Stick Man

Our final Julia Donaldson book for the term has 

been Stick Man . . . 

Stick Man lives in the family tree with his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three . . . 

Ava - "I liked the Stick Man's house"

One day he wakes early and goes for a jog . . . 

Sophie - "I liked the Stick Man running"

Poor Stick Man kept being mistaken for a stick and was picked up and used for many different things - including a mast for the flag on a castle at the beach!

Noah - "I liked Stick Man when he was in the sandcastle."

After many adventures, Stick Man was picked up and placed in the grate of a fireplace - when he was suddenly woken by Santa getting stuck in the chimney!

Amelia - "I loved Santa, he came out of the fireplace and took Stick Man to his bed."

They set off together to make some special deliveries. 

Oliver - "I liked the bit when Santa brings presents." 

Then Santa took Stick Man home so that he could be safe once again with his family.

Christopher - "I liked the Stick Man children - it makes me quite happy!"

We hope you enjoyed the story as much as we did - and now the children are all eagerly awaiting to see if Santa 

visits them too!

The Gruffalo's Child

The Gruffalo was a firm favourite with the children so we have been sharing the lovely  story of 'The Gruffalo's Child'.

We enjoyed the story book so much that this week we are going to share the 'sound book' version!

Christopher - "I like the big, big Gruffalo because it's really scary!"

Zara remembered lots of detail from the story . . . 

"The orange mouse had a nut and the big, big Gruffalo had orange eyes and the Big Bad Mouse had a nut over his shoulder and there's footprints in the snow and the owl had orange eyes as well and the snake was in his logpile house. There was slithers in the snow. The Big Bad Mouse was down by the lake eating gruffalo cake!"

Zac - "I like the Big Bad Mouse - he had a shadow"

We would love to hear which was your favourite part of the story - post us a comment and let us know.

Night Monkey, Day Monkey

We have been talking about the night sky recently and thought that this would be a great book to share next from 

Julia Donaldson . . . 

Night Monkey and Day Monkey's worlds are as different as . . . night and day! What one fears, the other loves.

Zara - "The moon was shining bright and the orange one and the brown one, they were looking at the moon."

Georgia - "I liked the girl monkey cause she had a 

star in her hair."

Toby - "I liked it when they rubbed their eyes cause 

they were sleepy."

Kaidence - "The monkeys get bananas."

The children loved joining in with the repetitive text 'Don't be daft' - but we would love to hear what your favourite part 

of the story was.

Post us a comment and let us know!

Room on the Broom

Some of the children have been telling us about their costumes for Halloween - so we thought this would be a good choice for our next Julia Donaldson book!

'The witch had a cat
and a very tall hat,
And long ginger hair
which she wore in a plait.'

We loved sharing this rhyming story, and afterwards the children shared their thoughts.

Here are just a few of them . . . 

Serenna - "The bow came off. She had it in her hair. The wind blowed it off."

Noah - "The witch flied and then her broom broke and she fell in the water."

Sammy O - "There was a dragon."

Annie - "The dragon carried the witch. He smoked fire. He's got smoke from his nose."

As well as reading the book, we watched and listened to the song - we thought you might like to see and hear it too!

       

Which was your favourite part of the story?

Post us a comment and let us know!

The Gruffalo

We have been sharing another Julia Donaldson story - and as anticipated, this one was very popular!

'A mouse took a stroll 

through the deep dark wood.

The fox saw the mouse

and the mouse looked good.'

When Fox invited Mouse to come and have lunch with him in his underground house, the quick-thinking mouse told him he was going to have lunch with a gruffalo - and his favourite food was roasted fox!

"The fox is scared!" - Amelia

After the fox had sped away, Mouse met an owl and a snake - and he continued to develop his description of the gruffalo . . . 

"His eyes are orange" - Georgia

"He's big - purple prickles on his back" - Kaidence

And then Mouse came face to face with the Gruffalo!

"The Gruffalo said the mouse looked good to eat on some toast!" - Zara

We won't tell you what happened next as we don't want to spoil the story - but have a read of the book yourself and let us know what you think! 

Monkey Puzzle

This is our second Julia Donaldson book - we have loved sharing the story together . . . 

"There's a monkey in the story. He lost his mum. There's a snake in the story" (Annie)

"There's lots of animals - a frog and a snake and a bat. The monkey can't find his mum" (Lucas)

"The butterfly finds the elephant and finds the snake, and finds the bat" (Toby)

"I liked the butterfly because she talked" (Jessica)

Zac became very involved in the story - he asked questions and made lots of comments as we progressed through the book!

