The EYFS states that "Children learn best through physical and mental challenges. Active learning involves other people, objects, ideas and events that engage and involve children for sustained periods" and "All children learn best through activities and experiences that engage all the senses. Music, dance rhymes and songs support language development." Read this article to see just how easy it is to make one great book last for a week (and even longer depending on the children's interest levels, ideas they contribute and where they take their own learning) as a prompt for great activities both child-initiated and adult-led, indoors and outdoors whilst naturally achieving and covering so much of the Early Years Foundation Stage! Although the main focus surrounds Communication Language and Literacy, be aware of how may other areas these activities naturally touch on and cover. Children's learning is not compartmentalised but inextricably interconnected as they rightly make connections in order to make sense of their world. Likewise, although the ideas and activities below are stimulated and inspired through the sharing of one specific book, similar principles, ideas and activities can be applied with other books. The way to get the most from this article is to see it as a template that can be used to inspire and guide other learning through whatever texts the children know, love and choose in your setting. The Fish Who Could Wish by John Bush and Korky Paul is a comically poetical text that is coupled with beautifully boisterous illustrations to captivate and stimulate any child's imagination. Through delightful rhyming couplets, it tells the story of a fish that wishes for almost ordinary things, such as a castle and car, and some bizarre experiences, like skiing when 'it snowed for a week under the sea!' Children find it simply irresistible not to join in with you as you are reading and love to pretend that they are the fish who could wish at the end. In fact you could (and we did!) write a whole new book about what the children would wish for, if they were the fish who could wish. Day one Introduction Reading Look at the cover of the book together before reading it. Squeeze as much information from the picture as possible explaining that illustrations give us a clue as to what the story is about. Ask the children what they think the story will be about. Well phrased questions are the key to sustained shared thinking. Try not to ask closed ones with one word answers. Encourage the children to exercise that all important muscle ... the brain...even if it means enduring some uncomfortable silence as they process the information and formulate their ideas into answers. It takes time for them to comprehend what you have said, mull it over and then find the vocabulary to express their chosen response. Force yourself to count to at least twelve whilst children enjoy thinking and getting their answers for questions like these: How do you know it will be a funny story; Does the picture remind you of any other stories?; What is the main fish on the front cover doing?; What are the bubbles for?; Shall we see if the name/title of the book gives us more clues about the story?; Where does it tell us the name/ title of the book? Read the title and ask the same questions again to see if the children change their minds or add to their initial answers. Read the story to the children, encouraging them to join in. Take time to enjoy the illustrations, as they are more detailed than they look at a glance. The active vitality within the illustrations, compliment the energy and humour of the text but the children need time to absorb and interpret, as they are so busy. Remember that decoding information from a picture is a key process any emergent reader should enjoy going through. The more the children talk about what is happening in the picture, as they see it, the better! It can be an excellent and discreet assessment opportunity for you as well as being a safe and fun way to share for the child. A good way to facilitate this is by allowing (or encouraging through questions) the children to share their initial reactions to the text as you read e.g. stopping to dwell and discuss each page. Finally, grant the children three wishes each, to go home with and think about for tomorrow, when you share the story again and each other's wishes. You could give them a wish token or a star shaped piece of paper for them to draw and talk about their wish. Encourage parents to get involved and share their own wishes too if possible because when parents and practitioners work together, sharing information about the child and what they are involved in/where their interests lie, this has a positive impact on children's development and makes them more effective learners whilst simultaneously making parents feel valued, needed and actively involved. Extension Using potatoes, sponge shapes or cardboard with raised shapes stuck on, demonstrate how to print with bright coloured paints. You will need some fish templates for the children to decorate with their own choice of shape printers. Introduce size by preparing small, medium and large fish templates or by varying the size of your shape printers if possible. Some older and more able children may want to cut their templates out. You can make this easier by differentiating the shape of fish and thickness of black line they have to cut around. Look at real pictures of tropical fish for stimulus or visit an aquarium/fish market! Have a feely box where the children try to guess what shape they pull out with eyes closed! To encourage language development you could adapt the game. Behind a screen of some kind, pull out a shape and describe it to the class without naming it, then ask them to guess. This helps the children to build up their vocabulary. Whoever is chosen and guesses correctly then wins a turn. Day two Reading Remember that reading is about children understanding and enjoying stories, books and rhymes, recognising that print carries meaning. When children tell you what they can see is happing in the picture they are exercising an emergent reader's skill in that they are decoding information on the page, making meaning, interpreting and practising their communication skills with you. Encourage this even if it means dealing with enthusiastic and impatient interruptions from time to time! Read the poem through again, inviting the children to participate/join in with the refrain by leaving rhyming words for them to finish, for example, 'Oh the fun that he had! Oh the things he would do! Just wishing away, In the deep water......