Funny Investigations with Kes Grey and Jim Field

As our house descends into pretty much 'anything goes' (my daughter is at this very minute covering my husband in paint),  books and the weather continue to be my salvation. This week my son went rooting through the bookshelves and rediscovered some brilliantly funny picture books by Kes Gray. Not only have they given us a much needed laugh but they gave me some ideas for silly investigations in Science, English and Maths.
If you're not familiar with Kes Gray, he is a well established children's author, well-known for his Daisy chapter books and Oi! picture book series; Oi Frog! Oi Cat! Oi Dog! Oi Platypus!, Oi Puppies! and soon to be released, Oi Aardvark! These, brilliantly illustrated by Jim Field, can in themselves spark off some fun with rhyme. But there are a few, maybe lesser known, stories that he's written which are fantastic for inducing both giggles and creative learning.


You're called What?!

Ever heard of a Blue-footed Booby, a Fried Egg Jellyfish or a Aha ha wasp? Well, not only do they make exceptionally humorous book characters but they also actually exist in real life.
Yes! This book features a collection of the strangest-named animals on the planet and on the back pages you will find actual pictures of them. Which leads me to the question:
Can you find or name any more hilarious creatures?
This story is great for sparking up a naming game. Can kids re-name well known animals with a more humorous title? Can they make up their own weird and wonderful creature? Can they research more about these weird and wonderful creatures? And can they find more that actually exist? For those really wanting to go all out - can you work out why the creatures evolved this way and how it helps them to survive?
Whether you do all or none of the activities, this is a really funny read, which always brings me to my own curious question: What is it with the name, Dave?

Quick Quack Quentin

Quentin has a problem! He's lost the 'A' from his Quack and a Quck will never do. In order to sound like a duck again, Quentin must visit the farm and the zoo and find an animal who can lend him an 'A'. Easier said than done when everyone needs to hang on to them...or do they?
This book is genius. Simple but funny and brilliant for a phonics investigation. Who has an 'A' in their name? What would happen if you lost it? Who could you borrow one from?
Of course, it doesn't have to be an 'A' you lose? What about another letter? What if some animals lost the first letter of their name? What would their new name be?
This is also great for word building and lateral thinking. What is 'crow' without the 'c'? What is 'cow' without the 'c'? What is 'hat' with a 'w' in front of it?
Let's get some silly word play going on!!!

How Many Legs?

Moving on to Maths, this rhyming picture book asks readers to add up the number of legs of the party guests. Problem is, they just keep coming...
Once you've worked out the total number on the page, how about working out the number of legs in your house? Or fingers, toes, feet, eyes...? Can you include your pets? Maybe even the table (as the book suggests?) Is the answer going to be even or odd?

Whilst reading Planet Stan by Elaine Wickson this week, I also stumbled on another maths idea which the Gran in the story uses to entertain her very lively grandson. On your daily walk, why not work out how many hands high the gate is or how many feet wide the stream is? How many bums wide is the bench or the bridge or anything else that might keep them occupied for a few minutes. This one I trialled immediately and it worked! It didn't work the following day but, hey, I was winning for a little bit. And, right now, every tiny victory counts right?

The good thing is, many books can trigger curiosity and investigations whether they are fiction or non-fiction. There is a currently a huge demand for children's non-fiction and narrative non-fiction books (this is non-fiction told in a story format, rather like 'You're Called What?). We particularly like these ones because they are so much fun to read but look out for How to be Extraordinary by Rashmi Sirdeshpande or Nosy Crow's HerStory by Katherine Halligan and Wildlives by Ben Lerwill for more serious but interesting research projects. And if you come across a good one, please let us know. Anything that gets us through the morning in a relatively fun and enjoyable way is in serious demand over here ;)

When children self-initiate...go with it!

With the Easter holidays ending, the blurry prospect of home-schooling is back on the horizon. After long days of playing in the garden and allowing the kids to lead the action, the thought of re-introducing 'learning', however play or outdoor based it is, is making me nervous. Yet, we don't always have to initiate an activity to feel we are fulfilling our role.
Today, on our annual Easter egg hunt around the garden the children unearthed three eggs hidden in a small Peter Rabbit suitcase which had arrived by Easter Bunny post (thanks Nan!). After the chocolate had been eaten and the excitement had passed, I found my little boy playing happily with the suitcase.
"Look Mum!" he said, marching past me with it clutched in his hand. "I'm like the BFG!"

