They went to sea in a sieve they did.

This is the year that we get to show the world what currently exists in our heads. To say that we are collectively excited about this project is an understatement.

As we near the project start, I figured it would be nice to explore the poem. We won’t be covering it all. We are focusing on a few parts, otherwise we would have feature creep like nothing else. So we are purposefully limiting ourselves.

For the full poem go here.

We start at the beginning, naturally, and we will be using this first paragraph as an opening to the performance as well. We will be mimicking some of the activities we currently use in sessions to give familiarity for our students, which will then open up to new worlds and interactions.

They went to sea in a sieve they did,

in a sieve they went to sea.

In Spite of all their friends could say,

on a winters morn, and a stormy day.

In a sieve they went to sea.

We’ve been using this poem at St. John’s for a little while now. So why do we like it? Well for a starter it’s daft fun. I mean, who goes to sea in a sieve? Secondly it has a sea theme (we are based by the sea), and that gives us some great opportunities to play with the sounds and sights of travelling the stormy seas. Thirdly it has great repetition of certain phrases and words. Such as Sea, Sieve, Green, Blue and so on.

Repetition and familiar routines are a key tool in specialist education. As are sensory stories. The Jumblies lends itself to being a sensory story so well. The sounds of the sea, the colours of the Jumblies and the smells of the fantastical places they visit. One of the ways in which we explore this poem is by playing a dice game, we roll the dice to each other. The number it lands on dictates the sign that will be repeated by the group the given number of times.

I made an interactive Keynote presentation to accompany the game, I’ll make a version that I can share (image rights!) and put it up on this blog for you to take a look at.

So there it is, your introduction (as if you needed it), to The Jumblies. Come back soon as we explore the next part and hopefully start to share with you more updates on the project.