Resources

“the Brothers Quibble”- Simultaneous Storytime

Each year in Simultaneous Storytime, thousands of Australian children all share the same book at the same time.

It’s held at your local library and some schools, early education centres, playgroups or community groups.Whether or not you can attend a group,here are lots of resources to help make it loads of fun.

Storybox library has the book […]

Sharing our special stories on Mothers Day.

This weekend, in Australia, we celebrate Mother’s (and Grandmothers) day.

Why not share our own mother’s stories, as well as books from our booklist?

How many of us talk to our children- and tell them stories about our mothers,(or ourselves) when we were younger?

Or ask our mothers to share their stories on SKYPE or facetime?

We can […]

The Umbrella-wordless and wonderfully imaginative

100 Stories Book Review:
“The Umbrella” – wordless and wonderfully imaginative.
We’ve had some wild weather in Sydney lately, lots of wind and storms causing havoc.

Just the time to share our most favourite wordless picture book published this year- all about a little dog blown away by the wind.The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, Book […]

By |April 29th, 2015|Author, book review, Early literacy, Illustrator, language, Resources, Stories|0 Comments

Fantastical dragons for Chinese New Year

Dragons rush out at Chinese New Year in parades, stories and songs.

Kids love Chinese dragons – they are colourful,exciting, noisy and enormous!

It’s a chance to pretend to be something extraordinary,  and can later lead onto reading about Dragons in older stories like” The Dragon of an Ordinary Family” by Margaret Mahy and Helen Oxenbury.
Stories […]

By |February 20th, 2015|Author, Literacy calendar, Resources, Rhymes, Songs, Stories|0 Comments

Dinosaur early literacy activities

In our last post we reviewed Dinosaur Rocket, Penny Dales’s latest book in her fast, fun and furious Dinosaur series.

Kids are fascinated by dinosaurs size,unusual names and appearance.

There are many ways of extending the story reading and providing exciting early literacy learning opportunities, both at home,in early education centres and out and about.
Rhymes.
There are […]

Dinosaur Rocket for story time fun.

Book Review : Dinosaur Rocket by Penny Dale. 
What would dinosaurs do on the moon? Find out with the latest book in Penny Dale’s successful Dinosaur series.

Combine lively dinosaurs with a countdown and you have a story that kids will almost learn by heart and demand to be read again and again. Particularly good for […]

By |January 29th, 2015|Author, book review, Books, Illustrator, Resources, Stories, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Celebrate Chocolate Cake Day!

January 27th is Chocolate Cake Day.
Yum!

I found some old pics of my (now grown up) children “licking the bowl”.

The expressions on their faces say it all don’t they?

It looks to me as if they have pulled the chair up to the bench to find out what was left in the bowl….

 

 Today is a very […]

Hairy Maclary and friends activities and links.

Activities

The Little Big Book Club has a Hairy Maclary  Learning time   PDF sheet.It has suggestions on how to read the story, especially questions to ask before,during  and after reading the story.
The Little Big Book Club Activity time PDF sheet has suggestions on going for a walk after reading the story. (like Hairy Maclary but […]

By |January 14th, 2015|Author, Book list, Illustrator, language, Resources, Rhymes, Stories|0 Comments

Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary trots though the door

Doesn’t everyone just love Hairy Maclary and his band of adventurous,rascally and rapscallion friends?

I’m sure many of us have shared these beginning words many, many times-

“Out of the gate and off for a walk went….”

I think this phrase is now embedded in our New Zealand and Australian story language and probably world wide.

Picture Books […]

By |January 12th, 2015|Author, Book list, Books, Families, Illustrator, Imagination, Resources, Stories, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Whale rhymes and links

More Whale Tales.
I’ve put together some early years

whale rhymes
felt board ideas
books
and video clips
you’ll also find the beautiful sound of whales singing!

They’ll all add to sharing  Whale in The Bath by Kylie Westaway and Tom Jellet, Allen and Unwin.

Whales are HUMUNGOUS, so lets start  with a rhyme about whales swallowing up lots of other fish- rather […]