In Year 4, the children created their own time machines and went on a

journey back in time. Some of the children visited Trudi’s grandmother in the

circus, where they wrote diary entries about their experiences and made

circus hats to sell in the shop. Other children decided to go on a journey back

to 1605, where they learnt about Guy Fawkes and produced some stunning

paintings of the London landscape to give to Trudi.

During the Learning Adventure, Trudi kept the children up to date with her

travels. She sent the children numerous postcards, outlining her adventures

and experiences, which included a visit to Narnia. The children were highly

excited when Trudi arranged for a special wardrobe to be delivered to the

school, along with a theatre production of ‘The Lion the Witch and the

Wardrobe’.

The Learning Adventure ended with the return of Trudi Bird, when the

children had the opportunity to share all of their wonderful ideas. A special

assembly was also held, in which Trudi thanked all of the children, before

waving a final goodbye and setting off on her travels again …

Above: Trudi Bird returns to school and the children share their ideas about how she

could improve her shop.

LEARNING ADVENTURE NEWS

October 2012

This half term, the school was visited by Trudi Bird and the amazing ‘Old

Curiosity Shop’. The shop appeared overnight in Mrs Joint’s room, much to

the surprise and intrigue of all the children.

The shopkeeper’s assistant visited all of the classrooms, inviting small groups

of children to visit the shop and to explore its wonders. Once inside, the

children discovered a range of peculiar and bizarre objects. The objects

included toys, knick-knacks, pictures, costumes, musical instruments, fossils

and items from different cultures and times. Most astonishing of all, the

children discovered the eccentric shopkeeper, Trudi Bird, lying asleep under

a table!

Once the children had woken Trudi from her sleep, she proceeded to tell

them about her adventures in the shop. Trudi told the children about her

many travels and told them about some of the many mysterious objects she

had collected. Most importantly however, Trudi explained that her curiosity

shop was not doing very well and that it was struggling to make money – in

fact it might disappear unless she found a way to get people to buy more of

her stock!

It was at this point when the children were set the challenge of helping Trudi

Bird: could they think of any ideas to help save her shop? Perhaps they could

find some more wondrous objects to put in the shop! Perhaps they could tell

the stories of the objects she already had! Whichever path the children chose,

it was going to be exciting!

Above: Trudi Bird awakes to find the children in her shop, then she proceeds to

tell the story of the amazing ‘Jabberwocky egg’!

Once the children had received their challenge, Trudi informed them that

she would be going away on holiday for a while - during this time, the

children were to be entrusted with the safekeeping of the shop. The children

across the school then had to decide how they could help Trudi:

In Foundation, the children made their own travelling machines, which they

used to go on an exciting trip to the seaside. Whilst at the seaside, they

found and made lots of interesting objects to put in Trudi’s shop and they

also learnt about writing postcards. Then the children decided that the

shopkeeper needed more stories in her shop, so they learnt about the story

of ‘The Little Red Hen’, which they also gave to the shopkeeper.

In Year 1, the children also designed their own travelling machines and their

first stop was an exciting trip to Australia. Once in Australia, they learnt all

about the animals that live there and they made some very scary animal

masks to sell in the shop. After their trip to Australia, they took a trip under

the sea, where they learnt about life in the oceans and completed some

lovely underwater paintings for Trudi.

In Year 2, the children went on an adventure to ancient Egypt, learning how

to use hieroglyphs and creating their own Egyptian art, which they

presented to Trudi Bird when she returned. Next, the children had a visit

from Walter Bear, who was owned by Trudi – he helped them to learn all

about life in Victorian times. The children also discovered the story of Alice

in Wonderland, completing stories and pieces of art work, which they also

put on sale in the shop.

In Year 3, the children decided to head to the Amazon River in South

America. During their exploration of the Amazon, the children learnt about

the people and wildlife of the area and they brought back some tribal

headdresses to give to Trudi. On their return from the Amazon, they stopped

off in France, where they learnt to paint in the style of Monet, bringing back

some beautiful paintings to sell in the shop.