(children say 'blue') etc. You could also leave gaps where the illustrations help the children to predict parts of the text too. Ask the children which was their favourite thing that the fish wished for. Was it the castle? Car? Horse? Or was it one of the abilities he wishes he could do? Flying? Skiing? Turning into different shapes? Wearing fine suits and silk ties? When each child has shared their favourite wish in the poem, remind them of the three wishes that you granted them yesterday. You may like to ask them to share each wish individually to the group, choose their favourite wish, or tell a friend depending on how large your group is. Handwriting The EYFS states that handwriting is about "the ways I which children's random marks, lines and drawings develop and form the basis of recognisable letters." Using any kind of large, (minimum A3) simple fish template, demonstrate to the children how to illustrate their favourite wish inside it, by illustrating yours. Some children may be daunted by this task depending on what their wish is. If possible allow the children to use stencils. For those who are able, they may like to have a go at writing their wish on the back of their template illustration. Some may like to construct the sentence with an adult who acts as scribe and write on top or underneath their writing. Others may like to type up/construct their response with help on the computer even if it is in picture format or 'gobbledegook letters' that the children ascribe meaning to. You may prefer to have a standard introduction such as 'If I were the fish who could wish, I would wish for .........' written onto the top of each template. Whatever is the most appropriate approach for your group, value any early attempts at writing. Extension Enjoy circle time together where the children think about others. Ask them 'If you could make a wish for someone else (mum, dad, brother, sister, friend etc.) what would you wish for them?' Encourage them with a couple of personal examples so that they can model their answers according to yours. For example 'If I had a wish for someone else I would choose my sister. She would love a hamster for her birthday so I would wish for a hamster for her.' Just in case of interruptions, it could be a good idea to pass a cuddly fish/toy around so that the children know that it's their turn to speak when they are holding this. Day three Reading and book making Gather all of the fishy templates together. Show the children how, when stapled or bound, a class book can be made. Read their story to them celebrating the diversity of wishes within it. Tell the children that you are going to read the story again because it is so special. Ask if any one would like to come and help you to read it by reading out their part of the story when you reach it. This will help the children to read back their own writing and feel that their efforts are valued. They will have a real sense of ownership after helping to make and read a book. Another possibility could be to write a class poem together where the children play with language and use/invent words that rhyme with shapes. For example, the leader models the first page of the poetry book by making a simple shape rhyme such as, " Circles love turtles, Squares love bears, Triangles love bangles, Stars love cars, Rectangles love spangles." Brainstorm all of the words that children naturally volunteer when you ask "What rhymes with.........(name a shape)" so that you have a vocabulary bank before you start writing the poem together. The leader should act as scribe and model good writing technique whilst the children help create and construct the poem. Each child could then choose a part of the poem to illustrate. Bind the poem with illustrations and keep as a class resource for the children to love and share in future. Extension Play musical shapes as part of a language based numeracy activity. You will need a large sheet of paper in the middle of the room. Draw two squares, two circles, two triangles, two ovals, two rectangles and two stars onto this. Show the children the middle page of 'The Fish Who Could Wish' explaining that the shapes on the paper represent all of the shapes he wished himself into. As music plays the children pass a box/bag around with two of each of the matching shapes inside. They must be the same size as those drawn onto the piece of paper. Explain that this is a little like ‘pass the parcel' so that the children will be familiar with some rules. When the music stops, whoever is holding the box/bag, chooses a shape from within it, names it and places it onto its matching partner on the paper. Make sure everyone has a turn and when the box/bag is empty the game is over. It is not meant to be competitive at all. The children will practise taking turns, learn shapes and their names as well as having lots of fun! Day four Read 'The Fish Who Could Wish' once again, pausing only to allow the children to say the final word in the rhyming couplets. Stress the rhyme and the rhythm as you read. Using sugar paper, white board or a flip