Suggestions for adults
It's relatively easy to give children some idea of what a tornado is like
because it can be illustrated from a bystander's point of view (and there is plenty of
illustrative material available). A hurricane, being on a vastly-larger scale, is more
difficult to conceptualise. If you're standing in a hurricane you're not going to
appreciate its rotational qualities as it's far too big (and you have more important
things on your mind).
We usually think of the wind blowing in straight lines whereas, in fact, it is almost
always part of a circulating system. If children are encouraged to look at weather maps on
television they will appreciate this fact. Satellite pictures are also useful to
illustrate 'swirliness'.
There are lots of things that children can do to improve their understanding and appreciation of the wind.
Observations
Clouds are nature's way of showing the direction and speed of the wind. Do
they provide an accurate indication of the wind at ground level?
(When kids are cloud-watching they can discover that fluffy white clouds are constantly
changing shape.)
Smoke from a bonfire provides a good indicator of ground-level wind qualities. What
happens to a column of smoke on a still day? Does it rise for ever or does it start moving
away with height?
Children can look for other indicators such as trees and flags.
Making wind-measuring devices
Making wind vanes can be a lot of fun and very useful to find out how
static or variable the wind direction is. Wind speed indicators are more difficult to make
but can provide a challenge. A more ambitious project is to construct a device which tells
you how fast the wind blew while you weren't watching e.g. during the night.
Children can check if their wind findings match weather forecasts.
Kites are another possibility.
Questions
1. If you were in a hot air balloon would you feel the wind? Why not?
2. If you were in a hurricane, what would you notice about the wind speed and direction as
the hurricane passed? To start with, the wind would blow from one direction, then there
would be calm as the eye arrived, followed by the wind blowing from the opposite direction
as the other side of the rotating hurricane arrived.
3. The wind can be very harmful but it can also be useful. Think of examples of where the
wind is welcome.
Imagination
Some ideas for writing:
1. A violent storm is about to strike. You rush to your shelter. What do you take with
you? What supplies will already be in the shelter? What will you do while you are waiting
for the storm to pass? What will you find when you emerge?
2. Write a report for a newspaper about a tornado hitting your city/town/village.
3. You are a whirlwind. What mischief will you get up to?
4. You can make whirlwinds. What will you do with your powers?
5. You build a tornado-destroying device. What do you call it? How does it work? What do
you do with it?
The story is about two cats, Curly and Boysie, who set out to find why the
sea is disappearing. As is often the case when oceans disappear, the water is being pumped
up rivers and then through pipelines to giant refrigerators which are producing huge ice
cubes to be fired into space to provide obstacle courses for trainee pilots of alien
spacecraft.
(Author's note: no I wasn't 'on' anything when I wrote this!)
There are several opportunities for Science work.
Rock Pools
At the beginning of the story the cats find a crab in a rock pool. The Things
To Do activity in Chapter 3, Tough Guys in the Pool, mentions that
pool-living creatures are subject to more-extreme conditions than creatures which live
permanently in the sea. The temperature changes more quickly, the salinity alters, and the
oxygen content of the water fluctuates according to the amount of photosynthesis taking
place.
While it may not be possible to construct a rock pool in the classroom, children could
conduct experiments to find how quickly the temperature changes in small containers of
water (representing the pool) compared with larger containers (representing the sea). The
greater the difference in the volumes, the greater will be the difference in the time
taken for temperatures to change.
If a saline solution is allowed to evaporate (naturally or by applying heat), children
will see the salt which is deposited. If they sample the solution at intervals during the
evaporation process, they will note that the salinity increases.
Fresh Water and Sea Water
Midge the Magician rescues the river fish as it becomes contaminated with sea
water. It could be pointed out that most aquatic creatures cannot tolerate changes in
their environment (as those who keep tropical fish will know). Some fish, however, such as
salmon, are able to live in both the sea and rivers.
Pumps
Ickli Ick pumps water up the river. This is not as far-fetched as it might
seem.In several parts of the world (e.g. the Netherlands and parts of the east coast of
England) land which lies below sea level remains dry only because powerful pumps are
permanently employed to pump water from drainage ditches and canals into the sea. Prior to
the introduction of electric pumps, windmills were used to do the pumping. (Contrary to
myth, the Dutch were not obsessed with milling flour.)
Water and Ice
To demonstrate that the speed at which Ickli Ick's refrigerator can freeze water
is a little far-fetched, children could put some water in a refrigerator (at home,
perhaps) and see how long it takes to freeze. They could also perform some experiments to
find out how long ice takes to melt at different temperatures.
