One of our nursery classes decided to base its project on A House for Hermit Crab (Hamish Hamilton, 10.99), in which Hermit Crab finds a new home and persuades other sea creatures to help him decorate it.
The class using this book caters for 11 full-time and 22 part-time (11 morning and 11 afternoon) children and is staffed by two part-time teachers and one nursery nurse. There are three children with additional one-to-one support.
During the project the children were able to do an exciting range of D&T activities, using an enormous variety of materials and tools.
Hermit crab classroom
* The Hermit Crab classroom comprises two small interconnecting rooms, so we did much of the work out of doors under the cover of the loggia.
* Each of the small classrooms has very little wall space, so displaying work needs thought and imagination.
* We photocopied and laminated pictures from the Hermit Crab and placed them around the classroom.
* We suspended a large fishing net and strips of blue crepe paper from the ceiling to create a feeling of being under water.
* We borrowed a 'For sale' sign from the local estate agent and displayed it on the wall.
* The focus of the room was a huge hermit crab, made by the children and suspended from another ceiling.
* The classroom floor was covered with a large sheet of fabric, which the children had painted with yellow acrylic paint, then splash-painted with other colours so that it closely resembled Eric Carle's illustration of the sea floor. (The painting was done outdoors!)
Sea life
A House for Hermit Crab provided opportunities for an enormous range of activities related to the sea and sealife. Among them:
* An exotic fish was brought in each day for the children to look at and draw. As well as providing wonderful opportunities for observation, the daily supply of large and interesting fish helped bridge the gap between the theme of the project and the underwater world that children could not experience at first hand.
* A map of the world was displayed on the wall and the location of each fish that was brought in was marked and labelled on the map.
* We looked at a globe and maps to see how much of the earth's surface is covered by water, and talked about tides and currents. Had anyone been to the seaside when the tide was out?
* The children used the internet to find information about the sea. They also found Eric Carle's website, including drawings and paintings of other children.
* We explored a range of sea creatures, compared their size and talked about the size of plankton and how much a whale must eat before its stomach is full.
* The water tray was filled with blue-coloured water, rocks, pebbles and shells, and plastic fish and sea animals.
* The children observed snails through a magnifying glass, looked at their patterns (and fish patterns) and then went on to make sea snails.
* The children were encouraged to understand the need for the preservation of the environment, pollution and over-fishing.
* We shared lots of stories, poetry and rhymes about the sea, sea creatures and boats. The children listened to the stories and sea sounds, including the sound of whales and dolphins, on the listening centre and put shells to their ears to hear the sea.
* This topic also gave us a very good opportunity to develop children's understanding of months of the year and the seasons.
Boats
Boats were also a major theme within the project:
* A real boat, given to us by the Environment Agency, served as a focus for the outdoor activities.
* During the week the children painted the boat using acrylic paint and made oars and a sail, using a broom handle, pieces of wood and a large piece of fabric that was painted with lots of pictures of fish.
* We made an anchor for the boat out of wood and talked about how a boat stops without brakes.
* The boat provided enormous opportunities for role play. The children were encouraged to talk about where the passengers on the boat might be going.
* We put the boat on an uneven piece of grass, so the children were able to learn about balancing and how it would feel to be on a boat.
* We provided materials such as wooden boxes, planks, ladders and blankets, which the children could use to create boats and submarines.
* We talked about fishing boats, nets and fishing rods. When did the fishermen go out to fish? What effect would the weather have on fishing? Would you be able to catch a whale with a fishing rod?
* We looked at the work of the RNLI and talked about the dangers of the sea and shipwrecks. The children discussed their own personal safety in the water.
* Parents were invited in to help their children make boats that floated using a selection of paper, card, wood and plastic. Making and playing with the boats also provided opportunities to look at capacity, displacement of water and different ways of measuring liquids and speed at sea.
Creative sea world
Many of the activities led on to creative activities, including making:
* plaster of Paris sea coral that was painted brown
* papier mache sea creatures
* observational drawings of fish
* fish collages out of the real scales removed from the swordfish that was brought in
* an enormous collage of seaweed. The collage was made from hessian, which was fastened around a wooden frame, and strips of blue and green fabric, which the children sewed on to the hessian. The frame was so big that it had to be supported at each side by a table, with a gap underneath so that children could push their needle down from the top, crawl underneath and push the needle back up again.
Activities
Here are details of some activities that worked well in our project and that you might like to try if you plan a project on A House for Hermit Crab.
Hermit crab
* To make a hermit crab, you will need cardboard cut into a crab shape, cardboard leg shapes, a piece of fabric cut out about 10cm bigger all round than the cardboard, old tights, staples, paint and large paintbrushes.
* Staple one side of the material to the cardboard body, creating a 'bag' that is open on one side.
* Stuff the 'bag' with tights so that the crab is about 2cm thick.
* Staple the other side closed.
* Paint the sides, allowing each side to dry thoroughly before painting the other.
* Staple on painted cardboard legs.
Snails
* To make snails, you will need card snail shapes, black felt-tip pens, sequins, tights or stockings, pipe cleaners, PVA glue, staples, scissors.
* Get the children to draw spirals on the snail shells.
* Stick on sequins.
* Cut off the foot of the tights/stockings to about 15cm.
* Stuff with the remainder of the tights/ stockings to create a head.
* Staple to the shell.
* Make two small slits in the top of each snail's head and insert a pipe cleaner bent into shape.
Bottle fish
* To make a bottle fish, you will need empty plastic lemonade bottles, strips of coloured crepe paper cut about 30cm long, PVA glue and string.
* Stick strips of paper onto the fish, leaving the strips to hang down on each side.
* Hang from string.
Clay hermit crabs
* To make clay hermit crabs, you will need firm card cut into pieces about 10cm square, clay, shells, sand and PVA glue.
* Make the hermit crabs from clay and shells stuck straight onto the card.
* Decorate card with sand, stuck on with PVA glue.
Plaster of Paris shells
* For these shells, you will need plaster of Paris mixed with water, shell moulds, gold, silver and bronze paint.
* Put plaster of Paris into the moulds.
* When they are dry, turn out and paint with metallic paints.
Paper plate aquariums
* You will need paper plates, strips of green, brown and blue crepe paper, small shells, felt tip pens, paper and PVA glue.
* Colour plates blue or green.
* Draw fish, crabs and other sea life onto paper with felt tips and cut out.
* Stick onto paper plates and add strips of crepe paper and shells.
Sea urchins
* To make sea urchins, get the children to drill holes in cubes of wood and then saw thin pieces of dowelling to fit in the holes to form the spines.
* Glue the spines in place, and when they are dry, paint the sea urchins silver.
Fish printing
* You will need fresh dead fish with large scales, powder paint, paintbrush, newspaper, kitchen paper and blotting paper.
* Dry the fish carefully with blotting paper.
* Lay the fish onto the newspaper and paint along one side of it.
* Carefully lay blotting paper over the fish and smooth with a flat, dry hand.
* You will be able to take several prints from each time the fish is painted.
See the topic web on the back of the Nursery World poster for more details of what we covered in our project.
Sue Chambers is head teacher of Chertsey Nursery School, Surrey
Tell us about your projects
* If you have a project that you would like to share, then send a short summary to Nursery World, at the address on page 3.
