Introduction Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs is a book that practitioners and children can take in lots of different directions. They can look at how to take care of things and people, and the relationships in families. They can make collections of things, go on train journeys and investigate dinosaurs. The children will have their own ideas, but here are a few activities to get them started. Personal Social and Emotional Development Different kinds of families - who are the people in Harry's family? He has a Mum, a sister and a Nan who lives with them. In a circle time, talk with the children about who is in their family, and how there are lots of different kinds of family. This could lead on to talking about grandparents and older people. Read Harry and the Robots with the children. In this book Nan has to go into hospital for a bit. What happens when people get older? How does Nan feel to see Harry, and how does Harry feel to see Nan? Mending things - Harry fixes all his dinosaurs when he finds them in the attic. Find some things for the children to help you to mend - sellotape a torn book, stick a handle onto a cup, or let them watch you sew up a hole in some clothing. Why is it good to mend things? Talk with the children about recycling and not wasting things that can be perfectly good if they are mended. Looking after things - Harry takes great care of his dinosaurs. In a circle time ask the children about the things that they take care of in the setting or at home. Make a list, add some pictures or photographs and display it in a quiet corner. Special things - Harry takes his dinosaurs everywhere with him. Talk with the children about any special toy or object that they have. Have they ever lost it? How did they feel then? You could ask them to bring in their special toys, or to bring in photos of them. Display these on the wall, with names and the things the children say about them. Practitioners could bring in photos of themselves when they were young with a special toy if they had one. Communication, Language and Literacy Dinosaur names - Harry loves to say the names of his dinosaurs. Chant the names with the children. Show them that at the end of the book it says 'endosaurus'. Help them to make up their own dinosaur names. Start them off by giving them the first part - e.g. egg - osaurus/ cat - osaurus etc. Make a list of some that they come up with. Favourite words - Harry likes how the names of the dinosaurs sound. Tell the children one of your favourite words - e.g. marshmallow - get them to say it with you, fast, slow, high, low. What sound can they hear at the beginning or the end? Invite them to tell you any of their favourite words. Listen to the sounds in them together. Make a list to display in the reading or writing area. Boxes - Harry and his Nan clear out the attic together. Find some big cardboard boxes and put a variety of interesting things in them - tennis racquets, old clothes and hats, jewellery, books - the sorts of things you might find in the attic. Invite the children to help you sort through them. Lots of opportunities for speaking and listening. Make a book - there are lots of other Harry and his Dinosaur books. Read some of them with the children and then invite them to make their own Harry book with you. What might happen if Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs came to your setting? Support them to construct a story around a beginning, middle and end. Use plastic dinosaurs and a bucket and take photos as the children make up a story around the setting. Type it up and add the photos. Information books - Harry goes to the library to find out about dinosaurs. The children might like to set up their own library about dinosaurs. Help them to find all the dinosaur books you have. Give the some shelf space or boxes and some paper to make labels. They could make library tickets out of card. Don't forget to use props to tell the story, storyboards and role play. Sing some dinosaur songs Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy Counting Dinosaurs - how many dinosaurs does Harry have? Use opportunities to count dinosaurs in the sand tray or earth tray or sand pit outside. Have some buckets for the children to put dinosaurs into, counting as they go. How does Harry know he has got all his dinosaurs back from the lost property? Help the children solve this problem - how many does he have at the beginning? How many at the end? Is it the same number? Have a bucket and some dinosaurs and pretend you've been to get them for Harry. Ask the children to count them to see if you have the right number. Too few or too many? Dinosaur sizes - use plastic dinosaurs to talk about big and small, tall and short. Positional Language - use the dinosaurs and a bucket to play games around positional language. Can the children put a dinosaur on the bucket/under it/behind it etc. Sorting dinosaurs - sort plastic dinosaurs according to size, colour, spikes etc. Train ride - help the children set up a simple train with chairs. They could cut up paper to be tickets. Use toy money to buy the tickets. Lots of number and counting opportunities - how many seats/how many passengers/how many stations will we go to? Knowledge and Understanding of the World Wash some dinosaurs in the water tray, inside or out. Recycling - Harry mends the dinosaurs and gets some new toys for himself out of something old. Talk with the children about looking after our planet and how recycling can help. Investigate the things that can be recycled. The children might like to set up a recycling area in the setting for paper, card or plastic bottles. They could make labels and pictures. If there is space they could have a compost bin. Libraries - Harry goes to the library to find out about dinosaurs. Take the children on a visit to the local library, or ask a librarian to come and talk with the children. Dinosaur projects - some children might like to find out lots of things about a particular dinosaur. What does being extinct mean? Look at some endangered species. You could read Oi, Get off our train! By John Burningham, which is about endangered animals. Digging for dinosaurs - how do we know so much about dinosaurs? Talk to the children about palaeontologists who dig up dinosaur bones. Bury some dinosaurs in the sand pit and let the