Link to Goodreads
Okay, didn't see that one coming but I jumped on it.
"Yeah, you do! Why don't you go and catch some dreams?" I picked up an empty chocolate wrapper. "Could this be a chocolate dream?"
Enough said! With a big smile on his face he put the wrapper in the case and went off on a search. Within five minutes he had a petal for flower dreams and his toy soldiers for 'bad dreams' and so on and so on. He kept the case by his side all evening.
So tomorrow, if he's still keen, then we can take the suitcase on our daily walk to collect more dreams. We can combine two or three items together to create a more complex dream. We can storyboard that dream, make potions of dreams and label the jars. We can Skype family members and ask them to tell us stories about their dreams. What is the science of dreams? What causes dreams? What will we dream about this week? Can we use our fitbit to track our sleep? How many hours have we slept? What time did we go to bed? Can we walk like a giant? Suddenly we have covered literacy, maths, science, PE, art and bags of creativity. All from one story.
This is the fundamental power of stories. Although we haven't read the BFG from beginning to end yet, the kids know it is one of my favourites, they have seen the film, we've read parts of it and listening to it on audio in the car. Stories throw children into new worlds, trigger the imagination and help them to relate to our own world. They explore new perspectives, viewpoints and empathy. And they stick in the memory.
I would never have made that connection from the suitcase to the BFG but my son did all on his own. With a little enthusiasm and encouragement we suddenly have a whole array of activities to get stuck into this week, including reading some of the book again. Yet, he could have easily made a similar connection to Paddington or Narnia (evacuees) or any other stories that involve a suitcase.  (For older children I really recommend the new 'Strangeworlds Travel Agency' by L.D. Lapinski).
Stories are usually a great way for an adult to initiate and kickstart activities and get a child onboard.  Yet, if it feels forced then don't push it. For every success, ten will probably flop and end in frustration. Just enjoying books and stories together and leaving it there is fine. Children will sit on it, process it and then, possibly, act on it, just like my little one did today. If they do then support it but don't take over. Allow them to lead and…who knows where you'll end up.

First day on the job...

It's the first day on the job and in about thirty minutes the children will be waking up to me and the four walls. After a weekend of my phone pinging endlessly with very well-meaning teachers sending links and lesson plans (times three) for homeschooling, I'm already feeling slightly overwhelmed and on edge as the seriousness of the situation rapidly increases.

However, out of all of this muddle a few things for the kids have stayed with me which I thought I'd share below:

• At 9am Monday -Friday, body coach Joe Wicks will be doing a 30minute live PE lesson from his YouTube channel. Link to Joe's YouTube channel
• Phonicsplay have made all their games and resources free. https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/. This is a really fun phonics website used in classrooms and offer a range of online games for practising phonics. 
• Someone on a facebook support group posted some awesome messy play ideas: Link to making playdough,  Taste safe blocks, Taste safe paint,slime, fizzy blocks

Today, for a bit of light relief I thought I'd kickstart some oral storytelling videos. This won't be for everyone but is something kids can have a bit of fun joining in with before maybe creating their own ideas. It's been a few years since I have done this to an audience so bear with me.

What is oral storytelling?

Oral storytelling is performing a story using actions and memory aids (storyboards, puppets, props, masks etc) rather than a text. It uses repetitive, patterned and key storytelling language with actions to keep the tale simple and fun.

Why promote oral storytelling?

Oral storytelling became a BIG thing about a decade ago when I was teaching for the following reasons:

• Many children, especially in deprived areas, were not starting school with sufficiently developed language skills.
• Many did not know key nursery rhymes or traditional tales. 
• If they do not have the language skills to tell a story then how can they be expected to write one. 
• Oral storytelling increases vocabulary, develops knowledge and structure of story and makes them familiar with key storytelling language. It is performed in a group and so is inclusive and unthreatening with no pressure to perform on an individual level.
• It is BRILLIANT for many children with special needs, especially those who love books but can't read the text. It is repetitive, rhythmic and memorable. 
• As well as being fantastic for small children, it can be used effectively for older children too. 

