Lofty the Lost Homing Pigeon

This lesson plan introduces children to the story “Lofty the Lost Homing Pigeon,” focusing on two main characters, Bear and Navi, who represent healthcare and transport sectors respectively. The plan includes interactive activities to engage children in learning about careers and skills related to these sectors.

• Characters and roles: Bear is associated with medical care, wearing a medical bag and helping injured or unwell Linas, while Navi works in transport, guiding birds with tools like maps and a spyglass.
• Background to Homing Pigeons: The story explains the historical role of homing pigeons in message delivery and racing competitions, setting the context for Lofty’s journey.
• Story structure: The story includes sequencing activities where children recall the order of objects and events, supported by slides showing items like a spyglass, kite, and compass.
• Interactive worksheets: Children assess how much they relate to Bear or Navi using a scale and marking their responses on worksheets, fostering self-reflection on caring and navigation skills.
• Dot system for engagement: A dot system tracks children’s likeness to characters across lessons, eventually translating dots into feathers for a creative Lina bird project.
• Career education activities: The plan includes a true-or-false game about healthcare careers, a video about ambulance paramedics, and word searches to reinforce learning about medical professions.
• Semaphore challenge: Navi’s section encourages children to learn semaphore flag signalling by creating their names with flags, promoting understanding of communication in transport.
• Additional resources and reflection: The lesson features a swap shop card game for story recall and an “Ask Me” question activity to encourage discussion and reflection on the story and characters.