children dig them up. Give them buckets of water and old tooth brushes to clean them up with, just like a real palaeontologist. Jurassic swamps and mud pies - use big trays to put mud and water in. Use buckets to make mud pies, or add plants and dinosaurs to make a swamp. Collections - Harry has a collection of dinosaurs. What is a collection? Invite the children to make collections of their own - shells, leaves, sticks, Lego bricks, pebbles etc. Ask parents and carers for help with this. They could put them in buckets just like Harry, or in another special container. Do any of their parents or other relatives collect things? Invite a collector in to show the children their collection. Physical Development Trolleys and wheelbarrows - Harry takes his dinosaurs to the supermarket and the garden centre. In the outside area give the children toy trolleys and wheelbarrows and some plastic dinosaurs to cart about with them as they play. Digging for dinosaurs - use spades and buckets and plastic dinosaurs in the sand pit. Boxes - give the children lots of big cardboard boxes to play with outside. Practice carrying them and stacking them up like Harry might have done in the attic. Dinosaur moves - play some slow, stomping music and let the children have fun trying to move like a dinosaur. Dinosaur hunt - hide lots of dinosaurs and invite the children to hunt for them. Hide them high and low, and talk to the children about how they will have to stretch up high and crouch down low to look for them. Let them show you their stretching and crouching before they begin. Creative Development Junk modelling - this is one way of recycling things. Harry stuck his dinosaurs back together with glue. Use glue and tape to stick things together. Dinosaur skeletons - look at some pictures of dinosaur skeletons. Invite the children to use white chalk on black paper to make marks that look like skeletons. Dinosaur footprints - press plastic dinosaurs' feet into clay to make foot prints. Or dip them in paint and print with them. Dinosaur collage - collect animal print paper, especially reptile skin prints. Let the children tear them or cut them up to make collages. Make dinosaurs out of plasticine or clay. Dinosaur music - read Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees. The book has a rhythm to it that can be clapped to or stamped to. Children can use percussion instruments to play along as you read the story. Dinosaur dressing up - use green and brown fabric for the children to wrap around themselves to be dinosaurs. Make some dinosaur masks to wear. Role Play Area Lost Property Office - Harry finds his dinosaurs at the train station's lost property office. Help the children to create one of their own. Have a desk and chair, some shelves and boxes. Find some things that could have been lost, including bags and suitcases, and arrange them on the shelves and in the boxes. Add some caps and name badges for the Lost Property people to wear. There could be a bell for getting served, clipboards, forms to sign, pens, labels and paper. Put a toy clock on the wall and have a couple of mugs ready for a tea break! A Library - Set out a desk and some shelves. The children could choose some books to go in their library. Help them to sort them into fiction and non-fiction books. Make sure there is a dinosaur section! Add some cushions or chairs. Have a clock on the wall, an old computer key board and some paper and pens. Make some signs asking people to talk quietly. Help the children to make some library cards. Use stamps and ink pads and show the children how to stamp some paper and tuck it inside the book when someone wants to take it out. Displays The idea behind these displays is to show the progression of a project. Involve the children in putting up the display. Collections - if the children get interested in the idea of making their own collections, you could use this as a starting point for a display. Ask the children to make a collection of things - ask their parents and carers for help. Give them a bucket to put their collection in, or another container if they prefer. Set these out on a table, with the children's names and add things they might have said about their collections. Put out some magnifying glasses for a closer look. Ask the children to do an observational drawing of something in their collection, or a rubbing, or an imprint in clay. Display these on the wall behind their collections table. Take some photographs of the children with their collections. Collect as many of the Harry books as you can and put these in a box next to the display. Dinosaur swamp - turn the setting into a dinosaur swamp! Invite the children to make leafy vines out of crepe paper and hang them from the ceiling. Bring in real branches and twigs. The children might like to make a huge dinosaur collage together, or paint individual dinosaurs. Ask the children to help you put these on the walls. Add any dinosaur skeleton pictures they did and a poster of a dinosaur skeleton. Type out and cut up the list of silly dinosaur names the children made up and add these. Cover a table in swamp coloured fabric to display any dinosaur models the children have made, and some books about dinosaurs. Book List Books by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds Harry and the Robots Harry and the Snow King Harry and the Dinosaurs at the Museum Harry and the Dinosaurs have a Happy Birthday Harry and the Dinosaurs United Harry and the Dinosaurs have a Very Busy Day Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School Harry and the Dinosaurs play hide and seek Harry and the Dinosaurs go Wild Harry and the Dinosaurs Make a Splash Books by Ian Whybrow, various illustrators Say Hello to the Dinosaurs Tim, Ted and the Pirates I'd Rather Go to Grandad's Quacky quack-quack Books illustrated by Adrian Reynolds, various authors Someone Bigger Bear Flies High The Bear in the Cave Big Blue Train Books related by theme Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees. Oi, Get off our train! By John Burningham But excuse me that is my book by Lauren Child Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Stickland Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson Dinosaurs Galore! By Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz
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