I believe the initiation was started by a brilliant man, Pi Corbett, who I was lucky enough to have train me:

• The Bumper Book of Storytelling KS2
• The Bumper Book of Storytelling KS1

Let's get started...

Okay, so the first thing we need to do is learn some key actions for key words. You can follow mine below or make up your own. There will be other actions added to the story but this will be story dependant. Again, you can make up your own or use Makaton signs.

Keywords and actions

And when you are ready...

Let's try a story! Today's story is THE ENORMOUS TURNIP, a traditional tale which I have adapted for oral storytelling.

The Enormous Turnip

Memory aids

When following a story led by someone else it is far easier to join in the story than if you are telling or leading it yourself. However, it is still helpful to have memory aids to remember what is coming next. Until you really know the story like the back of your hand then you will need prompts in place to remind you of the story order. Plus props and storyboards are fun to draw and fun to make.

(Video on way.)

If you enjoyed having a go at this, feel free to tune in for more over the coming weeks. Plus send us your thoughts and videos of yourself practising or making up your own. We'd love to post some on the blog. ;)

Activities to spin off 'The Enormous Turnip'

•  Measuring - all the characters in the story decrease in height. Get out and about and compare the height of different objects. Taller than.. shorter than... How many lego cubes/stones/shells tall is a cup, a doll, an action man? If you have a ruler get measuring. 
• Play around with the story. Change the characters but keep the height order. Change the vegetable eg The Colossal Carrot or change the setting and set it in space! Draw your own storyboard.
• Write some speech bubbles/act out to show how the characters react when they are asked to help. Think about changing moods and emotions. For example, if the cat is in a happy mood he might be happy to help but if he's a lazy, grumpy cat he may say something like "Turnips, yuck! I'd rather eat mice!"
• Challenge the adjectives in the story. The son is strong and muscly but can we make the daughter strong and muscly instead?  Let's smash those stereotypes!!!
• Planting vegetable seeds including turnips. What conditions do they need to grow?
•  Costing vegetables/seeds using online supermarkets and money.
•  Can you name all the vegetables in your fridge?
• Explore recipes that have turnip as an ingredient - turnip soup anyone?
• Make character masks or stick puppets to help act out the story.

Story-led activities: Let's go!

So today I thought I'd start with some links to recommended reading lists and author activities but please remember that reading is hugely subjective so let your kids gravitate to whatever takes their fancy. As long as it is age appropriate ANY reading is good! 

Recommended Year 2 Reading List

Recommended Year 1 Reading List

Recommended EYFS picture book list

Caryl Hart, picture book author has put together a list of author events which will be happening online. Find out more at https://www.carylhart.com/special-projects/author-events.

Search #FreeBookResources to access a HUGE variety of live & recorded storytelling, printables & activities for your little ones. 

Mr. Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley

Link to Goodreads

Spoiler: This one has a shock ending!!!!

Activities linked to story:

The obvious one here is making pancakes. There are lots of different pancake recipes so they could compare a few different ones and design their own toppings.

What other foods would lure the other character's in? Can they change the story?

What ingredients are needed. Weigh them out. Can they cost these using an online supermarket? Can you double or halve the mixture?

Identifying coins, counting coins, sorting coins (life skills.)

Who are these other characters? What stories do they come from? Do you recognise them?

Pushing it further this could lead to looking at the food chain. What do wolves actually eat? Carnivore or herbivore? What do other animals eat?

What country are wolves native to? Where do they live? How do they live?



Alien's Love Underpants by Clare Freedman

I used to use this one in Year 1. We designed and made our own pants using felt and hung them across the room on a washing line. Adapting this you could do this with paper and pens, tissue paper or sew a pair of real pants for you or a toy!!! (This is way beyond my capabilities.)

