Teaching English with Picture Books

2005-09-21T15:22:00.000+02:00

The Slimy Book (by Babette Cole; Publisher: Red Fox; ISBN 0099434261)

Babette Cole's Slimy Book has delicously descriptive language and yukky ideas that will please all kids old and young.

Thanks to the tefl_kids yahoo group (Susi, Julia and Tanya) for the suggestions in this post.

Even with the smallest kids I would go for a slug/worm hunt. We would talk about how fragile these animals are, compare them with animals who are better protected (snails, let alone turtles) and be very careful when picking some up. We'd collect them in plastic habitats or any animal observation cans. In class we could place them on a pane of glass and observe how they move forward, being able to look from above and below.
Some might even want to start a slug race...

Actually there is a very nice Ravensburger game, "Snail's pace race" with different colored wooden snails, where we roll two dice to see which two snails can move forward. The cool thing about this game is that all kids will be winners (with the snail who wins). I suppose one could do this with actual people as the snails, and a super huge dice.
In the internet I found another game that got pretty good reviews:
Schneckenrennen distributed by: Goldsieber, 2003 Sold for 5,49 EUR

Slime - obviously, read that fabulous slime book, get the kids to chant slimy sludgey slippy slime.... or repeat any phrases they like.

I made a batch of salt dough this week with too much water. It sure was slimy. I'm going to bag it in Ziploc or heavy duty sealed small plastic bags and get the wee, wee kids to simply squish it.

A clenched fist, with thumb extended, makes a snail-like figure. Hand painting and then puppet play?

For Halloween, I had the kids dig for gummi-frogs (saran wrapped) in "worms", which was actually oiled spaghetti. It was a super, super big hit with all age groups. The parents were a bit grossed out, but the kids dug right in, even my then squeamish son. If you do this, you simply cook some spaghetti until al-dente (over cooked gives a mushy texture, not a worm texture), mix in some vegetable oil, and throw in some suitably squishy, slimy, gummi treats or small toys wrapped in saran wrap. Make sure to have a camera, lots of paper/cloth towels on hand and that the kids wash their hands really well prior to digging. Some kids may try to eat the pasta(which, technically, is edible, just a bit flavourless).

Worm walk - look for worms after a rain, bring in a few worms to class, "walk" like worms.

bring some worms/snails/slugs/jellied eels/custard/glue in to the class

Sticky tape fun: Trish Kuffner mentions tape play in several of her pre-schooler and toddler books. Take a piece of double sided tape. Stick it to the floor, have the wee one walk on and off the tape (socks on). Makes a satisfying sound and enthralls a great deal of toddlers for, well, minutes. Other tape fun: simply give them different kinds of sticky tape to play with and let them stick it where they will (stear them away from any delicate books, etc). Some wee ones love this and some get driven batty by it, depending on their age. Tape collage: make a collage with sticky tape or sticky things.

How about the song "Squirming Worms"? It's on one of the "KidsSongs" CDs which are quite painless to listen to and sound more like folk tunes (rather than the awful over- arranged, stupidly-voiced, kitschy children's CDs you usually get). http://www.nancycassidymusic.com/jubilee.html#worms

Thinking about textures, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" although not
about slugs, is great fun and very tactile with actions and sound
effects for swimming across a cold river, squelching through a muddy
swamp, pushing your way through the long grass, and stumbling
through the dark forest. There's even a song version of it.

http://learningstationmusic.com/database/samples/The%20Bear%20Hunt.mp3

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

(children repeat each line after adult)

We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh ,oh!
Grass,
Long, wavy, grass.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Swishy swashy, swishy swashy.

We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh ,oh!
Mud,
Thick, oozy mud.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Squelch squelch, squelch squelch

We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh ,oh!
A river,
A deep, cold river.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Splish splosh, splish splosh.

We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh ,oh!
A forest,
A big, dark forest.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Stmble trip, stumble trip.

We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh ,oh!
A cave,
A scary, dark cave.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Tiptoe, tiptoe.

