Using play-dough to learn to spell names

I wanted to share this with you today as it combines all the things that Little Boo likes at the moment: play dough, stamps and her name.  We have used stamps (Melissa and Doug Alphabet stamps) to make an impression of the letters for her name. Then we used the play dough to make the letters out of the spaghetti that Little Boo made using one of her play dough toys.

 Another way to learn the letters is to write into the play dough with a pen something that Little Boo did yesterday with the microwave salt dough.

Playing in the sunshine!

Today we had a very rare opportunity to play in the sunshine.  The weather has been miserable lately so we were well excited.  I came across some water balloons a few days ago and picked them up glad I did now as we have had a great time with them.

The balloons were ready!

We had great fun with the balloons Little Boo enjoyed chasing me and her Dad around the garden.  To be honest think that me and my husband enjoyed the activity just as much it got rather competitive and Little Boo kept laughing at us both.  It has been so nice to actually have a family afternoon it does not happen often enough.

We also played with our chalks on our slabs.

I wrote out Little Boo's name in chalk then she went over the chalk with water.  It was really nice as the chalk just turns into paint. It does also come off the slabs with water and a brush.

We did the same with numbers.

The letter a was really good.

and of course we did loads of hand prints!

It was a great activity as Little Boo was having fun all the time and not realising how much she was learning about colours (when picking up the balloons she would keep commenting on the colour), numbers and letters.  After all the fun she had even more fun with the hose pipe cleaning all the chalk away and of course running after Mommy and Daddy with it.  We were soaked!

Sharing a book- Shirley Hughes Dogger.

I love Shirley Hughes and Dogger is one of my favourites! This is probably because I remember reading it as a child.  I went on line to find resources and found a great movable dogger.  All you need to do is subscribe to TES which is free .  We found the movable Dogger to colour in and make and a sequencing printable.  Both of which Little Boo enjoyed doing.

Colouring in Dogger

After being laminated and some split pins added! Apparently the dog wanted to sit on Little Boos chair.

Looking at the sequencing cards. I am going to add a few more cards to this.

Dogger then went for a little walk

The school fair began and poor little Dogger was at the back of our stall. 

Little Boo brought Dogger.

There are other activities that may be suitable for older children.  Me and Little Boo did a market stall with loads of toys we used this as role play but for older children you could extend the activity further to incorporate money. There was also plenty of opportunity to play fancy dress as there is a fancy dress competition at the school fayre

The book has scored 4.11 out of 5 on Goodreads and has brilliant reviews from most people on there.  I feel that it is fantastic that even though it was written a long time ago it still has relevance today.  I like the way that the book displays positive behaviour as Bella gave away her toy so her brother could have Dogger back. 

I hope that this has provided you all with other ways to enjoy the book Dogger together. Next week  we will be looking at We're Going on a bear Hunt.

Book review and fun activities - "Hug" by Jez Alborough

This evening as promised I am sharing with you the book "Hug" my daughter LOVES! this book.  It is actually quite surprising as there are hardly any words.   I feel that this adds to the appeal as we can interpret the story the way we want to.  The book prompts a lot of questioning and assists learning new words especially when Bobo moves around the elephant sitting on his head, trunk and the funny one, his bottom! (she always laughs at that).

The emotions displayed in the book are easy for Little Boo to recognise as she often comments on how Bobo looks "sad" on one of the pages.  The array of animals that are in the book assists with teaching Little Boo all her different animals in a fun way. The book has been given excellent reviews on Goodreads and scored 4.11 out of 5.  I like that we have the board book as this has meant that Little Boo has been able to grow up with the book from a young age and it is still suitable and enjoyed now.

We visited the Jez Alborough site which was amazing for resources as we joined their club for free and managed to get a colour in image of Bobo which Little Boo loved colouring in.  We then scanned it and made it into a little stick puppet.

We also made a Monkey Mask from foam sheets. Here is the template if anyone wants to make one.  We made one together then I was asked "where is the Mummy one" so for that I used the same template just made it slightly bigger.







We then got the toys ready to start the story.

Little elephant and Mommy elephant were hugging

There was tickling

and wiping of tears!

After all of that we played find Mommy Monkey.  Little Boo pretended to be Bobo looking for a Hug.

Little Boo then used the masks like they were stencils very clever I thought.

Hope that this has given you all some inspiration of how to share "Hug" next Wednesday will be Dogger by Shirley Hughes a old favourite of mine that Little Boo loves as well.

Lets share our top ten books!

As from this week I am starting a book review.  Whilst I have been on forums many parents are looking for suggestions for good books to share with their toddlers and I hope that this will help.

Each Wednesday a book will be chosen (at first from our top ten) to review and fun ways that we have shared the book together will be written on my blog. I hope that everyone feels this is a good idea and will be helpful. 

I would appreciate if you could share books that you have enjoyed so we could try them out. I have taken a picture of our top ten at the moment these books were chosen as I know them off by heart nearly as they are the ones that Little Boo always asks for. Do you have any books to share? There are many ways you can share your top ten either

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I am really looking forward to see how this goes first book to review tomorrow will be Hug by Jez Alborough. 

Engaging children in reading

Some people have requested that I detail more about the Handa's Hens Story sack which is fantastic! I am really pleased that people have liked this post and that they feel inspired to make their own. I am very passionate about how we can get children more engaged in reading books and feel this works with my daughter. The reason why I chose this book is because it came recommended by a friend who mentioned that it is used a lot in early years setting.  As well as the book teaching children about different cultures it also cleverly embeds number recognition.

First of all I will detail what is in the sack many of the resources were from Twinkl.  You do have to pay a subscription to get some of the resources however this is very reasonable and there are loads of good resources on there.

Firstly contained in the sack (pillow case with a T-shirt transfer)

• The book Handa's Hen by Eileen Browne
• Sequencing cards
• Colouring sheets
• Handa and Akeyo face masks
• Pictures of the animals in the book for example two butterflies, 4 lizards, all cut out individually.
• word mat
• 10 Easter chicks and plastic eggs
• Jigsaw (picture printed from Google laminated then cut up)
• Handa and Akeyo stick puppets
• 3 toy mice

Then the fun began...

First we played with the main characters and saying their names.

As we went through the story little Boo decided that she wanted to count the cut up animals onto the page by placing them on top of the book.  This was something I did not even think of!

When we came to the end of the story I used 10 plastic eggs to put chicks in!

The sequencing cards were then used to recall the story and to practise counting.

Little Boo then wanted to match the pictures to the word mat .

Then do the jigsaw

Then it was time to pack up so one chick had to be counted into the egg and the correct colours matched together to close the egg.

I think it is important that children are allowed to explore the story how they want to. I have seen how Little Boo has started to explore more and more with this story sack as we have used it. She has even started to make up her own stories with Handa and Akeyo. Next story sack will be The Hungary Caterpillar.

Making story sacks Handas Hens

After going to my local toy library I was fortunate enough to look at a story sack and little Boo loved them. Unfortunately they are quite expensive so I decided to make our own. I used a pillow case as the sack as many online bags are expensive and I had some spare . I then managed to find some t-shirt transfers from the local pound land so could put the image of the story on the front.

Recently, I made a story sack on Handa's Hens this is a wonderful story which incorporates a lot of counting it is also nice as the images are really colourful and appealing. I really enjoyed making this for little Boo as it made me think about what was appropriate to include.

A lot of the contents were printed resources from twinkl this is a great place to get resources and is cheap for a years subscription.

As it is close to easter it was easy to come by the plastic eggs and chicks for the end of the story. I have decided the next ones are going to be going on a bear hunt, Handas Surprise and The very Hungary Caterpillar.