With bugs still doing the rounds, and a back-log of 'thank you' cards building up, we decided to have one of our literature-focused projects this week*: 'Five Children and It'.
We had enjoyed watching the BBC series as part of Project 113: The Victorians, and so we planned to read the original story and watch the BBC's follow-up series: The Return of the Psammead. While the children loved both of the series, enjoyment of the book unfortunately suffered from being so close to the original TV series. In an age when TV and film executives seem to relish departing from source material, it came as a bit of a shock to find a series following a book so closely!
This week's materials...
The Vintage edition of the story had a number of activity suggestions, and we got the children to write their own list of wishes, draw their own interpretation of the Psammead, and do the included quiz. We also got them to write their own story about finding the Psammead and making a wish: Three Children and It.
Solomon (Left) and Monica's (Right) Psammeads
Nesbit is, undoubtedly, a writer we will return to again in the future: the children want to read The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet, while it's hard to believe we haven't studied The Railway Children already as we know it so well.
After the exhaustion of Christmas we wanted a more sedate project to start the New Year with, and decided to tackle another classic of literature The Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book is a collection of short stories, of which the most famous are about Mowgli and have been made into films. As well as reading the three short stories about Mowgli in The Jungle Book, we watched both the classic 1967 animated film and Disney's 2016 CGI version. We decided against Netflix's Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle because it is supposed to be a bit more violent, but also because three Jungle Book films in one week is probably a bit too much! Both Monica and Solomon preferred the cartoon version to the 2016 version.
To accompany the release of the 2016 version, Disney published activity worksheets as well as an educators' guide to The Jungle Book, with ideas for discussing the story, exploring characters, the ecology of the jungle, and creating your own story.
Monica and Solomon were given the task of creating their own characters, drawing a picture of them and coming up with their own story. Monica decided to create a story about a bat, and Solomon one about a cobra.
Monica's bat (flying in the top picture) and Solomon's cobra
Baghed and the Denby Solomon
Mowgli was in the trees to find some fruit to eat and also to find some sticks and bark to make a den with to sleep in as it was nearly night time. While he is building his den in the trees he sees an odd shaped branch, which he tries to pick up, but it turns out to be Baghed the Indian Cobra. Baghed doesn’t move. Then Mowgli sees a knot in the branch so he realises it is some kind of animal. He says, ‘Who are you?’
Baghed replies, ‘I am Baghed the lovely!’
Mowgli asks Baghed if he will act like a branch and be a wall in his den, as it is nearly dark and he needs to go to sleep.
Baghed says, ‘Yes, I will be part of your den.’
Mowgli settles down to sleep, then Baghed moves and the den collapses making Mowgli fall from the tree into a clump of stinging plants.
Baghed whacks Mowgli with his tail to knock him out so that he can then eat him.
Mowgli gets a stick to protect himself, and starts to whack Baghed. Baghed slithers off with a broken nose. Mowgli finishes rebuilding his den, and has a good night’s sleep.
Mowgli and the Cave by Monica
Mowgli needs somewhere to sleep for the night, as he wanders along, he comes across a cave. The cave looks orangey, and is well sheltered from the rain. Mowgli decides to go inside to take cover from the rain. Once inside he lies down to get some sleep. Bewkey the bat suddenly flies in through the cave entrance and sees Mowgli lying on the cold hard floor, so she decides to go and get some leaves to make a softer bed for him.
When Bewkey returns with the leaves, she accidentally wakes Mowgli up while trying to put the leaves under him. Mowgli is shocked, and tries to run away. But Bewkey catches up with him, and tells him she wants to help him. Mowgli explains he is trying to get back to his wolf family without running into Shere Khan the tiger. Bewkey uses her echolocation to help guide him through the dark jungle at night time, back to his home. Bewkey decides to stay with Mowgli and the wolves for the night, and she often comes to visit Mowgli at night to make sure he is okay and bring him food.
Working with the worksheets and the animal encyclopedia
As the children were off for a family visit to the North East this week, we took it as an opportunity to explore a book in a bit more detail, more specifically: Treasure Island.
Unfortunately the full version was a bit beyond the kids this week, Monica in particular struggled with some of the colloquial language and the transcribed vernacular speech, so we read the Usborne version along with part of the full version.
The full and the abridged version of Treasure Island
BBC School Radio also have a series of accompanying videos, scripts, and activities to accompany the story.
We also got Solomon and Monica to create their own treasure maps, staining the paper with coffee and drying it in the oven.
Solomon's and Monica's treasure maps
As this is now the third map they've done as part of a project (see also Project 52: Battles and Project 2: Maps) there is now a moratorium on map making until one of them declares they want to be a cartographer!
Finally we finished the week by watching an alternative version of the story: Muppet Treasure Island.
Next week's project: Living things and their habitats.
