English educational activities based on children’s book Myra and the Magic Motorcycle: Book 1—The Business in Bermuda

Teaching English is about language, literature and literacy. It promotes skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. The following activities are tagged with the applicable categories.

English School Activities for Foundation (prep) to Grade 1

Comprehension Questions
Skills: listening | viewing | speaking
Level: Foundation (prep)–grade 1

Discussion

Read Myra and the Magic Motorcycle: Book 1—The Business in Bermuda to your student(s). In a group setting or one-on-one ask your student(s) to answer the following questions:

1. What was the title of the book we just read? (Answer: Myra and the Magic Motorcycle or The Business in Bermuda or both)
2. What was it about? (Possible answers include: a magic motorcycle, a girl from Australia, etc.)
3. Who was the main character? (Myra)
4. The main character had a pet. What type of animal was it? What was its name? (A kingfisher, or a bird, named Diver)
5. What did Myra find in her shed? (Answer: a motorcycle)
6. What happened when Myra pushed the Fusion Flight button? (Answer: the magic motorcycle took off through the wall and flew into the sky. See p.11)
7. What country did Myra start in? (Answer: Australia)
8. What country did Myra travel to? (Answer: Bermuda)
9. How did she get there? (Answer: The magic motorcycle travelled through the earth. See p.15)
10. In Bermuda Myra nearly had a crash with another vehicle. What was it? What saved her? (Answer: a truck. The distress detector/navigator and her quick reflexes. See p.20)
11. What did Myra notice about the prices of the shoes and clothes in the shops in Bermuda? (Answer: they were very expensive)
12. In Bermuda what did Myra do to help the family in need? (Possible answers: she saved Davi from a speeding car, she delivered Phyllis’s work to her boss, she brought back their dinner, she drove them to the hospital)
13. How did Myra manage to get a trolley-full of envelopes to Phyllis’s boss? (Answer: the magic motorcycle shrunk them. See p.30)
14. Who helped Myra on her mission? (Answer: Diver, the kingfisher)
15. Why doesn’t Myra wear a helmet or jacket while on the magic motorcycle? (Answer: it has a magic airshield to protect her)
16. How did Phyllis and her children all fit on the motorcycle behind Myra? (Answer: it magically grew longer. See p.37)
17. CHALLENGING: Why did Phyllis need help the day that Myra arrived in Bermuda? (Answer: she is poor and struggling to make ends meet. She was overwhelmed by having to look after her children while their father was in hospital. She had no way to get her work to her boss so she could get paid. She was feeling sad about everything she had to do today, and finding it difficult with having to look after her three children as well.)
18. CHALLENGING: Upon her arrival back in Australia what surprised Myra? She was expecting her parents to be looking for her, but… (Answer: no time had passed since she had turned on the magic motorcycle)
19. CHALLENGING: Why is this book called “The Business in Bermuda”? (Answer: Because it is about Bermuda. The word ‘business’ also relates to both money (economics) and general activities or adventures.)
20. CHALLENGING: What do you think would have happened to Phyllis and her family if Myra had not shown up? What would their day have been like? ( This is an open-ended question, for discussion, lateral thinking and creative expression)

Download these questions as a PDF you can easily print.

Group Activity: Re-enactment (Grade 1 Level Teaching Notes)

Instruct your students to get into groups of four. Allocate a character to each student. Eg. Myra, Diver, Phyllis, Davi. Give each group a scene from the book and ask them to decide how to present that scene to the class.

Each group will need a teacher’s help to refer to the book, as they will not be able to read it for themselves. This supports literacy in that students are required to “retell familiar literary texts through performance.”

Once the students are arranged into groups and are familiar with which character they are and what scene they will be retelling, give them some cardboard boxes they can arrange into the various props from The Business in Bermuda, such as the magic motorcycle, the boxes of envelopes, the covered dish. If time allows you might like to allow them to draw on or paint the boxes.

Ask your students to prepare a re-enactment of the story or part of it.

Have each group present their performance to the class.

