"On a dark, dark hill, there was a dark, dark town. In the dark, dark town, there was a dark, dark street. On the dark, dark street, there was a dark, dark house. In the dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark staircase. Down the dark, dark staircase, there was a dark, dark cellar. And in the dark, dark cellar, some skeletons lived.” This is how the story of Funnybones begins. The story involves three skeletons, a big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton. They are however, very friendly skeletons and they enjoy having fun together. One night when they are all tucked up in bed, feeling a little bored, they decided to embark on an adventure. Between the three of them, they come up with a plan that they want to scare somebody! They set off into the night and first of all decide to go to the park. Big skeleton and little skeleton enjoy a push on the swings and they throw a stick for dog skeleton. Dog skeleton runs so quickly after the stick and unfortunately ends up bumping into a tree with a great big crash and ends up in a pile of bones. It’s now up to big skeleton and little skeleton to piece him back together again bone by bone! This is quite a time consuming task for the two of them and dog skeleton’s body ends up slightly higgledy piggledy to say the least. Eventually, dog skeleton is together in the correct formation.
During the remainder of their adventure, they take a trip to the zoo and continue to hunt for some people to scare. As the night draws on, they come to the conclusion that everyone’s in bed so they decide to scare one another!
Funnybones, is a fantastic children’s story book which is still used in literacy sessions in the classroom. It’s a perfect book for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and into the earlier years of Key Stage One. During placement within the EYFS the children have a literacy carpet session every day which consists of one core book a week. Currently, the nursery class I’m working with have been reading the Funnybones book. The class teacher reads the story aloud to the children and then uses a range of techniques to assess their learning. The vast majority of the children are able to join in with the repetitive refrains which are used throughout the book, for example, ‘on a dark, dark hill, there was a dark, dark town. In the dark, dark town, there was a dark, dark street’ etc. Both the teacher and the children additionally use actions in particular sections of the story. These are used for the characters, big skeleton, little skeleton, dog skeleton, and objects such as the swings etc. It’s a technique which includes the children in the story telling process and further encourages them to remain engaged throughout the carpet session.
The use of repetitive language and songs further add to the stories features and add a great amount of fun and laughter when the story is read aloud. Both the adults reading the text and children can join in with this. I feel that it cannot only be used as a literacy focus, but the story itself has scientific features. Children are able to extend their biological knowledge of the structure of the human skeleton. This will assist in enlarging their language vocabulary.
It was a childhood favourite of mine and it’s great to see that it’s still being used in the classroom today. Due to its cross curricular features of literacy and science, it’s definitely a core literacy text which I’d use in the classroom.