(say the following verse all together and quickly)
OH NO IT'S A BEAR!!!
Quick!
Through the cave, tiptoe, tiptoe,
Through the forest, stumble trip, stumble trip,
Through the river, splish splosh, splish spolosh,
Through the mud, squelch squelch, squelch squelch,
Through the grass, swishy swashy, swishy swashy.
Run to the house, run up the stairs,
Oh oh forgot to shut the door!
Run back downstairs, shut the door,
Run back up, to the bedroom,
Jump into bed, pull up the covers,
WE ARE NEVER GOING ON A BEAR HUNT AGAIN!!

got this version from
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems19.html

Another worm song for the Slimy Book theme:

Wiggly Woo
**********
There's a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is Wiggly Woo
There's a worm at the bottom of the garden
And all that he can do
Is wiggle all night
And wiggle all day
Whatever else the people do say
There's a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is Wiggly Woo

listen to the tune here:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/wigglywoo.htm

Clean old socks with glued on felt eyes and mouth will make really quick and easy worm puppets.

At the risk of offending some, here is a song my daughter's Woodcraft
Folk group used to sing:

Nobody likes us
Everybody hates us
Because we feed on worms
Big fat juicy ones
Long thin wriggly ones
See them squiggle and squirm!
Bite their heads off
Suck their juice out
Throw their skins away
Nobody knows how much we thrive
On worms three times a day!

Bearing in mind that the WF is a very right-on organisation which
another parent accused of turning her daughter into a rabid vegetarian,
it should be taken with a pinch of salt [I'm sure worms taste much
better that way : ) ] and the kids loved it.

Here's a site with the tune for Julia's horrid worm
song.

http://www.immortalia.com/html/records-and-cds/CDs/gross-songs/i-m-going-to-eat-/some-worms.htm

The tea pot song (to accompany the page: "Here is someone having slime for tea..."),

I'm a little tea pot, short and stout.
Here is my handle, here is my spout.
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout:
"Tip me over and pour me out".

Made snail/snake mobiles and played with slimy finger paint on the back of old posters.

The snail/snake mobile directions:

Take the desired size of paper (firmer paper is better).
Starting roughly in the middle, draw a swirl/circle going outwards.
Repeat with different coloured crayons or markers.
Now, cut around the very last circle/swirl, to make a round shape. Here is your snail.

Cut inwards, roughly following the swirling drawing.
Leave a small circle in the middle, from which to hang the mobile.
Hold the centre circle, and allow the cut rings to dangle. Here is your snake.

It really was an easy craft. I think sparkles, google-eyes on the centre circle, paper with texture, painting or colouring both sides of the paper, or using paper that you've painted with finger paints in swirling motions would all make great snail-snake mobiles.

I found very nice photographs of snails .

Check out www.enchantedlearning.com, not just for printouts of slugs, but for lots of inspiration for other topics!

Last internet suggestion, absolutely great for Kindergarden kids: Dinnertime! nice worm or slugs surprise (a little down the following page: http://www.kindercourt.com/OLD/kinfolinks/months/april.html Actually I'm always looking for songs and found quite a few good ones here: http://www.kindercourt.com/OLD/kinfolinks/months/april.html

2005-03-24T20:29:00.000+01:00

Happy Easter!

I've now added some of the missing pictures (the camera is working again)

2005-03-24T20:13:00.000+01:00

Easter chick cards

2005-01-24T20:55:00.000+01:00

A Snowy Day (by Ezra Jack Keats; Publisher: Puffin Books; ISBN: 0140501827 )

In this book a little boy makes different kinds of
prints in the snow: footprints, railway tracks, uses a
stick to make a third track, snow angels etc.

My colleague Tanya describes here how she has used
this lovely book with her class:

"It is a wonderful story of a little boy who wakes up
on a snowy day and has great adventures. It is one of
the few childrens' books set in a city, as well as
using a non-white child as the main character.  I grew
up with this book, and love reading it to my young
son, as well as to an English playgroup playgroup I
teach in Gotha, Germany. After reading it for the
first time, I handed out salt-dough snowballs for the
kids to take home.

