Mighty Writer Workshops: Part 3: Sid the Snake
The children of Corpus Christi Catholic School rose to the challenge of joining in with my story about Mary McHairy. They whispered/shouted/sung/ their lines in the story beautifully. So, I wanted to take it a step further this week and get them to learn a short poem and some actions to show their teachers. On the craft side, I also wanted them to work together on separate parts to put together to create a whole and produce something as a class that could be displayed in the classroom.
Sticking with the animal theme, I adapted a poem about Snakes from the Wriggle and Roar book of Rhymes to Join in with by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharrat.
I have discovered through wokshops that it helps to show the children examples that have been created by other children (especially of a similar age). The reception children I worked with liked to see what they were going to make but when I showed and example I'd done some children got a little frustrated as theirs wasn't as neat, tidy, drawn well, cut well etc. When I showed then examples my sons had done the outcome was much more achievable.
Hers is my son James being used as a guinea pig...
Decorating the coils.
With the finished example Sid the Snake (he named him!) which I took to school and used as an example. It gave the children the opportunity to see lots of different designs on the coils (shapes, patterns, numbers) and for them to see what they were working towards.
The first part of the workshop was to learn some poetry and actions. I chose a short poem and added some very simple actions to aid the memorisation of the poem (and also to make it fun!).
I recited the poem a numbr of times and asked the children to join in when they felt ready. Some joined in earlier than others, but we continued reciting it till everyone had joined in. Then we agreed we needed a snake that could also move to our poem.
The children decorating their individual coils that we linked together to form the body of the snake.
Some children worked quicker than others and they wanted to decorate more than one coil,
We stapled all the coils together to make a very long snake. I provided the face ( a foam face, with a felt tongue on a lollipop stick) and the tail (a foam triangle on a lollipop stick) but the children to make it themselves depending on time.
The snake is a good way for involving children who aren't as confident in reciting the poem or remembering the actions, as they can still join in by moving the snake to the rhythm.
The children were very proud of their class snakes and the part that they each played in creating it. They named their snakes Sophie and Simon.
"My class made a big, long snake that had loads of colours on it. We had to practice drawing different shapes in different colours. My piece was stripy. The teacher put it on the ceiling so it could watch us.”
We practised the poem lots of times and made it into a game/ competition where the children stood up in different groups to perform it (age, gender, name in the alphabet) which all helps in the memorisation process.
They did a brilliant job of making, performing and bringing the snake to life.
We discussed how the children could use the snake to write another verse of the poem (Rhyming couplet) or they could use this existing character and incorporate it into another story/ poem by writing the adventures themselves. (Just like we did with Mary McHairy)
Stuck for what to do with your children in the Summer Holidays?
Why not make your very own Snake and write some new adventures for it?
If you do, I would love to see pictures and read your stories so please send them my way.
Happy creating!
Please join me next time for a round up of some of the other workshops we did including the Snuggle Bug, The Tickling Tree and Beatiful Butterflies.
