The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch

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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. On a trip to the beach with their children, the Armitages saw a wire which ran from the cliff to the lighthouse and their son wanted to know what it was for. David suggested it was for the lighthouse keeper’s lunch… For an even better way to find KS1 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS1 resource HUB! GO TO KS1 HUB

For an even better way to find KS2 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS2 resource HUB! GO TO KS2 HUB Mr Grinling is an ‘industrious’ lighthouse keeper. What does this mean? Can you think of any words that mean the same thing? Use the lighthouse in the book as a starting point for a design and technology activity. Get the children to study a variety of lighthouses and talk about the requirements for an effective design. What are the main elements of a lighthouse design and why is it built in this way? What kind of things does a lighthouse need to withstand? What colours are used for lighthouses and why might these colours have been chosen? 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?Sue Cowley takes The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch as inspiration for four fun-filled, ocean-themed activities... A sweet book, that is easy to read. I read it to reception, they engaged with the book and found parts very funny.

Write a diary from the point of view of Mr Grinling. Use this video to get some ideas for your work:

Primary School

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

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? Once their lighthouses are built, show the children how to make a complete circuit with a battery, wire and bulb. They should then work out how to fix this into their lighthouse model, so that the light appears at the top inside the lantern section. More able, or older, pupils could explore various options for getting their light to rotate inside the lighthouse. 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. 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?

Talk with the children about the different methods Mrs Grinling tries in her attempts to foil the seagulls. What is her plan in each case, and why does the mustard work best in the end? Now divide the children into pairs or groups, and ask them to come up with some alternative plans for stopping the seagulls eating the lunch. Encourage them to think creatively and to come up with wild and unusual ideas, as well as the more obvious suggestions. 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.

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 children could redesign the basket so that it is ‘seagull proof’, exploring a range of different materials and designs before examining which one would work best. But they might also come up with something else to go in the basket/lunch to put the seagulls off - lateral thinking is the key! 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. The book tells the story of Mr Grinling, the lighthouse keeper, and the trouble his wife has getting his lunch across from the mainland. Mrs Grinling prepares her husband a delicious lunch, but the seagulls keep eating it before it reaches him. After several failed attempts, she finally manages to foil the pesky birds with some mustard flavoured sandwiches!

International

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. Write a set of instructions that teach someone how to make a delicious sandwich for Mr Grinling’s lunch.