Nursery Week Beginning 25th January – Dear Zoo | Holy Trinity CE Primary Academy and Nursery

This week the work is linked to the story ‘Dear Zoo’ by Rod Campbell.

Here is the story told by Justin Fletcher on the CBeebies bedtime hour.

Here is Mrs Kenning reading the story.

Communication Language and Literacy.

This version of the story has a quiz at the end of it. Encourage your child to listen carefully again to the story and then join in with the quiz. By listening carefully and answering questions, your child is developing their listening, attention and speaking skills.

Here is Jenny the Story Lady telling the story and using a story sack. Then something magical happens….

Perhaps you could create a story map like Jenny and the children did in this video? I’d love to see some pictures of them on dojo.

Ask your child to write a letter to the zoo to ask for a pet. Let your child ‘write’ the letter. Ask them what they have written and then you can write what they say. What animal have they asked for? Look to see if any of your child’s writing is starting to look like letters. You might notice some marks that look like letters from their name.

Phase 1 phonics is a crucial development stage. It is the stage where your child learns to listen carefully and identifies sounds they can hear. This link takes you to a game where your child has to listen to the animal sounds and select the correct animal picture.

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/match-sounds?phase=1

Mathematical Development

This is an animal counting song, it focuses on numbers to 10.

Oh no! The monkey from the story is being very naughty again, and he has got his friends to join in! Five little monkeys are jumping on the bed…

Please draw a giraffe for your child. Then give them a bowl with some dry cereal (hoops cereal for example Cheerios or flaked cereal for example Cornflakes are ideal) . Ask your child to give the giraffe a pattern using the cereal. Can they count how many spots/patches they have put onto the giraffe?

Here is Mrs Allcock helping her friend Monkey to count the animals in his zoo.

Use foil or paper to make shape animal enclosures for the zoo. You could try making a triangle, square, rectangle and a circle. Ask your child questions about the shapes as you are working together to make them. How many corners or sides does your shape have? Are all the sides the same? You could even go on a walk to spot the shapes in your home, or outside during your daily exercise.

If you have playdough from last week, you could also make playdough shapes.

Expressive Art and Design

This is a lovely musical version of the story. Encourage your child join in with the repetition. Especially the “I sent him back” part.

Gather up some toy animals and role play being a vet and make the poorly animals feel better. If you have any boxes or baskets your child could pretend these are cages to keep the animals in. If you have a toy doctor set, let your child use this too. If you don’t have a doctors kit, you can improvise. You could use a small empty bottle and a spoon to give medicine to the animals. You could use the cardboard tube from a toilet or kitchen roll to listen to the animals heart beat, or to look in the animals mouths. Perhaps your child could use some plasters on the animals, or use toilet roll and bandage them up. Let your child use paper and pencils to write out prescriptions and make notes about what is wrong with the animals.

Could you make an animal mask with your child? Here are some ideas…

Physical Development

Join in with some Dear Zoo yoga.

Challenge your child to move like the animals from the story. Can they stomp like an elephant, swing their arms like a monkey or hop around like a frog? Can they run around like a puppy?

Here is an animal movement song.

Here is nursery favourite Debbie Doo making round and round patterns. Her ribbons look a bit like snakes slithering around. Encourage your child to join in with Debbie Doo.

If you have some shaving foam, spray some into a washing up bowl so that your child can form slithery snake patterns or hoppy frog patterns with their finger. The child in this picture is making a hoppy pattern in shaving foam.

Or you can make some gloop by mixing cornflour with a small amount of water. Your child will love exploring this strange substance, and will enjoy forming slithery snake or hoppy frog patterns in it.

Understanding the World

Here is a link to some Dear Zoo interactive games for your child to explore.

http://www.dearzooandfriends.com/games

Make banana sandwiches with your child. Let them use a safe knife to chop up the bananas, or mash them using a fork.

Talk about this zoo picture with your child.

Here are some questions to help your discussion.

Can your child spot the animals from the small circles at the bottom of the picture in the main picture? You could use them to play I spy.

If you still have some playdough from last week, you could use this to make different animals with your child.

This link takes you to some live animal cameras at Folly Farm Zoo in Wales. Watch the lions, penguins, giraffes and farm animals. You may have to check these a few times as the animals may be hiding!

https://www.folly-farm.co.uk/webcams/

Here is a video about the giraffes at Folly Farm Zoo