The Wibbly Wobbly Tower Old Jack's Boat

Go on, Salty.

# Come with me

# We're off to the sea

# To where I used to play

# Looking back, when I was a boy

# And the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets

# Playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats

# Adventure's just begun

# Stories from a magical world

# Washed in by the sea

# Meet the rockpool creatures there

# It's amazing what you see

# Looking back when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish,

# Crabs and snails

# In twinkly rockpool tales...#

OLD JACK LAUGHS

# Those lovely rockpool tales. # BOAT HOOTS

SALTY WHIMPERS

There we are. That's it. Oh.

Hello, there. Salty and I were just doing a bit of tidying up.

All these old newspapers and bags are causing a lot of clutter,

so we're going to put them in the recycling.

What are you doing in that box?

These are for papers. What are you doing? Excuse me, girl.

What's that...? Oh...! That's what you were after.

See that? That's her favourite tennis ball.

That's what he was after. Yes. I'm sorry, Salty.

It's in your bed.

OLD JACK CHUCKLES

You know, come to think of it, that isn't the first time

I've accidentally buried something rather precious.

HE CHUCKLES

Shall I tell you the story?

Well, it all happened when I was a boy.

In a twinkly time long, long ago...

..I used to run down to play on the beach as often as I could,

meeting up with my best friends

Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

On this particular day,

Sue had brought us something new to show us.

It was a little tin bucket with a picture of a sun on it

and it made great sandcastles.

"Let's make a big sandy mountain," said Ernie.

"Then we can put a sandcastle on top."

Straight away we raced to see who could dig the fastest.

I got a bit carried away, trying to be a digging dynamo.

JACK MAKES WHIRRING NOISE

The sandy mountain grew bigger and bigger.

"Let's put the sandcastle on top now," said Sue.

She ran around to my side of the sand mountain to fetch her tin bucket,

but there was no sign of it.

"Where's my bucket?"

I had accidentally buried it,

and now we couldn't get the bucket back

without knocking down the mountain.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. We can make another," Sue giggled.

So we dived in and after a bit of digging, Sue found it.

"Let's make our new sandy mountain even better," I said.

"We could put pebbles on it," said Sue.

So, we went over to the rocks to collect some...

and while we were there,

we couldn't resist exploring the rockpools.

We gazed deep down into the glittery waters.

And as we did so, a magical world

appeared before our eyes.

On this particular day in the rockpool,

Sally the Starfish was playing with her shell collection,

while Belinda the Blenny and Sheena the Shrimp

chased each other through the seaweed.

Suddenly, Bertram the Butterfish whizzed by

and stubbed his tail on one of the many rocks

that lay scattered on the rockpool floor.

"Ow! Ouch!" he cried.

"My tail! Ooh!"

And then...

he looked at the rockpool floor

and he frowned.

"This rockpool is in a terrible mess.

"It needs to be tidied up."

"Don't worry, Bertram.

"We can all help you to tidy up," Sally said sweetly.

But Bertram thought that nobody could do as good a job as he could.

"No, no. I'll do it myself. Thank you very much," he said.

So, Sally went off to play chase with her friends,

while Bertram got busy.

# Oh, how I adore a clean and tidy rockpool floor

# A-dum-diddly-dum diddly-dum-dim-dom

# Diddly-dum diddly-dum-dom... #

He sang to himself as - zing, zing, zip, zip, whoo -

he whizzed about the rockpool

gathering all the stray bits of seaweed and shells

that were making it look so messy.

Then, he piled them up on top of each other

until he'd made a tall tower.

"Hmm, it's a bit wobbly and it isn't very pretty," he mumbled.

But at least the rockpool floor looks tidier.

And then...he felt rather tired.

"Hmm. Time for a sleep," he said.

"I'm worn out."

So he went inside and, before too long,

he was making snoring sounds.

JACK MAKES SNORING SOUNDS

And while he was sleeping,

Sally, Belinda and Sheena swam over to look at the rockpool floor.

"It does look a lot tidier now, doesn't it?" said Sally.

Then Sheena squealed with excitement,

"Look! Bertram's made a tall tower!"

"A tower?" said Andrew the Anemone,

who was passing by with Sidney the Snail.

"Yes!" said Sheena. "Bertrum's tidied everything up into a tall tower."

The tower seemed to sway a little.

"But it is a bit wobbly."

Sally looked at Bertrum's tower very closely.

"Uh-oh," she said.

"He's tidied up my shell collection.

"I left it on the rockpool floor and now, look...

"All my favourite shells are in the tower!"

It was true. Dotted in amongst the little stones and strands of seaweed

were Sally's precious shells.

