Hello everyone,
Our story of the week is Hug by Jez Alborough. It’s a great story about empathy and as you know, that’s what we’ve been talking about. We talked about why the little monkey was feeling sad when he saw the other animals hugging (his mum wasn’t there for him to hug). We also discussed why the other animals were feeling sad when they saw Bobo (empathy) and how they tried to help him. Lots of different words were used to describe a hug, such as a snuggle, a cuddle, holding someone and our personal favourite – a huggle!
Literacy – Continue to discuss how the animals feel when they’re being cuddled, can you think of any other words to describe the word hug? Could you make a ‘hug machine’? All you need is something for a face (paper plate, paper, photo) and something to make a ‘neck’ and some long paper (or tights) for arms which has been concertinaed so that you can wrap those arms around you. Attach it altogether and Voila! you have your own ‘hug machine’ . You could also use old gloves and some string to make one. A different activity could be cutting out hearts (great writing practice using scissors) and put them in a jar and write kind messages on them (remember it’s not scribbling, it’s early writing!).
There are lots of other activities to do as well to support their language and creativity such as making puppets out of old socks/paper plates. You could make a jungle scene using some indoor potted plants and small world figurines. You could go listen to the sounds different animals make and guess which one is which.
Maths – Count the animals in the story how many are there on one page, how many different kinds of animals, how many legs/wings/feet do they have? If you’re making hearts discuss the shape and how many sides it has, is it a shape with round sides or straight sides, etc.
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 Ogilvie-Jones, Mrs Mitzman, Mrs Hill and Mrs Bence