Month: July 2017

Weekend book review and a game

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It’s summer holidays, it’s raining (well has been) so for children how about a story activity?
For younger ones, cut out some pictures from a magazine (10 -15 pictures) Can be anything from food, animals, weather related items etc or for older children cut out some random words – Maybe 10-20. Put them in a bag and get your child to pick out around 5 of them. They then need to make up a story including those words or pictures. Enjoy and I’d love to hear how it goes!

And now for the book review….

The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield

What a lovely story! I think anywhere between 3 – 6 will like this book. It’s about a bear who is very good at the piano. So good that he leaves his home and becomes a huge star. He misses his friends at home but worries that they’ll be cross that he hasn’t been in touch for a while. Beautiful pictures and beautifully written. Really touching and very enjoyable. 

Something interesting and a Bear rhyme!

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I was really interested to find out why children love the same books over and over and over and over again. So I did a bit of googling. Turns out there’s been an experiment done on 2 groups of children. The first lot got the same book with a few made up words and had it read to them repeatedly. The second group had different books but the same made up words e.g. “Sprock” appeared in all of them. The group that had the same book repeated remembered the new words more easily. Think this will give me more patience when reading Bear on a Bike by Stella Blackstone (a lovely bedtime story about a bear going on adventures on various modes of transport) for the gazillionth time!!!!

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/never-ending-story-how-repetition-helps-a-childs-vocabulary-2220647.html%3famp

And here’s a bear story for the day:

Brave Boris and the Bear

Kirsten Allen

Brave Boris woke up one dawn
And thought about adventure on this bright morn’.
He put on his trousers and favourite old shirt.
Found socks and shoes and got on his horse – Bold Bert.
With a whinny and neigh they went off on their way!
Through fields and forests they galloped and rode.
Through mud and rivers the gallant horse strode.
Now tired and hungry, Brave Boris sat down to rest
And eat his scrummy picnic – (he liked cake the best!)
When all of a sudden he heard a roar and a yowl!
Suddenly came a screech and a howl!
Brave Boris realised he was picnicking near a cave…
And all of a sudden he didn’t feel so brave!
But then he felt curious, he wanted to know:
What was making that noise.
Should he look?…Should he go?
He paused for a minute to try and decide
What he should do – investigate or hide?
He heard another loud “ROAR!” 
And “Someone help! I’ve hurt my paw!!!!”
Soon followed by a very big yelp! 
So Brave Boris went right in to help.
He looked inside and saw a bear crying.
“Please help me!” He said “I’ve been trying and trying!”
“What’s the matter?” asked Brave Boris, (who was still not too sure.)
“Please help!” said the bear “I’ve got a thorn in my paw!”
“A thorn in your paw? No wonder you cried!”
The bear said “It won’t come out – I’ve tried and I’ve tried!”
Brave Boris looked and scratched his head.
“I’ll get it out for you. First sit on your bed.
Now hold out your paw…be brave! Just a little bit more…”
With a heave and a ho
It came out in one go!
“As a thank you” said the bear.
“I’d like you to take 
A very big slice of my honey cake”.
Brave Boris was happy as happy could be and gobbled the honey cake up for his tea!

©



Tuesday’s Bear Challenge and bear book review!

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We seem to have accumulated a lot of stories about bears in our house. Bear on a Bike, Bears on Chairs, Going on a Bear Hunt, Paddington, Winnie the Pooh….just to name a couple! So this week is getting a bear theme. Starting with a book review:

Kiss Goodnight, Sam by Amy Hest
This is such a sweet story for pre-schoolers about a bear called Sam who lives on Plum Street. It’s time for bed. He has everything he needs… favourite story, milk, all tucked in. However something is missing…His mum has to work out what. I’ve been made to read it as a bedtime story a few times this week but it’s such a cute, gentle book I really don’t mind! 

Tuesday’s Challenge!
For this week’s challenge with your children think of as many bear related words as possible and put them into a story or rhyme! To get you started, what do they eat, what do they look like, what are the sounds they make etc. Have fun!!! 

Helpful link and a rhyme for the weekend 

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Hello again! Thought I’d share this interesting article I came across:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/childrens-literacy-study-links-hearing-words-to-reading-ability/8697138?pfmredir=sm
Meanwhile this weekend has been a crazy with teething and potty training but somehow managed to find time to have fun with this poem. My two year old enjoyed zooming around the room like a demented rocket and looking for treasure (I could see the pound signs in his eyes when he found some money that had fallen out of my pocket – oops!!!). Reminded me of when I was little my mum would do a big shop on a Thursday night so Dad would look after me. I was obsessed with playing treasure hunt and writing clues an leaving them around the house to lead my dad to the treasure (usually a half eaten lolly or something 😂)

Anyway hope you enjoy it!

Anything Anywhere
By Kirsten Allen 

We can be anything you and me.
Just close your eyes and count to three 
We can be pirates in a ship off to sea.
Eating ship’s biscuits for our tea.
Searching for treasure – maybe gold!

We can do anything in our little den.
Let’s blast off in our rocket –
Count down from ten!
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 BLAST OFF!!!
See the stars.
Fly past Mars.
Zoom around the moon
And back again!

The world is our oyster don’t you know?
Just shut your eyes to dream and off we go! 

