Incidental Learning

I forgot to post the other day to highlight an article I have had published at Treehugger Mums looking at Incidental Learning - But I didn't teach them that.

Incidental learning is unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities and is the way many children learn whilst they are playing. The article gives ideas as to how children learn through everyday activities, take a look and see what learning you can incorporate into your daily life.


Treehugger Mums - is a website written by mums for mums with pregnancy and parenting-related information, articles and the Treehugger Mums Shop where you can buy baby slings, real nappies, breastfeeding accessories and natural toiletries.

Developing Imagination / Story Skills

I was reading a post on a parenting forum yesterday about encouraging children's imaginative development and there were some great ideas so I thought I'd share some with you.

Make sure that you spend time reading and sharing a variety of different books, stories and rhymes because the more ideas your child comes into contact with the more ideas they have to build on when creating their own stories. Ask questions when sharing stories; for example, why do you think that happened? how did he feel? what do you think will happen next?

Try to think imaginatively yourself when showing you child stories, use story sacks to develop story ideas. Gather props relating to stories for example puppets and games and use these to enact the stories. Make props such as wooden spoon puppets, playdoh food and cardboard box houses to help you.

For children who really struggle with writing / drawing / thinking imaginatively the Nonsenses puzzle. These puzzles encourage reading and building sentences; each card has a character, place or an action and by mixing the beginning, middle and end pieces you can have hours of fun as you try to compete to come up with the silliest sentences possible!

Make stories up co-operatively; depending on your child's drawing / writing ability there are several ways you can do it. The most simple way is to do it orally, you start a story and then take it turn to say a sentence or part of a sentence and see how silly it can get and how much detail you can put into it. If your child likes drawing you can make a story board by drawing squares on paper (start with just a few squares and then build up to longer ones as your child gets more confident) and taking it in turns to draw the next picture in the story. If you child struggles with drawing you could ask them to tell you what to draw and draw if for them. Lastly you can create stories by writing ideas down, take a strip of paper each and write down a character, fold it over and swap and add a location, fold and swap again and add an activity, fold and swap etc building up ideas and then open them out to see what has happened.

Draw random shapes / lines on a piece of paper and see what your child can make them become, for example a square could become a house, a circle could be made into a pig and a triangle could become the sail of a boat or the top of a rocket a wavy line could become the sea or turned into a caterpillar. This a great game for children who need to practice their fine motor and drawing skills too.

As with all learning activities the key is to keep it fun.

Dyslexia in the News

I've just been reading this article which reports on some new government-funded research into children who did not achieve expected levels in SATS tests. The study by Hull University academics of 1,300 children said dyslexia was a major cause of failure with over half of those who did not achieve expected levels in SATS tests displayed all the signs of being dyslexic.

The research has led to calls for more specially-trained teachers in schools as well as better diagnosis. The study, commissioned by dyslexia charity


Campaigners say the research shows many such children are being let down by schools as they could overcome the reading disorder if they received a diagnosis and specialist teaching. They claim the reading disorder could affect as many as one in five children and that too often it is ignored in the classroom. The government is piloting a scheme using specially-trained dyslexia teachers, but says it will not roll it out nationally until it is sure the teachers make a difference.

So what should you do if you think your child may be dyslexic? The British Dyslexia Association has a number of factsheets that can help; Indications of Dyslexia and Getting Help for your Child.Xtraordinary People, claims to be the first to firmly identify dyslexia as a major cause of underachievement in primary schools. It looked at seven and 11-year-olds who failed to reach expected levels of reading and writing in national tests.

Fun Fine Motor Activities

I've just had my weekly email from Play Activities and it had two fun fine motor activities I thought I'd share with you.

Activity ~ 3-D squeezey chalk

Materials:

• 1/2 cup of cornflour
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup of water
• food colouring
• glitter
• bowl
• ziplock bag

Instructions:

• Mix the flour and cornflour together.
• Add water and 3-5 drops of food colouring
• Add the glitter.
• Mix until it looks like paste.
• Pour mixture into the Ziplock bag and seal.
• Cut a small hole in the corner of the Ziplock bag and squeeze the chalk out to make patterns / write words / draw pictures.

