Hodgeheg

Some of you will know that our eldest daughter has short term memory issues, it's taken a while but we now know that her auditory memory is very poor fortunately her visual memory is about average and her long term memory is good.
Much of what we have done to help her was without knowing the problem, just knowing her and how her brain worked. Knowing the specific issue has helped us understand more and given us tools to support some of our decisions regarding her learning.
It also explained her difficulty in reading, it's not the words that pose the problem but holding on to what she has read in order to piece the story together. Understanding stories has always been challenging but picture books gave visual clues and were short enough to read several times allowing her to put the story together. However as she has grown up and her class mates have moved on to chapter books with few if any illustrations she has struggled. She no longer wants to read little kids books! But has little comprehension of the chapter books.
She loves reading and it is heartbreaking. At the moment she still gains pleasure from completing a book, but I wonder how long this will be the case.
So when we were told at the beginning of the Easter holidays that the class would be reading the Hodgeheg this term I decided to experiment with it, could we make it visual and interactive? Could we make it fun, and could we hold her interest enough to get through the book a number of times a hence access her long term memory?
To start with we read it to her, and we made a bookmark giving the names of the main characters.

She then read the book and we made felt puppets of the characters and she labelled them with stickers, she was beginning to remember the key character Max.

So as she read through the book again we created a story mat, a section at a time, but crucially Rebecca created it, she came up with the design and cut out many of the pieces - I got the job of sewing it together!

Once the basic areas were made, we then went through the book to find what we needed to add, essentially this is comprehension but creative comprehension, she would keep looking because we needed to know what to make next, there was a point and a purpose.
Letting Rebecca design it and do the cutting, engaged her brilliantly with the story even if I had to sit on my hands occaisionally! The tactile and visual nature of the mat helped her remember the flow of the story, it was no longer random words.
But doing this for every book just isn't practical and so the search continues!

Just for fun : Which book am I working on?

So the last story was just too easy! Jonah is still a work in progress which will resume when I finish the story bag I am making with Rebecca - our holiday project - mmm may not be finished by tomorrow!!

So I will post the completed project soon, in the meantime can you work out which book we are working on!

Just for fun: Guess what story sack I am working on!

Lots of ideas but have only got this bit done so far!!

More elements to follow - hopefully soon!

Crafting for Christmas: Nativity Story Sacks

Having heard about a travelling nativity at a children's work course earlier in the year I thought it would be great fun, but having got to the middle of October without doing anything about it I had pretty much shelved the idea.

Let's face it with getting ready for Christmas, helping out in a satellite warehouse for operation Christmas child, and planning a Christmas fair for school while getting ready to move house I really don't need another project.

But at the beginning of the week something changed, I am not really sure when or why but come Tuesday I had pretty much decided to give it a go - but would accept that it couldn't be hand made -at least not all of it!

So what is a travelling nativity? Essentially it's a nativity crib that is passed from house to house in advent giving children the opportunity to learn the real meaning of Christmas - in essence it's a story sack!

The key thing for me was that it should not be precious, something to put on a shelf out of harms way but that it should be something to play with, to interact with, acting out the story in play. This great set from playmobil is actually a reasonable price especially compared to the cost of some nativity sets. The kings are sold separately and haven't arrived yet but complete the scene nicely.

 

I included two versions of the story, one in the form of a book, they will be encouraged to open the advent windows during their visit and read the story together.

The other is in the form of cards with the relevant verses on the back from a great website 3dinosaurs.com

(Many of the resources I have used have come from this site definitely worth visiting.)

The cards can be used on the ring to tell the story but older children could use them to tell the story, or to put the story In order.

I have included some additional resources:

Pairs Game

Flash cards

Simple jigsaw

Colouring sheet (aware that some children may not have resources at home I included all that they would need to complete the worksheets.)

For the younger children I included a drawing template encouraging them to think about what they might give Jesus. For the older children this included a writting excercise.

Advent candle

Finally it would be great for each child to have their own nativity, so I included a card version to cut out and colour.

The Sunday school coordinator mentioned that it woul be nice if each family could add to the decoration on the bag, there didn't seem to be an easy way for them to do this so I came up with the idea of them decorating a tag and adding it to the bag, the tags could be a prayer, a verse, a quote from the children or simply something they have enjoyed.

So with the bag sorted it now needs to become mobile, this is a first so not sure just how well it will work but the idea is that people will sign up to take part, we will then put together a schedule each family will have the bag for a few days they will then arrange to visit the next family and hand over the bag.

So we will see - I will report back in the new year when Christmas will have come and gone, the shoeboxes will have been checked, the fair will have passed , the girls will have left school (having delivered the requested three trays of homemade cupcakes ) and we will have moved house!!