Other activities to do that help you recycle the ideas
and language on this book:

1. Snow or ice cube painting, adapted from Trish
Kuffner's books:

Warning: messy alert! Children should wear a painting
smock, an old t-shirt or clothes that can be
art-ified.
Line a baking sheet or cake pan with a piece of
drawing paper (thicker is better). Alternately, use
the lid of a shoe box or another cardboard type lid.
Sprinkle the lid with a bit of powdered tempura paint.
Place an ice cube or very hard packed small snowball
on the paper. The wee one can swirl the ice or
snowball around with his or her fingers to create
designs. Older children may chose to tip the lid or
baking tray to swirl the design around. (Note: I
haven't been able to find powdered tempura paint here
in Germany yet. I've been using tubed tempura and
watering it down a bit.) I think powdered jello("Rote"
or "Grune Grutze" powder her in Germany) works
too. Powdered food colouring would also work, but is
too strong in terms of staining ability.

2. Snow painting: place a bit of powdered tempura
paint in a squirt bottle or spray bottle. Add water.
Let the wee ones draw on the snow with the squirt
bottle or spray the snow.

3. Total physical response: the adventures Peter has
in the snow lend themselves to mimicking.  Take your
wee ones out into the snow, let them walk with their
"toes pointing in like this ... and walk with their
toes pointing out like that."  Let them hear the
"crunch, crunch, crunch" of their foot prints.  Make
snow balls, snow angels, railroad tracks with dragging
feet, find a stick to make another track.  Then go
have some hot chocolate.  Bigger kids can help make
the hot chocolate. No snow?  Mimick Peter's behavior
in the course room or your living room.  Draw "snow
angels", trace your feet many times (or every child
contributes a set of prints to a collaborative trail),
cut out the footsteps and make tracks like Peter's.

4. Salt dough: there are many recipes out there.
Trish Kuffner's books have many good ones.  Form the
dough into snow balls, snow men, snow forts.  Roll it
out and cut out angels.  Dry and decorate.  Really wee
ones will enjoy just squishing the dough around inside
a well-sealed Ziploc bag or smushing it on the table
and printing the dough with cookie cutters (don't
expect the little kids' craft time to be "perfect",
just having the experience of playing with the
materials in their own fashion teaches them a lot
about texture, touch and the world around them).

Tanya Harding
Naturally English
www.naturallyenglish.de
Gartenstrasse 11
99894 Friedrichroda

I am a Canadian citizen, now living in central
Germany.  I teach English privately, as well as at a
local children's club.  There is more information on
my website, listed above."

Here are the snowy day scraffito footprints that Lucy's classes did. I got black paper, got the kids to cover it in white water-based pastel and then to scratch out footprints etc.

Snowy day footprints

2005-01-16T22:28:00.000+01:00

Owl Babies (by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson; Walker Books; ISBN: 0744531675)

This is a lovely book with realistic pics of baby owls. The owl babies worry that their mum won't come back, she does of course.

We collected toilet roll tubes and used these to make an owl-shaped pen holder. This took about 45 minutes with 8 kids! So be warned. It is a useful thing they can use themselves or give as a gift.

Two tubes per kid, some additional pale card for eyes, beaks and wings and some brown construction paper for a base.

Cut one tube into two, about two thirds up. Resulting in three tubes one big, one medium and one small. Stick onto base and against each other. add beaks, eyes and wings. We painted them with glue and dipped them in imitation snow to give that fluffy baby owl look.

Owl babies pen holder

Pen holder with pens and things

We also illustrated our own mini books:

Owl babies mini-book

2005-01-16T22:09:00.000+01:00

Goodnight Lulu (by Paulette Bogan; Bloomsbury; ISBN: 0747564930)

This book is about a mum (chicken) saying goodnight to her kid (chick) and allaying all her fears of what might happen, e.g. "What if a tiger comes in while I'm sleeping". Two piglets listen in and creep closer and closer so as to be protected too. Cute, and comforting, my classes really enjoyed taking it in turn to act out the story while I narrated.

