Numbers – The action and imagination

Creative Context

Numbers – The action and imagination

These web pages has been set up by Adrian Spendlow to gather ideas on the theme of numbers, for the East Riding’s Creative Context project for 2006.

Numbers Front Page

 

Mrs Chris Brompton arranged two really great days which were really upbeat and creative, as the head teacher said on my leaving, ‘Another successful visit from Adrian Spendlow’.

Thank you all of you. As Sue Tolley just said in a thank you email ‘ Thanks Adrian,
We all had a great time creating number poems ! Sue’

Here are some of the poems we created below. Actually these were just the few I brought home by mistake there were lots more plus a follow up CD.

Working with the topic of numbers led me consider the idea of what is poetry. Someone could write two lines of well rhymed beautiful poetry and everyone in the class copy them. They wouldn’t have written poetry because originality, fresh ideas and stimulating ways of thinking are huge elements of what poetry is about. Saying things in a new and interesting way. Well that’s what happened at New Pasture School. Thanks to all you kids for being so great.

There were lots of ways we could arrange displays of our work too. Our Emotional Haiku turn into riddle poems when you number them (with huge eclectic three dimensional numbers) and people have to match feelings from the adjacent list in number order. Trouble is, we were so good at the poetry that the quiz might be easy! Everyone had a randomly chosen list of favourite people and wonderful things to say about them, so many among us that everyone could wear several badges “Adrian’s no. 1 Sara’s no. 5 etc. The house number poems take you on a tour of the whole of Bridlington ranging from street to street. “They were especially beautiful Chris well done.”

 

Mrs Tolloch and Mrs Rowling’s classes created these performance poems in our last session together.

 

Because of Numbers

 

Measuring Age

 

Crinkled crickled

    in and African field

Wrinkly thinking

      How old?

Numbers dim

He counts by

First time he was bitten

Through hundreds of seasons

To now - this fierce creatures attack

‘Remembers how old

   He’s one hundred and twenty years

 

New Creation

 

Excited and tired

We say to this calculator

“The best thing that ever happened to numbers”

“I invented you”

Shocked to succeed

Ten years till now

But

“Yippeeee”

 

Because

 

Because of numbers we

Have a Whiteboard - “Whiteboard!”

Millilitres in shops - K-Ching!

Cuckoo clocks - “Cuckoo”

Gas fires to heat - Pshoo

Keyboards - Da Dar

Bricks for houses - Clump clump clump clump yeeow!

Concrete for paths -

              ‘This way world, you are welcome’

 

Seaside Spending

 

See sand -

   One thousand million,

Six thousand fishes

And chips,

Two!

Look shells,

Counting counting

Er

Quite a few

 

 

And a smaller group from the same two classes created a top ten dreams list

 

1.             Monster Chase

2.             Candy World

3.             Skydiving

4.             Mechanic

5.             Jump into people’s dreams

6.             Magical Dreams

7.             Popstar

8.             Any World

9.             Mexican Dancer

10.             Princess World

 

Mrs Johnson’s Foundation Stage came up with a list of best things ever ever.

 

10. Alarm clocks tick tock tick tock and ring the alarm

9.   Trains going over bridges, wooo wooo!

8.   Riding on a donkey with a hat

7.   Rocking Horses, like that like that yee haa!

6.   Baby birds in warm nests learn to fly to eat worms

5.   Caterpillars, lots of legs, crawl, crawl, in and out

4.   Blue cars, pink cars, yellow cars, flashing lights, beep beep

3.   Cuddles with Mummy

2.   Reading a book with daddy in bed about Sleeping Beauty, yawn, yawn, night night

1.             Dressing up pretending to be nurses, princesses and chickens

 

Here are two of the Emotional Haiku. These were written in Mrs Brompton’s class (yr 1’s & 2’s).

 

Only just standing, last in

Tired looking, Closing eyes. Opening mouth wide

Moving slowly down to the table

 

 

 

Hands fast, flapping flowing

Body shaking. Eyes popping, almost. Punch!

Calling out ‘Yeh’ and - Hug

 

 

NB note that they are observational in the same way as a haiku is. They do not say how they feel that is up to the reader to observe.

 

The same group travelled from door to door (I look forward to putting a copy of their 1 for the poem up here too).

 

Start walking…..

Go to number 5… Somebody with silver scissor hands lives here - It’s Chloe’s mum!

Move next door to number 6… Nobody in! Gone shopping for Jasmine

Down the street at number 12 - Playing funny games while we are having tea with Monica’s family

Hop over to 18 - Over a hundred people living at Tristan’s old house - in caravans!

Here we go to 19… Somebody lovely lives here… That’s Lataya’s mum…. Lataya is seven soon!

Along the road to 28 - here lives a girl who loves lions - that’s Charlotte - she draws good pictures!

Go to number 39… A really good cook lives there - that’s Matthew’s mum.

She’s decorating today!

On to number 31...Somebody lives there who always goes to football club - he’s our ‘birthday boy’ - Liam is seven today!

Go visit Ben at number 45 - a Dalmatian lives there with 101 spots!

 

 

(The numbers have been changed)

 

More to come from Mrs Tandy’s, Mr Wood’s and Mrs Carr’s classes as well.

New Pasture Lane Primary School, Bridlington