Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

gun powder treason and plot...

I see no reason why gun powder and treason should ever be forgot.

The children have been doing firework things all week... The eldest has learnt a bit about Guy Fawkes and loves the rhyme above. The middle one has been writing firework sounds e.g. "bang" "pop" "sizzle" and was very proud of his work (and his wishes and stars feedback - "my writing was brilliant but she wish-did that I did my 'g' the right way round") and at Stay and Play they were painting fire with orange and yellow paint and making sparkly glittery pictures.




So today is firework night and this morning we went to school to hear the foundation stage children singing their firework song...

10 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
9 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
8 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
7 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
6 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
5 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
4 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
3 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
2 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...
1 sparkling fireworks ever so bright, one went bang in the dark dark night...

And of course they were told about the firework code...

• Keep fireworks in a closed box

• Follow the instructions on each firework
• Light all fireworks at arms length
• Stand well back
• Never go back to a lit firework
• Never put fireworks in your pocket
• Never throw fireworks
• Keep Pets indoors

We are off to fireworks tomorrow night - wonder if they'll like the bangs this year???

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!

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!

New Products: Counting Song Mitts

Just a quick blog post to let everyone know the popular counting song mitts - 5 little ducks, 5 little speckled frogs and five little monkeys are all now back in stock at Littlesheep Learning AND we are now stocking the teaching song mitts for the favourite rhymes 5 little men in a flying saucer, 5 currant buns in a bakers shop and ten green bottles standing on the wall.

These puppets are great to assist children learning about numbers, counting, songs and rhymes - helping them to develop communication, imagination and fine motor skills and by providing a visual aid which makes songs and stories more enjoyable. They are fantastic as a material for acting out stories / the demonstration of different situations and role play scenarios and for including in story sacks.

Fine Motor Skills - Finger Rhymes

I was reading Melitsa’s blog post about finger rhymes and it reminded me how finger rhymes and action songs can help children develop their fine motor skills. Copying finger movements will strengthen muscles, increase dexterity and help children develop control of fine motor movements.

From as young as six months babies will love action rhymes like Round and Round the Garden, Pat-a-Cake, or This Little Piggy Went to Market. These songs and rhymes are great for encouraging interaction and whilst they are starting to hear these songs and see the actions they will start to join in.

One of the easiest motor actions in songs and rhymes is clapping and one of the most popular songs is "If Youre Happy and You Know it" which also incorporates the gross motor actions of stamping feet and nodding your head. Other songs which involve clapping are Clapping song, We All Clap Hands Together and Open, Shut them. Other favourites action songs and rhyme, Insey Winsey Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,

Songs that can include a multitude of actions eg Copy me are great for introducing new motor movements as the repetitive nature of the song makes it easy for children to learn and then they can use imitation skills to practice new motor skills.

Other favourite ones with small children are Two Little Dicky Birds, One Finger One Thumb, Tommy Thumb, and Two Fat Gentlemen, and as Melitsa says bigger children might like the finger play Here is the Church.

What are your favourites?

New Product: 5 Little Monkeys

This Five Little Monkeys lovely song mitt is the latest puppet to join our collection of teaching mitts at Littlesheep Learning.

Designed to fit an adult’s hand, teaching mitts are perfect for using with young children and will provide hours of fun. This one features the popular counting song '5 little monkeys' and will help children join in the rhyme and learn counting skills.

The puppet comes with a card showing the words of the rhyme Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed but it could also be used for Five Cheeky Monkeys sitting in a tree - you can find the words to that rhyme here.

Operation Play Time - Nursery Rhymes

It's day two of Operation Playtime - and todays challenge is Record a nursery rhyme or song.

We love songs and rhymes and have a special game that we play to choose which ones to sing so I thought I would share it with you!

We have a bag - a song sack (a drawstring bag - like the type children use to store PE kit in at school) and in it we put a collection of objects that relate to nursery rhymes. We take them out one by one and the children have to 'guess the rhyme' and then we sing.