We made pictures of the piglets peeking in the window. We used a potato print for the pig's nose as a starting point (cut potato in half, make two holes in each cut edge for the nostrils, a small slit at the bottom for the mouth, dip in pink paint and press on the paper).

All the kids were able to make pigs with eyes and ears and most of them painted the front trotters too. I also had some curly pink ribbon to stick on for those who needed tails.

2005-01-11T14:15:00.000+01:00

One Two Three Me (by Nadia Budde and Jeremy Fitzkee; Hammer; ISBN: 3872949225)

This is a great book for teaching English. The pics are cool and funny for any age and yet the vocab is very limited (but mostly very useful) and it's a rhyming repetitive story. The story goes:
1,2,3, me
Sue, Molly, Claire,
Polar bear
In a vest, in a dress, in a coat, (here you see the bear wearing the clothes)
goat
in the rain, in the snow, in the fog (pics of the goat standing in the rain, snow and fog)
frog
spotted, plaid, pale,
whale
Gigantic, average, wee,
bee
and so on.

It's the perfect book for inspiring kids to make a minibook using exactly the same formula.

Before the lesson I thought of a few animal names that rhymed with words the kids knew:
boat + goat, house + mouse, tail+snail, big+pig, hat+cat, hair+bear, dish+fish, shower+flower, frog+dog, zoo+you

We then used those as a basis for thinking of our own rhymes and the two additional situations needed for each sequence.

Here's what the kids came up with during one class:

1, 2, 3,
sea
With a ship, with a fish, with a boat,
goat
In trousers, in a dress, in a hat,
cat
In a tree, in a boat, in a house,
mouse
With a spider, on the cheese, with a frog
dog

The kids had lots of funny ideas. I then asked each child to draw one sequence. Colour photocopying the resulting book for each child turned out to cost a lot more than I'd imagined (that may be beyond your resources, but you could cover the original in plastic and make it into a class book). With my other classes, I asked them to do it in black and white, and then photocopied it for everyone to have as a colouring book.

Wearing shoes, in a dress, in a hat, cat

The kids went home talking about rhymes and thinking up new ones.

2004-01-30T10:47:00.000+01:00

Lullabyhullaballoo(by Mick Inkpen; Hodder Children's Books; ISBN: 0340626860)

This easy story brings in lots of friendly fairytale characters: dragons, knights, giants, ghosts. The pictures are lovely, the text is simple and has lots of repetition built in. Lullabyhullaballoo was a hit with all the kids from 3 to 11.

We learnt a lullabye: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

We had a pose for each character, animal and even the castle. The kids loved having a go at shouting out the next pose for everyone to take, or guessing which character is being posed.

We made a sleeping princess with closing eyelids

Kids fold over a 5cm strip at the bottom of an A4 sheet of thick paper.
Cut off the strip along the fold.
Position the strip at the middle of the back of the paper and draw round the end.
Fold paper across the rectangle you've just drawn, and cut out eyes inside the rectangle. (this is so that the eye holes are not wider than the strip of paper.)
Turn paper over and draw in nose between eye holes.
Add mouth, chin, hair, teddy, pillow, etc.
Stick paper (scraps of old wrapping paper) to make a patchwork quilt fit for a princess.
Tape small strips of paper to the back to hold the eye strip in place.
Draw eyes, eyelids and lashes through the holes of the eyes onto the eye strip.

We made a castle with opening windows.

