The special needs unit picked Why Noah Chose the Dove, written by Isaac Bashevis Singer and illustrated by Eric Carle, as the basis for its project. The unit caters for ten children with complex needs, the most significant of which is communication.
The book, which tells of how the animals jostle for places on the ark, is out of print in this country but it should still be available in schools' and other libraries. If you can't track down a copy, then use the Noah story and the Nursery World poster as a basis for your project.
Indoors
* During the Design and Technology Week, our staff, parents and children created a 'rainy' classroom within the special needs unit.
* The ceiling was draped with net curtains.
* The children made raindrops from coloured card, which were suspended on wool from the ceiling.
* A collage dove was hung from the ceiling. To make the dove, the shape was drawn and cut out of stiff card. Then with adult help, the children cut paper handkerchiefs into feather shapes and glued them all over the dove. They used yellow sticky paper to make the beak and black paper for the eyes. They covered both sides of the dove so that when it was hung from the ceiling and rotated, it looked like a dove from every angle.
* Blue sheets were hung as a backdrop against part of one wall. Nets were then set against the sheets and fish and seaweed (green and blue ribbons) attached to the nets. The fish, covered with discs of shiny paper, were inspired by the story Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
* The children painted an ark full of animals. Wooden planks were marked out on paper, painted brown and hung the length of one wall to form the side of the ark. The children then cut out pairs of animal heads, which were made to poke out of the top of the ark.
* The role-play area was turned into an ark. We positioned cardboard, from washing machine and refrigerator boxes, in a boat shape around the area, stapled it in place using a staple gun and painted it brown with black planks. We then put pairs of things inside, including two cups, two saucers, two chairs and two beds.
* A cardboard figure of Noah, with white beard, was placed beside the ark. He was draped in a white sheet, holding a stick on one hand and a dove in the other. He was made by drawing around a grandad who came in to help for the day. Children looked at the picture of Noah in the book and painted the figure to look the same.
Into the ark
Boats and boat building was an obvious focus for lots of the activities, which aimed to develop children's design and technology skills, their understanding of some scientific principles and their awareness of the weather:
* Outside, large wooden packing cases were transformed into an ark with painted cardboard. The children sponge-printed a wood effect on the side of the ark. The children also climbed into the boat painted by the 'Hermit Crab' class.
* The children used resources such as Mobilo, wooden blocks, Lego and Duplo to build an ark for the animals. They also enjoyed making lists of the animals that would go on the ark and making lists of the food that they would need.
* The children used the ark in the garden, the role-play area and the farm, zoo and ark from the school equipment to act out the story of the animals going into the ark.
* To explore floating and sinking, we provided a number of plastic boats and a variety of different materials, for example, marbles, pebbles and feathers, with which to load the boats. Children then observed and recorded the results.
* We removed the ramp from a wooden ark in our classroom equipment, and let the children experiment with pulleys and ramps to find out how the animals boarded the ark. We used pulleys from our technology equipment, mounted on the top of the ark. We placed the animals on a platform attached to the pulley with string. Then we fastened the string around the animals' bodies. We used boxes and pieces of railway track to see which was the most effective ramp. Finally, we used the ramp that came with the toy. Children were asked which was the best method of getting into the ark.
Rain, rain
The story of Noah's Ark lends itself to activities that explore the weather, including evaporation and rainbows:
* To explore evaporation, we chalked around the edge of puddles in the playground. We repeated this at regular intervals until they dried out.
* To make a rainbow, we filled a bowl with water, placed it in direct sunlight and tilted the mirror until it reflected a rainbow on a shaded wall or ceiling.
Animal focus
As with the other classes within the school, animals featured strongly in the SEN unit's project. Among the many animal activities that they did were:
* making animal finger puppets and masks (see also Eric Carle books, Nursery World, 16 August 2001) * threading beads and cutting paper spirals to make snakes
* lacing around animal shapes.
* making cellophane fish to swim' in the water play area.
* drawing animals in wet cornflour
* doing observational drawings and paintings of animals and fish
* sponge-printing their hands and feet by dipping them in paint. (Have a bowl of warm soapy water and towel nearby if you try it!). The children then looked at footprints of some animals and copied them on to potatoes for potato printing. Throughout they talked about the relative sizes of footprints - for example, comparing elephants' to those of mice, adult feet and hands with a child's.
* looking at animal patterns. We then printed the designs on to paper or fabric using paints or felt tips pens.
TWO BY TWO
The story of Noah's Ark lends itself to lots of opportunities for mathematical development. For example:
* We matched pairs of toy animals, ordered animals by size and sorted animals by type.
* Children completed pattern sequences of animals and animal patterns.
* You can pose simple problems of addition and subtraction. For example: two animals go into boat, and one comes off. How many are left?
* You can talk about shapes in the ark and where the animals are - in the ark, on the ramp, and so on.
* We even cooked pairs of biscuits that could be sandwiched together.
Music and movement.
There are lots of activities that can be done round music and movement:
* Learn songs such as 'The animals went in two by two'.
* Listen to music that evokes the sound of the sea. We listened to Mendelssohn's 'Fingal's Cave' and 'Die Moldau' by Smetana and then tried to recreate the movements of waves.
* Move in response to music that evokes animal movements, such as Saint-Saen's 'Carnival of the animals'.
* Use ribbon streamers out of doors to make waves.
* Explore moving through water. The children in the unit go swimming every week so had the experience of what it is like to travel through water.
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.
Tell us about your projects
* If you have a project that you would like to share, then send a short summary of it to Nursery World, at the address on page 3.
