The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch

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Explore the forces in action when Mr Grinling rows his boat out to the lighthouse. What forces are in action when his lunch is being carried along the wire? The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch, by Ronda and David Armitage, is a brilliant book for inspiring classroom activities around the topic of the sea, its history and the brave people who keep us safe at the seaside and away from dry land. The wonderful vocabulary within the story is in itself a great reason for choosing this book to start your topic. Words such as ‘industrious’, ‘concocts’ and ‘brazen’ help this tale trip off your tongue. Get your children thinking about what these new words mean, using the sound and the context to help them work it out. The lighthouse keeper’s lunch is ‘delicious’. Can you think of any synonyms? Can you think of any antonyms?

Children could look at light alongside this text. Looking at sources of light, the lighthouse is one can you think of any other. The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch has been successfully adapted for the stage. David Wood wrote a musical play based on the story which was first performed at the Oxford Playhouse in 2000 with two professional actors and a large cast of children drawn from local schools many of whom had never been inside a theatre before. It was also adapted in 2017 by Nicola Sangster and Gareth Cooper for the Pied Piper Theatre Company.

A sweet book, that is easy to read. I read it to reception, they engaged with the book and found parts very funny. A much loved picture book which has been in print for over 40 years. Children love the greedy seagulls and the detailed contents of the lunch basket. Choose two types of sandwiches and make a Venn diagram to show which children like / don’t like each of them.

For an even better way to find EYFS resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the EYFS resource HUB! GO TO EYFS HUB Saw this being used during SBT1. A fantastic book to use with year 1 and/or 2. A good story which lends itself nicely to actions which make the book more memorable e.g. lighthouse, cottage etc. The story has some good language in it e.g. industrious and concocting, which can really enhance all of the children's written work. Can buy a basket and put lots of different food/ a ginger cat (Hamish) in to bring the book to life- the children really loved this when I was on placement. Something else that worked really well was the children were all given a piece of cake and had to write a postcard as though they were one of the seagulls from the story describing what the cake was like. Talk about what it means to be ‘brave’. Can your children give examples where they have seen or heard about someone doing something ‘brave’? What can they do on a smaller scale that is brave in their day-to-day lives? Activity 4: Shiver ‘me’ timbersChildren can work out the weight, price or size of the different foods in his lunch. They would be faced with children which needs them to focus on measurements and calculations such as addition and subtraction. Stunning lighthouse pictures: http://abduzeedo.com/amazing-pictures-lighthouses Activity 3: Grace under pressure Write a sequel for the book, showing how the fisherman in the boat stopped the seagulls from eating his lunch.

Next, get your children to plan a menu for the most delicious lunch they can think of, to go in their seagull proof basket. Look at the food that Mrs Grinling prepares in the story - do they agree that it’s delicious? What kind of food would they want in their ‘ideal’ lunch? If possible, get the children to test some of their ideas for getting the lunch safely across to the lighthouse, setting up a line in your classroom, similar to that which runs over to the lighthouse. Children could write a diary entry from another point of view. (The seagulls opinions/ The bakers opinion) NARRATIVE PLANNING _ Now includes planning for innovating and changing the story with blanked out story maps for children, conjunctions active inspire screens, Text changed to include er an est suffixes and planning template for the ‘Independent Application’ section. Write a set of instructions that teach someone how to make a delicious sandwich for Mr Grinling’s lunch. There are lots of interesting words in the story (e.g. brazen, ingenious, consolingly). Can you find any words that you don’t know and write a definition of them?

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Role-play the different characters in the story (Mr and Mrs Grinling, Hamish the cat, and the seagulls). How were they feeling at different points in the story? Use the text as a means of vocabulary building, its got a lot of good vocabulary for children such as; brazen, ingenious, consolingly. Good time to increase children's thesauruses/ dictionary skills. Hopefully you can now do the story and innovate as one unit and then another unit on factfiles/Non-chronological reports. The lunch was ‘devoured’ by the seagulls. Can you make a list of words which show different ways that people can eat their food? Finally, ask each group to present their ideas to the class. Have they found a better solution than Mrs Grinling? Is their lunch more delicious than the one that Mrs Grinling made? Take a whole class vote to decide on the winning group, and then re-write the story, using the alternative lunch, and an ending which features your winning ‘seagull proofing’ idea. Activity 2: Ray of light