Each kid gets a bit of A4 white paper as the background and an A5 (that's half A4) bit of brown paper for the castle.
Show kids how to cut out a rectangle out of the middle of one of the longer sides.
(This can be used as an additional tower and/or for a drawbridge.)
Show kids how to make several snips into the top edge of their turrets. Fold down every 2nd resulting flap (and cut off the folded flaps) to get the crenellation.
Show kids how to make windows with shutters:
1. Make a vertical fold in the castle wall.
2. Make two horizontal cuts of equal length into the fold.
3. Cut vertically along the fold between the two horizontal cuts. This results in a cut that is shaped like a sideways capital H.
4. Flatten out your castle and open the shutters.
Stick castle onto background, add drawbridge.
Draw moats, mountains, trees, bats, giants, dragons etc. outside the castle, and ghosts, knights, princesses etc. waving from the windows or battlements.

2003-12-15T11:50:00.000+01:00

What a relief! At last I've found a CD of Christmas carols with real kids singing in a normal way.
A Children's Christmas
sung by the kids of Bury Lawn School

2003-12-12T09:48:00.000+01:00

New pictures are now up for the Gruffalo and Santa's snow scene.

2003-12-12T09:35:00.000+01:00

Green Eggs and Ham (by Dr Seuss; Picture Lions; ISBN: 0007158467)

A classic Dr Suess book, it's good fun, rhymes and has lots of repetition.

I did this book to continue with the "Do you like ..." theme. The craft activity I used didn't work particularly well. Has anybody got suggestions for crafts or other activities that might go well with this book?

2003-12-10T21:15:00.000+01:00

Why doesn't anyone add comments? It'd be great to have other suggestions or ideas or feedback from anyone who's used the same books or tried out any of the craft activities. Just click on the orange word "Comment" and a window opens where you can look at any existing comments and add your own if you want to.

2003-12-10T21:05:00.000+01:00

The Gruffalo(by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler; Macmillan Children's Books; ISBN: 0333710932 )

I was dying to try out this book, it's about a clever mouse who tricks all the animals, including the gruffalo, into not eating it. Focus is on body vocabulary (terrible claws, turned out toes, etc.) as well as polite invitations and refusals ("...come and have tea in my tree-top house" "That's terribly kind of you owl, but no, ..."). I'd recommend it from age 5, one 4-year-old got a bit scared, the rest of them loved it.

We made an easy finger puppet mouse, copied from my daughter's Tweenies video.

You'll need brown paper, a bit of pink paper, sellotape, white circle stickers for the eyes, (if you want whiskers, you'll need plasticene, some hay and a few drawing pins).

Cut out a quarter circle template (like a slice of cake) with ears on the outside of the arc, and a tail attached at one side and curving all the way around above. Make another template for the pink inside of the ears (an oval which can be divided in half later).

Kids should draw around the template on brown paper and cut it out (keep some extra sellotape handy for snipped off tails).
Draw round the small oval template on pink paper, cut it out and snip in half.
Dab glue on the ears and stick in the pink bits.
Colour the corner nose tip.
Roll it into a cone and sellotape it together. You'll need to help smaller kids with this.
Draw dots on the eye stickers and then stick them in place.
Bend up the ears to face forwards.

If you want whiskers:
Stuff a bit of plasticene into the end of the cone (this is to hold the whiskers in place).
Make holes in the side of the snout with the drawing pin.
Stick hay into the holes, trim to an appropriate length.

2003-12-02T21:45:00.000+01:00

Snow Scene in a Jar
These last for a few months and then disintegrate but the kids are very pleased with them and they can be used as Christmas presents.

Materials: Each kid brings a wide-necked screw top jar. The top must close properly. You bring in some plasticene, white glitter, teaspoons, toothpicks and some washing-up liquid (if you use distilled water, the models might last a bit longer).

Kids make plasticene models on the inside of the lid (press the base down firmly). Snowmen or Santas work best. Keep the model small enough to fit in the jar, you may want the kids to put in a platform under their model or the best bit may be hidden behind the sides of the lid. Check that it can hang upside down, you may have to press the parts together to stop the model falling apart.
Over a bucket or sink, fill the jar with water (with a drop of washing up liquid to break the surface tension).
Put in half a teaspoonful of white glitter (I mixed in a teaspoonful of white sand).
Carefully put the lid on to the jar, leaving no air bubbles, screw the lid down tightly.