 

Oh no it's a Gruffalo

Four years ago Rebecca started school, Sophie missed her sister and we were struggling with challenging behaviour from a bright two year old. I decided to re-visit the idea of sending her to playgroup. My search led me to Stanmore Baptist Church Playgroup, I liked it's style, the time they gave to the children and the genuine care that they showed.  Sophie started mid-term and she loved it from the start, so much so that we abandoned plans to send her to the school nursery. She finished her two years and went  onto school a confident and well adjusted child.

So it wasn't even up for discussion when it came to Annie - she couldn't wait and looked forward to playgroup days.

  
It is hard to believe how quickly the two years have passed. When I completed my Goldilocks story sack I took it into playgroup - they loved playing with it - so the idea of creating one for the playgroup as our parting gift was born. The story that they chose was the Gruffalo. It's a great story and lent itself to the story sack idea well.

The sack featured owls which fitted in with the story but was also bright and fun, the letters I printed out, then traced them onto 'Heat n Bond' iron on adhesive. Once ironed on to orange felt I could then cut out the felt letters and iron them on to the sack.

Three of the puppets were created  from felt -I sketched out the image then used the sketch to cut out the pieces which were sewn together with blanket stitch.

The snake was created from a sock ( my husband now has 41/2 pairs of stripy socks!!) - I used cardboard to stiffen the mouth onto which was sewn a felt tongue. the eyes were created from circles of felt which were lightly stuffed to make them stand out.

I thought about creating the Gruffalo however was not convinced that I could reproduce a very specific character well so I purchased the soft toy.

The backdrop was challenging - mainly trying to keep it lying flat when attatching the trees - within the backdrop I created three pockets in the houses of the story characters so the puppets can return to their houses at the appropriate places in the story. With more time and more experience with my sewing machine - (we are not friends!!!)  I would have liked to back it with cotton  - maybe next time!

  

The flashcards are from a great site called Primary Treasure Box    

There were a number of Gruffalo resources available. I chose sequencing cards as they were most useful for pre-schoolers but included some word flash cards and a pairs game.

 

I included some Gruffalo resources, a domino game, a snap game and the Gruffalo song cd which has great songs for a number of Julia Donaldson books - the 'squash and a squeeze' song  however should never be played on a long journey - it's far too addictive and you end up singing it for weeks.

I was pleased with the end result and hopefuly lots of children will enjoy playing with it.

 

 

 

 My next cunning plan is to produce story sacks for some key bible stories - but trying to be realistic I am going to start with Christmas!!

Share a Story

During my time at home I have enjoyed participating in several courses, they have been a great opportunity to  engage with grown ups!! and to learn and develop skills.
The most recent course  was  a 'share a story' course, it was run by the family learning  dept of the local council and the library.

The idea of the course was to encourage  parents to share stories be they read or made up with their  under sevens using a story sack.

 A story sack is basically a bag that contains elements to enhance the story  and engage children with the story.

 Goldilocks and the Three Bears

We created a simple sack , this could be any off cut of fabric or an old pillow case.

I chose to cut letters from felt and sew them on but they could be glued on with fabric glue or written on with a permanent marker.

Puppets

Simple puppets can be created by decorating cardboard images - many sites offer colouring pages that can be printed onto card and decorated. Annie painted these and we laminated the for durability.                             

      

 

These hand puppets were created using a pattern from Operation Christmas child http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/knitting-patterns     

 I used stocking stitch and varied the needle size to change the size of the bear.

Goldilocks was made using felt and oddment of fabric from a pattern in a magazine.

Background
These are great if you are reading to a number of children as they are in effect the picture. They could be created on card using paper, or three sides of cardboard box could be decorated and used as a backdrop - the advantage of this is that it could be freestanding.

I used felt to create a bold image of a cottage . The front of the cottage is attached with Velcro so can be removed to reveal the inside of the cottage.

Props
These are items that help to illustrate the story. I kept these simple  going for the bowls, chairs and beds. I made them out of felt with Velcro allowing them to stick to the inside of the cottage.

 

Flashcards 

This story repeats the phrase 'much too' which was ideal for introducing words  for new readers, it also introduced the idea of opposites.

Game

A game provides an associated activity linked to the story in some way. This simple game is simple enough for pre-schoolers. They can use a coloured dice and match the colours. 

 

Older children can play using a standard dice and count the spots. The game can be played by a child on there own  or with a number of children and the difficulty level can be varied.
I drew the original design then photocopied it onto card and roped in some friends to colour them in then laminated them for durability.

All my girls love their sack and seeing Annie playing with it and telling the story is just a delight.

Gruffalo story sack coming soon!!