Early language skills through play.......

Monday, 23 May 2016

Jungle theme activities

Jungle animals are just so great to link to so many different activities whether it be art and craft or music as well as many more.

I made a simple jungle animal book for the children to look through using Sparklebox resources and printed off some of the animal masks they have for the children to wear for the song below.

The Jungle Hokey Pokey

A great action song for children

(To the tune of the Hokey cokey)

You put your Elephant trunk in,

You put your Elephant trunk out,

You put your Elephant trunk in,

And you shake it all about.

You do the Hokey - Pokey

And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

You put your Monkey hand in,

You put your Monkey hand out,

You put your Monkey hand in,

And you shake it all about.

You do the Hokey - Pokey

And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

You put your Giraffe neck in,

You put your Giraffe neck out,

You put your GIraffe neck in,

And you shake it all about.

You do the Hokey - Pokey

And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

Other ideas to try:

Make a giraffe out of a kitchen roll

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/africa/giraffe.asp

2. Make some masks using funky foam. This can be purchased really cheaply and can be found in the pound shops.

Image taken from Pinterest

3. Make a jungle animal picture frame

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/kids/kids-craft-supplies/kids-foam-sheets-and-shapes

4. Make some jungle animal finger puppets

http://www.crafthubs.com/animal-finger-puppets/20729

5. Decorate some cupcakes into jungle animals

Image taken from Pinterest

Sunday, 22 May 2016

Baa baa black sheep

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for the master and one for the dame

And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

I love this idea using your little ones hand as a template

And what about this fab idea from www.creativekidsnacks.com

Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle, twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are?

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are?

You get the idea of the packs I put together by now to use with the families and here is the Twinkle, twinkle one. Although I have used Sparklebox for many of the props there are other sites you could use too or just look for simple props on the internet.

5 little ducks

There are some many great activities you can link to this rhyme as well as printables available to bring it alive.

I have used Sparklebox to print off these counting mats seen in the picture below. Add some home made play dough and make your own ducks, it's so easy.

You can use the cut out ducks to match to the correct card as well as to use as a matching game (numbers to spots).

Five little ducks went swimming one day

Over the hills and far away

Mummy duck said, quak, quack, quack, quack

But only four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks.......

Three little ducks......

Two little ducks......

One little duck......

Other ideas to try:

Cut a duck shape out of a sponge to do some sponge painting

2. Make a paper plate duck like this one

https://thekidfriendlyhome.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/paper-plate-duck/

3. Try making some home made lacing cards. Follow this link to take you to one you can print out from Activity Village.
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/duckling-lacing-card

Don't forget to add shoelaces : )

Hey Diddle Diddle the Cat and the Fiddle

Now this is a rhyme I don't really hear very often which is why I like to bring some of the older rhymes into the packs that I put together for the families to share.

I printed off the rhyme cards from Sparklebox and made them into a book for the option of sharing a book together and using to sing with.

I made up a rhyme card to add to the pack to use with the props. For the props I searched the internet and found simple matching characters from the rhyme. For more of a sensory play add soft toy characters.

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed to see such fun

and the dish ran away with the spoon.

Humpty printable puppets

Pop on over to Twinkl to find lots of fabulous resources. These printable puppets are just one of many that can be added to lollipop sticks to use for the rhyme.

http://www.twinkl.co.uk/

5 Cheeky Monkeys swinging in the tree

One of my all time favourites. To go alongside this rhyme I printed off some cute monkey pictures from the internet, a palm tree which I then enlarged for the monkeys to swing from and of course a greedy Mr. Crocodile to use as props to bring the rhyme alive.

For this rhyme pack I added a song book printed off from Sparklebox to add the element of 'sharing books together'. Lastly I added a rhyme card with the lyrics.

This pack aids with:

Language development
Matching skills
Early number skills

The best thing is that it hasn't cost me a lot to put it together. I laminated it all so it can be used time and rime again.