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

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.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? NARRATIVE PLANNING _ Now includes planning for innovating and changing the story with blanked out story maps for children, conjunctions active inspire screens, Text changed to include er an est suffixes and planning template for the ‘Independent Application’ section. 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.

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. 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? 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. 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. Stunning lighthouse pictures: http://abduzeedo.com/amazing-pictures-lighthouses Activity 3: Grace under pressure

The lighthouse keeper’s lunch is ‘delicious’. Can you think of any synonyms? Can you think of any antonyms? Children could look at light alongside this text. Looking at sources of light, the lighthouse is one can you think of any other.