This is how you make a plasticene Father Christmas. If everyone does it together they can follow you step by step. This worked well with 6-8 year-olds, they were very pleased with the results.

Divide plasticene like this:
Red: two 3rds (body), one 6th (hat), two 12ths (arms).
Beige: eight 9ths (head), two 18ths (hands).
White: three quarters (for trim), one quarter (for hair and beard).
Roll a fat red sausage of plasticene for the body. Put in lid.
Make long white sausage for the fur trim on the front of the coat and for around the base of the coat.
Make a beige ball for the head.
Squash a white ball and put on head for hair.
Roll two thin red sausages for the arms.
Make another small red sausage for the hat. Roll one end to make it conical.
Squash a white ball for fur trim around hat and make a small white ball for the bobble.
Make two white balls and press on the end of the arms for cuffs.
Make two beige balls and press on the end of the cuffs for hands.
Squash a white ball to make the beard. Stick on lower face and down coat.
Use a teaspoon to make a mouth into the beard.
Use a toothpick to make eyes.

2003-12-02T20:34:00.000+01:00

Pop-Up Christmas Card
Try getting your kids to make this pop-up Christmas card. You will need to pre-cut some thick paper to the right size for the cards and make some templates for snowmen, stars and Christmas trees for smaller kids to draw around.

Materials: Coloured card, coloured paper, glitter stars, glue, cotton wool, crayons or felt pens.

Fold your coloured paper in half for the card.
Make two (or four) cuts into the folded edge, at right-angles to the fold, about half an inch apart and the same length.
Open the card and use your finger to push the strip of card through to the inside.
Sit the card on one of its faces and stick coloured paper stars, Christmas trees, snowmen or anything else onto the protruding strip.
Decorate the floor and backdrop with felt pens, glue, stars, glitter and cotton wool.

(this is one we did last year, sorry the pic is so fuzzy)

2003-11-26T19:28:00.001+01:00

Ketchup on Your Cornflakes (by Nick Sharratt, Scholastic; ISBN: 059054151X )

This book is a real hit with the kids. There is no story, it's just a mix and match of crazy combinations as indicated by the title. The kids learn to say "Do you like ... on/in your ..." and have great fun doing so.

I followed the method described in Sandie Mourao's great handbook: JET Realbooks in the Primary Classroom (Mary Glasgow / Scholastic; ISBN: 1900702193). Sandie's instructions are clear and helpful, her ideas are fun and they work.

One activity is for the kids to make their own book, as I've got kids as young as 4 in some of my classes, I worried about the representational drawing that is needed here. The results were mixed: Some kids rose the the challenge and made great simple drawings, others were overwhelmed by the task and just scribbled on their books, some asked me to draw outlines for them, some coloured in the mini-flashcards and stuck them into their books. I found that if I gave one kid mini-flashcards to use, everybody wanted them and all creativity stopped. My best solution was to give each kid 2 or 3 flashcards to colour and stick in and get them to draw the rest themselves.

I made up a game that goes well with this book. Each kid puts one hand in a pile in the middle, the "wolf" holds their hand above the pile. Kids take turns asking the wolf if he or she likes particular foods. "Do you like chips?" "No (I don't)" , "Do you like apple pie?" "No (I don't)", and so on until a child asks the wolf whether he or she likes children (or boys, or girls), the wolf says "Yes" and tries to catch any hands that are still on the pile.

2003-11-26T19:28:00.000+01:00

There are 2 new book entries, both using ideas from handbooks for teachers.
Pics of artwork will be added when my husband gets back with the camera.

2003-11-26T19:27:00.000+01:00

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
(by Eric Carle, Hamish Hamilton Children's Books; ISBN: 0241003008)

This is a children's classic, the caterpillar eats a lot of different things, then turns into a butterfly. The days of the week, the numbers 1 to 5 and lots of food items come up in the book so it's really good for teaching vocab.

