Hello everyone,
Our story of the week is a classic – Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. It’s a tale about a child looking for the perfect pet and writes to the zoo for help. Their attempts are not very practical, but they finally find the perfect pet for the child.
Literacy – Why were the zoo’s choices not very good to begin with? Was the child specific when they described the pet they were looking for in their letter to the zoo? What would you need to do to look after all the different animals in the story? Describe the animals, imagine what their skin/fur feels like to extend language. What other words could your child use to describe the animals’ characters? The frog was too jumpy but he might be too croaky or slimy as well. There are many versions of the story on the internet, see which one your child likes best and don’t forget to ask them why!
Maths – Count the animals in the story how many are there, how many different kinds of animals, how many legs/wings/feet do they have? Discuss the size of the different animals in the story, are they all the same? Use a variety of different words such as tiny, miniscule, huge, gigantic, etc to build up their mathematical vocabulary. Make a zoo out of duplo, blocks or empty boxes. What size enclosures would you need to fit the animals?
Until next time, do good looking for adventures, clean your ears out for good listening and turn your noggins (brains) on for good learning.
Take care and stay safe,
Mrs Howe, Mrs Gavriel, Mrs Mitzman, Mrs Hill and Mrs Currie