Australia Project - Story: Wombat Stew

Gooey, brewy, yummy, chewy...Wombat Stew!  This chant is from the book we read this week called Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan.  This hilarious story tells the tale of a group of Australian animals who try to save their friend Wombat from ending up in Dingo's stew.

To follow up our story, we played with some Australian animal puppets and pretended to make Wombat Stew in the sensory tub.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This classic children’s book by Eric Carle tells the story of the lifecycle of a butterfly.  It also introduces the days of the week and the concept of healthy eating habits.  It was the perfect story for our unit of work on Sometimes and Everyday Food.

Mouse Paint

 This is the story we used this week to hear and practise colours in English. To make it a bit more challenging for those who already know this vocabulary, the story introduces the idea of primary and secondary colours.  I used the Kindle version of the book, which you can download from Amazon books. I also told the story using foam puppets.

 

 

Come and visit the Art Room to see the beautiful wall display we made around the theme of this book.

How Many Bugs In The Box?

This was our story during our Seeds, Flowers and Leaves theme.  It seemed like a good fit considering we had also been looking at some of the insects that live in our playground and playing with toy-bug sensory trays.

 
We practised "How many....?" and numbers 1 - 10.

Go, Dog. Go!

This classic beginning reader uses only 75 different words, it features red dogs, blue dogs, big dogs, little dogs—all kinds of wonderful P. D. Eastman dogs—riding bicycles, scooters, skiis, and roller skates and driving all sorts of vehicles on their way to a big dog party held on top of a tree!
We read this as part of our PETS theme.

Claire reads Muddled Up Farm

The theme this week was animals and as well as singing the traditional song Old MacDonald Had A Farm, we also read a book about a not so traditional farm.  This story, Muddled Up Farm, was a big hit.  The illustrations and sound effects allowed the humour to reach the kids in Cleo's class.  Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.

Muddled Up Farm

Everything that is mixed up on Muddled-up Farm! From the cat to the cow, to the pig and the goat, this book is full of surprises that had the kids at UPUERE laughing out loud.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?

This classic children's picture book has been a huge success in classrooms all over the world.  This week we read the i-pad version, projecting the beautiful illustrations up onto the whiteboard.
You can also purchace an online version of this book from Amazon for your i-pad or kindle.  Alternatively, watch this story with your child on youtube.

Celeste Sails to Spain

The book this week is by a wonderful Australian author, Alison Lester.  Each page follows the adventures of seven friends as they explore different places and celebrate special moments.  Children can always identify with one of the characters in the book and so the reading experience becomes more personal for them.

Celeste Sails to Spain fits beautifully with our My Town theme for this week and our new song about the sea

The Hungry Gorilla

This week's topic is food.  My favourite story to work with this theme is The Hungry Gorilla by Carol Read.  This story reinforces some key vocabulary for food and "I like...".  In addition to that, it introduces some great language for making polite requests.  Very useful in the classroom.

Can I have a banana, please? - Yes, here you are. - Thankyou!

Who's There Spot?

 

This is the book we read this week.  It helps to reinforce greetings and farewells as well as introducing some new animals.

The Spot books are a wonderful collection of lift-the-flap books by Eric Carle.  There are lots of animated videos of the stories that you can watch on YouTube.
Here is a link.