Examples include:

Toy boat - Row, row, row the boat
Toy teapot - I'm a little teapot
Bath duck - Five little ducks
Pretend spider - Incy Wincy Spider
Toy bus - The Wheels on the Bus
'10 in the Bed' song Mitts - 10 in the bed
Star - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Doctor puppet - Miss Polly had a Dolly
Clock - Hickory Dickory Dock
Toy sheep - Baa Baa Black Sheep
Teddy - Round and round the Garden Like a Teddy Bear

I'm sure you get the idea!

3 - Stories, Songs and Rhymes

Welcome back to our number rhyme series - so far we've had 1 - Hickory Dickory Dock and 2 - Two Little Dicky Birds.

Three is a bit more tricky as most of the counting songs are to five or ten, however three is a popular number in fairy tales with Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Billy Goats Gruff to name but a few stories that include three. So here are some ideas linked to those popular tales.

As with one and two, practice counting - 1,2,3! Again play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to help children learn to recognise the number and practice drawing / painting or chalking the number three. The number three also is great to start sequencing numbers, and investigating other properties / adjectives; for example big, medium and small.

The Three Little Pigs

Activity Ideas

• share the story of the Three Little Pigs
• building with a variety of materials
• make a three houses collage, sticking on straw, sticks and printing bricks
• make pig masks using paper plates
• play with Three Little Pigs puppets and act out the story
• huff and puff like the big bad wolf and practice blowing games - blow football, blow painting or just blow whistles!

Songs and Rhymes

• Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (Frank Churchill and Ann Ronell)
  

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Activity Ideas

• share the story of Golidilocks and the Three Bears
• make porridge
• investigate sizes - small, medium / middle sized and big - sort them and match them
• playing with Goldilocks and the Three Bears puppets to act out the story

Songs and Rhymes

• When Goldilocks Went to The House of the Bears (listen here)

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Activity Ideas

• share the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff
• go for a walk and find a bridge to 'trip trap' over
• investigate sizes - small, medium / middle sized and big - sort them and match them
• play with Three Billy Goats Gruff and act out the story

2 - Two Little Dicky Birds

For the second of our number rhyme posts we are featuring the rhyme 'Two Little Dicky Birds'. This is a very short and simple rhyme - if you don't already know it, here are the words;

Two little dicky birds sat on a wall,
One named Peter, One named Paul,
Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul,
Come back Peter, Come back Paul.

Some activity and learning ideas based on this rhyme - looking at the number two, birds, walls, and the entire rhyme are featured here:

The Number 2
Now we've got past one we can start counting - 1,2! Again play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to learn to recognise the number and practice drawing / painting or chalking the number two.

It is also a good place to start to look at teaching children quantities in relation to the number - so look for things that come in pairs; for example, socks, shoes and gloves or just collect groups of two objects - two teddies, two cups, two toy cups etc,

The Birds
There are many activities involving birds.

Firstly spend time looking in your garden or a local park - see how many birds you can see, older children might enjoy identifying magpies, pigeons, sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, bluetits etc. You could also look at what birds eat and start having a bird table in your garden so you can feed the birds.

Draw or colour pictures of the birds you see - there is a FREE bird colouring page available at Littlesheep Learning (drawn as a robin but could easily coloured as a sparrow, bluetit, blackbird or whatever takes your fancy!).

The Wall
Build walls using different types of bricks - Lego, wooden blocks, cardboard boxes or anything else you can think of! Look at the overlapping pattern needed to stop your wall falling down.

Look at house bricks and make rubbings using paper and wax crayons.

Use a wooden block, a Lego brick or a sponge to paint a wall - dip your item into the paint and then print the bricks onto your paper - don't forget to make the bricks overlap!

The Rhyme
The rhyme is a very simple finger play - teach your children the following actions;

Two little dicky birds sat on a wall [use the index fingers on each hand to bend and flex like bobbing birds]
One named Peter [wiggle left hand finger], One named Paul [wiggle right hand finger],
Fly away Peter [put left hand behind back], Fly away Paul [put right hand behind back],
Come back Peter [bring back left hand / finger], Come back Paul [bring back left hand / finger].

