Dr Hilary Minns, Senior Lecturer in Education, Warwick University.
provides helpful notes for teachers on two very different Child's Play Books
Below is a series of activities based on whole class and group work. Many of the activities will be suitable for groups working with a teacher on their own. Click on the red print button to print out these notes.

Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
How to use this book
Young children learn to enjoy books most when parents, nursery nurses, education assistants or Early Years teachers spend time talking about the pictures and the things that happen in a story.

They develop a keen interest in reading and a knowledge about words and grammar when they listen to traditional rhymes, action songs and stories that use rhythmic and patterned language.
Here we go round the Mulberry Bush has all these qualities that help to promote language and literacy development. Read and re-read it, over and over again with the children, so they come to know it very well.

At the end of Here we go round the Mulberry Bush you will find my suggestions for using the book with either one child or a group of children.

Dr Hilary Minns
Institute of Education, University of Warwick
 
Words and language
Fun activities for three to six year olds
  • Talk about the title of the book and the cover illustration:
    * What are the children in the picture doing?
    * Are they happy or sad?
  • Look at the rhyme on the inside front cover:
    * Model reading for the children by singing or saying the words clearly and rhythmically.
    * Encourage the children to join in with you if they know the rhyme already.
  • Key questions:
    * How many children can you see in this picture?
    * What are they doing? Tell me about them.
    * Is there someone there who looks like you?
    * How do you feel when you get up, go to bed, clean your teeth....?
Give the children time to think about their replies and then respond to what they say. Sing or say the rhyme together on each page.
Further activities:
1. Act out 'Here we go round the mulberry bush' with the
children. Join hands in a circle and mime the actions for each page, singing the rhymes.
Ask the children to make up their own verses, based on things they do
at home and at school. Encourage them to be expressive in their movements.

2. Make a wall display of some of the verses and ask the children to illustrate them.

3. Point to the initial sounds 'm' and 'b' in 'mulberry bush.
Whose names begin with these letters?
Make a list of them and read the names together, emphasising the initial sounds.


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Salamatu and Kandoni Go Missing by Steve Brace

 
This is a quiet story in an unfamiliar setting. It is written in direct, familiar language and will prompt Year 2 children to reflect on the life of one small girl, Salamatu, who lives in a rural village in Ghana. We meet her as she feeds - and then loses- her goat, Kandoni, who wanders off just before Salamatu has to go to school. All is well, though, and keen-eyed children will spot Kandoni on each picture of the book - carefully hidden from Salamatu's view, of course!

The story tells of Salamatu's relationship with her parents, her friends and, of course, her goat and therefore sets up a context for discussion about events and relationships. It combines an understanding of a common childhood experience - the anxiety of loss and the joy of finding something again - with information about village life in Ghana through both text and illustration. Salamatu and Kandoni Go Missing gives young children an experience of reading a story written in the present tense. Children will be able to anticipate Salamatu's anxiety and predict what will happen in the end of the story as they see the illustrations of the goat, safe in the village.

Some suggested activities for shared reading and writing
•Share stories about losing and finding something important. Talk about what happens in this story.
•Discuss the setting of the story and the contrast between Salamatu's village and the children's own everyday lives, in and out of school.
• Ask the children if they have any experience of feeding or milking a goat. If possible, arrange for someone to come and talk to the children about goats, or take them to a local farm where they can see goats for themselves. Read an information book on goat keeping.
•Make a collection of well-known stories about goats and display these in the classroom (eg. The Three Billy Goats Gruff; The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids). Read these books together. Keep adding to the collection.
•Draw attention to the names of the characters in the story and help children to pronounce them by drawing attention to initial phonemes and syllables within the names (eg. Sa-la-mat-tu; Ad-mi-du).
•Demonstrate how to write a 'Lost' notice from Salamatu to the villagers. What would the notice need to say? Discuss the children's suggestions.

Some suggested activities for guided and independent reading and writing

Discussion of illustrations - what can we learn?
Invite children to discuss what they can learn about Ghana from the illustrations: the rural way of life, the occupations of men, women and children, housing, religion, schooling, forms of play, transport, medical aid. Show them how to make notes about each area.

Use of present tense
Discuss the choice of the present tense? Why are most stories written in the past tense? Would the story have a different 'feel' if it had been written in the past tense?

Use of direct speech
Help children to see where the direct speech appears in the story by drawing attention to the speech bold type. Encourage some children to read the dialogue aloud while others read the narrative links. Point out the usual conventions for indicating direct speech marks and appropriate punctuation.

Writing a play
Help children to write a play script based on the dialogue in the story and to present their plays to other children.

Lost and Found notice board
Demonstrate writing 'lost and found' notices. Set up a Lost and Found board in the classroom and encourage children (and parents) to pin their own notices on it. Read these with the children and update them regularly.

Writing a story from another viewpoint
Ask the children to work in pairs to write their own story of Salamatu, using a)the past tense, and b) writing it from the goat's point of view. They should illustrate their story and read it aloud to the class.

Cross-curricular links
The social, cultural and physical geography of Ghana.
Map reading.
Comparing and contrasting the lives of British children with Salamatu's life (there are some useful questions at the end of the story to help children to focus on this area.)