Go! Go! Grandma!

6-week activity plan by Sue Nicholls

KS1: Family. Song: Grandma rap

Using a song or rap as the epicentre of a topic provides a lively and memorable starting point. Grandma rap is an appealing and humorous vocal piece – an ideal vehicle for energising and enthusing KS1 pupils. Plan a unit of work beginning with this rap to ‘kick-start’ ideas and forge valid links across many subjects to integrate and support cross-curricular work.

Introduce the song

- Talk with the children about their grandparents and share anecdotes and descriptions. Be aware that there may be children who are estranged from older family members and be prepared to divert attention to ‘stock’ grandma characters if the occasion arises. Consider using grannies in traditional stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Gingerbread Man, or fictional grannies such as those in George’s Marvellous Medicine or Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers.

- Listen to the performance of the rap, encouraging children to warm up voices and bodies by joining in with the simple ‘rap-a-long’ chorus and the actions. Does the grandma depicted in this rap remind the children of their own grannies?

- Try the rap verses – they almost chant themselves and the rhyme patterns help everyone learn the lyrics effortlessly. Use the activity notes to learn the actions and enjoy chanting and acting out the story of this crazy but cool grandma!

Literacy (Speaking and Listening)

- Play ‘My Granny went to Paris’, which is based on alphabetical order. The first child thinks of something beginning with ‘a’ and says, for example: ‘My Granny went to Paris and bought an apple’. The second player adds to this list by selecting an item beginning with ‘b’: ‘My Granny went to Paris and bought an apple and a book’ … ‘My Granny went to Paris and bought an apple, a book and a camel’. Continue until the list is too long to remember and then start afresh. This activity develops memory and the use of ordinal numbers, eg. ‘What was the second thing that Granny bought?’

- Use the structure of the rap but change the opening lines to encourage the children to find a new rhyming couplet: Grandma, grandma, you ain’t ill! All you need is a magic pill! 

Grandma, grandma, you’re a fraud!

All you need is an ironing board!

Grandma, grandma, you’re OK!

All you need is a holiday!

Grandma, grandma, stand up straight!

Eat some custard off a yellow plate!

or …

She never went to London,

she never went to France

But I bet your bottom dollar,

she can jive and she can dance!

Literacy (Drama)

- Retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood from Granny’s perspective. Talk about the best starting point for her version and discuss which parts of the tale she will be unable to recount.

Literacy (writing)

- Read the popular Mairi Hedderwick story Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers: these two fictional grannies are both larger than life but could not be more different. Collect and scribe the children’s descriptions of these two characters, encouraging pupils to think of any similarities, eg. their affection for their granddaughter, their popularity with the islanders. (See the online Teaching Tools lesson plan My bonnie lies over the ocean for more ideas for developing work using this book.)

Sing a song about Katie Morag’s two grannies; the verses underpin the differences in the characters:

The two grannies

(Tune: Frère Jacques – every line echoes)

(Leader) Granny Mainland,

(Echo) Granny Mainland,

(Leader) What do you wear?

(Echo) What do you wear?

(Leader) Lots of pearls and make-up!

(Echo) Lots of pearls and make-up!

(Leader) Curly, fancy hair!

(Echo) Curly, fancy hair!

(Leader) Granny Island,

(Echo) Granny Island,

(Leader) What do you wear?

(Echo) What do you wear?

(Leader) Dungarees and wellies!

(Echo) Dungarees and wellies!

(Leader) No-nonsense hair!

(Echo) No-nonsense hair!

Write a letter to Granny Mainland, as if from Katie Morag, inviting her to take part in a ‘Glamorous Granny’ competition to be held on the Isle of Struay. Give her advice about her wardrobe and what she should say to the judges!

Numeracy (Problem Solving)

- Make up ‘Grandma’ number stories connected to the rap. Here are some examples but the best ‘problems’ would be those that the children invented and solved for themselves:

Grandma number stories

– Grandma is 80 years old and she’s lived in the same house since she was 30. How old was she when she moved in?

– Grandma is advised to get a walking stick; if she is as tall as the teacher, how long should her stick be? 

– The doctor gives her energy pills and suggests she takes two every day. How many would she need for a week, or a fortnight? How long would a bottle of 20 pills last?

– Grandma wiggles five times every minute. How many wiggles would she manage in three minutes, 10 minutes etc? 

-Make a large class floor map of a fictitious town and create buildings for Grandma’s house, the doctor’s surgery and the chemist. Make up some measuring stories to solve:

– How far does the doctor travel to and from Grandma’s house when he visits?

– How far does Grandma walk to collect her energy pills? Would it save time if the doctor collected the pills and brought them with him? 

- Make a display of different coins from around the world and be sure to have some of Grandma’s ‘bottom’ dollars in the collection! 

- Encourage the children to bring any leftover holiday currency from home and add markers to a world map display to show where each coin or note comes from.

Science

- Work out a week’s menu of meals for Grandma, ensuring a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein, vegetables, fruit, fatty and sugary foods.

Literacy (writing)

- Ask the children to bring in photos of their grannies and set up a ‘Granny Gallery’. 

- Find out what each child calls their grandma – nana, nanny, granny, grandmamma – and why.

- Encourage each child to make a quick small sketch of their granny and stick it on to A3 paper. Use the margin around each image to add a bank of descriptive words and phrases to build up a more fully developed character map: kind, clever, cuddly, makes brilliant cakes, storyteller …

Design & Technology, ICT (Speaking And Listening)

- Work in fours to design and make character puppets for Red Riding Hood, Granny, the wicked wolf and the woodcutter, using a range of available materials: paper bags, wooden spoons, paper plates and fabric scraps.

- Make a puppet theatre by converting a large cardboard box and design and print background scenery using ICT software. Invite the children to create a performance of the story using their puppets and some improvised dialogue. Can they make special voices for Granny and the wolf?

History

(Links to QCA History Unit 2: What were homes like long ago?)

- Invite a granny or a great-granny, if possible, to give a talk about her home when she was a child. Write up all her anecdotes and memories and present them as a special book with the children’s illustrations. 

- Perform Grandma rap and invite her to join in!

- Encourage the children to conduct research using books and appropriate websites to explore homes in the recent and distant past.

Geography

- Display a large-scale map of the local area. Add markers for the schools and colleges that Grandma could have attended and encourage the children to make up some appropriate questions, using geographical language, eg.‘Which school is the nearest to your school?’ ‘Which ones lie to the north of the town?’

PE (Dance)

- Use the backing track to Grandma rap to choreograph a comic dance. Work in pairs: a doctor and a grandma dancing together. Incorporate some hobbling granny steps, walking stick moves and wiggles.

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Sue Nicholls has published many books for generalist teachers with A&C Black and contributed several songs to other song collections. She works as a freelance music education consultant, providing nationwide INSET and training.