The lighthouse keeper’s lunch is ‘delicious’. Can you think of any synonyms? Can you think of any antonyms? Use the lighthouse in the book as a starting point for a design and technology activity. Get the children to study a variety of lighthouses and talk about the requirements for an effective design. What are the main elements of a lighthouse design and why is it built in this way? What kind of things does a lighthouse need to withstand? What colours are used for lighthouses and why might these colours have been chosen?

Next, get your children to plan a menu for the most delicious lunch they can think of, to go in their seagull proof basket. Look at the food that Mrs Grinling prepares in the story - do they agree that it’s delicious? What kind of food would they want in their ‘ideal’ lunch? If possible, get the children to test some of their ideas for getting the lunch safely across to the lighthouse, setting up a line in your classroom, similar to that which runs over to the lighthouse. Stunning lighthouse pictures: http://abduzeedo.com/amazing-pictures-lighthouses Activity 3: Grace under pressure Choose two types of sandwiches and make a Venn diagram to show which children like / don’t like each of them. Use this lighthouse tour video to describe the inside and outside of a lighthouse, as well as the amazing views from the top.

Recommended for you...

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch, by Ronda and David Armitage, is a brilliant book for inspiring classroom activities around the topic of the sea, its history and the brave people who keep us safe at the seaside and away from dry land. The wonderful vocabulary within the story is in itself a great reason for choosing this book to start your topic. Words such as ‘industrious’, ‘concocts’ and ‘brazen’ help this tale trip off your tongue. Get your children thinking about what these new words mean, using the sound and the context to help them work it out. The book tells the story of Mr Grinling, the lighthouse keeper, and the trouble his wife has getting his lunch across from the mainland. Mrs Grinling prepares her husband a delicious lunch, but the seagulls keep eating it before it reaches him. After several failed attempts, she finally manages to foil the pesky birds with some mustard flavoured sandwiches! The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch has been successfully adapted for the stage. David Wood wrote a musical play based on the story which was first performed at the Oxford Playhouse in 2000 with two professional actors and a large cast of children drawn from local schools many of whom had never been inside a theatre before. It was also adapted in 2017 by Nicola Sangster and Gareth Cooper for the Pied Piper Theatre Company.

A much loved picture book which has been in print for over 40 years. Children love the greedy seagulls and the detailed contents of the lunch basket.

You may also be interested in...

Mr Grinling is an ‘industrious’ lighthouse keeper. What does this mean? Can you think of any words that mean the same thing? Mr and Mrs Grinling star in a number of other books including The Light House Keeper’s Catastrophe, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rescue, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Picnic, and The Lighthouse Keeper’s Cat The children could redesign the basket so that it is ‘seagull proof’, exploring a range of different materials and designs before examining which one would work best. But they might also come up with something else to go in the basket/lunch to put the seagulls off - lateral thinking is the key! Talk about what it means to be ‘brave’. Can your children give examples where they have seen or heard about someone doing something ‘brave’? What can they do on a smaller scale that is brave in their day-to-day lives? Activity 4: Shiver ‘me’ timbers Sue Cowley takes The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch as inspiration for four fun-filled, ocean-themed activities...

Finally, ask each group to present their ideas to the class. Have they found a better solution than Mrs Grinling? Is their lunch more delicious than the one that Mrs Grinling made? Take a whole class vote to decide on the winning group, and then re-write the story, using the alternative lunch, and an ending which features your winning ‘seagull proofing’ idea. Activity 2: Ray of light Talk with the children about the different methods Mrs Grinling tries in her attempts to foil the seagulls. What is her plan in each case, and why does the mustard work best in the end? Now divide the children into pairs or groups, and ask them to come up with some alternative plans for stopping the seagulls eating the lunch. Encourage them to think creatively and to come up with wild and unusual ideas, as well as the more obvious suggestions.Write a sequel for the book, showing how the fisherman in the boat stopped the seagulls from eating his lunch. Write a diary from the point of view of Mr Grinling. Use this video to get some ideas for your work: Plan and carry out an investigation to find out the strength of different materials. Which would be best to protect the lighthouse keeper’s lunch? The lunch was ‘devoured’ by the seagulls. Can you make a list of words which show different ways that people can eat their food? Once their lighthouses are built, show the children how to make a complete circuit with a battery, wire and bulb. They should then work out how to fix this into their lighthouse model, so that the light appears at the top inside the lantern section. More able, or older, pupils could explore various options for getting their light to rotate inside the lighthouse.

Role-play the different characters in the story (Mr and Mrs Grinling, Hamish the cat, and the seagulls). How were they feeling at different points in the story? With over 200,000 copies sold worldwide, and several more books in The Lighthouse Keeper series, the Armitage duo prove to be an unstoppable force. The familiarity of the Grinlings, paired with the timelessness of the Armitage’s writing and illustrations, has ensured that The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch remains a modern picture book classic – adored by children everywhere. Explore the forces in action when Mr Grinling rows his boat out to the lighthouse. What forces are in action when his lunch is being carried along the wire?

Write a set of instructions that teach someone how to make a delicious sandwich for Mr Grinling’s lunch.