Mr and Mrs Grinling star in a number of other books including The Light House Keeper’s Catastrophe, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rescue, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Picnic, and The Lighthouse Keeper’s Cat This activity will not only help pupils with their literacy skills, such as descriptive writing, it will also help them develop and improve with their geography knowledge and skills. For example, writing a lighthouse description will involve them discussing where lighthouses can be found and what they’re used for. It would tie in well with a lesson on ‘features of the seaside’. As seen in this, Features of the Seaside Lesson for KS1, a lighthouse is a key human geographical feature! Can this resource be used at home? 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? 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. The lighthouse keeper’s lunch is ‘delicious’. Can you think of any synonyms? Can you think of any antonyms?

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. Mr Grinling is an ‘industrious’ lighthouse keeper. What does this mean? Can you think of any words that mean the same thing?

Find a Scheme of Work

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. 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… Use this lighthouse tour video to describe the inside and outside of a lighthouse, as well as the amazing views from the top. Write a sequel for the book, showing how the fisherman in the boat stopped the seagulls from eating his lunch.

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? 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? 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? Write a diary from the point of view of Mr Grinling. Use this video to get some ideas for your work: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. Write a set of instructions that teach someone how to make a delicious sandwich for Mr Grinling’s lunch. 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.