Alver Valley Schools’ Year R team trialled a new approach to curriculum planning back in the Autumn term of 2019, called “Hooks into Books”. We have written a couple of articles along the way (See Hooks into Books and Hooks into Books meets the Gingerbread Man), and we have also shared some of our hooks and outcomes on our school social media platforms. Our rationale for sharing is that we want to reflect on what we have learnt through the implementation, consider the impact, and add to the conversation around Early Years learning as we all strive to ‘get it right’ for the children in our contexts. Now, at the beginning of 2022, it’s time for another article update. Read on to find out about how we have used the book Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson.
Quick recap: how it all began
In Year R we have built our curriculum around key quality texts to really inspire and engage our pupils, broadening their experience of a range of stories, developing vocabulary and understanding, and giving them a stimulus to explore as they wish.
We feel that the approach fits really well with the New Early Years Framework, which we have embraced fully in our practice. At the start of each new learning journey and key text we aim to have a magical moment, which we describe as “hooks into books”.
What we are trying to achieve through this hook is, through real experiences, to bring the book to life, creating memories and experiences that motivate and engage the children with the text in different ways so that they begin to live and breathe it, taking on the language, themes and ideas, and so that they are inspired to learn and to make connections in learning, including connections with other stories, and with real-life experiences. One of the easiest ways to explore this is to share a recent hook and learning journey.
Room on the Broom
Imagine for a moment that you are 4-5 years old: you have just finished your phonics (or replace with whatever it is you have just been doing) and now your teacher asks you to sit and listen to her story. They begin to read Room on the Broom… … and, of course, there is nothing wrong with this picture – it’s an excellent story and children do need to hear stories told in this way but what about this as alternative…
Imagine for a moment that you are 4-5 years old: you have just finished your phonics (or replace with whatever it is you have just been doing) and you spot something flash past the window. What is it? You hear a cackle and whoosh, it passes by again. By now you and all your friends have rushed to the window – and you have worked out that it’s a witch on her broomstick! You beg your teachers to take a closer look and, with confidence or a slight edge of trepidation, you bound or venture outside. You question and wonder out loud with your friends about what is going on and then it happens: the witch casts a spell and turns one of the adults into a frog! Instantly the poor adult is hopping all over the place – hilarious!
Clearly the adults won’t stand for that kind of nonsense and so with their encouragement (not much is needed!) you work as a team to capture the witch and invite her into the classroom. Once inside you start asking the witch some questions (as this is not the first time you have met a character outside your classroom you have now learnt all about what makes a good question!). The witch answers a few and then asks you all if you would like to hear her favourite story? Well, of course you do – I mean, how many times have you had a story read to you by a witch? And you’ve guessed it, the story is all about her!
The witch reads you Room on the Broom (Thank you, Julia Donaldson, for your fabulous books) and you are all hanging onto every word (well, you have no choice really, as the witch has already cast a spell to get you to listen!). The witch says you can join in with the repeated phrases and so everyone does, with actions and a loud “whoosh….”
All too soon the story has ended and it’s time for the witch to disappear again, and you are left hoping she returns soon.
What followed next in the children’s self-directed learning sessions was fantastic – all over the environment you could see children taking ideas from the story into their play creatively. They were making traps and potions, writing messages, and drawing pictures for the witch. Children were taking on the role of the witch and so spell making abounded.
Broomstick, wand and hat making followed, and so also did conversations about other favourite characters, such as that giant Hungry Caterpillar and that naughty Goldilocks who visited before. There was even the odd sighting of the witch flying past, although the adults never managed to spot her. Of course, children were free to choose to direct their learning in other ways, but the majority of children were choosing to re-enact or develop lines of enquiry based on the book.
Over the coming days children engaged in some adult-led learning around the story, having further opportunities to listen again to the story, acting it out as a group and then deciding who could go on the broomstick, drawing the broomstick and characters, and writing simple phrases ‘on went the…’.
Then, on Friday in Forest School, something rather amazing happened. It all started off like any other Friday. As usual after welcome time we all got dressed up warmly, ready for Forest School (Forest Friday!). As we journeyed into the forest on that frosty January morning, with clear skies overhead and crisp, frost-covered grass underfoot, the children decided en route to make their usual stop at Ollie the Owl’s favourite tree to see if Ollie was there and if he had left a message for them. Lo and behold, he had left one of his cryptic messages!
