Francesca Simon
Francesca Simon was born in St Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Los Angeles. She attended
both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. Following
university, she decided to pursue a career as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday
Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue.
After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time.
Simon has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular Horrid Henry series,
which has now sold over 15 million copies. Horrid Henry is published in 17 countries and is
now a successful CITV animation series. In 2011 the first Horrid Henry movie was released.
Francesca Simon lives in London with her husband and son.
The activities provided in this resource focus on three texts: Don’t Cook Cinderella, Horrid
Henry (the first novel) and Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire. They are designed to be
fun, engaging, cross-curricular activities which should enhance the children’s enjoyment and
understanding of the author’s work. Please see the websites below for further information
about Francesca Simon and other teaching resources and activities.

The official Francesca Simon website: http://www.francescasimon.com/

The official Horrid Henry website (games, quizzes, audio extracts/short stories):
http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/

Look under ‘H’ for Horrid Henry activity ideas:
http://www.worldbookday.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=114

Great teaching notes and activity ideas to accompany different Horrid Henry novels:
http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/assets_cm/files/PDF/teaching_guide.pdf

Some information about the psychology behind the Simon’s characters and an
exploration of the behaviours of Horrid Henry:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/7544620/Francesca-Simoninterview-what-makes-Henry-so-horrid.html
Introducing Francesca Simon: Activities for Early Level
Introducing Francesca Simon: Activities for First Level
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Page 2
Don’t Cook Cinderella: Activities for Early Level
Don’t Cook Cinderella: Activities for First Level
Page 2
Page 3
Horrid Henry: Activities for Early Level
Horrid Henry: Activities for First Level
Page 4
Page 5
Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire: Activities for Early Level
Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire: Activities for First Level
Page 6
Page 6
Additional Resources
Page 8
1
Introducing Francesca Simon
Activities for Early Level
 Look at pictures of the front covers of different Horrid Henry books and discuss what
horrid things you think Henry gets up to in each of the books. Use this website to view a
wide range of book covers: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/the-books.asp
(Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - LIT 0-19a)
Activities for First Level
 Discuss the illustrations on the front covers of different Francesca Simon novels (a wide
range can be seen here: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/the-books.asp). Discuss what
genre you think Simon likes to write and explain what makes you think this from the
illustrations. Discuss where else you might have seen illustrations by the same illustrator,
Tony Ross.
Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - ENG 1-19a

Log on to the Francesca Simon website and read information about her books and all
about Horrid Henry: http://www.francescasimon.com/index.asp
ICT to Enhance Learning – TCH 1-03b

Read this interview with Francesca Simon to find out about her career and life as a
writer: http://clubs-kids.scholastic.co.uk/clubs_content/1467. Try using her writing tip next
time you write a story (write the beginning and the end first, and the middle part last).
Writing>Creating Texts>Eng 1-31a
Don’t Cook Cinderella
Activities for Early Level
Listening and Talking
 Read the sentences on pages 6, 7 and 8 and look at the accompanying illustrations.
Discuss who is talking each time. Play a game where you choose one of the characters
and give an example of something s/he might say. Sit in a circle and go around the
circle, telling your example to the group and pretending to be your chosen character. See
if anyone can guess who you are pretending to be!
Talking and Listening>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b / LIT 0-31a

Imagine that any character from a story you have read could join your class for the day.
In groups, tell each other:
- Which character you have chosen and why
- What the character is like
- What you would do/show/play with him or her if s/he joined your class for the day
Talking and Listening>Creating Texts – LIT 0-9a
Writing
 Choose 1 character from the story and draw a storyboard to show what happens to
him/her throughout his/her day at school, as described in the story.
Writing>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b
Reading
 Use the character names and circles in Additional Resources 1. Work in groups to cut,
sort and paste the characters from the story into Goodies and Baddies.
Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating – LIT 0-19a
2

