Friday 20 April 2012

Our new Pets

 Sienna wanted some tadpoles. We brought four from the local pet shop, but unfortunately none survived. So we decided to go and get frogs instead. We have three, which were all named Stanley by Sienna. Sienna likes to draw pictures of them, I thought this one of Stanley catching a fly was really cute, and Rog is back to chasing flies around the house with his big blue butterfly net.



A Revolting Afternoon!



Braille















At the moment Sienna is working on a 'My Body' topic. As part of this I wanted to introduce her to the concept of people being different from herself, how others manage with disabilities, and accepting other people. I loaned a book from the library called, 'The Black Book of Colours' which is an all black picture book with raised pictures and text in Braille. After we had read it and talked a bit about how life would be as a blind person, we got to work creating some of our own 'Braille' using puff paint. Kyla wants to know if you can work out what she wrote for me in the last pic ;-)

Tuesday 10 April 2012

The BFG Day

We finished reading The BFG last night, which was devastating to Denver, as she was totally enthralled in it. I liked how at first, Kyla listened from her bedroom. Then, a few chapters in she started to appear in the kids room as I read, perching quietly on the end of Sienna's bed. By the middle of the book it was, 'Don't start until I get there!'
Today after some other work we decided to do a couple of activities related to the book. First, they mixed their own 'dreams' like the BFG, choosing colours that they felt depicted good dreams or nightmares.






After that they worked together on a collage of 'Giant Country'. Denver created the 'Fleshlumpeater', Sienna the BFG and Kyla Sophie. 






 Snozzcumbers!


We also looked at an Atlas and a map of England, and the girls Googled images of the Queen. I had to smile tonight as I listened to them play The BFG. Sienna, as the BFG, was using a butterfly net to capture the dreams they had mixed today. Kyla was Sophie, and Denver was the Queen of England.

The Word Party

Loving words clutch crimson roses,
Rude words sniff and pick their noses,
Sly words come dressed as foxes,
Short words stand on cardboard boxes,
Common words tell jokes and gabble,
Complicated words play Scrabble,
Swear words stamp around and shout,
Hard words stare eachother out,
Foreign words look lost and shrug,
Careless words trip on the rug,
Long words slouch with stooping shoulders,
Code words carry secret folders,
Silly words flick rubber bands,
Hyphenated words hold hands,
Strong words show off, bending metal,
Sweet words call each other 'petal',
Small words yawn and suck their thumbs,
Till at last the morning comes,
Kind words give out farewell posies....
Snap! The dictionary closes.

-RICHARD EDWARDS.