"Is it going to be another elephant?"

"That's a big parrot, he's got wings!"

"That's his whole family - I want to draw the monkey's family" (Zac)

"I liked the daddy monkey because he was bringing the baby monkey home!" (Alfie D)

We thought you would enjoy the story too:

Post us a comment and tell us about your favourite part!

Tyrannosaurus Drip!

This term we are going to have Julia Donaldson as our focus author. She has written lots of wonderful stories and the first one that we decided to share was a dinosaur one! 

'In a swamp beside a river, where the land was thick with veg,

Lived a herd of duckbill dinosaurs who roamed the 

water's edge.'

'Now across the rushy river, on a hill the other side,

Lived a mean Tyrannosaurus with his grim and grisly bride.'

A duckbill egg ended up in the Tyrannosaurus nest!

"I like the egg one, it hatched!" (Sophie)

"There were little dinosaurs from the nest" (Seth L)

The baby duckbill dinosaur was very different to the others in the nest - his sisters found a name for him - 

'Tyrannosaurus Drip'!

Feeling sad and lonely, he decided to run away and saw a lovely sight, a herd of duckbill dinosaurs all 

hooting with delight.

That night a storm blew down a tree, and acted as a bridge.

The four Tyrannosauruses tried to cross it but were frightened by their reflections in the water - dad jumped into the air and landed with a crash - the tree bridge broke and they all went 'SPLASH!'

The children thought this was a very funny part of the story: 

"When the tree broke" (Sammy O)

"When they were flushed away in the water" (Olivia)

'And the duckbills hooted happily, they hooted 'Hip hip hip . . .  

Hooray for the heroic, one-and-only Duckbill Drip!'

"I liked the hooting bit at the end" (Samuel W)

Did you have a favourite part of the story?

Post us a comment and let us know!

Down in the Ocean!

We have really enjoyed the Ruth Galloway books that we have been sharing together.

We also had lots of fun creating our own under the sea board to display the different characters on, alongside some of our thoughts about each story.

We hope you enjoyed reading them too!

Have a lovely summer and if you get chance, look out for some more Ruth Galloway books - we would love to hear about them.

Smiley Shark

Here is another great story from Ruth Galloway . . .

Smiley Shark is the smiliest and sunniest, the friendliest and funniest fish in the sea.

He longs to play with the other fish but they are all scared of his big white teeth.

Haydn liked the big white teeth!

One day Pufferfish blew himself up into a big spiky ball and pricked poor Smiley Shark on the nose!

Harry R - "I liked it when the Pufferfish popped his nose!"

Rory - "I liked the nose bit"

Poor Smiley Shark was sad when the other fish swam away from him and didn't want to play.

Nobody had noticed that they were swimming towards a net - and soon they were caught and couldn't get out.

Now they needed Smiley Shark to help them!

He showed the fisherman his big white teeth - and the fisherman dropped his net in fright!

Harry W - "I liked when Smiley Shark scared the boat away"

The fish were so happy to be free - and now they all play and SMILE together!

Flynn - "I liked the shark when he had lots of friends"

We were glad to find the story had a happy ending!

Perhaps you could write your own adventure for the fish to have.

Share it with us - we would love to hear from you!

Clumsy Crab

We have had lots of fun reading this lovely story written by Ruth Galloway . . .  

Nipper the crab hated his huge clumsy claws - they always seemed to get in the way!

Jasper - "I liked the bit when the crab popped the bubbles with his claws"

Nipper and his friends decided to play hide and seek. He climbed into a big clam shell and pulled it shut.

Lola - "I like when the crab went in a shell, it was dark."

Poor Nipper ended up breaking the shell with his claws!

The friends decided Nipper would be better at finding rather than hiding - then they heard a cry.

Octopus had got tangled in some seaweed.

Zak - "I like the bit when the seaweed got the octopus"

Turtle and Jellyfish tried to help, but the knots just got tighter and tighter. 

Nipper had an idea - he was able to rescue Octopus by using his claws to snip at the seaweed until he was free!

Isla - "The crab was good because he saved the octopus."

At last Nipper knew how useful his claws could be.

We really enjoyed this story - we hope you do too!

Fidgety Fish

We have been enjoying our second book written by 

Ruth Galloway . . . 

Tiddler was always fidgeting.

He wiggled and squiggled, he darted and giggled . . .

Ben F - "Fidgety Fish is funny!"