Think about badly behaved characters that you know from other stories that you have
read (The Twits, My Naughty Little Sister, Just William). Think about how you felt when
you read these stories and share what you like and dislike about the characters.
Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating – LIT 0-19a
Drama
 Hold a fairytale school day, where children choose a character from a favourite story and
dress up to come to school. Ask children to role play a scene from their chosen fairytale
or to mime a key action (biting an apple, looking into a mirror, sewing or sleeping, for
example) and encourage other children to guess the fairytale. Allow times in the day
when the whole class should behave in role in the classroom. See this website for
different activities and resources relating to fairytales:
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/theme_units/literature/fairy_tales/
Expressive Arts>Drama>EXA 0-12a
Numeracy and Maths
 The pupils in both the good and bad classes have a maths lesson during the day. They
try to add and subtract amounts of different objects which appear in fairytales (pages 911 and 18-20). As a class, make a list of objects or people found in well-known fairytales
(apples, 7 dwarves, 3 pigs, magic beans...). Ask children to work in pairs to make up
their own fairytale sums for friends to solve. For example, ‘If Little Red Riding Hood has
5 poisoned apples in her basket and eats 2, how many will she have left?’ Children
could write these pictorially using the template in Additional Resources 2 and use
concrete materials to help solve them.
Number and Number Processes – MNU 0-03a
Homework Activity
 Choose one of the fairytale characters in the novel and retell the fairytale to a parent or
carer at home. Choose one with which you are less familiar and ask a grown-up at
home, “Tell me the story of …” so that you find out what happened in the fairytale.
Reading>Enjoyment and Choice>Lit 0-01a
Activities for First Level
Writing
 Choose one of the characters from the story and write about the school day described in
the book from that character’s point of view. Start by thinking about the character’s traits
and events that happen to him/her in the original fairytale story. They write your account
incorporating these aspects as well as describing the events detailed in the story. Read
your account of the day to a friend and see if s/he can identify from which character’s
viewpoint you have written.
Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a

Read the instructions for The Perfect Way to Roast a Child, given on pages 54 and 55 of
the story. Rewrite these as a recipe. Make a list of the ingredients at the start and then
put the information about the process into numbered instructions.
Writing>Organising and Using Information – LIT 1-26a

Read the sentences given from the points of view of different characters, given on pages
5, 6 and 7 of the story. Take a piece of paper each and write a sentence of your own
from one character’s point of view. Put all of the sentences into a bag and sit in a circle.
Pass the bag around and pull out one of the sentences each. Guess which character has
been written about. The author of the sentence should state if you are right or wrong!
Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a
3
Art
 Most of Francesca Simon’s children’s books are illustrated by Tony Ross. You can read
about him here: http://www.horridhenry.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=102.
Look at examples of his illustrations in different Francesca Simon novels. Work with a
partner to choose 3 words which you think best describe his work. Investigate the 3
words which other pairs in the class have chosen and identify the 3 most-commonly
picked words in the class.
Expressive Arts>Art and Design>Exa 1-07a

Look at the pictures of the different fairytale characters in the book (the pages following
the Contents page are a good place to look). Choose 1 character and create a WANTED
poster. Draw an illustration of the character, and underneath state why s/he is wanted
(what did they do), where they might be likely to be found (in a castle or forest, for
example) and the reward you will give.
Expressive Arts>Art and Design – Exa 1-04a
Homework Activity
 Choose a fairytale character which is not mentioned in the novel (Prince Charming,
Pinocchio, The Beast) and draw a cartoon strip to show what happens to him/her during
a day at the school described in the novel. Use the cartoon strip in Additional Resources
3 to help you. Write a sentence into each of the smaller boxes to explain what is
happening. Remember to use speech bubbles, too!
Writing>Creating Texts>Eng 1-31a
Horrid Henry
Activities for Early Level
Listening and Talking
 On page 8 of the story, children tell their parents about Henry, saying, ‘He’s the boy
who…’. Work with a partner to discuss what other terrible things Horrid Henry might have
done at school. Draw a picture to show your ideas. As a whole class, show your picture
and describe to friends your ideas for what else Horrid Henry might have got up to at
school.
Listening and Talking>Creating Texts - LIT 0-09b / LIT 0-31a