Design your own alien or your own planet! From drawing them or using potatoes, fruit, vegetables or good old papier mache! Look at the planets in the solar system (Caryl Hart's Meet the Planets is a new picture book release and great for this)

and compare colours, sizes and facts about them.

Do aliens really exist? Research alien sightings and explore the possibilities.

Materials: Which fabrics would and would not make good pants. Why? What does that fabric feel like?

Help with the laundry (life skill alert) - wash some pants! How does the washing machine work?

Look at the rhyming words and make a rhyming chain. Who flounders first?

Other picture books in this genre: The Queen's Knickers by Nicolas Allen
                                                      Pants by Giles Andreae
                                                      My Underpants Rule by Rod Power
                                                      Others in the 'Alien love underpants series'.


The Scarecrow's Wedding

Link to Goodreads

I personally love this story but it came 'under fire' because the bad scarecrow smokes a pipe in the story. Therefore, we were warned to be careful about using it because of controversy but it portrays smoking as bad and I think it's really sweet.

Make a scarecrow challenge. I remember doing this as a team effort with my cousins once and we LOVED it! There was a scarecrow competition and we turned him into a punk rocker. Safe to say we didn't win.

Treasure hunt: Heligan Gardens did some lovely Easter activities one year around this story. There was a hunt for all the items on the wedding list. You could have a treasure hunt around the house and garden to see if you can find things on the list or you could collect these first and use them to plan a treasure hunt complete with treasure map!

Go to the beach and hunt for shells. Make daisy chains or some 'natural' jewellery. Physical objects like stones and shells are great for practising counting and sums.

Go for a lovely rural walk.

For those into dolls, plan a wedding for them. Write invitations or a menu and act it out. Look at photos and recall memories of family weddings.

Can we be as floppy and flexible as a scarecrow? Let's do some stretches.

Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis

Link to Goodreads

A lovely one for getting outside. Somehow I only became aware of this book recently but it has a really strong eco message and is great for exploring habitats.

Make some bog babies from clay or potatoes and go on a bog baby hunt. If you don't have the outdoor space for this maybe you could head to the local woods and arrange for someone to pre-hide them.

Flipping this on it's head, could you find the ideal place for your bog baby to live? Or make a bog baby 'small world'.
Small world play is great. It's basically making a world in minature for toy dinosaurs, pirates, lego-men or whatever and using it to play imaginatively. You could use sand, stones or garden cuttings to make a beach or jungle or go all out and make a dinosaur island by junk-modelling a volcano (Bi-carb, vinegar and food colouring makes a great but messy erupting volcano) . Small worlds are great for encouraging their own storytelling. I've found that if you make it for them they don't value it as much as if they make it themselves.

Habitats: Looking at the different habitats for different animals and how their bodies are adapted to fit that setting or climate. Could they design their own animal for the desert? Or ice-caps? How would you make sure these animals could survive?

The Eco-crisis: some animals are losing their homes. Research what is happening around the world and the possible solutions. Focus on positives. Some animals are coming back from the brink: e.g tigers in India. One of the upsides of this difficult time is that pollution levels are dropping. Nasa have released pictures of the pollution cloud above China before and after the virus hit.

Estate agents: Write a description of an animal's home. Can everyone guess which animal lives there?

If you have access to a local pond then go pond-dipping and explore the wildlife without encroaching. You could adapt this to woodland walks, rock pooling or bug-hunting. Get messy and make mud or sand sculptures of the animals you see.

Make a bug hotel for your garden. What other ways can we help and encourage wildlife to visit us and be safe?


These are just some very limited ideas to provide ideas for story-led activities. Half the fun is thinking of your own. I always encourage children to ask questions. Thinking of and asking questions is brilliant for the brain and I never have the answers for them. The fun is finding out.

Schools out! What do we do? - Stories to help with Homeschooling

After finding out about school closures tonight, my middle daughter, 6, got very excited. Knowing that I was a primary school teacher up until last July, she was happy to think that I would be reviving this role in order to teach them next week (and however many weeks that follow).

         "Mum, what will we call you? Will you line us up every morning to do the register?"