Activity ~ String picture

Materials:

• sheets of paper
• different coloured paints
• string 40cm or longer
• old newspaper

Instructions:

• Lay a sheet of paper onto a newspaper covered table top
• Dip the string into some paint until it's covered.
• Place the string in an interesting shape on top of the paper.
• Make sure small part of the string is off the sheet of paper.
• Carefully put on a second sheet on top of the string.
• Parent: hold the sheets paper together.
• Child: hold string and gently pull it out from between the paper.
• Remove the top sheet of paper and you will see a pattern.
• Try another colour and repeat.

Play-activities is a free and fun educational e-mail for parents of children under 5. It is run by Melitsa Avila who is a qualified teacher. Melitsa wanted to create a source of activities for parents and children to enjoy, which offered a balance of gross and fine motor activities, social & personal activities, and problem-solving and language activities all in one easily accessible place. If you sign up you can gain access to a wide range of activities to help your child develop a balanced play life, have fun, and enjoy a good mix of the early childhood skills identified by child health professionals. They also have a blog with lots of other ideas and links to other sources of ideas to keep your children busy!

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New Products - Shopping List Game Booster Packs

Following on from the success of the Shopping List game, we are now pleased to announce that we are stocking two Shopping List extension packs; Fruit and Veg and Clothing.

These lovely Booster Packs add value to the original Shopping List game. Increasing the range of items available by adding these packs allows you to fill your trolley with even more familiar, everyday items.

As with the original game, these packs are great for teaching children turn taking, matching and labelling skills. Packs contain an additional two trolleys and shopping lists with the matching cards.







Be first to fill your trolley with all the items on your shopping list - Happy Shopping!

Write a Review Competition

Don't forget to enter the 'Write a Review' Competition at Littlesheep Learning.

Simply choose a product, add your review and you could be in with a chance of winning a copy of The Usborne Book of Everyday Words - Each page in this first words book has a scene or category with labelled objects to discuss, an excellent resource to encourage the direct association of words with objects and reinforce known words.

You get one entry for each review you write - so get writing!

Here are some of the reviews we've received so far:

Dotty Dinosaurs

by Joanne Rivett

Date Added: Monday 18th February, 2008
An excellent game for little ones to learn there shapes and colours without even realising it, 2 different games in one so a great price!

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Going to the Hospital
by Stephanie Moore
Date Added: Thursday 14th February 2008
I have bought a few of these books because I do find they help my son before a new situation. He had to go into hospital for a little operation and this book helped him know what was going to happen and what to expect.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Cock-a-doodle moo!

by Stephanie Roberts
Date Added: Thursday 14 February, 2008
I have been playing this fantastic game with my 3.5yr old son. He loves it and will play it over and over again!! I bought it because I thought it would help him learn to listen a bit more and it worked!
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Miss Face Cube

by Anne Ritchie
Date Added: Tuesday 12 February, 2008
Excellent item - really big cube in gorgeous bright colours all kept clean in a poppered see through bag. Great for using with small groups as a game or individually as a discussion point around emotions. Fantastic!
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Jack and the Beanstalk Game

by Karen Frost
Date Added: Tuesday 12 February, 2008
My kids (age 2 and 4) love this game. Simple pictures and simple instructions, perfect for young children. It really has helped my younger one especially to differentiate between shapes.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Triangular Writing Grip
by Arianna Helm
Date Added: Tuesday 12 February, 2008
I purchased 2 of these items several months ago. As a bookkeeper I need to do a lot of writing and my fingers were starting to get very sore. The pencil grips made things a lot easier and I found that I was able to do more work at a time as my fingers were not getting sore. I will definitely be buying more.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Writing Difficulties

Many children with writing difficulties have dyslexia and / or dyspraxia (developmental coordination difficulties) − these conditions often occur together and affect all aspects of a child's life, both in school and outside. It is vital therefore, that schools and early years settings are able to identify difficulties in this important area and put in place appropriate interventions where necessary.

Some things to look out for are children who difficulties with:

• throwing and catching
• dance/music and movement
• manipulating small objects (building bricks, jigsaws)
• getting dressed/undressed
• using cutlery / scissors
• handwriting
• organising themselves and their work
• sequencing
• laterality (knowing left from right)
• following multiple instructions

Children with motor coordination difficulties may also have poor posture and limited body awareness, moving awkwardly and seeming clumsy; this can be especially noticeable after a growth spurt. They may also tire more easily than other children.
For children who find writing difficult the following things should be thought about:

