PDF featuring teacher's notes and four resources
KS2
Years 3-6
Use these teacher notes and resources to explore David Walliams’ book The Beast of Buckingham Palace.
What is The Beast of Buckingham Palace about?
Set in a dystopian future of London, The Beast of Buckingham Palace unfolds in the year 2120. It revolves around a young protagonist named Alfred, who is the prince of Buckingham Palace.
The kingdom is shrouded in darkness, and there are rumors of a terrifying beast lurking in the palace. The once-great city of London is in ruins. The British Empire is not what it used to be, with Buckingham Palace itself having fallen into disrepair.
The narrative follows Alfred on a daring and adventurous quest to save his mother, the Queen. Can he discover the truth about the mysterious beast? Along the way, Alfred encounters a series of challenges and makes new friends who help him on his journey.
What’s in the download?
There are four resources in total. The first looks at what children can comprehend from the cover, especially the image of the beast itself. They need to write words and phrases describing what they think of it, creating a word bank of beastly vocabulary.
Resource two gets them to do the same for Beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, before coming up with other famous examples of beasts and describing those with ambitious vocabulary.
The third one explores mythological creatures throughout history, and includes examples of a minotaur, a cyclops and a griffin, to see what they think of each. What do they think are the characteristics of these creatures?
Finally, the fourth resource gets them to design their very own royal beast. They are now a member of the royal family and they are to design the new beast for the royals. Talk about why Buckingham Palace may need to be protected by this beast, and ask them to design their version of The Beast of Buckingham Palace using the sheet provided.