©

Too many to choose from!

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Today I thought I’d share some of my favourite books growing up. There are soooooo many to choose from but here are a couple of my favourites would love to hear about yours! 

Meg and Mog – Helen Nicoll 
A classic picture book about a cat and a witch who’s spells seem to always go haywired. 

Lowly Worm’s Apple Car-Richard Scarry (Richard Scarry books are brilliant- lovely illustrations and really lovely for children to pick up and look at themselves) This particular one is about Lowly the Worm who has to make deliveries in his apple shaped car.

Funnybones- Allan & Janet Ahlberg Funny picture book about some skeletons that want to find someone to scare! 

Ivor the Engine – Oliver Postgate<!–
 
I had “The Dragon” and “Snowdrifts”. I have a feeling these might be books that can only be bought second hand now (have seen them on eBay I think)  but I enjoyed them so much I couldn’t resist adding them on the list. It’s about an engine called Ivor and his driver Jones and adventures chugging around the valleys. If your children are into Thomas, they’ll love this series!

Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories – Joyce Lankester Brisley
Lovely very sweet old-fashioned stories of a little girl and her family who live in “the nice white cottage with the thatched roof”. It’s a book that means a lot to me as I got it at primary school along with a certificate as a prize. (While others got theirs for being maths geniuses or amazingly talented at sport I got mine for “effort”…they didn’t even say what I’d “efforted” at 😂) Anyhow, a lovely book for around age 5/6 year olds.

Wednesday’s review and a little poem….

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Well I ummed and ahed about which book to review today……Far too many childhood books to choose from. In the end I went with one (or in fact a series) that I used to read in bed, in the car (travel sickness allowing), at breakfast, at lunch and dinner (parents allowing!) It’s a great series of books and one I’d forgotten about until thinking of childhood books this week.

The Brer Rabbit Collection – By Enid Blyton

So this collection is by one of my favourite childhood authors. It’s based around the stories from African-American and Native-American folklore. The main character is a cunning rabbit (Brer Rabbit) who gets himself into (and out of) lots of situations and plays tricks on others using his cunning and wiley ways. Other characters include Brer Fox and Brer Bear. Would probably say children the age range is 6-8 but they may enjoy having the stories read to them from about 5. I really loved this series!
As we’re covering childhood this week thought I’d add my own short verse of how I remember some of mine and hopefully how my boys will remember some of theirs. (This was pre-phone/tablets/computers so we’ll see!!! 😂) Hope you enjoy x

Childhood

By Kirsten Allen

Climbing trees
Scraping knees
Riding bikes as quickly as we can
Running after the ice cream van
Twizzling, twirling
Rolling, whirling
In the park 
Playing out until dark
Jumping in puddles 
Bedtime cuddles

©

Tuesday’s Challenge

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Last week the challenge was to create a story/poem with your children using their favourite animal, colour and place. Oliver told me his was a car animal monkey(?!?) blue and up in the sky and a green crocodile on a boat. So here’s our concoction (he’s two so needed some help! Please allow for artistic licensing! 😂)

A blue monkey and green crocodile went sailing in a boat,
They both wondered how it was that the boat could float.
And if such a big boat can float they pondered why
They’d never seen a car high up in the sky!

And now on to this weeks challenge….talk about your favourite childhood books with your kids. Perhaps you still have them stashed away somewhere and you could read them with your children? Talk about their favourite stories. Which do they remember the best and why?
I remembered a book about a train (in German) I had when I was little. My mum dug it out and brought it over. Since then there’s barely been a night when I’ve not read it to the boys. Brings back such happy memories!!!

Childhood book week….

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So this week I thought I’d share some of my favourite children’s books from my childhood. Haven’t read some of these to the boys as they’re too young but can’t wait to when they’re older! If you have any please let me know in the comments-would love to hear them!

Worzel Gummidge – by Barbara Euphan Todd

This book was my ultimate ultimate favourite from about 7-10 years old. Can’t count the number of times I read it. Also loved the TV series but enjoyed the book more! It’s about a scarecrow who comes to life and gets up to all sorts of mischief. He makes friends with 2 children on holiday in the area. A lovely read! 

Sunday Review….

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Was at the supermarket the other day and came across a book that looked good fun…and it was!

The Bear Who Went Boo! – David Walliams

Call me old fashioned but for some reason (have no idea why!) I’m always a bit sceptical about celebrity written books (unless it’s a biography or something). I tend to go for books written by people who’s job it is to write books but that’s just me. I’ve changed my mind though! This is our first David Walliams book and it’s so enjoyable to read! It’s about a bear who goes around shouting “BOO!” at everyone (including a naked walrus?!?!) A TV presenter comes along to present a nature program and of course the polar bear shouts “BOO!”….The presenter then threatens to leave and stop filiming and the other animals are outraged!
Good plot, entertaing to read and kids will enjoy it (at least my son did!)

Favourite Childhood poem….

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I loved poetry as a child! Hope my children learn to enjoy it too. There is a particular poem we had to read I think when I was around 6 or 7 years old. We had to then write it out in our best hand writing and then decorate with pictures (A fun activity on a rainy day? – Read your child’s favourite poem or book then they can draw pictures about it?)

What was your favourite childhood poem? Here’s mine below: 

The Guppy by Ogden Nash

Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.