If you are happy and you know it...

New Product: Nursery Rhyme Puppets

We have just taken delivery of this fabulous nursery rhyme finger puppet set at Littlesheep Learning and all three of our children think it looks great - the youngest eagerly pointed out the animals and immediately said "Tinkle Tinkle idle tar", the middle one was pleased he knew all the word and the eldest can manipulate the puppets. We are inclined to agree that it is a great addition to our collection of puppets to support first songs and rhymes.

This six puppet contains finger puppets representing the main characters from each of these popular nursery rhymes: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, 1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive, Hickory Dickory Dock and Incy Wincy Spider and comes with a detailed song card to help you if you do not know the words!

Today's Target: Mark Making to Writing

Children learn to write by starting "mark making" these simple marks then develop into something more recognisable as writing, from a very young age they will imitate adults, grasping writing tools and making marks on paper or any other available surface! It is important during this development that they are encouraged, as young writers as it is from this that handwriting grows.

Mark-making can be done with a pencil and paper but the wider the range of textures and media that are used the more fun it is and the more children will practice it.

Some suggestions:

• Paint using an easel and brushes
• Chalk on boards
• Draw in sand (wet or dry) with either a stick or a finger
• Paint the playground / wall with water and large brushes
• Draw shapes in the air with a wand
• Finger paint
• Dance with a ribbon in your writing hand
• Draw in cornflour "gloop"
• Draw in salt
• Write with pens on a whiteboard
• Use chunky triangular crayons
• Use felt tip pens or colouring pencils
• Draw in mud with sticks

Learning to hold a pencil and make marks that ultimately lead to writing is a complex development. Young children’s scribblings and drawings are their way of communicating and showing observation of their world and as parents and teachers we should encourage, praise and celebrate their achievements.

Examples of development - writing a weather report by my nearly four year old and my nearly six year old boys.

The scribbled circle is the sun, the sideways wavy line is the "s" (followed by another attempt - that looks like a c), then a recogniseable (but formed incorrectly) "u" and a "n".

There is a whole sentence that is recognisable (one reversed letter and the x to cross out a s which was placed without a finger space) plus a recogniseable picture!

The Best Books?

A list of 70 children's books said to be the best of all-time has been compiled by publisher Puffin to celebrate Puffin's 70th birthday. The Puffin Handbook is available in bookshops and libraries or can be downloaded here.

The guide is packed full of everything you could ever want to know about children's books and reading, including expert advice, exclusive articles, brilliant books for children of all ages and MUCH more.

The classic counting book The Very Hungry Caterpillar tops the list of best bedtime books, with other favourites featured including Meg and Mog, Spot, Charlie and Lola and The Gruffalo.

Do you agree with Puffin? What books would feature in your top 70?

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

A little while back I answered a tweet on Twitter from @babysigningmum who was looking for some puppets - specifically Goldilocks and the Three Bears and I showed her these ones and promised to order them in as a special for her.

They arrived this week in a lovely big fabric drawstring bag (ideal for a story sack) and I have to say they are FABULOUS and look even better in real life. I am going to be ordering some more - so watch the website's new products page or contact me directly if you want a set!

Happy Birthday Littlesheep Learning

Today is FIVE years since Littlesheep Learning opened it's virtual doors and started trading. We would like to thank all of our customers over the last five years and everyone who has offered us help and advice on the journey from the days when we had a few product lines and an order a week to the product range and number orders we receive today. I can't beleive how fast the last five years have gone but here's to the next five and beyond!

To celebrate if you visit Littlesheep Learning during May and use the discount code "birthday" you will save 10% - please tell your friends!

Look out for some other special give aways and offers over the course of the month.

Growing Sunflowers

Spring has sprung this week and today at "Stay and Play" we planted a sunflower seed so I thought I would write a post about the learning opportunities that this provides

This can cover lots of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning - here are the immediate ones to spring to mind:

Knowledge and Understanding of the World - what does the seed / plant need to grow
Communication, Language and Literacy - writing your name on the pot (mark making)
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy - how tall is your sunflower? how long is it taking to grow?
Physical development - the fine motor skills of filling the flowerpot with compost and then pushing the seed in
Creative development - decorating your pot / drawing the plant at different stages of development

I am sure there are millions more!