The translation of this book is also popular here in Germany so I was worried that the bigger kids (8 and 9 year-olds) might reject it as something babyish. I managed to avoid that by using lots of prediction "Can anyone guess which book we're going to read?" "Who read this book when they were little?" "Can you remember what the caterpillar ate on Saturday?"

I used some of the ideas from Tell It Again: The New Storytelling Handbook For Primary Teachers (by Ellis and Brewster, Longman; ISBN: 0582447771). In addition to ready made material for several books, this handbook gives lots of good general advice about creating activities for picture books.

The egg box caterpillar as suggested in Tell It Again. A local shopkeeper gave me about 30 egg trays so each kid could have a really long caterpillar if they wanted. I used diluted finger paints (applied with paintbrushes) to colour them and red dot stickers for the eyes. The finger paints colour well but don't dry fast enough, so the parents had to help their kids carry wet caterpillars home.
A finger puppet. I used green crepe paper wrapped around their finger and taped on with a red dot sticker stuck on the end for the whole face (kids draw eyes and mouth on the sticker with a pen). We did a little fingerplay taken from the traditional "Two Little Dickybirds":

Two little caterpillars sitting on a leaf
One named Wendy, one named Keith,
Crawl away Wendy, crawl away Keith,
Come back Wendy, come back Keith
A Rorschach ink-blot style butterfly. Make a template to draw the butterfly's outline. The kids splodge paint onto one side and fold the paper over to make a mirror image.
We made caterpillars that really can crawl across a leaf but this project was so fiddly and teacher intensive that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with more than 3 pupils.

The picture below is the same idea using a ladybird (this one was from my daughter's kindergarten, that's where I got the idea). Pull the wool loop under the leaf to move the insect along the leaf.

2003-11-18T10:54:00.000+01:00

Ana Teixiera's got a great idea for making aprons out of bin bags. She gets the kids to do it themselves as a craft activity.

2003-11-16T00:55:00.000+01:00

That's My Dad (by Ralph Steadman, Andersen Press; ISBN: 1842700111)

This book takes a closer look at parts of the body: eyes, nose, ears, legs, (elephant's) trunk, tail and whiskers. Very simple and they love it!

Here are some activities I did with this book:

All Change
Kids each get a cardboard body part to hold - legs, arms, heads, tails, 2 or more of each (I cut these roughly out of an old cardboard box). They sit in a circle, preferably on chairs.
When I say "arms change" all the kids who are holding cardboard arms get up and find a new chair. When I say "heads change" all the kids holding heads get up and find a new place to seat. Do the same for legs, tails and anything else you've included.
When I say "monsters change" all the kids get up and find a new place.
Monster picture dictation/consequences (inspired by Genki Kids http://genkienglish.net/monster.htm)
Each kid draws a Monster body. They then pass it on to the next kid. Some kids were worried about this "hey that's my picture", so warn them first that the pictures will be done by everyone. I get each kid to draw a leg on their new monster picture and pass it on to the next kid. Carry on in the same way for arms, heads, tails as many as you think appropriate for a monster. Then you can get the kids to pass the picture back to the kid who drew the body who can add finishing touches, background and colour in as appropriate or as time allows.

2003-11-15T23:16:00.000+01:00

Dinosaur Day (by Liza Donnelly, Scholastic Paperbacks; ISBN: 0590418009)

This book is about a kid who thinks there might be a dinosaur lurking under every pile of snow in his street. They turn out to be a car, a bike, a motorbike and a rubbish bin. I used it for introducing transport vocab.