• the sitting position: ideally both feet on the floor with the table and chair at an appropriate height
• the possibility of using a sloping writing surface
• anchoring the paper / book to the table to avoid slipping
• providing a 'cushion' to write on can be a help, for example, an old magazine, used paper stapled together
• the writing implement − try triangular pencils or different pencil grips, for example standard triangular pencil grips, Tri-go grips or Grippy grips
• avoid the use of a hard-tipped pencil or pen
• providing opportunities for practising handwriting patterns and letter formation in alternative mediums for example sand, cornflour gloop or playdough
• providing lines to keep writing straight
• limiting the amount of writing required − think of other ways information can be recorded including making use of computers

The formation of letters is a very specific area of skill development and providing opportunities for practising, without making it a chore is important. Precision teaching is a good example of distributed practice and may include exercises such as a one-minute daily exercise to see how many b and d words the child can successfully write. This type of exercise provides the child with instant feedback and always focuses on success. Progress can be easily monitored by keeping a daily count or by using a weekly probe sheet.
Practising holoalphabet sentences, for example 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' or 'the five boxing wizards jumped quickly' are useful, as these contain the 26 letters of the alphabet and make it easy to monitor progress on letter formations.

Other ways of encorporating writing are drawing / painting patterns (a wet paintbrush on dry concrete slabs) and encouraging incidental writing for example writing names in birthday cards, writing shopping lists, keeping a diary, writing out recipes. It is important that these activities are fun, and always praising the child for effort.

World Book Day

Today (Thursday 6th March) is World Book Day, all over the country children will be taking part in special book activities this week, including dressing up as their favourite book characters.

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago. There is more international information about World Book Day on the UNESCO website.

World Book Day 2008 in the UK and Ireland takes place on Thursday 6th March as the initiative is so well established in schools in the UK and Ireland it is important that it happens in term time to help children really make the most of this opportunity to celebrate books and reading. Most other countries hold World Book Day on 23rd April every year. This year World Book Day is a great part of the National Year of Reading.

World Book Day is a partnership of publishers, booksellers and interested parties who work together to promote books and reading for the personal enrichment and enjoyment of all. A main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. Thanks to the generosity of National Book Tokens Ltd and numerous participating booksellers, children are entitled to receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token (or equivalent €1.50 Book Token in Ireland). The Book Token can be exchanged for one of the nine specially published World Book Day £1 Books (where stocked and while stocks last), or is redeemable against any book or audiobook of their choice at a participating bookshop or book club (terms and conditions apply).

To celebrate World Book Day, this month you can save at least a third off the RRP of all the books stocked at Littlesheep Learning, check out our First Words Books, First Experiences Books, First Numbers Book, plus self help skill books including telling the time and tying laces

Encouraging Reading

As this year is the National Year for Reading and next week includes World Book Day, I thought I would write a post about how parents can encourage their children to read. Most parents (and grandparents) want their children to do well at school and want to support their learning so here are some ideas to help. The trick is to find ways of fitting this into busy schedules and to keep it fun. Even very young children can benefit from 'sharing books' − discussing pictures, looking at words, talking about the story and characters.

When trying to start reading activities with your children it is important:

• keep it short
• choose the time carefully − not while your child's favourite TV programme is on or when they are tired etc
• do it regularly − 10 minutes every day or three times a week is better than trying to fit in a 'long session' at the weekend
• make it enjoyable
• understand the task and the learning purpose
• use rewards.

Some ideas for reading activities:

• use the local library for free access to a variety of different books to stop you getting bored of the same ones (unfortunately young children do like repitition so be prepared to need to read the same book every day for weeks!).
• play reading games including; I spy, bingo, letter and word lotto, word jigsaw games for example, Nonsenses and Pass the Word
• put a word of the week on the fridge, you could use word flashcards or magnetic words / letters
• find time to listen to your child read and read to them.
• ensure that incidental reading is part of everyday activities; reading recipes, DIY instructions and travel brochures can all provide opportunities for reading in the home over and above books and comics
• read the same book as your older independent reading child and then then talk with them about the characters, the plot and their favourite parts.

Fine Motor Fishies

These new Fine Motor Fishies are a lovely addition to our range of fine motor activities.

These brightly coloured linking fish are great for developing fine motor skills (pre-threading skills) as well as teaching colour recognition, counting, sorting and sequencing / patterning. The set of comprises of 12 fish (3 of each colour; red, yellow, green and blue).











After linking these Fine Motor Fishies has been mastered, children can move onto Snap Beads before threading with the Floopy and the Chunky Threading Shapes and Beads which all enhance their fine motor skills.

