Code Name Bananas

Code Name Bananas by David Walliams is a funny and thrilling adventure set during World War II. The story follows 11-year-old Eric, who loves visiting his favorite animal, Gertrude the gorilla, at the London Zoo. But when the zoo is bombed during the Blitz, Eric must rescue Gertrude before it’s too late!

With the help of his zookeeper uncle, Sid, Eric and Gertrude go on a wild escape across the country. They face daring chases, secret agents, and even a dangerous enemy plot that could change the war! But with bravery, friendship, and a bit of cheeky humor, Eric and Gertrude prove that even the unlikeliest heroes can save the day.

Packed with hilarious moments, exciting action, and heartfelt lessons about courage and loyalty, Code Name Bananas is an unforgettable adventure perfect for young readers who love animals and thrilling stories.

In Chapters 1-4, the author uses a range of openers for effect. It is important that your class can identify these openers and begin to categorise them

Your Year 4 / Year 5 class will complete the table by identifying the type of opener used in each sentence.

This is a punctuation resource that focuses on chapters 6-7 and explores how apostrophes can be used within context of the book.

Your KS2 class will insert the apostrophes where required, write the word/words and record the reason why the apostrophe has been used.

Our resources linked to chapters 15-17 focuses on some of the lovely vocabulary used.

We have taken a number of words and your children must write their own definitions or choose from the options provided.

This is a comprehension resource linked to chapters 17-20 of Code Name Bananas.

We have differentiated this activity for LKS2, to challenge children at different levels, whilst keeping content similar.

In this activity, your class will locate the pages between chapters 28 and 35 to find out who is speaking in each instance.

This is a great retrieval activity to improve comprehension skills through finding specific information.

This punctuation teaching resource focuses specifically on inverted commas / speech marks and encourages your class to identify direct speech and how to punctuate it correctly.

We have differentiated this resource a number of ways to support your planning and cater to different abilities within year 4 / year 5 classes.

In this activity, your children will explore adverbs within the chapters 53 and 65 of the book.

We explore the typical ‘ly’ adverbs but also delve deep into other adverbs…

E.g.
‘Here’ is an adverb of place. Adverbs of place tell us where something has happened or will happen e.g. She came her with her friend.

‘Today’ is an adverb of time. Adverbs of time tell us when something has happened or will happen e.g. He rescued a gorilla today.

Write two sentences of your own, using the words ‘today’ and ‘here’ as adverbs of place and time.

Throughout the book, the author makes use of the following types of figurative language:

Simile: A simile compares one thing to another and often uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. The sky is like a blue pond.

Metaphor: A metaphor describes something as if it were something else e.g. The sky is a still, blue pond.

Onomatopoeia: An onomatopoeia is a sound word. By saying the word, you make the sound that it represents e.g. Crash!

Alliteration: The repetition of a sound at the beginning of multiple words e.g. seven silly snakes.

Idiom: An idiom usually has a completely different meaning to the meaning of the individual words in the phrase e.g. It’s raining cats and dogs.

Your class will read the list of phrases that have been taken from the book and complete the table to show the type of figurative language that has been used in each instance.

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems have three lines and do not usually rhyme. The first and last lines of a Haiku poem contain 5 syllables and the middle line contains 7 syllables.

Your class will count the syllables in each line of these Haiku poems. Have they been written correctly?

They will also choose a character from the story and write their own Haiku poem about them.