chart, write the rhyming words within the text clearly. Invite the children to look closely at the words trying to find any letters that are the same. For example, the first two rhyming words in the text are 'blue' and 'true' therefore the children are looking to identify 'ue' as being the spelling pattern in each of these words. As the children identify spelling patterns, highlight or underline them in a different colour. It is a good way to reinforce and consolidate common blends such as 'sh' as well as introducing new ones. You could make and play silly sentences and word games to encourage the children to rhyme freely and with confidence. For example, 'My fish wished for a dish and on it was a tish.' Ask the children to imagine what a 'tish' is by thinking about what other words could replace it. Using silly sentences as well as sensible ones increases the fun factor and opens up the children's imaginations as they discuss what on earth their crazy new words could mean. 'What do you think a tish is?' You'll enjoy some really creative language and it will help to increase their descriptive vocabulary in a fun way. Simplify the words to things such as cat, mat, bat and pop, hop, mop if some children are finding hard to spot the harder spelling patterns. Extension Make a variety of simple fish shapes in card for the children. Ask the children to draw around their chosen fish template. Invite the children to cut them out with or without support as appropriate. Ask them to choose or make up two words that rhyme which they would like to have written onto the back of their fish. For example if they chose 'fish wish' or 'star car' these would be written on the back of their fish. Decorate the front using any colourful resources available e.g. sequins, glitter, tissue paper, chalk, wax crayons with dilute wash over blue/black paint. Glue a lollipop stick to the back of the fish to turn it into a puppet. Invite the children to read their rhyming words and make stories/rhymes with their fish. Matching shape pairs is a simple and fun reinforcement game that the children will love to play independently. Using paper, sugar paper or card (laminate if possible to last longer) ask the children to colour two of each shape they can think of or that you have already prepared for them. Whether the playing cards are squares, circles or triangles, make sure that when they are face down, no one can tell what shape has been coloured in underneath. When two of each shape have been drawn and coloured, cut out the playing cards and place face down. The children take it in turn to turn two cards over and win another turn if they find a 'matching shape pair.' The winner is the player with the most matching pairs. The game can be played with two or more and will help the children to take turns, count in two and learn their shapes by sight and name. Day five Reading As the children will be very familiar with the poem by now, hopefully they will enjoy this brain teasing session. A wish is granted for every correct answer! Check the overall comprehension of the poem by asking the children questions such as 'What was special about the fish?' 'What was different about him?' 'Can you name three things that he wished for?' 'What kind of things did he wish he could do?' 'Can you remember at least two of the shapes he wished himself into?' and 'What was his last wish?' Find out if the children can remember where/what the 'title' is. Can they remember the names of author and illustrator? Have a puppet show where children make up or retell their own fishy stories and poems. Extension Encourage the children to make their own shades of orange by mixing yellows and reds. The Fish Who Could Wish is a little like a goldfish so you could make goldfish mobiles or goldfish bowls with different shapes and shades of goldfish. Use the middle page of the poem for stimulus again. Each child has six fish and each fish is a different shape, reflecting those found in the middle of the text. Not only must each fish be a different shape, it must be a different shade. Demonstrate how, by adding more yellow to red, you can make lightening shades of orange. Allow the children to experiment on rough paper first before painting their goldfish bowl or mobile fish shapes. Or simply do fishy sponge prints in a variety of shades of orange. You may prefer to use crayons, chalk or pastels instead of paint. Give the children a pencil/crayon/felt tip each so that they can make a moving toy. Using small card circles, ask the children to draw a large goldfish bowl onto one card circle. Invite them to draw or colour a fish prepared by you, onto the other circle. With the top of the pencil in the middle, stick the two circles together, back to back, so that you can see a fish on one side and a bowl on the other. Show the children that by holding the pencil safely in the middle of their hands, rolling it back and forth really fast, they will see that their fish jumps into the goldfish bowl like magic! They will love this optical illusion as a closing activity to a week full of 'fishy business!' Useful Publications to promote Communication Language and Literacy Letters and Sounds - Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics Phase One Teaching Programmes REF: 00113-2008PCK-EN download from www.standards.dcfs.gov.uk or call 0845 60 222 60. Covering the Curriculum with Stories by Sharon Ginnis and Paul Ginnis a paperback published by Crown House Publishing Limited ISBN 190442497-X. L is for Sheep - getting ready for phonics edited by Sally Featherstone PB Featherstone Education Ltd ISBN 1-90501963-7. "What I like!" by Gervaise Phinn Paperback Published by Child's Play ISBN 1-904550-12-6 "The Fish Who Could Wish" (Paperback) by John Bush (Author), Korky Paul (Illustrator) ISBN 0-19-272240-9.
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