Are you a fan of Littlesheep Learning?

If you like Littlesheep Learning and you are a member of the social networking site Facebook please become a fan! There will be lots of useful information on there including special offers and discount codes so it's well worth being part of!

National Year of Reading

Did you know that 2008 is the National Year of Reading?

The National Year of Reading (NYR) is a year-long celebration of reading, in all its forms. It aims to help build a greater national passion for reading in England – for children, families and adult learners alike.

The NYR is being managed by a group of organisations committed to promoting reading, led by the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency, and on behalf of the DCSF.

If you haven't planned any events for your toddler group / preschool / nursery / school then don't worry - January to March in the National Year of Reading is the challenge period for organisations to decide what their activities throughout the year will be. Then April to December sees the public phase of the campaign and the monthly themes - look out for more details after the launch. Some things are already planned - check out the What's On pages to see anything happening near you.

New Money Games

I've just taken delivery of the first of my new stock chosen at the Spring Fair - lots of exciting new Orchard Toys games including two new games to help children learn about money: Pop to the Shops and Piggy in the Middle.

Pop to the Shops is a favourite among many of my friends' children (look out for their reviews!). It is a fun shopping game which helps children learn about handling money and giving change. Each person goes from shop to shop using plastic money to buy lots of different items. This game is for 2-4 players, and is suitable for children aged 5-9 years.

Piggy in the Middle is an exciting game to help children learn about saving and spending money. As you travel round the board you earn and spend your pocket money as you race to fill your piggy bank! How much money can you save? For 2-4 players, suitable for children aged 5-10 years

Mumszone Auctions - like Ebay but better!

Mumszone now have a fantastic new online auction facility - just like Ebay but much better.


Sign up for just £15 a year and list as many items as you want! No other charges apply unless you want extra features. You can even set up your own shop!

There are lots of great items from work at home mums (WAHM) businesses plus personal sellers items. So brilliant bargains and a superb range of products to choose from.

Take a look at Littlesheep Learning's auction items here. Happy shopping.

Toddler Property Law

I found this whilst tidying up and it certainly rings true to me from my experience of toddlers!

1. If I like it, it's mine
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine
5. If it's mine, it must never, ever, appear in any way to be yours
6. If I'm doing or building with something, all the pieces are mine
7. If it looks like mine, it's mine
8. If I saw it first, it's mine
9. If you are playing with it and put it down, it's mine
10. If it's broken, it's yours

Join in the Chatterbox Challenge

February 2008 sees the UK’s biggest nursery rhyme sing-along when I CAN’s Chatterbox Challenge kicks off. Thousands of children from all over the country will once again be performing their favourite rhymes, raising money for children’s communication charity I CAN.

Budding Bo Peeps and Little Jack Horners will be learning the words, rhymes and actions to old favourites and some exciting new songs, helping to highlight the importance of children’s communication. Supported by Openreach, a BT Group business, I CAN’s Chatterbox Challenge has become a firm favourite in the calendar, with parents and teachers alike all recognising the importance of fostering speech and language skills through nursery rhyme repetition and sound patterns.

I CAN Chief Executive Virginia Beardshaw says: “The Chatterbox Challenge is a really fun, simple and inclusive way for children of all ages to sing along to their favourite nursery rhymes, invent actions and enjoy a fantastic fun filled day. Whether taking part at nursery, with a childminder or at home, all the activities included in the free pack have been specifically designed by teachers and I CAN speech and language therapists with speech, language and communication development in mind.”

“Communication is the foundation life skill, yet one in ten children in the UK has a speech, language and communication difficulty. I CAN’s Chatterbox Challenge sees all children taking part benefit from the fun and educational activity, whilst also raising money and awareness to help others who struggle to communicate.”

You Can Join In!
If you want to join in - head down to your local Early Learning Centre on the 12th February (tomorrow) to add your voice by singing a favourite nursery rhyme for I CAN.

Visit www.chatterboxchallenge.org.uk for further information

'Write a Review' Competition

Win a copy of The Usborne Book of Everyday Words - Each page in this first words book has a scene or category with labelled objects to discuss, an excellent resource to encourage the direct association of words with objects and reinforce known words.

To enter all you need to do is to write a review of one of the products sold at Littlesheep Learning. You will get one entry for the draw for each review that is accepted and the winner will be chosen at random on 31st March 2008.

