ADULT-LED
Retell the story of Mr Gumpy by composing a new version of a favourite song - 'Old MacDonald had a Farm'
Key learning intentions
To make up songs
To link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet
To use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words
To know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom
Resources
A copy of Mr Gumpy's Outing (see page 7 for story outline); flipchart, pen, small-world toys or puppets of the farm animals from the story
Activity content
* Explain to the children that they are going to turn the story of Mr Gumpy's Outing into a song that they can sing.
* Remind them, very briefly, of the tune and structure of 'Old Macdonald had a Farm'.
* Explain that your new song is going to begin with the words 'Mr Gumpy had a boat'.
* Revisit the story, discussing each of the characters and their behaviour in turn. You may wish to show the children the pages where disaster unfolds as all the passengers 'misbehave'!
* Compose the new song together with the children, adding verses as you go, for example, 'And on that boat there were some chickens e-i-e-i-o. With a flap, flap here and a flap, flap there,' etc.
* If using a flipchart and pen, write down one or two verses with the children, so that you can demonstrate the relationship between spoken and written language.
Things to say and do
* Encourage active participation in the writing process and take time to demonstrate clearly the links between sounds and letters.
* Adapt the following questions to suit your group of children: I wonder where we should start writing? I need to write the word 'Gumpy'. Can anybody guess which letter I need to write? Can anyone see two words that are the same? Why do I need to leave spaces between the words? Who can spot a capital letter in our song? Can anyone see any letters from their name? Who would like to come and write the letter 'a' for me?
Stepping stones
* Children with little experience will enjoy joining in with both the original song and the new version, identifying repeating refrains.
* Children with some experience will be able to identify the characters in the story, recalling them with increasing detail. They will understand the concept of a word.
* Children with more experience will know which letters represent certain sounds.
Extension ideas
* Turn the song that you have written into a book and illustrate the text with photographs of small-world figures or puppets.
* Record the children singing the new song and use it with a computer program such as 2Create a Story to produce a 'living book'.
* Perform the song in the outdoor area and ask the children to devise suitable actions. You might want to encourage the children to make simple character costumes, such as animal masks, hats or tails, so that they can turn the song into a fully fledged performance.
* Devise simple percussion accompaniments for each character.
