LARRY’S BEAK
By Louise Burgess
Poor Larry the seagull, he’d had a bad week.
It all began on Monday when he couldn’t find his beak.
‘Ark!’ shouted Larry through the hole in his face,
his lovely, pointy, yellow bill was gone without a trace.
‘My looks!’ he cried ‘My handsome grin! this is really rotten,
without a beak my face looks like a little puckered bottom!
‘What will people think?’ He thought. ‘What will the neighbours say?
They’ll point and laugh and call me names’ He dribbled in dismay.
‘I can’t and won’t be seen like this!’ Larry wiped his eyes,
‘No fear, i’ll head down to the pier in search for a disguise’
So Larry sailed on the breeze to the pier, for his first stop
was ‘Mr Snoop’s Emporium’ (A novelty joke shop).
Now Mr Snoop’s was perfect if you liked to play a trick,
there was everything from plastic poo to puddles of fake sick!
Mr Snoop took one look and produced, in a flash
a pair of thick rimmed glasses with a nose and moustache
Larry was ecstatic ‘This look is quite becoming,
I’ll strut my stuff along the pier and folk will see I’m stunning!’
Alas, the specs kept slipping down with every step he took,
they ended up around his neck (not the coolest look).
‘Oh bother!’ bellowed Larry then he threw them off the pier,
he sulked beneath the moonlight and shed a single tear.
On Tuesday Larry flew about unsure where to go
but as he settled on a bench a kind voice said; ‘Hello’.
The nice old lady’s name was Pearl and to Larry’s great relief,
she took pity on his problem and gave him her false teeth.
‘You can borrow them today’ she said ‘I’ll get along just fine –
I don’t need my gnashers to lick a 99!’.
With that she plunged them in his face – which took him by surprise!
(They felt a little slimy and rather big in size).
‘Shank shu’ He said politely, spluttering a bit.
He didn’t like to tell her that they didn’t really fit.
Off went Larry on his way with a wild toothy grin.
Then, when Pearl was out of sight, he popped them in the bin.
Larry was disheartened. He wandered all night long.
Instead of flying home to roost, he paced along the prom.
On Wednesday Larry tried again, To the pier he promptly flew
and at the stall for face paints, slyly jumped the queue.
Now ‘Snazzy Jazz’ was clever, she was talented and arty
but her repertoire was suited to a children’s birthday party.
Larry wasn’t interested in hearts upon his cheek,
a wicked witch or tiger face, he just wanted a beak!
Larry almost wept with joy, he had a beak once more,
and for a while he was happy- until the rain began to pour.
Huddled in a shelter Larry caught his own reflection,
the smudge of yellow down his front was less than beak perfection.
The sun came up on Thursday and Larry hadn’t slept.
He missed his beak so very much he’d sat all night and wept.
He had become so desperate, shape and size no longer mattered.
He marched straight in to ‘Chippy’s’ shouting ‘Sausage! Jumbo! Battered!’.
Now Larry wasn’t famous for his wild fashion sense
but a sausage for a beak? this look was quite intense.
It worked for a while and no one seemed surprised
when a sausage eating seagull flew before their eyes.
Alas, there lay the problem, for he tried with all his might,
yet when Larry felt quite peckish he just had to take a bite.
So the sausage did shrink as the day grew long.
It made a tasty snack but as a beak it was wrong.
Poor Larry spent another night below the pier just bobbing,
in the shadows on the waves. His eyes grew sore from sobbing
Red eyes and missing beak Larry was a mess.
It was early Friday morning and he didn’t look his best.
Larry waddled aimlessly, he felt at such a loss
until he saw the neon sign for ‘Big Jim’s Candy floss’.
‘Aha!’ Cried Larry loudly. ‘Things are better than I feared.
If I can’t have a beak then I’ll have a candy beard!’
Big Jim was quite the stylist. His candy floss quite stiff.
Soon Larry had a goatee beard with sideburns and a quiff!
Larry perched upon the pier all puffed with pride and glee,
the wind blew through his candy hair as he gazed out to sea.
He headed for the bandstand and rocked and rolled all night
but he didn’t look so fetching in the early morning light.
“Matted feathers, sticky head, What’s become of me?
I’ve hardly slept a wink all week Or been home for tea.’