"Don't worry. We'll help you to take the shells out,"

said Andrew the Anemone. "Bertram won't mind."

We'd better be careful not to knock it down," said Belinda,

looking at the wobbly tower rather nervously.

"OK," said Sheena. "Let's start."

She bobbed up to a cockleshell that was near the top of the tower.

"I'll use my antenna to pull this cockleshell out," she said,

wrapping her antenna around the shell and easing it out.

The tower wobbled a little,

but it stayed up.

Belinda swam up to a pretty periwinkle shell.

"I'm sure I can nudge this one out with my nose," she said.

And nudge, nudge, nudge, nudge...

She nudged it free.

The tower wobbled a little, but it stayed up.

Then Andrew got very bold and tugged out a tower shell with his tentacles.

The tower wobbled. quite a lot. SALTY WHIMPERS

Everyone gasped, but it stayed up.

"My turn!" said Sidney the Snail.

"I'm sure I could get that whelk shell out."

Everyone held their breath as he eased out the whelk shell

with his feelers.

SALTY WHIMPERS

The tower wibbly-wobbled, but it still stood...

just about.

Soon there was only one shell left in the tower, but...

it was right at the bottom.

"I think we'd better leave that one," said Belinda.

"But it's my favourite shell of all," said Sally.

Buster the Crab sidled up and offered to help.

"I can get that shell out, it'll be a snap," he said.

"You sure?" said Sally nervously.

"Crab-solutely!" he answered.

"I can't look," said Belinda.

So Buster stretched out his claws and clasped the final shell.

The tower wibbled and wobbled,

and started to sway.

SALTY BARKS

"Watch out!" Sally cried,

as it teetered wildly

and tumbled down onto the rockpool floor!

All the rockpoolers gasped.

The stones and the loose strands of seaweed were scattered everywhere.

"Oh, no!" said Buster, looking at the terrible mess.

"I'm so sorry."

"You were only trying to help," said Sally.

The rockpoolers tried to build up the tower again and again...

but it kept toppling.

"What shall we do now?" said Sheena the Shrimp.

"When Bertram wakes up, he'll be sad to see his tower has fallen down.

"I'll go and ask Reginald -

"he'll know what to do," said Buster.

So Buster scuttled up to where the water meets the sunshine

and there, clamped to his favourite rock,

sat Reginald the Limpet.

"O, Great Wise Limpet," said Buster.

"We are trying to build a tower, but it keeps falling down.

"What should we do?"

Reginald rolled his eyes and thought very hard.

"It is hard to build a tower,

"or a rainbow, or a flower

"without some very strong glue," he said.

"And my sticky limpet glue is the best.

"It takes a while to dry but, once it does,

"it's ever so strong.

"I couldn't stay on my rock without it."

Buster thought that some sticky limpet glue

was exactly what the rockpoolers needed

to make the tower stand up,

so he asked Reginald for a giant shell-full.

Then everyone got to work gluing all the little stones

and the seaweed strands in place, and, gradually,

the tower grew and grew...

until it wasn't long before

the last little stone in the tower

had been glued in.

"Finished!" said Sheena.

At that moment, Bertram whizzed by.

"Hello, everybody! I'm not tired any more.

"How's that tower of mine?" he chortled.

SALTY WHIMPERS Yeah, I know, Salty.

Let's hope that the glue has tried in time!

Yeah.

"It's lovely, Bertram," said Buster nervously.

"I was just admiring it."

But just then...

the tower did a very odd thing.

Ever so slowly,

and before their very eyes,

the top part started to curl downwards.

Down and down it went,

until it was touching the rockpool floor.

All the rockpoolers gasped

as Bertram swam up to take a closer look.

"My tower," he gasped.

"Look, it's...

"It isn't a tower any more, it's...

"It's an arch!"

And then he smiled a great big smile.

I love it!

All the rockpoolers cheered.

Sally was very pleased that her precious shell collection

was safe and sound,

and all the rockpoolers had fun chasing each other

through their lovely new arch

until it is time to go home.

Ernie, Sue and I collected quite a few little pebbles

in Sue's tin bucket, then we went back

and we started making our new sandy mountain.

For the rest of the day, we kept digging until

we had made the best sandy mountain ever!

It was dotted with little pebbles

and it had a lovely sandcastle on top.

SALTY BARKS Yes, it was fantastic, Salty!

Well, then we played and played

until it was time for us to go home.

And the tide came in

and covered the rockpool

like a great seaweed-y blanket.

Ha-ha! OLD JACK WHISTLES

You know, Salty, one thing

I've discovered about building sandcastles over the years...

Great fun to build 'em,

but it's just as much fun to knock 'em down!

HE LAUGHS

So why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time?

Bye!

Come on, girl!