Also, enact the rhyme by covering a small box with the brick rubbings / printing and stick two bird pictures on cardboard tubes and move them on and off the wall (you could use finger puppet birds if you have them).

Or just make a Two Little Dicky Birds collage by making a wall of your printed bricks / brick rubbings and sticking two bird pictures on the top.

Number 1 - Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock is a popular nursery rhyme that contains the number one so it seems a good place to start for this series of number posts.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the rhyme it goes like this:

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one (DONG!)
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock (tick tock tick tock)

There are lots of activities that you can do using this rhyme as a theme. You can focus on the number one, the mouse or the clock. Here are some ideas for you:

The Number 1
Obviously as this is the first number we don't need to practice counting up to 1 but it's a good place to mention that counting and number recognition starts here! Play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to learn to recognise the number. Draw / paint / chalk the number one - as a straight line down it's also one of the easiest numbers to learn to write.

The Mouse
Make a finger mouse puppet - make a cone from a piece of card and add ears, eyes, a tail and whiskers. Talk about mice generally - what noise do they make, where do they live, what do they like to eat etc.

The Clock
Make a pretend clock - use a paper plate or a circle of card to make the clock face, write on the numbers, make some hands to turn using some card (don’t forget the minute hand is longer than the hour hand) and attach them with a paper fastener. Look out for clocks - how many different ones can you spot?

Check out the range of telling the time items available at Littlesheep Learning if your child is older and interested in learning more about the the time.

The Rhyme
Attach your pretend clock to a box and make a grandfather clock and use your mouse finger puppet to act out the rhyme.

Down on the Farm

Another post in our series based on the activities at the Stay and Play group we go to. This post is based on helping children learn about farm animals.

Activity Ideas

• Visit a farm
• Play listening games e.g. Cock-a-doodle Moo!
• Make a farm collage - cotton wool makes great sheep, stick on feathers for ducks, use real grass, leaves and twigs to creat the fields and foil to create a pond
• Play with farm animals or finger puppets

Books

• The Usborne Farmyard Tales collection by Heather Amery
• 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm by Gillian Doherty
• Muddle Farm by Axel Scheffler
• Noisy Farm by Rod Campbell
• Farm Animals (Usborne Beginner Series) by Katie Daynes

Songs and Rhymes
In addition to the many songs and rhymes about individual farm animals for example; Baa Baa Black Sheep, Five Little Ducks and This Little Piggy went to Market, there are lots of songs farm animals collectively.

Old MacDonald had a Farm
Old MacDonald had a Farm
E-i-e-i-o
And on that farm he had a [pick a farm animal]
E-i-e-i-o
With a [animal noise][animal noise] here and a [animal noise][animal noise] there
Here a [animal noise], there a [animal noise], everywhere a [animal noise][animal noise]
Old MacDonald had a Farm
E-i-e-i-o

I went to visit a Farm one Day
I went to visit a farm one day I saw a [farm animal] across the way
And what do you think I heard it say?
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
That's the way it goes
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
Everybody knows.

Repeat these songs as many times as you want using, cows, sheep, ducks, horses, pigs and any other farm animal you can think of.

Walking through the Jungle

Children love jungle animals and there are lots of different ways you can encorporate jungle animals into children's play and learning. Children's stories are often technically incorrect when talking about jungle animals as they generally include animals of from the african plains /savannah.




Activity ideas:

• Visit a zoo and look at the animals
• Create a collage of all your favourite animals
• Play with zoo animal finger puppets or toy animals
• Look at the patterns on different animals skin - which ones are spotty / stripey
• Talk about the noises the different animals make

Books:
Some of our favourite books related to jungle animals are:

• Walking through the Jungle by Julie Lacome
• Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
• Down in the Jungle by Elisa Squillace
• Peekaboo Jungle! by Emily Bolam

Songs and Rhymes:
There are many different songs that include jungle animals for example:

Five Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Four little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Three little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Two little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

One little monkey swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!
No little monkeys swinging in a tree

The Elephant

The elephant goes like this and that
He’s terribly big and terribly fat
He’s got no fingers and he’s got no toes
But goodness gracious what a big nose

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.