Summer Fun!

Our swimming pool is open throughout the school summer holiday for family recreational swimming. You are welcome to come along and enjoy our pool with your family. 

Please call the school office (01227 762436) in advance to confirm pool opening times and when/if a qualified lifeguard will be present. All children are the responsibility of the accompanying adult and must not be left unattended at any time.

I have chosen two books this month for you to enjoy with your child. I hope you find the ideas for activities and pointers towards the educational value helpful too.

Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Brown

Here is an overview of the story for you to read before seeing the book. It is available in the children’s section of most libraries.

This is a beautifully illustrated multicultural book with a real feel of ‘Sunny Africa’. Handa is a little girl who packs 7 fruits in a basket to take to her friend Akeyo as a surprise. Her walk takes her past a variety of animals for whom the fruit looks very inviting. Unbeknown to Handa, 7 different animals steal 7 different pieces of fruit and the basket is soon empty. Soon afterwards, a goat charges into a tangerine tree, causing the fruit to drop into Handa’s basket.

On arrival at her friend’s village she greets her friend saying, “Hello Akeyo I’ve brought you a surprise”......but on looking in the basket it is Handa who gets the biggest surprise!

Activities

I have not disclosed the names of the fruit and animals in the synopsis so that you too can have a surprise!

Handa’s Surprise will give children an insight into animals that they would otherwise only see on visiting the zoo or if lucky enough to visit other countries. Likewise with the different fruits, many discussions can be had as to where you could buy such fruits in this country, what they look like inside and what they taste like.

 Have fun making a fruit salad using all 7 fruits and enjoy eating it!

Children could sequence the names of animals (or draw pictures) in the correct order of the story, matching the correct fruit to the animal. They could also count the animals and fruit, whilst learning the mathematical terms of 1st, 2nd 3rd and so on.

An excellent follow-up to this story is another book about Handa which is described below.

Handa’s Hen by Eileen Brown.

This is also set in Africa and tells the story of Handa’s Hen called Mondi. Again, it has excellent illustrations of varieties of animals that are not particularly familiar to children. These animals are in sets, giving excellent opportunities to teach children one to one correspondence as well as counting, recognising numbers, sequencing and matching whilst enjoying a wonderful story. An excellent follow-up to this story is another book about Handa entitled Handa’s Hen. This is also set in Africa and tells the story of Handa’s Hen called Mondi……

Article written by Mrs B Garratt (Nursery Leader)