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Personal, social and emotional development through...

Children learning:

• to respect themselves and others;
• about relationships
• about the importance of friendships

Nightshift, Little Pig is Flying and Taps in particular deal with friendships and relationships with others, including conflict and resolving conflict.
Tom Sweep can lead into talk about considering the feelings of and helping other people.

Practitioners

• responding to children's interests
• using communication and language to support personal, social and emotional development

Knowledge and understanding through...

Children having opportunities to

• explore issues of difference
• have interaction with each other and adults
• gather information from different sources

Taps is a starting point for exploring issues of difference.
Tom Sweep could start children talking about their interacting with others, including adults.
Nightshift, A Slippery Tale and Little Pig is Flying could instigate investigations of animals and their habitats.
Dangle will connect with an investigation of night and day, light and darkness.

Practitioners using carefully framed open ended questions

Creative development through...

Children

• having the opportunity to express ideas through different types of representation
• learning through different senses
• trying new experiences and ways of doing things.

Mairi McLeod and the Metagama uses live action and drawn animation with narration to tell a story.
Lucia tells a story using the idea of dreams and flashback. The hospital environment, and her dreams of water, flying and the outside worlds, allow for work on expression and the senses.

Practitioners creating an environment in which creativity, originality and expressiveness are valued.

Personal, social and emotional development

Children learning about relationships

Explore the relationship between the bat and the bird living in the tree:

• How do they get on at the beginning of the film?
• How does their relationship change during the film?
• How do they feel about each other at the end?

Communication, language and literacy

Develop spoken language

Valuing talk and alternative forms of communication

There is no spoken dialogue between the characters.

• Talk about how the characters communicate with each other.
• If they spoke what would they say to each other?
• Freeze frame still images of each character and invite children to add dialogue or speak their thoughts.
• Freeze frame on similar images later in the film to show how the relationships change.
• Use drama to allow the children to act out first non-verbally, then with sound, then adding dialogue, the interaction between the two characters.

Knowledge and understanding

Children explore issues of difference

The bird and the bat live in the same place.

• In pairs or small groups, children make collective lists about the bird and bat's needs and habits and compare them. eg

'I am the bat. I need ... to sleep in the day.'
'I am the bird. I need ... to sleep at night.'

Creative Development

Children have the opportunity to express ideas through different types of representation

Practitioners creating an environment in which creativity, originality and expressiveness are valued.

• Draw large images of the characters and add speech bubbles to express the characters thoughts.
• Create the characters in clay or plasticine and use them to create projected play scenarios with children voicing the characters' conversations.
• Choose a musical instrument to be the 'voice' of the bird and bat. Increase or decrease the volume to express the characters' emotions.

Science

Scientific enquiry

Life processes and living things

Materials and their properties

• Taps: Water and water use
• Little Pig is Flying; A Slippery Tale: animals and their habitats
• Jack and the Beanstalk: plants and how they grow.
• Dangle: Light; day and night

Design and Technology

Developing planning and communicating ideas

Knowledge and understanding of ideas and components

• Little Pig is Flying: Devices to help Little Pig fly; Aeroplane designs - annotated
• Tom Sweep: Plan new ways for Tom to collect his rubbish. Design devices to help him clear up.
• Jack and the Beanstalk: Design a construction to reach the castle in the sky; design a new castle.; make a 3D model castle. 

History

Historical

Interpretation

Historical enquiry

Mitchell and Kenyon films; That Fatal Sneeze:

• Talk about life 100 years ago: Clothing, transport, manners, play.
• Then and now: film children in the park or at school today.  What changes would there be?
• Use drama to roleplay a family with servants. How would you have to behave in different situations?

Geography

Geographical enquiry and skills

Knowledge and understanding of places, patterns and processes

Environmental change and sustainable development

Little Pig is Flying, A Slippery Tale

• Design an aerial map of the settings in the film. How does each scene relate to another - how close or far away?
• Design a farm. Look for clues in the film as to what the fields and farmland are used for.  Design a farm based on the evidence in the film. Think about what the farm will produce and what processes will be needed for things to be grown/cared for.

Art

Exploring and developing ideas

Investigating and making art, craft and design

• A Slippery Tale:Create a montage of the settings in the film using collage to think about textures that reflect the settings.
• Jack and the Beanstalk: Focus on the method of animation. Create background settings using cut outs. Add characters and props introducing colour into the scene.
• Little Pig is Flying: Design costumes for Little Pig as she goes on her journey through different settings eg A flying jacket or suit to wear in the plane; a swimming costume or wetsuit for underwater (with breathing apparatus?); Protective clothing for burrowing

Music

Composing skills

Performing skills

Appraising skills

• Jack and the Beanstalk: The mood of the music changes during the film. Watch the film and ask the children to signal when they hear a change. Talk about the mood of the music and try adding percussion to change the tone and feel of the film. Pace is also important. Try adding slower or faster rhythms.
• Nightshift: Think about the characters of the bird, the bat and the chicks. Create a musical motif for each and introduce it to accompany the film. Do the sounds suit the characters?
• Mitchell and Kenyon films: Work in groups to add sound effects and soundtracks to the films. Try using just voice. Use only percussion. Use tuned instruments
• That Fatal Sneeze: Play composed music alongside a screening of the film. Repeat the process using a different composition. Ask children to comment on how different music or sounds affected their feeling about watching the images.
• Mairi MacLeod and the Metagama: Listen to the sound on the film and think about how it changes to show the present and past and how it creates a sense of place through the use of regional music.  Play a variety of different music over a scene and see which sounds the most appropriate?