To write a review of a product, log in (you may need to create an account if you don't already have one), choose the product to review, click on 'Reviews' and then on 'Write Review' and add your review!

Please note: We will accept reviews of products we stock even if you haven't bought them from Littlesheep Learning.

Competition Winner

We are pleased to announce the answer to the competition question: What colour is granny's shawl in the Little Red Riding Hood Puppets? is blue

And the winner of the Goldilocks and the three bears puppet set is Suzi from Walton on Thames.

Look out for new competitions coming soon on our Competition page.

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.

Last Chance...

to enter our competition and to get your bargains in our January sale today!

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

Sale Now On!

We are pleased to announce that the January Sale has now started at Littlesheep Learning, there are savings on all the Orchard Toys Games, lots of Usborne books and lots of other things. There are savings of up to 50% - Some are discontinued lines so won't be restocked, some have damaged packaging and others are just a fabulous deal! Take a look!

January Competition

Win a Goldilocks and the Three Bears Puppet Set. This lovely four puppet story set comes with a detailed story card to help you tell the story. Goldilocks is a walking finger puppet which means you can put your fingers down the back of her legs to make her walk and the three bears are traditional finger puppets. This lovely story set, comes in a see-through PVC handy storage bag and is great for children learning traditional tales or beginning role play activities.

To be in with a chance of winning this puppet set please email us the answer to the following question:
What colour is Granny's shawl in the Red Riding Hood Story Puppets Set?

Competition closes on 31st January 2008.

Competition Winner

We are pleased to announce that the winner of Littlesheep Learning's Christmas Competition is 6 year old Daniel from Saddleworth.

Here is his winning tree:

Happy Christmas for the Birds

I provided some Christmas / winter themed activities for Sally at Treehugger Mums as part of her Christmas countdown series which she is posting on her blog each day in the run up to Christmas.

One of them is bird feeders and as it's started getting frosty we're going to make some this afternoon (plus wrap a few up for grandparent presents!).

You will need:
Yoghurt pots and string
Good quality birdseed, raisins, peanuts, grated cheese
Suet or lard,

How to:
Carefully make a small hole in the bottom of a yoghurt pot (if you are making them as gifts decorate the pot first).
Thread string through the hole and tie a knot on the inside.
Leave enough string so that you can tie the pot to a tree or your bird table.
Cut up the lard into small pieces and put it in the mixing bowl.
Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix them together with your fingertips.
Keep adding the seed / raisin / cheese mixture and squashing it until the fat holds it all together.
Fill the yoghurt pots with bird cake mixture and put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so.
Hang your bird feeders from trees or your bird table and watch for birds.

Children can have fun identifying birds by matching what they look like to a picture book. Will a Christmas robin visit your garden?

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We've just been decorating our tree and I've realised that even something as simple as this can offer endless possibilities for learning and generalising knowledge.

First, there is the waiting - that is the bit where the adults are putting on the lights! Our pre-schooler found this very difficult as he was very excited to be involved in decorating the tree.

Then the decorations, these hold several different learning opportunities, you can label the items - tinsel, baubles, beads and the ornaments - snowmen, angels, Father Christmas, reindeer. You can practice colours and shapes (depending on your decorations!). You can practice prepositions / adjectives / opposites - on the tree 'v' off the tree, high 'v' low, top 'v' bottom, put it next to the star / above the snowman / below the bauble / under the tree.

Lastly there is the big lesson of not touching the finished tree! Our toddler is still learning this one so I keep being presented with the baubles with him saying 'ball'.

Paperchain Learning

We've been making paperchains and whilst threading, looping and sticking (and stapling!) I started to think of all the learning opportunities that this activity can create.

Firstly, if you aren't using a pack of precut strips (like we did) then there are lots of skills needed to prepare your paperchain strips and then the paper needs to be measured and lines drawn on using a ruler or folded to divide up the page, then the strips need to be cut practicing scissor skills.

Whilst making the paperchain, the repetitive threading is an excellent fine motor task. Incidental learning can also occur if you label the colours / pictures on your paper strips or make patterns with different colours to practice sequencing skills. Precut strips are often gummed so licking and sticking the ends is good for children who have oral-motor difficulties and need to practice sticking their tongue out. Fixing your chains with a dab of glue or sticky tape will help children co-ordination and using a small stapler is also great fine motor skill practice.

Have fun making your paperchains this Christmas.

