A few days ago I shared my recent trip to Bellsquarry Primary school… (here) and I have received this lovely message from the children in Primary 3/2 and their class teacher, Mrs C:

We loved reading your recent post this afternoon Rachel! 

I must share with you just how much we enjoyed our topic work based on “Ruan the Little Red Squirrel,” it’s a delightful story which offers so many possibilities for cross-curricular learning. I planned a 6 week project around the story and the children enjoyed the diversity of their learning. They loved Ruan’s antics and were fascinated to learn more about the animals and birds he met on his travels. 

They traced Ruan’s journey around Scotland using OS maps and the internet and discovered lots of new and interesting information about wildlife habitats, sustainability and the geography of Scotland. Our project became an extended journey in itself as the children took ownership of their learning across the curriculum, researching information at home, creating fact-files, wall displays and a whole school assembly. Ruan’s adventures proved to be a really stimulating and meaningful context for our disciplinary learning! 

The children were really inspired by your author visit and well motivated to explore writing in a range of styles during the project. Our ‘budding authors’ developed their skills in note making, report writing, composing letters, accessing digital texts and websites for research tasks, selecting and using non-fiction for reference work, word processing and making PowerPoint presentations. 

We’re very excited to know that you have another book out soon and can’t wait to discover why Drew has a kilt (the classroom was buzzing with theories this afternoon!). Eagerly awaiting a visit from you again soon to share “The Kilted Coo”, 

Bellsquarry Primary 3/2 & Mrs C. 

It’s wonderful to hear that the children and Mrs C were able to find so many possibilities in Ruan the Little Red Squirrel for activities and to know that Ruan’s escapades in the picnic basket have inspired the kids to learn about where we live and the kind of animals we share the countryside with. I know of two classes now who have used Ruan’s story to build a topic around and there seems to be no end to the teachers’ talents in creating fun ways to learn about wildlife and writing.

Thanks very much to Mrs C for sharing this review. I’m looking forward to coming back to Bellsquarry soon with my coo (though how he will fit in the car, I’m not sure…)!

Rachel