Birthday research

 Today was about research.

Gil's been learning about animals, where they live and what they eat, so (after some maths on shapes) he chose five animals (lemurs, snow leopards, penguins, rhinos and orang-utans) to learn about. He discovered how to use an index in an animal encyclopedia, how to look up videos on youtube (supervised by Mum) and how to compile the information he'd acquired in note form.

Ferdy has been doing explanation texts at school and (after some rounding and subtraction in maths) chose today to research Leaf Cutter Ants and what they do with their leaves.

But really, the best way to learn about animals, is to see them. Sadly, we couldn't go to the rainforest, and it had to be Atherstone rather than Africa, so off we went to Twycross Zoo.

I wouldn't usually suggest doing research in the ladies toilets, but at Twycross, it is the best place to study Leaf Cutter Ants.

We noticed how initially they weren't carrying any leaves, but then quite a few of these reddish brown creatures started walking along the rope with large pieces of greenery. These were bigger ants and we spotted three different sizes; some were even carrying berries. Ferdy informed us that there can be over one million ants in one colony (and I noted that he hadn't just been watching Monster Bug Wars on youtube).

Deciding that it was best not to eat our lunch in the toilets, we then set out to explore the rest of the zoo and, despite the cold, wet weather, managed to see three out of five of Gil's animals: the penguins were being fed herrings and the rhino had a calf with it, so Gil was able to add those facts to his information sheet.

Later on, however, after Ferdy had put all his research into a piece of explanation text and Gil had written the diary of a lemur (he was dismayed to see the the lemur enclosure was closed as lemurs can get coronavirus too), the real research began...

It's no mean feat reading three of your birthday books simultaneously, but when you've spent most of your ninth birthday working hard and not looking at your presents, it's necessary.

Ferdy enters the scene, stage left.

 

We love the theatre. We've written about quite a few of our trips on this blog; one of our favourite places is Derby Theatre where our early flexischooling days began with Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Horrible Histories Deaf and Dead through to A Christmas Carol and The Jungle Book and we have plans to see Treasure Island at Christmas

This term, Ferdy is going to be learning about the features and layout of play scripts and using stage directions in text, so, imagine our excitement when the lovely backstage staff at the theatre agreed to let us have our own personal visit to discover how the stage works.

We were treated to our bespoke tour by Head of Lighting and Sound, Ele, who told us all about how the weight rigging system works enabling the cast to fly; how the set is brought up from the carpark in a gigantic lift and sometimes assembled in one day and how the set and props are built. We had taken some vocabulary cards with us with words such as stage left, backdrop, set, wings, props and auditorium written on them and Ferdy then went around the stage, placing them in their correct positions. He was also allowed to act out a little sketch on the stage about a clumsy man who kept slipping over (there was a slippy covering on the stage to flatten it out).

Our new friend Ele then took us into the control room and explained how the sound and lighting work, and we agreed that it was useful to have a loud voice like Ferdy's when you are acting. She had engaging answers for all Ferdy's questions like what would happen if someone was fast asleep in bed when they should be acting on stage, and Ferdy found it hilarious that once one of the child actors had been unable to act and the only person who could stand in for him was an adult... Ele didn't even mind when Ferdy requested she name all the characters in Treasure Island, and seemed to quite enjoy his idea that instead of her afternoon task of cutting the stage covering, she should go and write her own script for Treasure Island.

Inspired by his newly acquired knowledge of the stage, Ferdy later wrote a play script based on a Billy Whizz story in the Beano, and we built a stage set and made characters with which he could perform his play.

We are so grateful for this amazing opportunity, thanks a million Derby Theatre!