Solving a puzzle

Previously in Class 1:
The children had rescued the Notsobig Crocodile from capture and the threat of relocation from the jungle to a zoo.

The aim of today:
I'd seen a video of a Mantle episode which used a sheet of clues. I liked this idea as a way too hook children in and to see how they might clues in different ways. I also wanted them to begin to think about features of the UK. 

Another learning curve ensued:
My colleague, in role as the Jungle Ranger, snuck by and furtively gave the children some rolled up pieces of paper. She told them their client had gone missing. She wasn't told anything about it, but had managed to sneak these plans from the Mayor's desk.*

The children were immediately hooked; the after-lunch fidgets left them and they were focussed.** They passed around copies of the clues and began to discuss them.

"He's in jail!"
"Look there's keys, he's locked in somewhere."
"That's the UK!"
"The UK - he must be in South Africa cos that's in the UK!" (mental note made by me)

The children spent a happy few minutes coming up with ideas and thoughts about where the crocodile was. Once they all seemed to agree he was in the UK, I gathered them back together to talk about what they knew about the UK. Not a lot, as it turned out. I suggested we learn about the UK so that we might have some idea of where he is. At this point I introduced a fact sheet for children to complete about the different countries. This was, in all honesty, a bad idea.  The children went in various directions, doing various things of varying usefulness. However, with some support they all managed to talk about aspects of the UK. Once I realised that what they were learning was so much more useful than the fact sheet I'd intended them to complete, I gave up on it. Naturally, two incredibly eager and incredibly bright girls completed it anyway, which went some way towards justifying the time I'd spent preparing it.

Anyway, forty or so minutes later and I decided to gather the children together again to find out what they had learnt about the UK. Apparently, Yorkshire puddings are a national dish of England.  What this fact, or the others the children had found out, didn't help us with was identifying where the crocodile actually was. There's a chance I should have prepared my resources more carefully.

Anyway, we discussed what the children needed and the main concensus was that they needed C.C.T.V footage of the crocodile to establish his exact location. 

While I'm not sure that the fiction moved on very succesfully during this lesson, I did like the children's use of the clues and the fact that they decided what they needed next, and I managed to plan something vaguely based on that idea (see next post). 

Important lessons:

• If I want a specific objective to come out of a session, I need to plan and resource it as I would a non-Mantle lesson and be more determined that the learning will go in that sort of direction
• It doesn't always matter if the learning doesn't go in the right direction, as long as it goes somewhere: every child was learning this session, just not necessarily with the same outcomes.
• The symbolic representation (clues) worked very well and should be used again

Notes:

* Teacher in Role: possibly convention 1
* Also, introducing tension to the work
** Towards engagement and motivation - as they realised the crocodile was in jail they began also to be concerned for the character's wellbeing (continuum of engagement)