Literacy Play for the Early Years Book 3

Learning Through Poetry

Collette Drifte

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134155491
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This series of books uses fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, as well as phonics, as a basis to help young children in the Early Years develop their literacy skills. It brings together the early learning goals of the foundation stage and the national literacy strategy objectives, using structured play, games and fun activities to put across the relevant teaching points in an enjoyable way, while simultaneously nurturing a love of literature. Each book presents structured activities based around suggested focus texts. To help practitioners save time in planning and organizing, the materials needed and the preparation required for each session are described in detail. The activities have been designed to cater to different achievement levels, and can be adapted or added to according to the needs of individual children and settings. Follow-up activities are also suggested, to bring in wider aspects of the Early Learning Goals and the NLS objectives.

Elements of this book include exploring well-loved traditional stories and quality familiar modern stories by established authors; using the texts as a basis to focus on specific literacy goals and objectives; using the texts as a stimulus for games and play activities that help to teach literacy skills; planning and preparation for each literacy session, including materials needed and scripted sessions; ideas for working and playing with the whole group and smaller groups to consolidate the literacy skill; and extension ideas and activities.

	Chapter 1
	Pick ’N’ Mix Zoo
	by Celia Warren (p. 13)

Early learning goals from Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage, Communication, language and literacy:

• Listen with enjoyment, and respond to… rhymes and poems…
• Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences.
• Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts.

Objectives from the National Literacy Strategy (YR):

• To understand and be able to rhyme through recognising, exploring and working with rhyming patterns.
• To have a knowledge of grapheme/phoneme correspondence through hearing and identifying initial sounds in words.
• To use a capital letter for the start of own name.

Materials needed

• Enlarged version of the poem (see ‘Preparation’) and the copy on p. 13
• Easel and Blu-tack
• A bag of pick ’n’ mix sweets, if possible including some of the varieties in the poem
• The children’s name cards
• Flip-chart and marker pens
• A set of cards with the words from the poem on them (see ‘Preparation’)
• Photocopiable Sheet 1 (p. 14) made into a set of cards (see ‘Preparation’)
• Plastic alphabet letters – b, c, e, h, k, l, m, p and s. You could add a few more that aren’t needed if the children can manage an extra challenge
• Tokens
• Paper, paint, brushes, etc. for pictures of some of the animals
• Paper and pencils for labels or captions

Optional materials for other activities

• Ingredients listed in the recipe(s) in Figures 1.1 and 1.2 (pp. 11 and 12), cooking utensils, children’s aprons/overalls
• Card, scissors, string, paint and brushes to make masks
• A selection of books related to zoos or wild animals
• Picture cards made from Photocopiable Sheet 1 (p. 14)
• Feely bag
• Shoe boxes or similar, malleable materials (e.g. plasticine, play dough, etc.) and model junk (e.g. empty packets, boxes, cardboard tubes, old wrappings, egg boxes, etc.) to make the pick ’n’ mix stall. (Check whether any of the children have allergies, to avoid triggering a problem from minute traces of food that may be in the junk.)

Figure 1.1 How to make peppermint creams

Figure 1.2 How to make toffee

Preparation

	Put the sweets into the feely bag.
	Either enlarge the poem (p. 13) on a photocopier or type it on a computer using 26-point Tahoma with 1.5 line spacing, then print it out. Fix it to the easel and cover it up.
	Write on the flip-chart ‘drops’ and ‘lollipops’, ‘bears’ and ‘hares’, ‘kangaroo’ and ‘zoo’ and cover it up.
	Type the poem on a computer using 48-point Tahoma with double spacing and then print it out. The poem will be distorted, but don’t worry because you only want the individual words. Stick the sheets onto card and then cut out each word (except for ‘Red jelly’, which should be kept together).
	Make a set of cards using Photocopiable Sheet 1 (p. 14), either for the group as a whole, or for each child in the group, as you require.
	Collect the ingredients for making peppermint creams and toffee (see Figures 1.1 and 1.2).

Introducing the poem

• Hold up the feely bag and ask the children to guess what might be in it – spiders, screws, pencils? Have some fun with the suggestions they make. When they guess ‘sweets’, spend a bit of time talking about the sweets in the bag. Which are their favourites? Why? Which sweets don’t they like? Why not? Are any of the sweets new to the children? Explore them by talking about the colour, size, shape, taste and so on.
• Do they know what ‘pick ’n’ mix’ means? Have they ever bought sweets from a pick ‘n’ mix stall? Do they know of other things we can pick ’n’ mix as well as sweets? (For example, a salad bar in the supermarket or the mini-toys in toy hypermarkets.)
• Tell the children you’re going to share a poem about pick ’n’ mix. Read from the small version, letting the children enjoy the idea of sweetie-animals. When you’ve finished, ask them whether they liked the poem. Were they surprised to find it’s about a zoo? Why or why not? Do they know what a zoo is? Let some of them talk about their visits to the zoo. Which is their favourite animal? Why? Are there any animals that the children don’t like? Why not?
• Who can remember some of the sweetie-animals in the poem? Tell the children you’re going to read the poem again and they should listen for any sweetie-animals they forgot to tell you about. Which animal in the poem is their favourite? Why? Can they make up some more sweetie-animals? For example, candy-floss kittens, popcorn penguins or chocolate chimpanzees.
• Can anyone tell you some words in the poem that sound the same (‘drops’ and ‘lollipops’, ‘bears’ and ‘hares’, ‘kangaroo’ and ‘zoo’)? Do the children know the word we use when words sound the same like this (‘Rhyme’)? Can they tell you some words that rhyme with those in the poem? For example, with ‘drops’ and ‘lollipops’ they could have ‘shops’, ‘mops’, ‘stops’ and ‘hops’; with ‘kangaroo’ and ‘zoo’ they could have ‘shoe’, ‘glue’, ‘stew’ and ‘two’.
• Help the children to make up some actions to represent each of the animals in the poem and practise them for a few moments. Then uncover the enlarged version of the poem and read it again to the children. Point to each word in the text as you say it, making sure your finger doesn’t lag behind or run ahead as you read.
• Ask the children to help you design a logo or picture to show the action for each animal and draw it beside each line. Before you recite the poem together, make sure the children understand the logos. Leave the enlarged version pinned up for the children to explore in their own time.

Focus activities

Group A:	Spread out one set of the poem’s enlarged words on the table face up. Let the children look at the enlarged copy of Pick ’N’ Mix and ask them to put the words together again to make each line of the poem. If the children can manage, you could let them play a form of pelmanism by pairing the words to make a line – you may have to limit this to words from fewer verses.
Group B:	Give the children their name cards and ask them what sound their name begins with. Can they think of an animal and/or sweets starting w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Pick ’N’ Mix Zoo
• 2. Humpty Dumpty and Little Miss Muffet
• 3. Three Purple Elephants and Early in the Morning
• 4. Look at your hat! and In the cupboard
• 5. When I Get Up in the Morning and The Band
• 6. Sing a Song of Sixpence and Planting Beans
• 7. New Shoes and I Don’t Like Custard
• 8. Cousin Peter and Funny Jim
• Observation and assessment for speaking and listening
• Observation and assessment for reading and writing