The Secret of the Kelpie

Literacy and English – Warning Poster

Design a sign or poster that could be put next to a loch warning people about kelpies.

Some things to include in your poster would be: A bold heading Why kelpies are dangerous What to look out for What to do if they come into contact with a kelpie Some pictures that show some of the things you have

written

Look at the warning sign below about crocodiles to give you some ideas.

Problem Solving– Break the Code

In the story, Flora found carvings that were like a code which helped her understand how to defeat the kelpie and save her brothers and sisters.

Braille is a type of code used by people who are blind to help them understand what they are reading.

See if you break the code using the Braille symbols below.

You could write a secret message to your teacher to solve as well!

Outdoor Learning – Make a boat

Pretend you’re going to search for a kelpie on the loch in your boat. Instead of a real boat you will be making this out of natural materials and your loch will be a puddle or the bath/sink!

Take your grown up and go outside to find some bark, sticks, leaves, flowers, feathers or other natural materials that you think will float. Decide what you will use as your base and the sail. Use a cocktail stick, small sticks, string or rubber bands to make your boat and then test it to see if it floats.

Your grown up could make a boat too then have a race to see who wins!

Literacy and English – Reading Comprehension

Read the information sheet below about kelpies. Use the information you have read to help you answer the questions.

You could then test your grown up to see how much they know about kelpies!

Maths – Times Tables

Practise your times tables using this fun horse racing game. See how far you can get!

https://www.timestables.co.uk/my-smart-horse.html

HWB - Water

Kelpies and humans have one thing in common that they need to survive – water.

Click on the link to watch the videos about why we need water and then have a go at the quiz at the end.

BBC Bitesize - Water

Good luck!

Literacy – Scots games

Visit the website below to play some fun games using Scots language.

My favourite one is Pop – what’s yours?

https://www.scotslanguage.com/learning

STEM – Catch a Kelpie

Design a contraption to capture a kelpie. Use these prompts to help you think about how you will do this:

Why do you want to catch a kelpie? What materials will you use? How does your contraption work? Draw a picture of your contraption.

Expressive Arts – Kelpie art

Andy Scott was the artist who designed the large metal kelpie structures next to the canal in Falkirk. Click on the link below to have a look at these:http://www.visitfalkirk.com/things-to-do/family-days-out/the-kelpies/

Try making your own kelpie figure by using tin foil. Click on the link below to have a look how to do this if you’re not sure.

https://www.businessballs.com/amusement-stress-relief/how-to-make-a-baking-foil-horse-pics-and-instructions/

KelpiesThe mythical kelpie is a creature known as a water horse that is said to haunt Scotland’s rivers and streams.

The kelpie would appear as a tame pony with a dripping wet mane. However they were said to be nasty spirits. It was believed that they would try to trick people, often children, to ride on their back but once they were on the horse’s back they could not get off and the kelpie would gallop into the loch to eat them!

It was said that kelpies were able to shape shift – this means they could change their shape into a human as well.The clue to their identity would be their hair which would be dripping wet or tangled with weeds.

The kelpie did have a weak spot – if you could take off its bridle (the bit that goes around a horse’s head and in their mouth) then you could control the kelpie.

It was believed that if you captured a kelpie they were as strong as 100 horses!

Questions

1. Where would you find a kelpie? _____________________________________

2. What did the kelpie appear as? ______________________________________

3. How did a kelpie catch its victims? ___________________________________

4. If a kelpie changed into a human, how could you tell what it really was?

________________________________________________________________

5. How could you control a kelpie? ________________________________________