Tumpa Tumpa

The National Literacy Strategy has helped us to raise standards for pupils with learning difficulties. The Inclusive Readers Series is designed to support teachers in this area by providing attractive, stimulating and appropriate reading materials for children with moderate or severe learning difficulties across the 7-11 age range. It includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and could help to support a multi-sensory approach to learning. The Inclusive Readers Series aims to do more than develop children's reading and writing - it aims to enable readers to extend their knowledge and understanding, to develop a fascination with language, to explore a range of emotions and, where appropriate, to help them to deal with difficult issues. The books represent positively many aspects of disability, and reflect the cultural diversity of society. Each pack consists of a 16-page A3 (11-2/3 x 16-1/2) big book, with full color illustrations; a pull-out section of characters and images from the text to cut out and laminate for use in follow-up work; a teachers' book with half-term and weekly plans, plus activities for pupils at different levels; and photocopiable differentiated versions of the text at four levels (P5-6, P7-1C and 1C-2A) for use with individual pupils - the lowest level using words with symbols. The Tumpa Tumpa Big Book is written by Maggie Walker and illustrated by Martin Cater. When Ntikuma's mum gives him some money to go to the market to buy her some black-eyed beans, he's delighted. But in the market, a drum-seller catches his eye. Should he buy the drum? What about the beans? And what will his mum say? This story is written for Year 5, and is based on a traditional story from Ghana. It uses a multi-sensory approach through evocative language and illustration, and focuses on themes of empathy and forgiveness. Suggested activities in the Tumpa Tumpa Teachers' Book, by Maggie Walker, Val Davis and Ann Berger, incorporate work on rhythm and sound. Sensory elements in the story include touch, sound, sight, taste and smell, making it especially useful for teachers of pupils with PMLD. There are also cross-curricular opportunities in geography and science.