Christmas Colouring Sheets

Did you know that at Littlesheep Learning we have a whole host of Christmas colouring sheets that are FREE to download? These simple picture outlines are great for young children who are just starting to colour in. There are currently five to choose from Christmas tree, Elf, Father Christmas, Robin and Snowman. There are also a range of activity sheets targetting matching skills, finding the 'odd one out' and wordsearches of varying difficulties. Look out for more worksheets being added soon.

Also don't forget that your children can enter our Christmas Colouring Competition by decorating a Christmas tree outline and sending it to us. Look out for the best trees being featured here later this month.

Christmas Cooking - Christmas biscuits

If your children are anything like mine getting into a mess in the kitchen is a great way to keep them busy. Cooking is a great tool for incidental learning; you are making use of maths skills with the measuring, using literacy skills - reading and following the instructions and the mixing, rolling, cutting and icing are great to help develop motor skills.

Today I've promised the children that we'll make Christmas biscuits this afternoon. If you want to join us making Christmas Biscuits, you will need:

Equipment:

• scales
• mixing bowl
• fork
• plate
• teaspoon
• biscuit cutters (you can get some lovely ones from PinkFairyCake)
• rolling pin
• baking tray
• oven gloves,
• wire tray

Ingredients

• 175g/6oz plain flour
• 50g/2oz caster sugar
• 100g/4oz butter
• 5ml/1tsp vanilla essence
• Icing / sprinkles to decorate

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170˚C/325˚F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Grease the baking sheet with butter or margarine.
3. Weigh the flour and sugar and put them into a bowl.
4. Weigh the butter and cut into small pieces.
5. Add the butter to the flour and sugar.
   Mix together with a fork and rub everything together with your fingers.
   Rub the mixture together until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
6. Measure the vanilla essence and add it to the mixture.
7. Gather all the mixture together and squeezing it gently to make a ball
8. Sprinkle flour on to a clean work surface and put your mixture on to it.
9. Knead it with your fingers until you have a smooth, firm ball.
10. Put some flour on the rolling pin and gently roll out the mixture until it is about half a centimetre thick.
11. Then cut out your shapes using your cutters (f you want to make tree decorations from your bicuits use a skewer to make a hole for your ribbon).
12. Gather up any spare bits of mixture and roll it out again to make more biscuits.
13. Carefully pick up the biscuits and put them on to greased baking sheets.
14. Put the baking trays into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until the biscuits are a light golden colour.
15. Leave the biscuits to cool for 5 minutes before lifting them on to the wire cooling tray. (If you are making decorations poke the skewer into the holes to make sure they don’t close up as the biscuits cool).
16. Use icing / sprinkles to decorate if you want to.
17. Eat! (or give away as presents)

Other Festivals - Hannukah

As Christians, we are busy looking at the Nativity story, in the Littlesheep Learning household, as well as following the secular Christmas traditions for example the magic of Father Christmas from our childhoods. It is important though that children learn about other cultures / religions and their festivals. One thing that seems to be a common theme throughout the winter festivals is the use of lights - we have an Advent candle being lit each evening as a preparation for the Christmas season. The children celebrated the Hindu / Sikh festival Divali at nursery at the end of October / beginning of November by making lamps and sunset tonight marks the start of the Jewish festival of of Hannukah.

Hannukah celebrates the miracle of the oil for the menorah (the 6-branched candelabrum) that should have only lasted for one night but lasted for eight days. For more information about Hannukah some activities for you to share with your children see this article at Treehugger Mums.

Letters to Father Christmas

Most children will be wanting to tell Father Christmas what they would like for Christmas and historically children will be writing letters to him and putting them up the chimney / posting them to the North Pole. The prospect of writing this important letter is a challenge for toddlers and children with fine motor difficulties so here are some ideas to make it easier for them and you.

1. Write the letter for your child and get them to decorate it by sprinkling glitter, sticking on Christmassy stickers and doodling borders, they could also add their own name.


2. Write the letter for your child to copy / trace


3. Let your child type their letter (I believe you can even email Santa these days!)


4. Get your child to 'cut and stick' their letter, help them select the things from Christmas catalogues and stick them to create a picture list.

Christmas

December is now here so over the next month I'll be posting some suggestions of art and craft activities and other learning opportunities with a wintery and Christmas theme. From writing letters to Father Christmas to making Christmas cards and wrapping paper there will be ideas for everyone. I'll also share some of our favourite books from our Christmas story box which made their appearance by magic on 1st December.

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.