Little does she know that I have very little intention of sitting them down and formally 'teaching' them much at all. Times are stressful enough already and although workbooks and 'lessons' may work well for some, in our house it is extremely likely to end in frustrated tears (mine) by the end of the first day! Yes, we need to keep busy and yes, we'll need structure but it will be a hands on, outdoor-as-much-as-possible approach from me with emphasis on life skills.

The truth is that, even with my teaching background, I often feel stressed and anxious having the children at home for long periods of time on my own and openly admit that I am nervous about the coming weeks.  However, tonight I started to put my teaching head back on and thought best about how to get the kids (and myself) on board with what we're all faced with. So, I asked the three of them to decide on a family project that they wanted to spend next week exploring. It could literally have been anything and it was...

                                                                        FRUIT!

Fantastically random but I can work with this. It's amazing how much learning can come out of fruit. So we started thought-showering ideas with them taking the lead as much as possible.

But if you're struggling for ideas, why not think about starting with a story that matches their interests. Stories, especially picture books, are brilliant for kicking off learning activities whatever age your kids are. They provide a starting point and a context for getting stuck in. They give a structure, a reference point plus they spark the imagination.
So what stories are there about fruit that we can use:

I'm sure there are others too.

So, using the text as a starting point here are some of the activities we thought of that span across the primary curriculum:

•  Complete an A-Z of different fruits. How quickly can you fill the whole alphabet?
•  Think of rhyming words for different fruits (including nonsense words). Make silly rhymes and sentences. 
•  Taste different fruits, describe the taste, smell, feel etc and point score them. Make a graph of family favourites. 
•  Design a fruit salad or smoothie. Why is this healthy?
• Where does dried fruit come from? Weigh out ingredients for a fruit cake or fruit bread and bake, following instructions. 
• Look at fruit seeds under a magnifying glass. Plant some fruit seeds and see what happens.
• Get online and find the price of different fruits in a supermarket. Can you make that amount using coins? Add the cost of some fruits together. Set up a fruit shop. What fruits could you buy for a pound?
• Sketch fruits, fruit printing, make fruity characters, stuff and sew some felt fruits and make a fruit market. 
• Make marzipan fruits. 
• Where does each fruit come from? Find the country on a map. How far does it travel to get here? When is it in season? What meals can we cook with seasonal fruit? How does fairtrade work? Fairtrade.org offer brilliant videos and activity ideas on this. https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
• Play 'What's in the box?' with different fruits. Which fruit is it?

And that's just a few ideas. From there the kids can design a timetable and hopefully off we go. And that's before we've really dipped into the story.

So over the coming days and weeks, as well as the usual book reviews, I aim to post some books and accompanying story activities that I have used in teaching as well as thinking up some new ones. Lots of authors are currently designing activities to go with their own books so I can also post links to these. Sharing books, buying online second hand (if libraries are closed) are all good ways of getting hold of stories or use your current household favourites and plan your own ideas. Cbeebies read stories aloud and Twinkl https://www.twinkl.co.uk/ is another good resource site if you have access to a printer. 

As well as this I also hope to post some 'oral storytelling' videos of traditional tales that I have adapted for learning and performing without a text. These are great for developing spoken language, prompting improvisation, making props and drawing storyboards.

For any budding chefs out there I highly recommend Nadiya Hussain's 'Bake Me a Story' books. These contain short stories which come with an accompanying recipe. Make the recipe first and then share the story or vice versa.

Lastly, for those who feel like they need reinforcements when talking to younger ones about hygiene or the worries they have about this, I can recommend the following:
Catch that Cough by Bonnie Bridgman - a fun, fictional story about not letting your cough escape.
Robosnot by Amy Sparkes - silly, fun and a little bit gross. This robot needs to use a tissue.
Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival - I've not read this myself but comes highly recommended.
The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside - a story about the weight of carrying your worries round with you and trying to set them free.
What to do when you worry to much: A kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety - this is a brilliant and practical book which likens worries to tomato plants. Give them attention and they grow! Keep busy and focus on doing what you love whilst giving everyone opportunities to talk about their feelings.

Most of all, stay safe and well, try and protect your mental health, let the kids lead by enthusiasm and ask for help if you need it (I know I will be needing it on a regular basis.)