‘I’ve had enough, my beak is gone, I’ll just have to face it.
I’ve tried so many different things but nothing can replace it.’
His search had been a failure and he was unimpressed.
Larry sulked on Saturday now feeling quite depressed.
By Sunday he had given up so flew back home to rest
AND THERE IT WAS, HIS SHINY BEAK GLISTENING IN HIS NEST!
It’s springtime, it’s a tiny bit warmer but it’s still pretty darn wet! What better way to make the most of this than to go puddle jumping?
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappopriate clothing” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Many parents and nannies believe that every day, rain or shine, children can get out and about. With a good set of waterproofs, plenty of layers and some sturdy welly boots everyone can get out to play. If you do get wet then when you get home dry off, change clothes and warm up with a hot drink. Hot chocolate tastes even better when it’s going into a chilly tummy.
Jumping in puddles is just a natural childhood instinct. It’s also a way for children to see that they can have a big effect on the world around them. They can spend ages jumping in and out of puddles, watching the water fly everywhere and then return to its tranquil state or examining reflections or making water muddy and watching it settle again. This is the start of science, in a playful way.
Puddle jumping a universal game. There’s a little spark of childish glee in all of us when we see a puddle and we get to jump in it. Don’t hold back! Children thrive on experiencing fun alongside adults and are encouraged by adults participating.
“Childhood is a state of mind which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle rather than an opportunity” – Unknown
So what will it be? Obstacle? Or opportunity?
Last one to get their welly boots on is a banana!
Fancy some sensory play without the mess ? Help is at hand in the form of sensory bags. Just fill up a ziplock bag, shut it and for extra security tape it shut.
Try:
Paint – either one colour or two colours in opposite corners of the bag so they can be mixed
Hair gel and glitter
Cornflour and water
Shaving foam and a few drops of food colouring
Oil and coloured water
Sand and water
Miniature toys or googly eyes and hair gel or water
You can also create windows in bags by taping over part of the bag and just leaving a few gaps. Children can manipulate objects until they can see them and watch them appear and disappear from view.
Right now it’s the Jewish festival of Hannukah (or Chanukah). Tonight is the 4th night, when some people give presents. Others give presents only on the 5th night or every night. Hannukah lasts for 8 days and the symbol is a menorah, an 8 branched candle holder. The festival celebrates a miracle that happened after a small army of Jews known as the Maccabees defeated a much larger Greek army over 2000 years ago. When the Jews reached the Temple in Jerusalem they found there was only one small container of special purified oil to light the seven-branched Menorah, which needed to lit as part of the service every day. New oil would take eight days to make but the people lit the Menorah anyway and the oil miraculously burned for eight days until they had new oil.
The Hannukah menorah has eight candles, one for each day that the oil burned, and a servant candle that is used to right the others. The candle furthest to the right is lit on the first night. On the next night the candle to the left of the first candle and the first candle are lit, and it continues one new candle each night until the last night when all candles are lit. The candles are left burning for half an hour, but because today is Friday – the Jewish Sabbath – the candles will burn for half an hour. The menorah is supposed to be visible from outside and in Jerusalem there are special glass or plastic cases outside houses for it. In other countries the menorah is put in a window.
Because the feast is associated with oil it’s traditional to eat fried foods such as latkes (potato cakes) and doughnuts. It’s also traditional to play a game with a special toy called a dreidl. Long ago Jewish children weren’t allowed to study their religion in the open so they hid in caves. When soldies came by they hid what they were studying and started to play with the dreidl. It’s a game that you can play too using the printable templated from Enchanted Learning and some raisins or pieces of chocolate.
The dreidl has four sides with different characters and a pointed bottom. You spin the dreidl on the bottom and when it falls over the Hebrew character that shows tell you what to do. The characters are ש, ׁ ה , ג , נ .
The first character is ‘Nun’. You do nothing.
The second is ‘Gimel’. You can take everything in the middle of the table, and all the plays put a raisin or piece of chocolate in to make a new pot.
The third is ‘Hey’. You get to take half the goodies. If it’s an uneven number you leave the left over one in the middle.
The fourth character is ‘Shin’. You give a raisin or piece of chocolate to the pot. Better luck next time!
