Spot's Birthday Party

Spot the dog likes to play hide and seek. Together we are going to find all his friends who have hidden themselves around the house.

Spot's Birthday Party by Eric Hill

Topic: Zoo animals, prepositions of place and household furniture.

Age: 3 (maybe even younger if you're group is small enough) - 6. At six this book becomes a hard sell as it has a very simple story.

Vocabulary: Animals (Dog, crocodile, bear, snake, hippo, penguin, lion, monkey, tortoise). Furniture (mat, curtain, cupboard, bath, coat/jacket, table, plant, door, cushion- I will be using the easier second options). Prepositions of place (in, under, behind).

Optional: Count numbers 1-10 as spot prepares to play Hide and Seek and sing Happy Birthday to Spot at the end of the story.

Procedure:

• Sing your hello song in the style of one of the animals of the story or anyway you like if that is testing your acting and singing skills!

• For the first lesson it is probably best to start by reviewing or teaching the zoo animals (in my case only tortoise and hippo will be new words). Mime the animals. Elicit the animals and play some flash card games. I would introduce the furniture in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lessons if the are confident with the animals.

• Gather interest in L1 by asking who has played/likes playing Hide and Seek. How many far do they count up to?

• Read the story slowly and give them plenty of time to guess from the clues what type of animal is hidden away before revealing it. Start using gestures as you say the prepositions to help convey meaning and draw their attention to the words. At the end of the story elicit all the animals they can see on the last page and count them and look at the colours if you wish to review other language. You could also sing happy birthday to Spot, asking the children to be the different animals as they sing!

• Individual activities at the table time: ask them to draw Spot's birthday cake and with all the animals from the party on it.

• Bring them back to the circle or front of the classroom and chant the prepositions with gestures. Then test them. When they seem more confident reward them with the next step.

• Video time... Find the animated video of the story on Youtube.

 Extensions:
 
Funwithspot.com  seems like a good place to start. There is a whole section of downloadable party materials. You can print off invitations and get the children to write their names and then hold a 'party.' There are colouring sheets and even a Spot party hat craft (which is the only one I seem to be able to actually access).

Many more Spot colouring pages HERE.

If you are using the book to teach animals then there are many many animal crafts and worksheets  out there!

 Spot Goes To School could also appeal.

For prepositions...

In On Under song

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Worksheets/inonunder.gif

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Topic: a naughty little girl goes for a walk in the woods and enters an empty home... I've chosen the Amanda Askew version of the classic fairytale (curiously not well known in Italy) as it is hardback and has large illustrations.

Amanda Askew version

Age: 3-7

Vocabulary: Goldilocks, bears, mummy, daddy, baby, forest, house, kitchen, bowl of porrige (I'm 'chunking' this one without explanations!), livingroom, chair, bedroom, bed, too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, too big, just right. 

Procedure:

• Preteach those adjectives by asking them to sing your hello song softly and 'hard' and then whilst being hot and cold.
• Flashcard time: drill Goldilocks, bear, and the rooms and furniture. Recycle house and forest and the family if you think it is necessary.
• Read the story with plenty of actions, especially for the 'too hot.. too cold... just right' parts. Check understanding in L1 if necessary. On follow up readings you will need these actions for eliciting those non pre taught words during the flash card game.
• Table time! Ask the children to draw a picture that represents the story. It could include, a house, a forest and most importantly a little girl and 3 bears.
• Call the children back for circle time. You could review the family finger song.
•  Watch and sing the chorus of the video with actions. I'm a big fan of this series by Debbie and Friends.

Extensions:

This story is begging for a matching activity. Or they could draw the right bear in the right chair...

Found HERE

Found HERE

 Something like a sequencing sheet would be a good second lesson for the older kids to check understanding.

From Sparklebox

Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons

Pete the Cat was a huge hit with the kids last time round. The books are fantastic for group reading and involving the kids with their repetitive chants. This one was no different.

Pete loses his buttons but he never loses his cool.

Topic: numbers and colours.

Age: 3- 7 all enjoyed it.

Vocabulary: numbers 4,3,2,1 and 0, I like to do numbers 5-10 as well. Colours yellow, green, red, dark blue and light blue all easy to include too. Also skateboard, icecream, surfing and belly button. Phrases 'My buttons, my buttons, my _ groovy buttons!' and 'goodness no!'

Procedure:

• sing your hello song. I enjoyed reviewing the emotions for this book. Sad, happy, scared, sleepy.. so we sang it in different ways.
• Practice counting. I have a points chart so I used that. We counted up and then counted down. Then we counted on our fingers and sang this song: 1 little 2 little 3 little fingers, 4 little 5 little 6 little fingers, 7 little, 8 little 9 little fingers, 10 little fingers on my hands.
• Now get cracking on the book. Open it up and admire the inside of the front cover. Elict the colours and count the buttons. With the older kids you can even get them to do a little maths 'How many yellow and red buttons are there?'
• The book is so perfect you don't need me to tell you how to tell it. It is instinctive. THIS VIDEO will help you too. I get the students to clap along with the rap to get them involved. I also like to stop the rap abruptly in a different place each time by saying POP! OH NO! and slapping my forehead. They love that.
• Table time now: elicit the colours that Pete was wearing and ask them to colour him from memory.

  

  Here

  • Now bring them back to the circle. Pratice counting again. Hop 3 times. Spin 2...
  • Watch the SCOPE video linked previously and get them to join in, or watch this video with Pete the Cat where he does the wheels on the bus (a song I already did with my students).
  
  
  
  Extensions:
  
  Any kind of counting video.
  
  
  
  
  We love Super Simple Songs.
  
  
   The kids all want to know if this is my boyfriend. SIGH.

  

  Colour by numbers HERE

   Plus you can make many button maths worksheets like these.
  
  

  

  HERE