Ivor Cutler : Eccentric Educator

Ivor Cutler died in 2006. He was adored by many and his Daily Mirror obituary read:-

Silly poet? Yes, much of his work was strange but it had wide appeal. Children liked the nonsense, he appeared in the Beatles' bit of nonsense The Magical Mystery Tour, John Peel championed his work and Alan McGee (boss of Creation Records) wrote fondly of him. JP was where I first came across him with his readings from "Letters from a Scotch Sitting Room". He wrote a number of books which were illustrated by Helen Oxenbury and Martin Honeysett. 

His LPs for Virgin included :-

I even have a DVD which tells his story and shows him in concert. He taught at Summerhill under A.S. Neill. If this means nothing to you, have a quick look on Wikipedia. The heady days of the 60's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Neill

Finally, if your a biologist like me, you've got to love someone who publishes a tiny little book of "stickers" called "Befriend a Bacterium".

Stick Figure Animation

The blog which has received most hits has been Flipbook Animation & PowerPoint. It's wonderful how animation (fooling your eyes) is a perennial favourite with all ages. I'm hoping to help set up an after-school Animation Club soon. In the past, working at a City Learning Centre, I've been spoilt for resources (software and hardware) but now, being independent I can't afford much of what I took for granted. Schools, also, don't have access to a lot of resources, so here's how to get started cheaply.

One I made

Free software is available for download to make Stick Figure animation:-

http://pivot-stickfigure-animator.en.softonic.com/

This is easy to pick up and a good starting point. It helps to have a theme when animating. I first used this programme when doing Healthy Living. Children made a variety of exercising figures against the background of their own school.

Sorry, don't know who to credit

How about animating some of these Olympic sports symbols from the Beijing Games.

If you're lucky enough to have iPods (or even iPads) for your pupils then there are free "lite" versions of Stick Figure animation programmes in the iStore.

Hope this is helpful. I'll post what we get up to at the Animation Club (if it gets off the ground).

PS Scratch is free and it can also be used for animation. Unfortunately, it can't be exported and used in other programmes, as far as I'm aware.
PPS I have looked at but not really tried Google's GIFPAL on line resource.

Hair in Funny Places and more - Babette Cole

Rocket reconstruction

I was in York today visiting the National Railway Museum but couldn't resist the urge to pop into one or two charity shops. I found a copy of Wind in the Willows illustrated by Babette Cole. It's also a pop-up book.










Firstly, Babette Cole and the blog title. I became aware of her through a series of books which were brilliant to use with children e.g. The Slimy Book and The Smelly Book. Being obsessive, I started to collect all her books and discovered some of them were really great teaching tools:-
     Mummy Laid An Egg - about where babies come from
     Hair in Funny Places - about puberty
     Two of everything - about grown ups
     

Cape (1999) ISBN 0224047639

Cape (1997) ISBN 0-22404-652-7

If I'd thought earlier in the week, I'd have mentioned her concertina pop-up book, Don't Go Out Tonight, to go with Halloween.

Hamish Hamilton (1982) ISBN 0 241 10732 6

For a complete list of Babette's books please visit her website.

http://www.babette-cole.com/

Maths Through Story - My biit

Next week I'm doing a couple of sessions for Inspire2Learn as part of their "Maths through Story" Learning Week. My contribution revolves around a resource I came across, in about 1990, called The Case of the Phantom Cat Burglar. This was part of Warwick Process Science. I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that.
The original resource was written for Y7 so I've produced three differentiated versions (Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6). I had some help in getting the levels right from  the Primary Maths Advisor.

Is the badge a mistake?

Lower level briefing sheet

Basically, the story involves an ex-Maths teacher who has committed a series of burglaries. The burglaries follow a series of patterns and it is up to the pupil to predict the next crime. At the highest level the prediction involves time, date, amount and address of the burglary. The latter was tricky for pupils so I've ammended it to make it easier.

If you'd like the resources I can email you the pdfs, just contact me:-
    docalanbrennan@gmail.com

Additional Resource : ISBN 1-86007-548-7 (2004)

This resource could lead you into a wider examination of Forensic Science. Our area is world famous for this, having the National Forensic Centre in County Durham and an international expert at Sunderland University.

The Three Blind Men and the Elephant

I'm preparing a Christmas Science Lecture and came across the following traditional Indian tale:-

Three blind men were asked to describe an elephant.
"It is a big, fat snake" said the first.
"It is four thick pillars, like tree trunks," said the second.
"It is long and thin, like a piece of string," said the third.
Which one was right? 

I have this tale an an illustrated book:-

Holding image - still can't find the book

and as a song by the wonderful Natalie Merchant. She used the poem by John Godfrey Saxe, The Blindmen and the Elephant, based on this Indian parable.

Nonesuch records (2010)

I'd like to have incorporated the story and a subsequent discussion into my lecture but time constraints prevent it. Maybe you could use one or all of these resources.

Art & Numbers

I came across a book called  "I Spy : Numbers in Art".*

I think a good card game could be made from it by taking the 20 (or just the first 10) pictures and giving them to the children to sort into number order 1 to 20 (10). Children would not be told which objects formed the basis of the 1 -20 (10) although some clues or keywords should be provided. They would need to examine works of art, count objects in the paintings and keep or reject some of their choices. The task would need perseverance.

Stanley Spencer - St Francis and the Birds

Pablo Picasso - The New Year

Later children can actually discuss their feelings/opinions of the works of art. They could explore more paintings and create their own games based on paintings.

I have come across two other I Spy art books " I Spy : Animals in Art" and "I Spy : Transport in Art" which might be useful.
Other children's art books that I would recommend are:-
     Art for Baby (2008) Templar Publishing ISBN 978-1-84011-99-2
     Looking at paintings : Flowers by Peggy Roalf (1994) Belitha
            ISBN 1 85561 315 8
     The Art Book for Children (2005) Phaidon Press ISBN 0 7148 4511 6
     Great Painters by P. Ventura (1984) Kingfisher Books
            ISBN 0-86272-123-7
and the Dorling Kindersley artist monographs.

* I Spy : Numbers in Art. (1993) Devised & selected by Lucy Mickelthwait. Collins ISBN 0-00-664298-5
   I Spy : Transport in Art. (1996) Devised & selected by Lucy Mickelthwait. Collins ISBN 0-00-664580-1
   I Spy : Animals in Art. (1994) Devised & selected by Lucy Mickelthwait. Collins ISBN 0-00-664407-4

Charlie Higson - "of" and "have"

I've just finished reading Charlie Higson's latest zombie book "The Sacrifice". Enjoyed it immensely but at least twice something wrangled. 

"He's got so much stuff in there, Jordan. You should of seen it"

Puffin 2012 ISBN 978-0-14133612-1

http://www.charliehigson.co.uk/

It reminded me of that famous "illusion" I use to annoy people. Put this phrase on the board for 30 seconds and ask the audience to count the "f"s. Keep reading it out. 

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.

After the 30 seconds, remove the phrase from sight and ask the audience "How many "f"s are in the phrase?".
Most people answer 3. The answer if 6. We pronounce "of" as "ov" and so, as it doesn't sound like an "f", we ignore it. Try it. It does work.

I'd recommend the other books in Higson's series - The Enemy, The Dead and The Fear. I haven't read his "Young Bond" books yet but they're sitting invitingly on my book shelf.