Guest Sarah Donnelly Posted June 6, 2003 Posted June 6, 2003 Hello One of my favourite books is "Shaun's Wellies" published by and available from Norfolk Traveller education Service. This is a beautifully illustrated, high quality lift the flap book about Shaun who cannot find his wellies. He is off to playgroup and needs them very badly. He looks every where for them; under the churns, behind the trailer, in the back of dads truck, but no luck. He goes of to playgroup without his wellies and is really quite sad. However - when he gets to playgroup he realises that his wellies were there all the time and he goes of happily with the other chiuldren to join in with the fun of pond dipping. I love this book - as do the majority of early years workers working with Gypsy/Traveller children - because although the central charicter is a Gypsy boy and the location is a Gypsy site, the central theme is wellies and playgroup. It either reflects a childs culture and background or introduces a different culture and background without it being in your face or tokenistic !! The flaps are all items that would be found on a Traveller site and prepositional vocabulary is introduced. Its a fab book and all pre-school settings should have one !! (and no I dont work for Norfolk Traveller Education Service!!) Sarah
Steve Posted June 6, 2003 Posted June 6, 2003 Hi Sarah - If you give me a contact number for ordering it, I'm happy to add Shaun's Wellies to the booklist on your recommendation.
Guest Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Sarah hi its lesley lewis, we have met before at a conference (NATT) I agree Shauns wellies is an excellent children's book, only when i took it into a school they were worried about drawing attention to the Traveller child until I explained it was a story about a little boy who lost his wellies - he just happened to be a Traveller. The Traveller kids loved to see the book in school and tell the others all about the things under the flaps - which they explained in a very detailed way.
AnonyMouse_1999 Posted February 14, 2004 Posted February 14, 2004 Hope this is the right place to recommend a book! The children in my setting simply love "Jaspers Beanstalk" This story was actually featured in EYE magazine in june or july 2002 with great ideas for activities. The storyline is quite simple - on Monday Jasper (by the way Jasper is a cat!) found a bean, on Tuesday he planted it and so it goes on. He did something different on each day of the week and in spite of him digging, hoeing, raking, watering etc nothing seemingly happened to the bean he planted. Our children particularly liked Jasper going out at night with a torch to remove the slugs! The practical activities that resulted from this story have been thoroughly enjoyed by children and staff alike.
Steve Posted February 14, 2004 Posted February 14, 2004 Exactly the right place Geraldine - thanks for that! When our books page gets a much overdue overhaul, I'll add this book to it. Mundia might be especially interested in the slug bit - she's a lunar gardener!
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 14, 2004 Posted February 14, 2004 Steve, Im so glad you didnt say 'loony' gardner even though I know you were thinking it. Im not that familiar with the book so I do hope that they get rid of the slugs hummanely (!!!) but we do 'Jaspers Toybox' which is always popular At the moment we are enjoying the 'Where's my teddy' series which the children ask and ask and ask for.
Guest cat33 Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Geraldin. I agree about Jaspers beanstalk! Have used it for a few years now. One of our topics is Jack and the Beanstalk and it is lovely when the children know the real conditions for growth and then tell Jasper off!! (dont they love to know better than someone else!) Chris
Guest Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Hi I also recommend Jasper's Beanstalk, it makes a very good intro to a growing topic/spring etc. Mau I also suggest John Burningham's "Shopping Basket" I used this as the basis for a 2 week topic last year. I like basing topics around books. Willl be doing the "Rainbow Fish" soon, also a pattern topic using Elmer as the starting point. Regards to all, this is a most interesting site Jean
Helen Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Hi Jean, and welcome. Thanks for posting It is a great idea to use a book as a starting point for topics, isn't it? Perhaps we need a new topic so everyone can add their favourites, with examples of activities associated with them? Or maybe someone will volunteeer to write an article
Guest Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 We've just added a new book to our library called What are friends for? It's by Sally Grindley and Penny Dann. All about two friends and what they do for one another-until they have a falling out! It's a lovely one for PSED. Linda
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 We do 'what are friends for' in the autumn term and the children love it.
AnonyMouse_2127 Posted April 19, 2004 Posted April 19, 2004 I have been trying to find a copy of the book The Enormous Turnip (not the Ladybird type book) for this week. I know it's probably too late for this time, but I would like to get it anyway. I would like a large book, not necessarily a 'big book' but one that a group could see. I am going to make my own pictures to velcro onto a board for this week but if anyone has any info - author or ISBN - of a book that they know is suitable could they let me know please. I have tried Amazon but don't know size or suitability etc. and I have tried local bookshops. Thanks Sue
Guest Posted April 19, 2004 Posted April 19, 2004 Hi, I'm still watching and learning!!! The Gigantic Turnip by Alexei Tolstoy and Niamh Sharkey (Barefoot Books) is a great version of the traditional tale (lovely illustrations and repetitive text that children can join in with). I have used this story as the basis of a story sack I have produced the story sack library at my children' s school. Its a very popular choice as I was able to make soft toy chacter's, simple proprs (seed packets, different sized turnips for sequencing in size and a simple matching game). This story is used in the story sack library for foundation stage and keystage 1. Hope this helps Lisa
AnonyMouse_73 Posted April 20, 2004 Posted April 20, 2004 Im sure I have seen the 'enormous watermelon' in big book, if you get stuck
AnonyMouse_2127 Posted April 20, 2004 Posted April 20, 2004 Thanks Lisa I have just looked for the Gigantic Turnip on Sameday books (Methvens)web site and found a copy . I have spoken to the chap there and he has ordered it - ready to be collected after 3pm tomorrow. So thanks very much Sue
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