STARTING WITH RHYME SERIES FOR EARLY YEARS. Action rhyme activities. Irene Yates. COUNTING RHYME ACTIVITIES. Jenni Tavener. STARTING WITH STORY SERIES FOR EARLY YEARS. Fairy tale activities. Pauline Kenyon ANIMAL STORY ACTIVITIES. Lesley Clark. Scholastic Pounds 8.99 each.
Schools need quality materials produced by teachers for teachers. In fact, the sort of materials most teachers are quite capable of producing themselves, if only they had the time.
Scholastic’s four books for early years link with key stage 1 national curriculum objectives and the Desirable Outcomes for Children’s Learning for five-year-olds. They take a general theme and relate it to activities across the curriculum, as well as to activities for display and a cookery activity.
The activities in the books based on rhyme are clearly set out, with a rhyme per chapter and photocopiable activities to be used in the classroom. Rhymes include favourites such as “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Ten in the Bed”. Each activity is laid out in the same format with the learning objective, group sizes, details of things you will need and necessary preparation outlined.
The Starting with Story books follow the same format and cover well-known stories such as “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Town and Country Mouse”. While it is appropriate to use these traditional stories, it would have been more interesting to see stories from other parts of the world included.
These resources would be well worth buying for playgroups, pre-school groups and nurseries, as well as forcurriculum support in school reception classes.
Nicola Jones is an English and special needs teacher in London
