Christmas Competitions and Offers

Today at Littlesheep Learning we are launching our Christmas Colouring Competition and Christmas Offers. More savings and weekly / daily specials will be added throughout December so keep checking back.

To enter our Christmas Colouring Competition - simply print the Christmas tree outline, colour and decorate your tree and post it to us before 17th December 2007 to be in with a chance of winning a copy of the Big Book of Things to Make and Do. Good luck and get decorating! The competition is open to all children under the age of 12.

Also a special Christmas present enter the code Christmas at checkout and you can save 10% but hurry this offer ends on our last Christmas posting date of 20th December.

Five Little Ducks

Everyone knows the rhyme 5 Little Ducks went swimming one day and this is an excellent rhyme to use to start teaching children about counting and about ducks. Here are some ideas!

Activity ideas:
Different activities will be suitable for children of different ages so you may be able to revisit this list over a number of years!

• Go and feed the ducks
• Play with bath ducks in water
• Share rhymes about ducks (see suggestions below)
• Share books about ducks (see suggestions below)
• Play with the 5 Little Ducks Teaching Song Mitt
• Draw and colour pictures of ducks
• Talk about the noise ducks make - you could play listening games and listen for the duck
• Talk about where ducks live
• Talk about the lifecycle of ducks from eggs, to ducklings to grown up ducks

Songs and Rhymes
The most popular duck rhyme has to be 5 Little Ducks went swimming one day (start with 3 for younger children!), this is a rhyme that varies everywhere it is sung but here is our version!

Five little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the pond and far away,
Mummy Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack",
But only four little ducks came back.

Repeat with four little ducks, then three, then two, then one until 'no little ducks came swimming back'. Then we sing:

Daddy duck went swimming one day ,
Over the pond and far away,
Mummy Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack",
And all the ducks came swimming back.

Another rhyme is:

Five little ducks that I once knew,
Three were fat and skinny were two,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Down to the river they would go,
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, to and fro,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Back from the river they would come,
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, ho, hum, hum,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Lastly,

Isn't it a bit of luck
That I was born a baby duck
With yellow socks and yellow shoes
I can go wherever I choose?
Quack, quack, quack quack

Books

There are many books based on the 5 Little Ducks song, my favourite is

• Five Little Ducks by Penny Ives

Other 'duck' books include:

• One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman
• Nine Ducks Nine by Sarah Hayes
• Duck (Read & Learn: Life Cycles) by Richard Spilsbury
• From Egg to Duck (How Things Grow) by Sally Morgan
• I am a Duck by Linda Bygrave

New Series of Posts

I've been tidying up and I've come across the piles of handouts from the Stay and Play sessions we go to, so I thought I'd write a series of posts based on these. This term the theme has been animals and each week there is a song, a story and activities based on the theme. I'll try and post every few days for the next week or so and then continue to post them each week. Look out for suggestions surrounding ducks, frogs, farm animals, jungle animals and more! These play ideas are great for incidental learning and increasing a child's general knowledge.

Road Safety Week

This week (5th-11th November 2007) is Road Safety Week. The theme of Road Safety Week 2007 is child pedestrian and cyclist safety. Brake will be urging drivers to slow down around schools and homes and calling for measures to help protect children on foot and bikes.

Some things to remember to keep children safe when out walking...

• Hold your child's hand / keep them close by you - young children are often unpredictable and could easily run into the road
• Always talk to your child about finding a safe place to cross and use pedestrian crossings when they are available
• Make sure you STOP, LOOK and LISTEN before crossing the road - wait until there are no cars coming
• If going out after dark - wear light or reflective clothing

For more resources - check out the resources for parents here and the resources for 3-10 year olds here. Resources for other groups are also available.

Competition Winner

The winner of our 'Write a Review' Competition is Jane from Stoke on Trent. Jane wins a The Complete book of First Experiences - this padded hardback book is a lovely collection of nine titles from Usborne's First Experiences series.

Jane wrote a review of the Today's Chart a colourful chart showing the day, date, month, year, season and weather. In the review Jane praised the chart for being a "great way to incorporate lots of different skills in a fun and easy way".

To celebrate this review winning the competition Today's Chart will be November's Monthly Special.