Down by the Cool of the Pool

This kit integrates a range of activities for young children based on the rhyming text Down by the Cool of the Pool.

Join Frog and his farmyard friends as they dance around the pool. Flip and flop, splish and splash, stomp and stamp! This little story has lots of noises for children to have fun with. It's guaranteed to make them all laugh!

This BritLit Primary kit has been designed for use with Down by the Cool of the Pool, written by Tony Mitton and published by Orchard Books. It was chosen not only for its fun language and rhyming text, but also for the actions it encourages children to do. The kit integrates a range of activities for young children beginning to learn English.

Introduction

    Story activities – materials related to the story

    Games

    Cross-curricular activities

    About this BritLit Kit

    The kit is based on a series of poems for children by Tony Mitton were the result of a fruitful engagement with trainers Claudia Ferrada Moi and Susan Hillyard at an intensive summer course at NILE (Norwich Institute of Language and Education), Norwich, in 2006. During the course a group of hardworking Portuguese teachers of English had an opportunity to work with Tony Mitton, who also kindly allowed us to record him reading the poems. As a result of stimulating interactions while in the UK, the group went back home to Portugal with two projects to complete – Down by the Cool of the Pool and A Handful of Poems – and six months later the work was almost complete. Almost? This is because the ideas never seem to stop coming and as soon as one idea was realised another seemed to come along. In the true spirit of BritLit, nothing is ever complete, but is a continuous 'work in progress'.

    The hard working teachers invited by the Portuguese teachers' association, APPI, to go to NILE were: Ivone Parreira Pinto, Fernanda Cássio Pêra, Mafalda Ferrari, Paula Aires, Cristiana Cabral, Sofia Botelho Ribeiro, Veríssimo Toste, Teresa Verdade Ferreira, Fernanda Roque, Rosa Santos, Graça Baleizão, Irene Galrito, Florêncio Moniz, Adelina Santos and Paula Döbele, who were gallantly led by Isabel Brites. The course was funded through Comenius grants awarded through the EU Socrates fund.

    This kit is part of a short series of kits for primary school learners of English. It was produced to respond to the initiative of governments, including the Portuguese government, to lower the age at which English is taught in state schools. Text written by Tony Mitton, illustrations by Paul Millard.

    Comments

    Submitted by P J Reddy on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 01:37

    Thanks to Tony Milton, it  is an useful material. The is very near to children interest.I hope it would get good response from children. I want to try it. but I could not find the entire poem "Down the pool....."

    Submitted by Sally Trowbridge (not verified) on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 11:58

    In reply to by P J Reddy

    Hi

    You can click on the audio file above to listen to the poem 'Down by the Cool of the Pool'. Let us know how your class goes if you use these materials and ideas with your students.

    Sally

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