Here are some activities I did based around the transport theme. I wanted to teach transport vocabulary, but of course you could make a lot more of the dinosaur theme:

The Wheels on the Bus song. I used a Wheels on the Bus book by Annie Kubler, (Child's Play (International) Ltd; ISBN: 0859537978) The smaller kids particularly liked being able to put their fingers into the holes in the book.
Make a paper helicopter. It's so easy and such fun. Let them stand on the table to drop it and watch it twirl.
Make a jet plane (I tried this with 7 and 8 year-olds, it's quite teacher-intensive so get a parent or an older kid to be your assistant)
Each kid gets a paper lunch bag to decorate as a plane (cockpit at the front on top and windows along each side. They draw round a template and cut out wings (use stiff paper) which they stick on the top of the bag. They get a short length of drinking straw to stick on top of the wings. They thread a string through it which they tie across the room. They each get a balloon which they stick inside their bags, nozzle pointing outward, using double-sided tape.

Keeping the balloon inside the bag, blow it up a bit and watch your jet whizz along the string.

This idea is from an out of print book: "Make it yourself" published by the Shooting Star Press.

2003-11-07T23:42:00.000+01:00

The Tiger Who Came to Tea
(by Judith Kerr and Geraldine McEwan, Picture Lions, ISBN 0001006789)

This book has an unlikely guest coming to tea with an ordinary family about 40 years ago. Still lots of fun despite the traditional roles. The tiger doesn't eat the kid but scoffs all her food and looks round for some more. This book provides lots of food vocabulary as well as polite ways of offering food and an insight into British culture.

Here are some activities I did with this book:

We had a tea party which gave us the opportunity to do lots of role playing, reviewing the structures from the book as well as learning the verbs "to spread" and "to butter".
- I got the kids to make sandwiches (I brought in some sliced bread, butter and jam),
- I baked some scones (half a mini scone per kid),
- I brought a teapot, cup and saucer and a flask of tea for myself,
- I got a parent to bring soft drinks for the kids
We made tiger masks (face vocabulary).
I prepared a tiger-shaped template, brought thick black paper, orange and white finger paint and some scraps of pink paper for the nose.
- Kids draw round the template (I pre-cut paper to about the right size to avoid wasting paper and time),
- They cut out their tiger head with holes for eyes and nose (I make or start the holes for little ones)
- Kids stick a scrap of pink paper behind nose hole to give a pink nose
- White finger paint. I tell kids to put it on the tiger's chin, around its eyes and some stripes on the face and around the ears.
- When everyone has finished with the white, I take the white away and bring out the orange finger paint. I tell kids to put a long stripe from between the eyes right down to the nose, then to add orange around the cheeks and forehead.

2003-11-06T13:24:00.000+01:00

Snap! Snap! (by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins, Picture Lions, ISBN 0-00-662573-8)

This book is about an assertive little girl and some monsters. The pictures are clear, the story gripping, and there's not much text. There is playground vocabulary, a girl, teddy bear, monsters. Monster themes are great for teaching parts of the body. Kids under 4 may find it scary. I used this book as a first lesson with several groups.

Here are some of the activities I did with this book

Make a monster picture:
1. I prepare cardboard templates for a monster head and body, a teddy bear template, and a dress template.
2. The kids draw round templates and cut out shapes in coloured paper which they stick on to their background page.
3. They use colouring pens to add arms and legs, teeth and eyes to the monster, a head, hands and feet for the little girl and eyes, nose and mouth to the teddy.
(This provides a natural opportunity for lots of repetition of the body vocabulary)
The Hokey Kokey action song with some slight modifications (shown in capitals below):

You put your left foot in, your left foot out,
in, out, in, out, you shake it all about,
you do the SCARY MONSTERS and you turn around,
that's what it's all about.

BIG GREEN HAIRY MONSTERS,
BIG GREEN HAIRY MONSTERS,
BIG GREEN HAIRY MONSTERS,
JUMP UP, TURN AROUND, GO TO SLEEP
Miming playground activities: Make a flashcard each for see-saw, slide and swing. Position them around the room. I shout "see-saw" and the kids run to the see-saw area, sit on the floor in pairs and mime see-sawing while we recite "see-saw, monsters galore, see-saw, fall on the floor" (a shortened line from the book) at which point we all roll on to the floor to a lot of giggles. We do something similar for slide and swing with lots of action, sound effects and giggles.