The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch

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Mr Grinling is an ‘industrious’ lighthouse keeper. What does this mean? Can you think of any words that mean the same thing? Use this exciting and engaging Describe the Lighthouse Writing Activity Sheet with your class, to help them construct and write their own sentences about a lighthouse! To help pupils write a lighthouse description, this resource includes a great, easy-to-follow template with a useful box of keywords that children can look through and decide which adjectives best describe the lighthouse before recording their own sentences below. Can they include a wide range of expanded noun phrases about the lighthouse in their sentences?

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.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 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. Use this lighthouse tour video to describe the inside and outside of a lighthouse, as well as the amazing views from the top.

Choose two types of sandwiches and make a Venn diagram to show which children like / don’t like each 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.

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Alongside writing a lighthouse description, your children could draw a lighthouse with this How to Draw a Lighthouse resource! Younger children might enjoy colouring one in that's already been designed, here. Key features of a lighthouse:

Write a sequel for the book, showing how the fisherman in the boat stopped the seagulls from eating his lunch. Write a set of instructions that teach someone how to make a delicious sandwich for Mr Grinling’s lunch. Plan and carry out an investigation to find out the strength of different materials. Which would be best to protect the lighthouse keeper’s lunch? The lighthouse keeper’s lunch is ‘delicious’. Can you think of any synonyms? Can you think of any antonyms?

Stunning lighthouse pictures: http://abduzeedo.com/amazing-pictures-lighthouses Activity 3: Grace under pressure Lighthouses have a bright light at the top of the tower to help sailors see and stop them crashing into the shore

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… 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? 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! 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 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.To help children become familiar with the differences between the geographical features of a town and the coast, you can give them this Town and Coast 'Where Does It Belong?' Worksheet to do. This worksheet will get young learners to identify features and place them in the right location.