Teach Primary Issue 18.7

64 | www.teachwire.net COMMUNITY LINKS One of the key themes in this story is the power nature has to bring people together. Members of your community may be able to come into school and work with children on planting or redeveloping a small area of the school grounds. Or you could take groups of children to a local residential home or similar, to weed the gardens or refresh planters. If your setting is looking at ways to help strengthen relationships with other members of the community, perhaps pupils could plant hanging baskets or pots to give as gifts. ARTIST STUDY Lots of artists have been inspired by nature and the beauty of flowers. A study of some of these would work well with the themes in Flower Block and could inspire a whole class art exhibition or collaborative mural. Some artworks to consider as starting points could be ‘Flower Garden’ by Gustav Klimt, ‘Flowers’ by Andy Warhol, and ‘Hibiscus with Plumeria’ by Georgia O’Keeffe. Discussion points: • What types of flowers were used in these pictures? • What colours have been used and what feeling or mood does that create? • How have the flowers been arranged? (Bouquets, single stems, scattered.) • What technique has been used? (Oil paints, water colours, screen printing, etc.) • What do you like about this painting? • What one thing would you change or add to this painting? FLOWER SEED BOMBS Seed bombs can be used to introduce plants to areas of land that might not otherwise have any plants. Wastelands, road embankments or wild patches are all places that may benefit. Seed-bombing can help Take it further (Flower block, not tower block.) • Who are the author and illustrator? • What kind of building can you see? Does anyone here live in a building that’s similar? • What is unusual about this tower block? Is the plant a ‘normal’ plant? • Can anyone think of a fairy story that has a giant vine in it? (Jack and the Beanstalk.) • How many people can you see on the cover? • What are they all doing? • Which ones would you like to visit? • How many pets can you see? • Who do you think the main characters are? Why? Writing opportunities There are so many wonderful opportunities for creative writing inspired by the characters and events in Flower Block . Some ideas to get you started are: School vine If you were feeling really creative, you could create a fake ‘vine’ coming up Book topic or a Willy Wonka-style sweet garden. Ask children to write a persuasive letter to the headteacher, pitching their idea to develop the roof of their school into the area of their choice. As an extension, look at some simple garden landscaping plans. Encourage pupils to create their own plans for their rooftops. Fairytale splice In Flower Block , Lanisha Butterfield mixes some fairytale magic with an everyday urban tower block – with a giant vine sprouting up through the building. Her reasoning was that all children deserved to imagine that fairytales can happen wherever you live. What tales could the children imagine coming to life in their school or in their street? Perhaps the three little pigs might come to rebuild the out of the classroom floor and back up through the ceiling as a hook into writing. If not, don’t panic: a photoshopped image, or just the power of the imagination, would work just as well. Ask the children to imagine what their classroom might look like if it were taken over by a magical garden. Would it be like a jungle? A country meadow? A tropical paradise? Looking at photos of varying types of plants and gardens might help inspire them. Different groups might like to write about rooms in the school: the hall, the head teacher’s office, the music room, etc. For the main writing task, encourage the children to think about what they might see, hear, and smell in the rooms. They should write a description of their room using appropriate vocabulary and figurative language. Extension – the children could make 3D shoebox models of their gardens before or after writing. What’s at the top? At the top of the tower block’s vine is Flower Block paradise with a rainbow of blossoms, but what else could it be? What was at the top of the beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk? Look at the final double-page illustration of the rooftop garden. What plants and wildlife can the children spot? What different zones are there? How are different people enjoying it? What would pupils enjoy finding up on the rooftop? What might other people enjoy? Would this vary depending on their age group? Some possible ideas could be a crazy golf course, a waterpark, an urban beach,