Hi everyone,
'Hey! Get Off Our Train' by John Burningham was originally published in 1989 and reprinted in 1991 and titled 'Oi! Get Off Our Train' I'm not too sure why they retitled it but it's pretty much the same story, the little boy and his dog just shout something different at the animals as they get on the train. This is another John Burningham classic and tackles the difficult subject of deforestation, poaching, overfishing, pollution and endangered animals in an easily accessible way. This is my go-to book when we are thinking about how to be conscious of how we affect the environment around us.
Learning Ideas
Communication and Language
Re-tell the story from the beginning using just the pictures.
Role-play going on an adventure on a train, set some chairs up and give out tickets that you have made yourself. Where are you going? Where will you end up?
Research one of the endangered animals, why they are in trouble and give a 1-minute presentation
Pretend you are trying to explain to the little boy's mother why there are animals in the house. What will you say?
Physical Development
Gross Motor - Use a toy train and dip its wheels in paint, as they push the train across a large piece of paper (old wallpaper will do the trick) they can see the tracks made by the wheels of the train.
Fine Motor - Make your own Magnetic Fishing game like the one featured on ConsumerCrafts.com but instead of fish, why not boots, plastic, crisp packets, rubbish so the children can help clean up the ocean.
Practising using an effective pencil grip while writing and drawing.
When children first start out with scissors they can find regular scissors difficult to use, especially with the closing AND opening action. They tend to use them like sheers to snip the paper. I like to use squeeze scissors like these ones from Easi-Grip as once they have developed their hand strength they can move onto regular scissors.
Personal Social Emotional Development
How do you think each animal felt when they saw the train? Seeing their habitat being destroyed? After being rescued? How do you think they are feeling at the end inside the little boy's house?
Build word power by encouraging children to use words other than happy/sad. e.g worried, upset, downhearted, miserable, dejected, cross, ecstatic, cheerful, merry, jolly, delighted, etc.
What can you do to help the animals? Maybe you could start by recycling, doing a litter pick of your local environment (Use a long arm grabber to pick up rubbish. This is great for hand-eye coordination and finger strength.)
Play a board game together and practise taking turns. Pop-up-pirate, Crocodile Dentist and Monkeying Around (Monkey Business) are some of my classes favourites.
Reading
Retell the story from the beginning. Can you remember what they say to each animal as they try to get on the train? What do you think the boy said after the animal told him their story?
Think up your own story with a train going on an adventure. Where will it go? Will it be a train to save someone or something? Is it a conservation train like in the story? Is it an adventure train? It is a train going on holiday?
Writing
Write a letter together and post to your local MP to share your research about why it is important to look after endangered animals, you might want to send them a picture of your animal as an attachment. You can find their contact details at parliament.uk (helpful guidance for contacting your MP can be found here. Remember to include a return address so they can respond to your enquiry.)
Draw a picture of your favourite animal and write its name using phonetic knowledge. Remember in Nursery we aren't looking for spelling to be correct, mark-making is fine. If we are working with a Reception child then we would be hoping for a phonically plausible attempt to name the bear e.g. "b-air".
Numbers
Links to numbers are a bit scarce for this story, so focus on embedding counting into all the activities you do while learning about this book.
How many animals did the little boy save in the story? Can you count them?
Shape Space and Measures
Discuss day and night, the things that happen at these times? How do we know that it is day or night?
The boy had to be back in time to go to school in the morning, use your knowledge of the days of the week to identify which possible day the story could have been set on. (It could have been a Sunday as in the morning it would be a Monday and we go to school on a Monday, I could be a Tuesday because it is Wednesday in the morning, etc). This type of thinking could be incorporated into a bedtime routine. What day will it be tomorrow?
Place a group of 5-10 toy animals on a tray and cover it with a cloth. Secretly take one away and uncover the tray. Can the children say which animal is missing? Try with more animals or taking away two animals at a time.
Understanding of the World
Go on a trip on a train. Talk about buying a ticket and needing to stop at numerous stations before reaching the destination. What was the little boy's destination in the story?
Used in combination with the endangered animal research task talked about earlier, using the computer together can be a good introduction to the fact that a computer and/or iPad can be used to retrieve information.
Investigate the different type of habitats that these animals live in. You could also question why different animals are specialised to live in different environments. Why can a Polar Bear live in the desert? Why is a Penguin best suited to live in Antarctica?
If the zoo is a viable option why not go on a trip to visit the animals. Many do lots of important conservation work and will have members of staff to explain why certain animals are nearing extinction.
You might also want to look into adopting an animal as a class or family with WWF.
Take some plastic, glass, cardboard to your local recycling centre. You can find your nearest recycling centre at recyclenow.com
Expressive Arts and Design
There are lots of different types of artwork that can be created from recycled household rubbish. This Pinterest post has lots of lovely ideas.
If you have some small world animals maybe you could make your own habit for them thinking carefully about what they might need.
If you have a toy train track, can you roleplay going on an adventure to save some animals? How will they all fit on the train?
Have a lovely week,
Big Fox
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