Secret Sky Garden

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After weeks of careful nurture, the space goes from concrete to compost: she now has her garden in the sky!

Look at the front cover of the book. Ask your child what he/she can see on the front cover. What is the title of the story? Who are the authors/illustrators? What parts of the front cover are grey? What parts are in colour? Why do you think the author has chosen to have some parts grey and some parts in colour? She immediately wanted to plant seeds in the garden and asked her Papa if they could plant on top of the log cabin so it could be closer to the sky. She wanted her own sky garden with sunflowers, roses, marigolds, lavender, lilies and even wanted a herb garden within it with lots of mint, coriander, rosemary and parsley! She said that if she managed to make it, she would invite her friends for a tea party under it so they could guess the wonderful smells whenever the wind blew. He likes to repeat “something was missing” and “definitely”, in some form; it’s a pretty long statement and he’s saying it very sweetly. The most surprising thing to me is little gosling now recognising letter “S” as “secret sky garden”. I can definitely see the link there :).Funni is a lonely girl who spends a lot of her spare time in an abandoned rooftop car park next to the airport. Feeling something is missing, she works hard to clean the place, plant and care for a garden, transforming the place into a beautiful and cozy playground for herself. The rooftop garden finds her the perfect friend. Zoo notices the garden from a plane and has to go there. He is also lonely and shares Funni’s passion for music and kite flying. A heartwarming story about friendship, with a lovely message about kids’ autonomy, creativity and enormous work capacity and a touching environmental note. If you're looking for swanky views over London for free, look no further than the Sky Garden; the 43rd floor paradise with sights across the Thames. Enter the beautiful, inspiring world of Secret Sky Garden: where no one can stop one child turning an unloved bit of the city into a little piece of green paradise. I fell in love with the illustrations and the explosion of colours! They’re so stunningly uplifting and cheerful! There’s so much contrast! I badly want a Peruvian hat just like Funni’s, the same dark blue :P. And those old abandoned rusty cars in the car park have such amazing colours; wouldn’t mind having a car like that :))). And the flowers… wooow! I’m a definite Fiona Lumbers’ fan. Can she/he describe the following steps? Discuss the sequencing pictures from the video (worksheet How to make a kite steps 1-10)

Read/watch the story again with your child. Ask literal, inference and deduction questions about the story. Use picture cues to deduce some answers. Explore our activities On Sudden Hill with Benji Davies Read another story illustrated by Fiona Lumbers Lulu Loves Library Daywritten by Joseph Coelho Make a mini garden There are parts of the story that could be fun for children to join in with eg the repeated ‘definitely’ or Zoo’s comments eg ‘I must be dreaming’. Reading through with sound effects would be fun, for the whine of the plane or the bells of city square. Talk about the story He was excited recognising Funni’s little radio which looks a lot like our kitchen radio and the fairy lights in the garden, looking so much like the ones hanging around his bed frame. And he was so very happy when Zoo finally joined Funni in the secret sky garden. He did not like seeing Funni sad. He repeats “I must be dreaming” after Zoo with his little sweet face all lit up :).When a little boy spots the startling splash of colour (against the grey) on a flight, he decides to try to find it. And soon a very special friendship is blossoming, too... Encourage your child to make his own imaginative flower from playdough and then write instructions as to how he made the flower. A startlingly original picture book about a little girl who creates a garden on a disused car park rooftop From here you’ll be able to gaze out at The Shard, The Gherkin, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and, of course, the River Thames. In fact you can pretty much see everything, as these Sky Garden photos show. Larra had a lot of empathy for Funni the little girl in the story and said that everyone should have friends and not feel lonely.