Phonic Daisies

Phonic Daisies is a little activity I made for my daughter to practice her phonic knowledge.  I wanted a little activity that would help her recognise the different spelling of words that have the same phonic sound. This is something that she sometimes finds tricky. 

I cut out a pile of yellow circles and a pile of white petals. 

I wrote a phonic sound on the yellow circle and used 5 petals per circle to draw pictures related to the sound. Additional petals can be made for each sound to expand vocabulary and change it up each time the game is played. 

I choose to start off with the ee/ea and ai/ay sounds.

We concentrated on the separate pair of sounds individually  before grouping them together as a four. I gave her the two sound circles and scattered the ten petals across the table for her to assemble into pretty phonic daisies 

ai vs ay 

ai words: snail, train, nail, rain, paint   

ay words: spray, ray, say, tray, hay 

ee vs ea 

ee words: green, bee, three, tree, sheep

ea words: tea, sea, pea, seal, meat

I used a empty icecream tub to store our daisies and each week a new set of  phonic daisies with new sounds will be added.

Practising reading and writing with Flashcards

Making writing fun can be really tricky especially for children who don't want to pick up a pencil. I have found my kids prefer writing on small pieces of paper.

One of the activities my daughter enjoys is making her own flashcards. I give her a pile of small sheets of paper, various pens and pencils, and a pack of flash card for inspiration and to help with words she cannot spell
She will sit for a hour or so drawing pictures, reading words, and writing. She has a great sense of self achievement and is always really proud of her finished pack of Flashcards.

Singing with Flash Cards

My children love playing with Flash Cards but after a little while they start to lose interest and want to do something else. To keep them interested a little longer I decided to use the cards a little bit differently. We look for words that are used in our favourite songs. 

There is a few different ways you can do this. The cards  can be grouped beforehand and the children can read the words on the cards and then sing the song associated with those words. The cards can be laid out so the children can pick some pictures and then sing the song or you could ask them to find the cards that match a song. 

Children could also be given the chance to use their imagination and be creative. Let them pick cards at random and make up their own songs. 

Here are a few examples :) 

Twinkle twinkle little star, my dad drives a rusty car

Turn the engine, pull the choke

Off he goes with a puff of smoke

Twinkle twinkle little star, my dad drives a rusty car 

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick sick sick

So she phoned for the doctor to be quick quick quick

The doctor came with his bag and hat

And he knocked on the door with a rat-a-tat-tat

He looked at dolly and he shook his head

And said Miss Polly put her straight to bed 

He wrote on a paper for a pill pill pill 

I will be back in the morning with my bill bill bill

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle 

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such fun 

And the dish ran away with the spoon 

How much is that doggie in the window

The one with the waggley tail

How much is that doggie in the window 

I do hope that doggie's for sale

Row row row your boat 

Gently down the stream 

Merrily merrily merrily merrily 

Life is but a dream 

Rock Rock Rock your boat 

Gently down the stream 

If you see a crocodile 

Don't forget to scream

Row Row Row your boat 

Down the Arctic river 

If you see a Polar Bear 

Don't forget to shiver

Rock Rock Rock your boat 

All the way to shore

If you see a Lion there 

Don't forget to ROAR!

Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up

Pull pull clap clap clap 

Wind it back again, Wind it back again 

Pull pull clap clap clap

Point to the ceiling, point to the floor

Point to the window, point to the door

Clap your hands together 

One two three

Put your hands down on your knee. 

Old MacDonald had a farm ee-i-ee-i-ooo

And on that farm he had a pig ee-i-ee-i-ooo

With a oink oink here and a oink there 

Here a oink there a oink 

Everywhere a oink oink

Old MacDonald had a farm ee-i-ee-i-ooo

(repeat verse with other animals)

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Round and round, round and round

The wheels on the bus go round and round 

all day long

The cat on the bus go Miow miow miow

Miow miow miow, miow miow miow 

The cat on the bus goes Miow miow miow 

All day long 

(Stray away from the traditional verses and mix the verses up with whatever animals/ things your child desires. The children will have a giggle imagining all the bizarre things on the bus. )

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are four little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me' 

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be 

Snap! 

There are three little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are two little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me' 

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be 

Snap! 

There is one little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are no more monkeys swinging in a tree

The Gruffalo

Getting children to draw pictures of their favourite stories is a great way to practice drawing shapes and encouraging them to draw in more detail. Spend time talking about a character in a book. Point out the distinguishable features and colours used to make that particular character unique. The Gruffalo is a wonderful story to start with. Julia Donaldson uses clever little rhymes to describe the gruffalo and the book is full of lovely illustrations. 

But who is this creature with terrible claws,

And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws? 

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes,

And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. 

His eyes are orange, his tongue is black. 

He has purple prickles all over his back. 

"Oh help! Oh no! It's a gruffalo."

Dream catchers

I adore Roald Dahl's work. I love his quirky language, heart warming phrases and his ability to draw you into a magic world and fall in love with his characters.
His stories give me a great feeling of nostalgia and it gives me great pleasure to share these stories with my children. My daughter in particular is falling in love with the world of Roald Dahl. One of her favourites is The BFG so I decided it would be nice to do a activity related to this.


