I based this activity with my Year 3 and 4 class on Laurence Anholt’s story The Fried Piper of Hamstring (Orchard Books). It came about following a shared reading of the book, which tells of a miserable mayor who bans fried foods and all things fun. The book lists all the things he bans each day of the week:
“On Monday the mayor banned music, moustaches and morris men.
“On Tuesday he banned chewing gum, chocolate and chattering.”
This led to discussion of the pronunciation of Tuesday as “Chooseday”, as well as consideration as to what would be the worst thing the mayor could ban. We decided to make our own alliterative lists of things the mayor could ban, for example:
“On Wednesday he banned waving, winking to your friends and watching Wimbledon.”
“On Thursday he banned tango, toffee and thrilling things.”
The children became very involved in finding unusual items, and picked up dictionaries without any prompting.
In the story, the town is rescued by the Fried Piper, who arrives with hamburgers and chips and speaks in rap. This inspired a pupil to suggest writing down things the Piper reintroduced into Hamstring.
The class formed two groups: those who wanted to work on the banned items, and those who wanted to reintroduce all their favourite things to Hamstring.
We displayed the writing alongside the book, with “Things getting worse and worse” on one side and “Things getting better and better” on the other.
Michelle Gregory Literacy co-ordinator, Oakfield First School, Windsor