Seven things you didn't know about me...

I have been sent this Kreative Blogger award and tagged by Toniann at Knot Just Jigs (who got it from Helen at Business Plus Baby) so I thought I had better quickly do a post on seven things you didn’t know about me before I forget. As I said to her it will help me meet my target - Thanks!

1. When I started Littlesheep Learning I had one child - and now I have three!
2. I have a to do list six miles long (but show me a parent who doesn't!)
3. I am a regional volunteer for the NCT
4. I am gluten and dairy intolerant
5. I am planning a revamp of Littlesheep Learning (it is five this year)
6. I do lots of walking
7. I foolishly volunteered to dye my hair green if my husband reaches £800 on his fundraising target by the Marathon - feel free to sponsor him

Now I need to find seven people to tag to pass on this award and to take up the simple challenge (which could be tricky as I guess most of the blogs I read have already been tagged)

1. Copy the award to your blog
2. Insert a link to the person who nominated me
3. Tell you seven things about myself that I haven’t told you before
4. Nominate seven other bloggers for the award
5. Link to their blogs
6. Tell the nominees about their award

So tagging...

1. Ann @ Education Takeaway
2. Melitsa @ Play Activities
3. Brenda @ The Green Familia
4. Tracey and Lisa @ Talking Tots
5. Judith @ Kiddymania
6. Vicky @ Enchanted Portraits
7. YOU! If you are reading this and have a blog - please accept the tag and let me know about your blog!
   

Earth Day

Earth Day is an international day that is celebrated on 22nd April each year, and has been since 1970. The celebration of Earth Day began in the United States in 1970 and was the idea of Senator Gaylord Nelson, who wanted to "put the environment into the political 'limelight' once and for all".

What can you do to celebrate Earth Day?

Here are some links from some of my favourite blogs:

No Time For Flashcards has lots of brilliant ideas: Nature Activities, Earth Day Muffins, Earth Day Craft, Letter of the Week - Earth Day

Simple Kids have some nature challenges: Discussing Nature Challenge #1: Naming Nature, and Connecting with Nature: Challenge #2 (and others besides!)

Easy Preschool give some lesson plans

Other things: look at how electicity is made, sort out rubbish for recycling, make a bird box, think about how much electricity do you use? (could you use less?), make a wormery, plant a tree, do a litter pick or walk to school.

Let me know what you've been doing - and feel free to add links to other Earth Day Activities in the comments!

Spring

Setting Targets

First of all I must apologise for the lack of posts on this blog - I will get writing again! As most of the country's children return to school for a new term and will be being set targets, I thought a post about setting targets and setting myself some would be a good start for posting again.

So, what is a target and why are they set? The Compact Oxford Dictionary defines a target as "an objective or result towards which efforts are directed" and the The Standards Site (for the Department of Children, Schools and Families) says that "Setting targets for pupil achievement puts standards at the centre of school planning, and helps staff focus on practical ways of raising them".

To be effective, targets need to be SMART targets. This means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Realistic, and set against an appropriate Timescale

Children are likely to have targets relating to the stage they are at: some might be "learning the sounds the letters make", "learning the times tables", "writing the letters the correct way round", "counting to 5", "recognising the numbers to 10", "reading the key sight words", "remembering finger spaces" - the list is endless. If your child is struggling with a particular target - check out some of the resources at Littlesheep Learning that might help!

Adults set themselves targets too - my husband is currently trying to reach his fundraising target and then next Sunday will be trying to complete the London Marathon in his target time, I have friends going back to college / university to work towards qualifications to help them in their careers and to be honest my to do list each day is a target!

So back to this blog and my (Specific) targets:

By the end of April (Timescale) I will have written five blog posts (Measurable) - (Achievable (hopefully!) and Realistic (one every other day should be manageable).

By the end of May I will have developed a routine for posts in themes eg new products, teaching and learning ideas, product reviews or news.

By the end of June I will be posting five posts a week.

I am intending a series of posts relating to different areas of children's learning and the targets they might be being set - so watch this space!

What are your targets?

Hot Cross Buns, Currant Buns and other cakes!

Today is Good Friday or "Hot Cross Bun day" as my five year old has declared it (they are one of his favourite foods so I think he is planning on them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!).

