Monkey Puzzle

As the children have been getting to know each other, we have been finding out about some of the similarities and differences between them.

Monkey Puzzle is a lovely story all about Butterfly helping Monkey to find his mum . . .

Leyla - "The monkey lost his mum"

"Hush, little monkey, don't you cry, I'll help you find her" said Butterfly.

"She's big!" said the monkey. "Bigger than me."

Lexie - "I liked the monkeys mum cause she's bigger than him"

"Bigger than you? Then I've seen your mum.

Come, little monkey, come, come, come."

But somehow Butterfly keeps getting it wrong!

"No, no, no! That's an elephant. 

My mum isn't a great grey hunk. 

She hasn't got tusks or a curly trunk.

She doesn't have great thick baggy knees.

And anyway, her tail coils round trees."

Iris - "I like the elephant cause he's got a trunk"

Butterfly takes monkey to several other animals as the story continues, but none of them are the right one. Eventually they think they have found her hiding place, could they have found mum? 

"No, no, no! That's my dad!"

But dad comes to the rescue and takes him home to . . . MUM!

Isabelle - "I liked the end cause the little monkey found his mummy"

Which part of the story did you enjoy? Did you have a favourite animal? Post us a comment and let us know!

Superworm!

Meet the wriggliest, squiggliest superhero in the world!

This term our focus Author is going to be Julia Donaldson, and when we read in the Induction notes from parents that this was Ella's favourite book, we thought it would be a great one to start with!

As anticipated, Ella was very excited when she saw the book and told us - "Superworm is super-long. He's wide and kind. Superworm is super-strong!"

Some of the other children also recognised the book and several tried hard to join in with the chant:

'Superworm is super-long.

Superworm is super-strong.

Watch him wiggle! See him squirm!

Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!'

There was lots of discussion as we started to read and meet the different characters. . .

Sienna - "Birds have beaks because they need beaks (why?) to eat!"

Oliver BH - "They like worms" (to eat)

Alesha - "He (the crow) might eat him!" (Superworm)

Sienna - "The spiders, they hang down and make spider webs. And there's a caterpillar. Bees - honey comes from bees - how do they make honey?"

When we had finished the book, we shared the children's thoughts about the story . . . 

Caleb - "I like Superworm because he's so strong!"

Willow - "I liked the bees ones 'cause that's my favourite part. I didn't like the lizard part (why not?) it was too scary!"

We would love to hear what you thought about the story - post us a comment or two and let us know!