Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

A group of Year 6 children have been reading ‘Wolf Brother’ by Michelle Paver which is an excellent book about a Stone Age boy and his struggle for survival while trying to fulfil his quest to stop all life being destroyed in the forest. To support the reading of this book we arranged a number activities that the children could take part in that actually featured in the book. We brought into school animal skins that would have been used for clothing, different Stone Age weapons that the children got to have a go at using including an atl-atl throwing spear in the school field, we showed the children different trapping techniques that were described in the book specifically ‘deadfall’ traps and how natural cordage would have been made and used. We also demonstrated Stone Age fire lighting techniques so that the children could really appreciate what it meant to try and survive in the Stone Age.

The feedback from the school and the teachers has been fantastic and we’ve been told that the practical examples really helped improve the children’s creative writing after the sessions. We were please to support this and are now looking at other books and ways we can support in school.