Whilst thinking about hot cross buns (the spicy fruit buns that have a white cross on the top traditionally eaten on Good Friday) the little rhyme popped into my head - don't forget to share it with your children today.

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

So thinking about rhymes and cakes then reminded me of the five currant bun song and song mitt puppet that is a favourite in our house... This is also a great song for teaching counting skills.

Five currant buns in a baker’s shop.
Round and fat with a cherry on the top,
Along came a boy with a penny one day,
Bought a currant bun and took it away.

Four currant buns in a baker’s shop.
Round and fat with a cherry on the top,
Along came a boy with a penny one day,
Bought a currant bun and took it away.

Three currant buns in a baker’s shop.
Round and fat with a cherry on the top,
Along came a boy with a penny one day,
Bought a currant bun and took it away.

Two currant buns in a baker’s shop.
Round and fat with a cherry on the top,
Along came a boy with a penny one day,
Bought a currant bun and took it away.

One currant bun in a baker’s shop.
Round and fat with a cherry on the top,
Along came a boy with a penny one day,
Bought the currant bun and took it away.

If you wanted to keep the song Hot Cross Bun themed you could change the words to Round and Fat with a cross put on the top.

Other songs including cakes are: The Queen of Hearts, Pat-a-Cake and Little Jack Horner... let me know if you need the words - and please share any other cake songs you know!

Spring A-Z Quiz – Win £10 M&S Voucher

Hello Everyone... here is a little game to keep your children entertained in the Easter holidays! The rules are simple – fill in as many of the gaps in each category as you can with an item starting with that letter.

If you want to make a £2 donation to my husband's marathon fundraising target for the NCT (you can donate using the JustGiving pages (include Gift Aid if you want) please indicate in the comments your donation is for quiz entry http://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Lambe).

Return your lists to me (by email is fine to elaine @ littlesheep-learning.co.uk ) by the 25 April 2010 (the day of the London Marathon).

You will score 1 point for every answer that is correct (judges decision final!) and 2 points if it is unique answer; the winner is the one with the most points.

Name and contact details _____________________________________________________

Name Vehicle Clothes Food Spring
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Have fun

Happy St Patrick's Day

Down's Syndrome Awareness Week 2010

This week (15th-21st March) is Down's Syndrome Awareness Week - I have blogged about it in previous years, but thought this week was worth mentioning again to raise awareness especially as 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the Down's Syndrome Association which provides help and support for people Down's Syndrome and their families. They have lots of information available here.

Also Antonia Chitty has got a new book on Down’s Syndrome coming out in June and the publishers are making a special pre-publication offer to tie in with Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week. Instead of £8.99 the book is available for £5 from 15th to 21st March. Buy it here if you want to be one of the first to use this practical guide. Please note: post and packing is included, so £5 is all you pay, but you will only get the book on publication – at the start of June.

World Book Day... or World Disney Day?

In previous years I have blogged about World Book Day and have suggested some really simple costume ideas.

There are hundreds of children in books - Charlie or Lola, Harry (with his bucket of dinosaurs), Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, the Famous Five or Secret Seven, the Baudelaire children (from A Series of Unfortunate Events), Pippa Longstocking, Milly Molly Mandy, Poppy or Sam (Usborne Farmyard Tales) - I am sure you can think of even more...

So today is World Book Day - is your child dressing up?

I read parenting forums / see comments on facebook and think that the whole spirit of dressing up as a book character has been lost in the commercialism of character dressing up clothes.

I hear reports of schools full of little girls in Disney princess dresses (yes I know some of them existed in books before Disney got their hands on it but they didn't wear identikit Disney designed outfits) or going as Hannah Montana and boys going in their favourite football strip, Spiderman, Powerrangers and so on and wonder whether it is all a waste of time.

I suppose I can sit here a bit smug as we haven't had to dress up today so I haven't had any stress... what was your playground like this morning?

How to hold a pencil?

We have been trying to encourage our five year old to hold his pencil properly with the correct triangular grip but he prefers to hold it with his middle finger and thumb rather than his index finger.

So what have we tried?

In the Reception class they were told to use "tweeting" fingers to hold their pencil - so "tweet" like a bird with the index and thumb and then pick up the pencil - the novelty wore off! He recently came home with a paper aeroplane and worked out that it was the same fingers he needed to hold the pencil with so that might be another good exercise for children needing to encourage their index finger and thumb to work together.