Talk about other naughty characters that you have read about in books. Make a list of
these and discuss feelings about the different characters (why we like them, what we
don’t like about them, what advice we would give them about how to behave, if we have
ever done anything similar, how they are similar or different to Horrid Henry)…
Listening and Talking>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating - LIT 0-07a
Reading/Drama
 Imagine you are going to interview Horrid Henry. Work with a partner to make up 3
questions that you would like to ask him about what he does, why he behaves the way
he does, or whether he would like to change, for example. Ask a volunteer to pretend to
be Henry and to sit in the Hot Seat. Each pair should ask Henry one of its questions, and
Henry to try to respond to them in role. Take turns at asking questions and pretending to
be Henry.
Listening and Talking>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating>LIT 0-07a
Expressive Arts>Drama>EXA 0-12a
Health and Wellbeing
 In the first chapter of the book, Henry decides that he wants to be good. Divide a large
piece of sugar paper into 2 and on one side, draw pictures to show all of the good things
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Henry does in this chapter, and on the other side, draw pictures of the bad things he
does. Ask some pairs to share some of the ideas on their pages, and then bring the
class to a circle. Ask some volunteers to share when they have done something good or
when they have done something naughty. Pass a talking object around the circle and
ask each child to give a word to describe how it makes them feel when they do
something good and how it makes them feel when they do something naughty.
Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing - HWB 0-04a
Homework Activity
 In chapter 3, Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret make Glop. Tell a parent or what Glop is
and then look through the kitchen cupboards together. Talk about all of the things you
would put in a Glop recipe from your own kitchen cupboard.
Activities for First Level
Writing
 In chapter 3, when Henry tries to make Moody Margaret eat the disgusting Glop that they
have made, he is interrupted by Perfect Peter. Francesca Simon writes, ‘I dread to think
what would have happened next, if they had not been interrupted.’ Write the next part of
the story as if Henry and Margaret had not been interrupted by Peter.
Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a
Writing/Technologies
 Look at the last chapter of the novel – Horrid Henry’s Holiday. Think of a different way in
which Henry could sabotage the family camping holiday. Use the Comic Life ICT
programme to create a cartoon strip to show what he does and what the outcome is.
Writing>Creating Texts>ENG 1-31a / ICT to Enhance Learning TCH 1-04b
Reading/Drama
 Imagine you are going to interview Horrid Henry. Work with a partner to make up 3
questions that you would like to ask him about what he does, why he behaves the way
he does, or whether he would like to change, for example. Use the Bloom’s Taxonomy
question starters to make sure you ask different types of questions (see Additional
Resource 4). Ask a volunteer to pretend to be Henry and to sit in the Hot Seat. Each pair
should ask Henry one of its questions, and Henry to try to respond to them in role. Take
turns at asking questions and pretending to be Henry.
Reading>Understanding, Analysing and Evaluation – LIT 1-17a
Expressive Arts>Drama – EXA 1-12a
Health and Wellbeing
 Throughout many of the Horrid Henry stories, Henry does not think about the
consequences of his actions. Discuss what consequences are and then ask children to
work with groups of 3. Give each group one card from Additional Resources 5 and
explain that they should discuss and role play the possible consequences of the situation
described on the card they have been given. Some of the situations will have positive
consequences and some may have negative consequences. Ask each group to perform
its role play, and ask others to explain what the situation and the possible consequence
was. Encourage children to offer other possible consequences for the situation.
Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing>HWB 1-04a
Homework Activities
 In chapter 3, Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret make Glop. Tell a parent or carer what
Glop is and then look through your kitchen cupboards at home. Make a list of all of the
ingredients you would put in a Glop recipe from your own kitchen cupboard.
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
Francesca Simon often uses alliteration when she names her characters – Horrid Henry,
Moody Margaret, Perfect Peter, Jumpy Jeffrey, Lazy Linda …Try to think of an adjective
and name starting with each letter of the alphabet and create 26 new characters for
Francesca Simon!
Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire
Activities for Early Level
Health and Wellbeing
 Draw a picture of all of the different types of food mentioned in the second chapter of the
novel, Horrid Henry and the Nudie Foodie. Cut out the pictures and sort these into
Healthy and Less Healthy. Make a smiling face out of the healthy food items and a sad
face out of the less healthy food items. Stick these healthy and unhealthy faces onto
paper plates and create a display of the Nudie Foodie’s favourite foods and Horrid
Henry’s favourite foods. Have a discussion about how it is alright to eat some less
healthy foods sometimes, as long as we do not do it too often and we make sure that we
eat plenty of the healthy foods.
Health and Wellbeing>Nutrition>HWB 0-30a
Writing
 In the last chapter of the story, Henry scares the other children as they sleep over night
in the museum. Think about a time that you were scared in the night and draw a picture
to show what happened and how you felt. Describe your picture to a friend and talk
about how you felt in the morning.
Writing>Organising and Using Information – LIT-026a
Homework Activity
 Keep a food diary of the things you eat during 1 week, in the same way that Henry does
in the second chapter of the story. You could draw pictures instead of writing the foods.
At the end of the week, count up how many healthy and how many less healthy things
you have eaten and talk with a partner about any changes that you think you should
make to your food choices.
Activities for First Level
Health and Wellbeing
 At the start of the first chapter, Horrid Henry Writes a Story, Henry thinks that life is really
unfair. He is made to listen to the story that his brother has written and tries to spoil it by
shouting out and making silly comments. Of course the situation is not unfair, but Henry
doesn’t see it this way. Think of a situation when you felt you had been unfairly treated
but that you can now see was actually perfectly fair. Talk about how we feel when we
think we have been unfairly treated and positive ways of dealing with this (talking openly,
explaining your point of view, listening to the views of others). Design a poster called ‘It’s
Not Fair!’ and draw illustrations to show how to respond positively when you find yourself
in what you think is an unfair situation.
Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing>HWB 1-02a

