About Us
Here is a link to a Powerpoint presentation about Exploding Potatoes:
The Background Info
Exploding Potatoes! is a series of educational resources exploring the links between literacy and music.
We have spent eighteen months developing and perfecting the first series of this resource which we think will bring success and enjoyment to all.
It all began a few years ago when my ten year old son Leo asked me to spell the word ‘necessary’. I picked up my guitar and sang to a boogie-woogie pattern:
‘It’s n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-y to have your breakfast on time’
He laughed, immediately imitated the song and spelt the word correctly. For me, as for Leo, a light bulb had been switched on!
I started to investigate all of the high frequency words that primary children have to learn. The result was ‘Exploding Potatoes!’
At Leo’s school (Holmfirth Infant and Junior School) I discovered that phonics could also be introduced through music. For example in The Paper Boat song we discover different examples of the phonic ‘oa’ sound such as boat, blow, goes, float. The different spellings of a phonic sound are called graphemes. Following the performance of this song the children listed almost 30 words with a similar phonic sound such as snow, flow, goat etc.
The song was an integral part of the phonic lesson and certainly motivated the pupils to listen more intently and learn in a new and exciting way.
“After using this resource over a period of time we observed an improvement in the spelling ages for this class.”
Yr 3 teacher at Holmfirth Infants and Junior School.
Exploding Potatoes! works.
Facts and figures are one thing but above all the Exploding Potatoes method is fun and it engages children to actively listen.
Exploding Potatoes has been designed to teach phonic relationships and spelling in a fun creative way. Nursery and Reception staff were tired of the old alphabet song so I composed a new song, introducing the letters in both upper and lower case whist simultaneously explaining the phonic connection of the letter.
The Alphabet Song
‘A’ is for apple, apple has an ‘a’ sound
Apples are yummy for my tummy
Apple has a great ‘a’ sound
‘B’ is for banana, banana has a ‘b’ sound
Bananas are yummy for my tummy
Banana has a great ‘b’ sound
‘C’ is for carrot, carrot has a ‘c’ sound
Carrots are yummy for my tummy
Carrot has a great ‘c’ sound
‘D’ is for drum, drum has a ‘d’ sound
Drums are very noisy when you play them loudly
Drum has a great ‘d’ sound.
So far we have learnt A – B – C - D
So far we have learnt a – b – c – d
Wordrobics
The Exploding Potatoes! team is made up of experienced teachers so we know that children learn in different ways e.g. auditory, visual, kinaesthetic that’s why our resources are designed as multi sensory. The Alphabet Song is a great example. Children stretch up as far as they can making the ‘a’ sound and then fall to the floor completing the second part of the word ‘pple!’ Children love the game of splitting the syllable and emphasising the phonic sound in the first part of the word.
b-b-b-banana
We ask the children to dance the phonic sound of ‘b’ chanting b-b-b b-b-banana! At the same time shaking their hips and punching the air! Children love this physical way of engaging with sound.
Using dance, movement and chanting helps reinforce children’s learning. We call it:
‘Wordrobics’
Consonant Vowel Consonant SONGS
Within the Exploding Potatoes method are CVC songs and poems like this one:
“I’m going to p-a-t pat my head
p-a-t pat my head
p-a-t pat my head
Now I’m going to turn around instead”
On the final line the children turn around, introducing the ‘game’ element. After singing this little Key Stage 1 song children are encouraged to spell: cat, rat, hat, bat, fat and as many CVC words related to pat as possible.
BIG TED
Another great song we have developed called Big Ted (KS1) or Big Fred (KS2) explores the ight ending. The song tells the story about Big Ted or Big Fred falling out of bed;
“I woke up in the night
I had a terrible fright
So I turned on the light
The light was very bright
It was a funny sight”
Whilst singing this the children creep around the classroom making occasional ‘sh’ noises. Then suddenly the song bursts into:
“It was Big Ted
He’d fallen out of bed
And pulled all the blankets on top of his head
Oh silly, silly, silly Big Ted
I wonder what he said”
Children at KS1 and 2 love this song. We found they were even tracing the lyrics with their fingers when they were displayed on the whiteboard.
Surprise surprise!
In developing the resource there have been a few surprise developments. In one situation I was able to use an African drum with Year 1 and 2 pupils to reinforce the ‘ch’ phoneme. Some children found rhythmic clapping very difficult but when they learnt a little rap based on the ‘ch’ sound they were able to transfer the inherent rhythmic patterns in the sentences on to the African drum.
Ch…ch…ch
Check out the chips
The chips are chunky
Check out the church
The church is beautiful
Check out the change
Don’t lose your money
Then we can go and have a chat
With the cat!
Grammar
‘Back to Basics’ is the fifth book in the Exploding Potatoes series. It aims to help pupils improve their grammar. KS2 teachers gave me a list of common mistakes and we came up with some creative solutions. One common mistake was with the spelling of ‘everything’ and ‘something’ as two words…..every and thing. I composed a rock song which pupils pretended to play on air guitars whilst they sang:
“e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, everything is just one word”
With a lively rock riff, children love to sing this…at the same time reinforcing this simple rule. There are songs and games addressing speech marks, question marks and commas to name just a few.
It has been the inspiration of professional teachers that has led to the creation of
EXPLODING POTATOES
We welcome your views and comments and would be delighted to work alongside you in your school community.
Contact us at www.explodingpotatoes.com
