to cross the road here but finds it difficult to avoid the people coming from the opposite direction and only just makes it to the other side. He wrote a great number of children’s books, including The Sheep-Pig (winner of the Guardian Award and filmed as Babe), Harry’s Mad, Noah’s Brother, The Queen’s Nose, Martin’s Mice, Ace, The Cuckoo Child and Harriet’s Hare (winner of the Children’s Book Award in 1995).

The length of this chapter-based story also means it is more suited to being an ongoing project children read over a number of weeks, with comprehension, reading with expression, retelling through writing and widening vocabulary being used at different stages as children progress through the book. The included slideshow presentation for the teaching input will show them two paragraphs, both containing the same facts but with one being more detailed than the other. Many of his stories are inspired by his farming experiences, the children he taught, his large family and numerous pets. Max considers the problem for a while and decides that the best thing to do is run across the road as quick as he can before any more traffic comes.The Hodgeheg’ is the story of Max, a young hedgehog who wants to play in the park; his only obstacle is a busy road. This funny and heartwarming story encourages adventure and bravery though similarly shows the need for caution and is great for introducing children to the concept of road safety. After serving as a soldier in World War II, Dick King-Smith became a farmer and then a teacher of English.

I personally enjoyed the book a lot and would strongly recommend it to children to read at least once during their childhood. On one of his attempts he gets a bump to the head by a cyclist which results in his words all mixed up when he tries to speak - and he becomes a "hodgeheg".For it was the young, adventurous and bright Max who set out on his adventures to discover a safe way for hedgehogs to cross the road safely. The 35th anniversary of The Hodgeheg - a timeless classic tale for young children from the master of animal stories, Dick King-Smith. A detailed lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, and differentiated worksheets are all included in this Features of a Non-chronological Report KS1 English planning pack! Story about two hedgehogs that had babies - Max wanted to be the first hedgehog to cross the road, but he got run over on his head and was saying his sentences the wrong way round. I really enjoyed this light tale for young readers, which explores the idea of a hedgehog having the intelligence to want to find a safe road crossing place for himself and his family, so they can travel safely to the local park.

Sparkling humour and wonderful characters are Dick King-Smith’s trademarks’ – Books for Your ChildrenMax is a hedgehog who lives with his family in a nice little home, but it’s on the wrong side of the road from the Park where there’s a beautiful lily pond and plenty of juicy slugs, worms and snails!

The story focusses on Max the "hodgeheg" who tries to devise a way in which hedgehogs can cross the road safely. He aims to find a safe way for hedgehogs to cross the road to get to the park, however along the way he is involved in a few accidents himself and receives a bump on the head.

However, the main message of this book is that determination is important if you want to succeed; an important value that all young children should be led to consider. Well, I’ll look through each one and pull ones that have deteriorated… Wow, a hedgehog, wow, this is cute! Still determined to fulfil his mission, Max discovers the best way to cross the road - with the help of the lollipop lady and some careful detective work .In this third lesson of this series, your class will learn how to make their report writing more exciting for the reader. Dick even presented and starred in several television shows during the '80's and '90's with his Dachshund sidekick Dodo. The only problem is, it's on the other side of a busy road and many hedgehogs have died trying to get there.