'I is a dream-blowing giant,' the BFG said. 'When all the other giants is galloping off every what way and which to swollop human beans, I is scuddling away to other places to blow dreams into the bedroom of sleeping children. Nice dreams. Lovely golden dreams. Dreams that is giving the dreamers a happy time 


There is nothing more magical than dreams so this was a lovely topic to focus on. We wanted to capture all these lovely golden dreams and the best way to do this is with a dream catcher! 

'Every dream in the world is making a different sort of buzzy-hum music'

After a quick chat about our favourite dreams I cut little cloud shapes out of white paper and asked the children to write and draw things they thought were happy dreams.

Macey's happy dreams were of going to the circus, dancing with Kermit and were filled with fairies and mermaids. Nathans dreams were of flying in the sky, driving a tractor, visiting far away planets in his rocket and climbing in his submarine to discover the secrets deep down in the ocean.

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Dahlicious dress up day

To celebrate Roald Dahl day we decided to dress up as the peach from James and the Giant peach,a delightful story in which my daughter absolutely adores. I wanted to make it a bit more girly than the usual round peach over the head costumes I had seen so we decided on making a tutu and attaching bugs.

'James's little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and bright as two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon being blown up'

I made a simple tutu using peach material 2 x the size of her waist measurement. I made a pocket along the top to thread a piece of elastic the size of her waist when streched and then stitched the ends together. I did not bother hemming the bottom because we went for a ragedy look. We then used what material was left over and ripped it up and randomly pinned them all over the skirt. I also had some pale pink shimmery net material left over so we added a few pieces of it to add a bit of sparkle. 

'Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic! So hold the bag tight! Don't tear the paper! Off you go! Hurry up! Don't wait! Now's the time! Hurry'

We then made James and the bugs using felt, googly eyes, and fuzzy sticks. We glued them onto scrap pieces of material so they would be easier to sew onto the skirt. I cut all the pieces out and Macey arranged and glued them onto the material and drew on little mouths. I thought it was nice to do the bugs this way so she had involvement in making the costume too. 

'

'So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog? You could hardly call that an insect, could you?'

"Now comes, the Centipede declared, 'the burden of my speech:

These foods are rare beyond compare - some are right out of reach;

But there's no doubt I'd go without

A million plates of each

For one small mite,

One tiny bite,

Of this FANTASTIC PEACH' 

To match the tutu we used a plain green tshirt and glued black strips of material on the back in the shape of skyscrapers to represent New York. I then cut out letter using different coloured felt and used them to write James and the Giant Peach on the front and stuck a heart and NY on the back above the skyscrapers. 

'James Henry trotter, who once if you remember had been the saddest and loneliest 

little boy that you could find, now had all the friends and playmates in the world'

Sing along with Elmo

My kids love singing the alphabet song with Elmo!!

The Tiny Turnip

My children love  The Gigantic Turnip. It is one of their favourite story books.  I used this book as inspiration for last nights meal. It is very important to me to teach my children about healthy eating  but I try do it in a subtle way. My children watch and help me cook.  Its part of everyday discussions and I try to include it in some of our activities.

I read the story then asked my children to find a turnip in the fridge. They were very disappointed that it was very tiny unlike the gigantic turnip in the story.

'We can call ours the tiny turnip' - Macey

I don't like to just tell them fruit and vegetables are good for you I like to give them a reason why so I usually pick one item from our meals and give them one example of why its good for them. In tonights meal I told them the tiny turnip has lots of fibre to help our tummies digestive system run smoothly. 

On a fine March morning, the old woman sat up in bed, sniffed the sweet spring air  and said,

'It's time to sow the vegetables!' So the old man and the old woman went into the garden. 

They sowed peas and carrots and potatoes and beans. Last of all they sowed turnips.

We used the same vegetables that the old man and woman sowed in our recipe. We added peas and carrots with some mince turkey, parsnips, and vegetable stock and plopped some mini dumplings on top. We made turnip and potato mash and served with green beans. 

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This day in history - Priestley discovers Oxygen

Joseph Priestley

Today is the First of August 2012. On this day 238 years ago in 1774 Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen .

Our Calendar

James Priestley was a English Scientist.

This is England!

He was a very curious man. He did lots of experiments. During his experiments he discovered Oxygen.

The symbol for Oxygen 

O is for Oxygen. Practise the Jolly Phonics. Pretend to turn a light switch on and off and say O, O,  O,O

Jolly Phonic workbook page. 

What Is Oxygen?

We can't see oxygen. It is invisible. We can't see it and we can't smell it. Oxygen is very important. Without it nothing could exist. We would not be here. Oxygen is in the air all around us and in the water we drink.  All plants and animals need to breathe. We breathe in air from our nose and our mouths.

I got my children to place their hands on their tummies and take deep breathes so they could feel the movement of their diaphragms as they breathe.

We can feel our tummies move when we breathe in and out.

 It makes its way into our lungs. The oxygen  then hitches a ride of our red blood cells and travels all around our body.

What Is Air?

Air is a mixture of Oxygen and other invisible gases. It is all around us but we can't see it. So if we can't see it how do we know it is there?

I used a empty pop bottle to demonstrate the existence of air. What is in the bottle?

Nothing? Right?

I squeezed the bottle onto their faces so they could feel the air blow out.

Macey squeezing the bottle so Drew can feel the air.