In this novel, and many of the other Horrid Henry novels, Henry likes to sabotage
different situations and events. Discuss what this means (intentionally spoiling something
so that it does not succeed) and think of times that Horrid Henry does this in this book
and others that you may have read. Play the game ‘Saboteur’ (see Additional Resource
6) to see how detrimental sabotage can be. After playing the game, discuss the below
points:
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o what did it feel like to be the saboteur and to be sabotaged?
o why do you think people sabotage?
o how can you deal with saboteurs?
o what were some of the negative effects of being sabotaged?
Health and Wellbeing>Mental and Emotional Wellbeing - HWB 1-04a
Writing
 Get you own back on Horrid Henry! In the third chapter of the novel, Horrid Henry tricks
his brother into giving him his money and sweets and by making him do all of Henry’s
chores. Imagine you are Perfect Peter. Design a game which will allow Peter to get his
own back on Henry. Write a chapter for a book, describing the game and what happened
when Henry and Peter played it. Collate all of the chapters written by children in the
class and create a book called ‘Get your Own Back!’ Have a competition to design
different covers for the class book.
Writing>Creating Texts – ENG 1-31a
Writing/Art
 In the final chapter of the story, Henry imagines that his teachers turn into zombie
vampires at night. Imagine that your teachers turn into scary creatures at night. Paint a
picture to show what they look like and then write a list of tips on how to recognise your
creature, in the same way that Henry does (pages 78 – 81).
Writing – Creating Texts – ENG 1-31a
Expressive Arts>Art and Design>EXA 1-04a
Homework Activity

In the second chapter of the novel, Henry creates a name for his own chain of
restaurants and decides that it would be a burger restaurant. Decide on a name for a
restaurant you would open and create a logo for it. Remember that your logo should be
eye-catching so that people choose to eat in your restaurant! You might want to
research logos of other famous restaurants or chains to give you some ideas. Prepare a
short talk to tell the class about the name and logo of your restaurant and tell them what
type of food you would serve.
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Additional Resources 1
Troll
Sleeping Beauty
Goldilocks
Three Pigs
Wicked Witch
Gretel
Cinderella
Big Bad Wolf
Jack
Miss Good Fairy
Little Red Riding Hood
Wicked Stepmother
Snow White
Hansel
Jealous Queen
Miss Bad Fairy
8
Additional Resources 1 continued
Goodies
Baddies
9
Additional Resources 2
=
10
Additional Resources 3
11
Additional Resources 4
You sneak downstairs and secretly stay up late to watch TV on a school night.
You borrow a friend’s toy without telling them and accidentally break it.
You are busy every evening after school and do not leave time to do your homework for
the week.
A friend hurts you and you then forgive them for what they did.
A friend asks you to do them a favour and you decide not to help them out. Very soon,
you find that you need to ask a favour of your friend.
You tell your parents or carers that you are going to play at a friend’s house and you go
to play in the park instead.
A friend tells you a secret and you share it with someone else in the playground.
You play a game that your younger brother or sister really wants to play even through
you feel too old to play that game and would rather do something else.
A new pupil is looking lonely in the playground and you ask him/her to join in a game
with you and your friends.
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Additional Resources 5
Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Starters
Remembering Questions (Purple)
Can you describe how ………… ?
How many ………… ?
Is this true or false ………… ?
Understanding Questions (Blue)
Can you summarise the ………… in your own words ?
What are the differences between ………… and ………… ?
Can you describe the ………… in your own words?
Applying Questions (Green)
What would you change about ………… ?
Can you think of another painting where ………… ?
What would happen if ………… ?
Analysing Questions (Yellow)
What are the differences between ………… and ………… ?
What part of the painting is most ………… ? Why?
How is ………… similar to ………… ?
Evaluating Questions (Orange)
Why did ………… decide to ............ ?
Can you think of a better way to ………… ?
Do you agree with ……………? Why?
Creating Questions (Red)
If you could …………, what would you ………… ?
How would you change the ………… ?
Can you design a ………… to ………… ?
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Additional Resources 6
Playing Saboteur
Form groups of 3 and allocate each person the role of speaker, listener or saboteur. Keep a
couple of children aside for a different role.
Explain that the speaker and listener should face each other to talk, while the saboteur can
move. The speaker is asked to describe a given object or experience (a summer holiday,
how to play football, things to do in their home town or city, for example). The saboteur is
asked to try to sabotage (i.e. disrupt) this discussion in any non-violent manner. Tell the
children that are not in groups that they are roaming saboteurs and can move between
groups, trying to disrupt them.
After two minutes, ask children to change roles. Then again after two more minutes, as it is
essential for all children to have the opportunity to play all three roles. Everybody should
know what it feels like to be a saboteur and to be sabotaged.
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