Quickly the children deciphered that perhaps there was a witch in the forest and maybe her broomstick was broken again. They followed Ollie’s instructions and tiptoed into the forest, not wanting to scare her away, and just as predicted there was indeed a witch in the fire circle. The witch was sat muttering and mumbling to herself, and didn’t notice the children – and she seemed a bit cross, so they approached carefully. The witch was very pleased indeed to see the children, although less pleased to see the adults and instantly turned one of them into a frog (she seems to have developed rather a bad habit of doing this!)
The children asked her what the problem was, and she explained that she just could not fly with a broken broomstick. The children enthusiastically offered their help to create a new broomstick. The witch invited the children to come and sit around the fire and explained that she was trying to cast a spell to make a new broomstick, but it just wasn’t working. She showed the children how she created her spell – writing out the ingredients, adding them to the cauldron and stirring it up – before saying the magic words: “Ziggerty, zaggorty, zoom; make me a new broom” but it just didn’t work. The children tried to help by saying the words with her but still it didn’t work and so the witch first got cross, resulting in two more frogs, before having a more productive idea! She consulted her secret book of spells and realised that she had missed lots of ingredients and she would need help to find them.
The children offered to help find the ingredients and so they were sent in teams to search the woodland for the odd ingredients on the list, to write them on a spell sheet just like the witch had done, and bring them back to the witch. First, they were sent off to find something dead and something long. When it was time to come back to the fire circle, a signal – a loud cackle – could be heard throughout the woodland, and quick as a flash they returned to talk about and add their ingredients to the pot. Lots of talk about the ingredients and how they could tell the item met the criteria ensued. Once they agreed, the items were added – and then twice more children were sent on another mission to find different ingredients that meet certain criteria – with lots of opportunities to classify and discuss if they met the criteria – and both times they returned successfully bringing items from the woodland, spell lists in tow.
Once all the ingredients were in the pot and the magic words spoken, the witch declared it all a success and said all the children deserved a break and snack whilst they waited for the spell to work. The witch called for hot chocolate all round and then offered to read her favourite story once more to the child whilst their had their snack and rested by the fire.
At the end of the story the witch looked out to the distance and declared that she had seen her new broomstick – she muttered her thanks, cackled with glee, waved goodbye, turned one final adult into a frog and set off through the woodland, never to be seen again.
And what comes next is some highly motivated children engaging in some further opportunities for phrase writing, first with potion making and spell instructions (‘put in a…., add the…. Mix in the….’) and so on, ahead of actually making and labelling potions. Then onto broomstick design and modifications – well, if Julia Donaldson can add a shower for a frog, what would you add to your broomstick? – ahead of using our joining skills to make our designs.
So a few years on, what have we learnt?
In the broadest terms, through our experience with the children in our context we have noticed that the children are more highly motivated, engaged in both the books we read and in learning, when we start with a hook that really immerses them in the story or idea.
We have learnt that they are more likely to take ideas from stories into their self-directed learning time, that they become more creative in problem solving and take on some of the language and ideas.
Children remember favourite characters, and these characters reappear in the children’s language and play at later points in the year as the children make connections in their learning and talk about the similarities between different stories. Children in Year 1 and 2 still talk about these visits from characters and the events that ensued. If and when they meet the characters, or similar characters, again they have a greater knowledge of the story and understanding of and empathy for the character.
These hooks are also helpful in providing a context for learning, with many of our stories lending themselves not just to the areas of communication, language and literacy but also to personal and social development, understanding of the world, expressive arts and design, and so on.
Near the beginning of this journey we spotted a tweet from Michael Rosen, which resonated with our vision and early experience of implementing the approach:
“There are many picture books which young children appear to ‘inhabit’. They ‘become’ the book. This is so crucial in the process of how children learn what it means to ‘read’ – in the fullest sense of the word”
We wholeheartedly agree, and remain determined to strive to plan those magical moments that allow our children to ‘become the book’ and ‘inhabit the book’, giving them the opportunity and inspiration to become readers in the very fullest sense of the word.
Ali Lockwood
Head of Schools Alver Valley Schools
You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
If you are interested in finding out more about Alver Valley Schools go to www.alvervalleyschools.co.uk
To read more about the Early Years approach at Alver Valley Schools check out our articles on the school website in Spotlight on Alver Valley.