His mum told him to go out into the sea and swim until he was tired, but to watch out for the 'Big Fish'.

Tiddler swam and swam, and then he came to what he thought was a big dark cave . . . 

Skylar - "I like the big fish cause he (Tiddler) goes in the cave - it was a big fish!"

JJ - "I liked it when he swam in the fish's tummy and he wiggled and squiggled!"

Poor Tiddler had mistaken the Big Fish's open mouth for a cave and now he was trapped inside his tummy!

We won't spoil the story by telling you how he escaped, but Tiddler made it safely back home and before he could tell his mum about his adventures, he fell fast asleep!

Georgina - "I liked it when he was fast asleep"

We hope you enjoy reading the story - let us know what your favourite part is!

Tickly Octopus

This half-term we are focusing on a 

new author - Ruth Galloway!

Our first story is the 'Tickly Octopus' . . .  

This is set down in the ocean, among the swirling seaweed and the colourful coral. It is here that we meet a tickly octopus!

Eve - "I liked the tickling bit - when he tickled the fish and he tickled the crab and he didn't like it"

One day, when Octopus tickled Oyster, she jumped and dropped her precious pearl. Octopus was very sorry and set off to try and get it back for her.

When he eventually reached it, Octopus came face to face with a fierce eel!

Arlana - "I liked the bit where it was scary cause the octopus was  being chased"

William - "I liked the scary bit - his eyes are scary and sharp teeth" (the eel)

During the chase, Octopus sprayed a cloud of black ink so that the eel couldn't see!

Mila - "I liked the part when it was inky - the octopus squirted ink out of one of his tentacles so the eel couldn't see. He's got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 tentacles and one is holding the pearl. The eel looks sad, and it was black in the dark"

We won't spoil the ending for you - read the story and see if Octopus is able to return the pearl safely back to Oyster!

Hide me, Kipper!

This week we have been enjoying another Kipper book!

In this lovely story, a little squeaky mouse comes running across the page and hides himself inside 

the 'foldy bit' of the book.

He didn't want the cat to find him!

Skylar - "I liked the cat, he looks soft"

Kipper fetched his toybox - and the little squeaky mouse jumped straight in.

Amelia - "I liked it because Kipper hided the mouse 

in the big box"

The cat started looking through all the toys.

Logan - "I liked the cat, he picked up Big Owl 

looking for the mouse"

After trying to hide the little squeaky mouse on top of his head behind his ears, which didn't work, Kipper ran as fast as he could with him - all the way to Big Hill. 

But then Kipper tripped!

Jacob - "I just liked the mouse, he popped out" 

(of Kipper's paws).

The little squeaky mouse went tumbling all the 

way back down.

JJ - "He's going to hurt himself when he falls down the hill"

Eve - "I liked the mouse falling down the big hill!"

He fell straight into the paws of the cat!

Kipper was very worried.

Joshua E - "The cat was going to gobble the mouse up"

We won't spoil the ending for you - but we will tell you it was a happy one!

We hope you enjoy the story as much as we did.

Do you have a favourite place that you like to hide in?

Let us know!

Wibbly Pig's Silly Big Bear

We have been thinking about what makes our mums so special to us, and decided to read this story from Mick Inkpen:

There are lots of things that the bear can't do very well, but there are also lots of things that make him very special to Wibbly Pig . . . 

Caleb - "I liked it when he pulled his ears"

Jenson - "I liked the bear saying he was going to bounce the moon to the pig!"

Mila - "I liked the part when he was blowing the bubbles" 

We also read that Wibbly Pig's bear will disappear your trouble inside a hug. What a lovely thing to be able to do.

Just like Wibbly Pig, we all thought his bear was 
very special too!

Have you got a special bear? 
We would love to hear about him!

Wibbly Pig has 10 Balloons

As we were finding out about the Hindu Spring Festival of Holi (which is known as the Festival of Colour) we thought this would be a good Mick Inkpen book to choose with all the colourful balloons!

Wibbly Pig was very proud of his ten balloons, but all his friends wanted to have one too.

As we read through the book, we met the different characters and found out which of Wibbly Pig's balloons they chose. 

We carefully counted how many balloons Wibbly Pig had left each time. Wibbly Pig didn't want anyone to have the teddy bear balloon because it was his favourite.

Big Pig's sister wanted the pink balloon with the bow, but as she grabs the strings from Wibbly, she lets the others go!

Arlana - "I think he will cry cause she let them go. 

