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Teaching Resources for I Am Ray’s Imaginary Friend by Brian Moses

This pack of teaching notes and classroom resources is designed to support shared reading and rich discussion around I Am Ray’s Imaginary Friend by Brian Moses. It offers practical, pupil-friendly ways into the text, using the book’s verse chapters to explore big feelings about change, belonging, and friendship, while also developing speaking and listening, creative writing, and vocabulary. Alongside prompts for discussion, it provides ready-to-use activities that help children connect Ray’s experiences to their own lives, communities, and stories. 

The document is structured as a flexible toolkit. It begins with “Getting to know” activities that invite children to imagine (or reflect on) imaginary friends, then moves into place-based writing inspired by the book’s village setting, including a model poem (“Twelve Good Things to do Where I Live”) and prompts for children to capture distinctive details from their own locality. It also includes a playful section on unusual place names, encouraging children to ask questions, experiment with humour, and write their own poems in the same style.

Across the pack, themes and teaching opportunities are clearly signposted: story structure built on contrasts (before and after the move, village and town, confidence and anxiety), moving house and what children might miss, and empathy through considering another character’s perspective (including pets). There are focused “look inside the book” prompts on moments such as “Stopping Time” and practical chapters like packing for a move, as well as reflective questions about advice, companionship, and endings. A dedicated set of discussion prompts supports sensitive conversations about refugees and forced displacement, with guidance on age-appropriate language, listening carefully, reassuring children, and responding constructively. 

To deepen comprehension, the resource includes a “Book Talk Grid” for structured pupil responses, plus a chapter-by-chapter vocabulary list with suggestions for pre-teaching key words and exploring morphology, etymology, and spelling patterns. It closes with contextual information about the educational contributor, and publication details, making the pack easy to use for lesson planning or guided reading sessions.