We have tried triangular pencils but because his grip is only slightly off this doesn't help, ditto the triangular grip. The grippy pencil grip looked promising to start with - it did make him hold the pencil correctly but he found it awkward to position by himself each time he needed to pick up the pencil. Lastly, we tried the tri-go grip this has three clear spaces for the fingers and he could position is fingers independently and most importantly it did improve his grip.

What works best now? Telling him if I see him holding his pen incorrectly I will tell Miss B he needs to have more handwriting practice!

How have you encouraged your children to correct their grip?

New Products: People Who Help Us Glove Puppets

We are pleased to announce that Littlesheep Learning now stock even more of the popular flat people who help us glove puppets adding the postman, keeper and farmer to the range, plus the bargain people who help us complete set of nine puppets.

These simple flat glove puppets are a fantastic resource for both role play and teaching about occupations / jobs people do and are great for inclusion in story sacks. Size 28cm tall.

Other Spelling Help

From comments posted onto the Facebook link to yesterday's post about texting helping spelling it appears people are still sceptical!

If you would like a more traditional way of helping your child learn take a look at these Orchard Toys Spelling Puzzles now in stock at Littlesheep Learning. These lovely jigsaws have between three and five pieces and contain a lovely illustration with the word written underneath with each piece having one letter and a part of the picture. Children will enjoy completing the puzzle whilst learning to spell the word.

Older children might like the spelling game Pass the Word where they need to race against the timer to put together a word, trying to be quick as when the time runs out the letters have to be passed on to the next player.

Does Txt Speak Help Spelling?

Well according to a new report it does! These latest findings of an ongoing study at the University of Coventry contradict any expectation that prolonged exposure to texting will erode a child's ability to spell and instead suggests that pupils who regularly use text language - with all its mutations of phonetic spelling and abbreviations - also appear to be developing skills in the more formal use of English.

Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), plz (please), l8ter (later) and xxx (kisses), are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study funded by the British Academy has found. The research, carried out on a sample of 8-12 year olds over an academic year, revealed that levels of “textism” use could even be used to predict reading ability and phonological awareness in each pupil by the end of the year. Also, the proportion of textisms used was observed to increase with age, from just 21% of Year 4 pupils to 47% in Year 6, revealing that more sophisticated literacy skills are needed for textism use. The study conclusions will come as a surprise to many who believe that textisms are vandalising the English language.

The theory behind the research, carried out by Dr Clare Wood, Reader in Developmental Psychology at Coventry University, relates to one of the early developing skills associated with (and believed to underpin) successful reading and spelling development. ‘Phonological awareness’ refers to a child’s ability to detect, isolate and manipulate patterns of sound in speech. For example, children who can tell which words rhyme, or what word is left if you remove a letter, have particularly high levels of phonological awareness.

The forms of text message abbreviation (or ‘textism’) that are used when sending messages include:

• Shortenings: cutting the end off a word, losing more than one letter, e.g. bro = brother.
• Contractions: cutting letters, usually vowels, out of the middle of a word, e.g. txt, plz, hmwrk.
• G Clippings: cutting off only the final g in a word, e.g. goin, comin, workin, swimmin.
• Other Clippings: cutting off other final letters, e.g. I’v, hav, wil, com.
• Symbols: using symbols, including emoticons, and x used symbolically, e.g. &, @, ;-), :-p, xxx.
• Initialisms: a word or group of words is represented by its initial letter, e.g. tb = text back, lol = laughing out loud, gf = girlfriend.
• Letter/Number Homophones: a letter or number is used to take the place of a phoneme, syllable, or word of the same sound, e.g. 4, 2, l8r, u, r, c.
• Non-conventional Spellings: a word is spelled according to legitimate English phoneme-grapheme conversion rules, but not the conventional one used to spell the word, e.g. nite, cum, fone, skool.
• Accent Stylisation: a word is spelled as it is pronounced in casual speech, e.g. gonna, wiv = with, av = have, wanna, elp = help, anuva = another.
• Missing Apostrophes: left out either in possessive or traditional contraction form, e.g. dads, Im, Ive, cant.

So what do you think does txting help or hinder spelling?