They could also perform an experiment to find out if Ickli Ick's refrigerator would have
performed so efficiently once it was using sea water instead of fresh water.
The aim of the story is to:
(a) show that different people may have different ideas of what is normal or reasonable
(b) make the reader think about how strange some of our behaviour must appear to other
people (or aliens).
There are ten suggestions in the Things to do section. The link to this section is on page 10 of the story. You might like to use some of these ideas in the classroom.
As an additional activity you could ask children to write their own stories using side notes, the format looking something like this, perhaps:
Not only does this make a welcome change from the usual format of stories
but is a useful way of providing some additional information without spoiling the flow of
the story, and also provides the writer with some new challenges. The format does not have
to be restricted to fiction but could be used equally effectively with other writing
styles.
The main difference between side notes and footnotes is that with the latter you usually
have to go hunting and, after a while, give up referring to the notes because the task is
so laborious.
Spotted Cow Lane and Cackle Street
These two places - a lane and a small hamlet near where I live - still manage to make me smile every time I pass them. I've often wondered how the names originated. I can think of lots of possible explanations - and I'm sure that children could do so as well.
1. Get children to choose some names from the list and come up with their own ideas as to how the names originated. (You're allowed to ask them to skip the 'piddle' names.)
2. Limericks e.g.
There was an old woman from Lower Dicker
Who wanted to nurse the ill vicar
She gave him a bowl
Of extract of mole
And wondered why he felt sicker
3. Write a story bringing in as many of the names as possible.
4. Make up your own silly names.
We'd like to have a page of examples of work which have resulted from using the names directory. If you'd like to submit some writings we'll choose some to publish.
This is a cross-curricular project involving science, geography, English
and maths. In addition to providing information about llamas and their role today,
reference is made to their origins in South America (and importance to the Incas).
There are two mathematical problem-solving exercises, a poem (with suggestions for
extension work) and a language activity requiring users to make up conversations between
two llamas.
Maps of North and South America are provided with larger-scale maps of two regions of
North America.
Ideas for other work
The Incas
It is worth studying the Incas of South America if for no
other reason than to compare their civilisation with that of other parts of the world.
Despite the fact that they did not use wheels, they constructed a vast network of highways
linking all parts of their empire. Suspension bridges and retaining walls to support
mountain-hugging roads are just two of the incredible engineering feats which were
undertaken. Their skills with masonry were so advanced that some consider their
constructions must have been created by extra-terrestrials!
Llamas were of vital importance to the Incas for transportation. It is hardly surprising
that the llama became known as the "ship of the Andes". It might be interesting
to consider how different Inca culture would have been without the llama to provide an
effective means of transport, the raw material for clothing, and an important part of Inca
diet.
Llama transport
Children could be asked to think of other modes of transport which do not rely upon the
wheel e.g. boat, sledge, bier, sedan, glider.
They could also draw up a table to show how many llamas would provide the equivalent
carrying capacity of other means of transport. An adult llama can carry between 27.5 and
50kg.
If you have any suggestions for further extension activities, please get in touch.
You could:
1. reproduce the mathematical problems in this activity and use different values to
present children with a fresh set of problems
2. get children to use the "Railway Inspector" methods to solve some problems in
the school environment
Visas and other forms
Children could collect and study various types of form
prior to making their own. They could, for example, design:
application forms for joining sports teams
an application form for an increase in pocket money
a "what-makes-someone-a-good-friend" form
a form for prospective carers of rescued animals.
Signs
The world is full of signs. It can be interesting to get children to draw from memory signs which they see every day. They might be surprised by how inaccurate their results are. Try drawing a picture of a route sign on a major road and you'll probably have difficulty even remembering which colours are used.
Get children to draw signs for use at home or school. These could be either textual or symbolic.
Maps
Fug Bear has a map with bits missing. Children could draw their own maps
and cut pieces out for others to replace.
Alternatively, they could make intelligent guesses about what the missing parts of a map
might look like.
Winnie-the-Pooh
If you have copies of the Pooh books, children could compare E.H.Shepard's depictions of Pooh Country with the ArgoSphere illustrations to see if there are any similarities.
Forests
Winnie-the-Pooh lived on Ashdown Forest in Sussex. What other forests are
there (at home and overseas)?
What are forests used for today?
What were they used for in the past?
Pooh Web Sites
There are many Pooh sites on the Web. The more you see the more you
realise that Pooh has an all-age, world-wide appeal. One site which is well worth visiting
(and will set you off on the path to other sites) is David H. Sherrod's "An Enchanted Page".
David is currently taking a master's degree at Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio in the
USA. Take a look at his resume and you'll see that techie bods can be as imaginative and
creative as 'normal' folk.