He'd feel sad"

Skylar - "I liked the bear (balloon) because he was 

floating away"

Wibbly Pig wanted to cry - but then he rescued Tiny Pig who had floated up to the ceiling - and Tiny Pig gave him back the heart shaped balloon as it was much too big for him. It didn't last long though . . . 

Ella-Grace - "The balloon went pop - the heart one"

Poor Wibbly and Tiny Pig - they sat sadly in the park - then Tiny Pig spotted something floating past the moon . . .

Flynn - "I liked the pig (Wibbly) finding his balloon again cause he was going to grab it!"

We were all happy that the teddy bear balloon came back!

Which balloon do you think you would have chosen?

Let us know! 

Kipper's New Pet

We have been enjoying our next story 

all about Kipper . . . 

This great book starts off with another birthday - this time it is Pig's special day!

Pig writes a list of some of the presents he would like to receive.

We talked about the type of 'lists' we have been writing this week in preparation for our Toys party.

Kipper chose a hamster from the list - Jenson told us "I've got a hamster at home - he's called Cookie!"

The children enjoyed sharing in Kipper's enthusiasm as he looked after the hamster before the party.

Jasmine - "I liked the hamster rolling"

Thomas - "He liked sliding down the cage - Roly Poly"

When Kipper finally arrived to give Pig his present, he discovered that he had been given all the other pets 

off the list too!

We talked about which pet the children liked the most . . . 

Logan - "I like the mouse - cause I do!"

Kipper had a lovely surprise at the end of the story - we won't spoil it by telling you - but we think you will like it!

Have a read of the book and let us know what you think.

We'd love to hear about any pets that you have too!  

Kipper's Birthday

Inspired by our recent Chinese New Year celebrations, we have chosen this next book to share by Mick Inkpen - it's all about another type of celebration!

Kipper was very excited about his birthday . . . 

Lola - "Kipper had balloons because he was going to have some friends - it was party time!"

The day before the party, Kipper made 

himself a birthday cake . . . 

Eve - "I liked the cherry on top of the cake. It needs to be bigger and have candles on it"

There was some confusion over when the party was, and as Kipper sat waiting for his friends to arrive he felt hungry - and ended up eating his cake!

Thankfully his friends had bought him a cake as 

a birthday present . . .

Harry W - "Kipper's got a white birthday cake. 

It's got candles on it"

What was your last birthday cake like?

Let us know! 

Just Like Jasper!

We have found another great story about toys from Mick Inkpen (and Nick Butterworth!) . . . 

Jasper has some birthday money to spend and he goes to the toyshop - but what will he buy?

Albie told us "I already spent my birthday money on a cement mixer!"

When we looked at what Jasper might like to buy, Albie said "I like the robot because it's remote control"

Rory didn't think he would choose the Jack-in-a-box - "He's too jumpy, it would make him scared and I think he 'll run away!"

Amelia thought Jasper made the right choice - "I liked it when the baby cat came out because it was cute!"

What do you think you would like to buy from the toyshop?

Let us know!

Kipper's Toybox

Kipper is worried.

Someone or something has been nibbling 

a hole in his toybox! 

This has been a great book to share with the children - with Sock Thing being the most popular character!

We all had fun joining in with Kipper to count his toys . . .

Mila - "I liked the dog Kipper counting the toys"

There were several suggestions as to what the strange noise was that Kipper could hear coming from the corner of the room - including a ghost and a monster!

It was a relief to find that it was neither of these!

Zak - "He thought he lost Sock Thing and them there was the mice moving it - they got in it"

Ben G - "The mice nibbled the basket and the box - he might be sad (Kipper) because he might not have anything to put his toys in"

What would you do if you thought one of your toys 
had come to life?
Let us know!

Kipper!

This term we are going to have Mick Inkpen as 

our focus author.

The first book we have chosen to read together is Kipper . .  .

This is a lovely story which the children really enjoyed.
Kipper was in the mood for tidying his basket, and threw out his rabbit, ball, bone and blanket.
Kipper found that his basket was no longer comfortable and went in search of somewhere better to sleep!

Here are just a few of the children's responses about their favourite part of the story:

JJ - "The duck because he was standing there on one leg and Kipper copied him and he fell over!"

Ella-Grace - "He was much too big!" (for the flowerpot)
"He was much too tickly!" (sitting in the grass)

William - "I liked the badger - he scared him away. 
I really like him"

What do you think happened next? 
Have a read of the story and let us know your favourite part!