Literature—Identifying Texts
Skills: listening | viewing | speaking
Level: Foundation (prep)–grade 1

Discussion

Read Myra and the Magic Motorcycle: Book 1—The Business in Bermuda to your student(s). In a group setting or one-on-one encourage your student(s) to discuss the following questions

1. What type of book is The Business in Bermuda? a) poetry, b) picture book or c) non fiction book (Answer: B)
2. Some books are black and white, others are full colour. What did you notice about The Business in Bermuda? (Answer: it’s full colour)
3. Why do you think the author and illustrator chose to present the book in this way? (Open-ended question)
4. What do you like about The Business in Bermuda? (Open-ended question)

Make your own book activity

This supports literacy in that students are required to “retell familiar literary texts through the use of illustrations and images."

Materials:

• 5 sheets of A4 paper
• pencils and crayons

1. Instruct students to fold their sheets of paper in half. Assist to staple or tape each book’s spine.
2. Instruct students to use their drawing and writing skills to come up with a front cover of a book. It can be any book they like (eg. The Business in Bermuda) or a made-up one of their own creation. It will need a title and a picture, an author name and an illustrator name.
3. Encourage students to write and/or draw on each page of their book, to create a mock-up of a picture book like The Business in Bermuda.
4. ADVANCED: Instruct students to number the pages of the book starting with the first right-sided page as number 3.

English School Activities for Grade 2

Note: you may also be able to use the resources for younger age groups and adapt them slightly to fit your students’ needs.

Creating Your Own Myra Adventure
Skills: listening | reading | viewing | writing | speaking | creating
Level: grade 2

Discussion

Read Myra and the Magic Motorcycle: Book 1—The Business in Bermuda to your student(s). You can do this activity either as a group activity or one that students complete at their desks on their own. The point of this exercise is to get students involved and use their creativity by encouraging them to come up with their own Myra adventure.

Can you create your own adventure for Myra and the Magic Motorcycle?

A) Where will she go?
B) Who will go with her?
C) Who will she meet?
D) What problems will she help people with?

Write down your plan for the characters and story.

Group Activity: Re-enactment (Grade 2 Level Teaching Notes)

Instruct your students to get into groups of four and each student can choose to be one of the characters. Eg. Myra, Diver, Phyllis, Davi. They will need to choose one scene from the book and decide how to present that scene to the class.

Each group will need a copy of the book so they can refer to and read it while preparing their skit. This supports literacy in that students are required to “retell familiar literary texts through performance.”

Once the students are arranged into groups and have chosen characters for themselves and a scene, give them some cardboard boxes they can arrange into the various props from The Business in Bermuda, such as the magic motorcycle, the boxes of envelopes, the covered dish. If time allows you might like to allow them to draw on or paint the boxes.

Download pictures that can be printed, coloured, cut out and stuck on the boxes here (A4 size PDF).

Ask your students to prepare a re-enactment of the story or part of it.

Have each group present their performance to the class.

English School Activities for Grade 3

Note: you may also be able to use the resources for other age groups at your discretion.

Vocabulary For Word Wall From Myra Book 1
Skills: reading
Level: grade 3

Instructions

Read Myra and the Magic Motorcycle: Book 1—The Business in Bermuda to your student(s).

Get your students into groups or have a book per student.

The words in the above vocabulary list are from the book. Get your students to write down which pages these words appear on.

Answers:

• Business: cover, 1, 3
• Bermuda: cover, 1, 3, 17, 28, 40, 44, 45
• Investigate: 5
• Swerved: 4, 20
• Tarpaulins: 5
• Metallic: 7
• Hurtled: 11
• Giddy: 12
• Transferred: 30, 32, 33
• Supersonic: 38
• Anxious: 40
• Distress: 9, 18 (twice), 20, 22 (twice), 43
• Harbour: 17 (harbours), 34

If your students have a copy of the ebook on their ipads then this exercise could be set for homework. Your school can get a free ebook license for all its teachers and students if it buys the print and ebook pack. Contact us for details.

Put the words onto your classroom word wall. Have your students line up and read the words aloud each time they leave the classroom.