Tuesday was the long awaited arrival of the next Redwall Day. For several unrelated reasons, there was a delay for this one but when the day arrived, it mattered no more!
The book to be read this time was Martin the Warrior. It tells the story of Martin fighting for the freedom of other creatures from the slave-driver Badrang. Martin also seeks Badrang’s overthrow to recover his father’s sword. Martin meets other helpful creatures along the way, like Rose. She comes from a peaceful place called Noonvale. It’s a little like Hobbiton (Lord of the Rings) in that most creatures are peace-loving and wish to keep that way of life, despite the evil in the world around them. This will be important later, when Martin’s fighting days are done.
Enough about the book, let’s get to the action of the day…
First of all, let’s introduce the boys dressed in character:
Adam as Starwort, an otter.
Mark the warden
"I AM THE LAW!!!!!"
Zac as Keyla, an otter ( at rest…)
and…another Keyla:
I am being really lazy and just pinching Donna’s description of the day. I’ll add in some of my own photos though.
10:30-10:45 arrive and play character bingo.
10:45-11:00 Cavern Hole – time to head down stairs to tell who you came dressed as and why you chose that character. Also a great time for our war chants! Man, those kids have some lungs—I wonder who would encourage them to yell like that in the house? ( Ü )
11:00-11:30 Warrior skills. We headed out in the back yard for some skills. As warriors they need to be on their guard, quick on their feet, skilled at many diverse activities –dontcha know? Wot!Wot! So for some good form we had stations set up to enhance those skills: sword fighting, jousting sticks, cross bows and dagger dodging to work on those obvious skills. Hula hoop is a great skill to enhance the bob and weave techniques (wot! wot!), jumping rope keeps you light and fast on your feet, Frisbee enhances your hand eye coordination and your aiming skills as does paddle ball. And of course we had to have a rock throwing section this go ‘round- since Martin is saved by the skills of Rose & Grumm at this same activity.
11:30-11:40 Team time. Two teams lined up with a bucket of balloons in front of them. They had to pass each balloon over head/under legs all along the line. Ah- but we had a twist. Being able to work as a team is import in the warrior skills- but so is using your head to figure out riddles and clues… So, each balloon had a paper with a letter on it. So the last one in the line had to pop the balloon and get the paper- the papers had to be brought to the front of the line and then that person started off the next balloon. After all the balloons were popped each team had to arrange their letters into a phrase. (Fur & Freedom) The team that had their phrase figured out first and was sitting back in a line was the winner.
11:40-12:00 Rambling Rosehip players. In this book there is a traveling group of performers… So all the kids were grouped by 3’s and 4’s and given 10 minutes to come up with a skit, song, dance or whatever they chose to entertain the troops. What a great fun that was! The groups were all so creative and came up with some real dandies! Good show I say!!
12:00- 1:00 Feast time. The feasts in Redwall are amazing, mouth watering and delectable. We try to duplicate that for the day. Today’s feast was exceptionally yummy. On the menu we had: cavern hole zoop (soup), cherry berry juice, near fort cream, elderflower cordial, autumn fruit trifle, hare treats, warm orchard plums, golden pears, field melons, meadow cream, early autumn field salad, woodland tarts, crusty brown bread, fried bird, late summer basil soup, roast battle bird, mushroom & beetroot pasties, wild meadow tarts, Brockhall badger carrot cakes, fried apple cakes with jam and cream, haversack crumble, corsair hard tack, hot root dip, fruit of the orchard pie, forest nuts, & deeper ‘n ever pie. A proper scoff was had by one and all!
1:00-1:15 Game time! Back down in cavern hole the teams were divided and the bell was ready. The kids come up in twos- 1 one from each team. I ask a question from the story and the first one to ring the bell gets to answer the question and if they are correct they get the point. I love this part of the day. This month I had 25 questions and a few bonus questions ready for the kiddos. Working as a team – they all do really well at remembering the details of the books.
1:15-1:25 Charter sort. Each kid was called up and given one character from the book- they had to identify which type of animal that character was… this is a lot harder than it sounds- some of the characters are only mentions briefly. They could have one life line and than it was time for the final answer. (giggle)
1:25-1:30 Prisoner escape. Everyone was in one room and a “guard” was chosen to “make his rounds”( into another room.) Once the guard was gone a prisoner was selected to “escape”(into a different room) the slaves would all call “escape-escape-escape” and the guard would return. He than had to guess which slaves had escaped. If he guessed correctly the slave was caught… if he didn’t guess that slave was free. They love this simple game!
1:30- Clean up and go home! Don’t forget your pikes, swords, bows, arrows, shields, slings or any of your other gear my dears.
(or mothers carrying them!! – Ed)
Thankyou, Donna for being the organiser and whistle-blower. The kids had fun and were moved along quickly from one thing to the next.
There’s always a friendly welcome on Redwall Days and we look forward to it!
No comments:
Post a Comment