Develop children's understanding of size and height by introducing a project based on the captivating story Tall by Jez Alborough (Walker Books). It stars Bobo the chimp, the lovable character from the award-winning Hug.
Bobo is a little chimp and everyone seems to be taller than him. So, he climbs atop a lizard, a lion cub, an elephant and even a giraffe in his attempt to be the allest. Then he slips... but his mummy is there to catch him as he falls, making Bobo realise that he is happy being small, after all.
The story features just two names (Bobo, Mummy) and three other words (small, tall, fall), but combined with the charming illustrations, they convey important messages about love and being happy with who we are.
The activities suggested below provide a good balance of stimulating learning opportunities across all six areas of the curriculum.
Approach
The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (page 11) emphasises the importance of providing children with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning opportunities. This project, therefore:
* identifies adult-led activities, to introduce or develop children's understanding of the topic through stimulating, meaningful experiences which offer challenge
* suggests ways to enhance areas of core provision, to consolidate children's learning about the theme. It is the practitioners' role to make daily observations of children's learning which inform individual child profiles and future planning. Children should be encouraged to use the resources to support their own learning. This means that the possible learning outcomes will be wide-ranging and varied
* advocates that settings should be organised and resourced using a 'workshop' approach so that children can access resources autonomously and independently.
Adult-led activities
Small and tall
Share the story with the children and encourage them to consider the feelings of the characters as you read.
Key learning intentions To have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others To listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems, and make up their own stories, songs and rhymes
Adult-child ratio 1:6
Resources
* Tall by Jez Alborough (Walker Books, 5.99) * soft toys or plastic models to represent Bobo and the other charcters (make sure that they are appropriate heights) * large open container, such as a laundry basket, in which to hold the story props
Activity content
* Invite the children to sit in a circle around the container and talk to them about the book you are going to read. Explain that it is about a baby chimp called Bobo. Introduce all the characters, holding up each of the toys in turn, inviting the children to say what it is and supporting them with vocabulary such as 'lizard', 'chimpanzee' and 'cub'.
* Read the story through using the props to show how Bobo becomes taller and taller as he climbs on each one.
* Discuss how Bobo asks his friends to help him to become taller. Invite the children to identify their friends and talk about ways in which they help one another.
* Encourage the children to think about how Bobo feels throughout the story by asking appropriate questions. Emphasise the outcome of the story, with Bobo deciding that he is happy to be small after all.
* Discuss the fact that Bobo and his friends are young while his mummy is fully-grown.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Tall, small, fall, mummy, Bobo, chimp, lizard, lion cub, baby elephant, baby giraffe, friends, young, fully-grown, adult Questions to ask
* What does it feel like to be small or tall?
* Bobo's mummy rescued him as he fell to the ground. How do you think he felt as he was falling? How did he feel when his mummy caught him?
* How does the story finish?
* Which part of the story did you enjoy most?
* Do you like being little? Would like to be a grown-up like your mummy or daddy? Why?
Extension ideas
* Leave the book and story props in the book corner. Reread the story to the children, encourage them to join in saying the words 'small' and 'tall'
and talk about how the characters feel.
* Read more stories involving comparisons of height, such as Titch by Pat Hutchins (Red Fox), or traditional tales such as 'Jack and the Beanstalk'
and 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'.
* Talk about how Bobo made himself taller by climbing on his friends, and then invite the children to make themselves taller and smaller using only their bodies, by stretching up high or curling up in a ball.
Taller and taller Encourage the children to measure their heights.
Key learning intentions
To use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
To explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions
Adult-child ratio 1:6
Resources
* Tall by Jez Alborough (Walker Books, 5.99) * large roll of white paper * paint * height chart * tape measures * metre sticks * rulers * string * ribbon
Activity content
* Back a floor-level display board with brightly coloured paper and hang a height chart at one end.
* Reread Tall to the children and ask them who they think is the tallest child in the group. How can they check if they are right?
* Suggest that the children make pictures of themselves by drawing around their bodies, cutting out the outlines and then painting on features and clothes.
* When all the paintings are dry, arrange them on the floor in height order.
* When the children are satisfied that the outlines are in the correct order, stick them along the prepared display board, starting with the shortest and finishing with the tallest.
* Introduce the measuring tools and resources and invite the children to measure and compare the height of their outlines. Ask more able children to record the results.
* Add names, heights and appropriate captions to the display.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Tall, taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest, tape measure, ruler, height chart
Questions to ask
* How tall are you?
* Who is tallest in the group? Who is shortest? Are any children the same height?
* Who is shorter than Robert? How many children are taller than Rachel?
* Are you taller or shorter than this metre stick?
* How did Bobo make himself taller?
Extension ideas
* Pose questions to the children with challenges - for example, can they make a tower of blocks the same height as they are? How many do they think they will need?
* Encourage them to measure their silhouettes using non-standard measurements such as hands. How many hands tall are they?
* Invite the children to make themselves taller by climbing on apparatus - for example, by standing at the top of the slide steps or walking along a bench. Emphasise the dangers of climbing up too high without having adult supervision.
Child-initiated learning
Block play
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide children with a range of blocks of different shapes and sizes and challenge them to build the highest tower that they can.
* Where appropriate, ask the children questions that will challenge their thinking. Why do they think the tower fell down? What happens if they use bricks that are all the same size and shape? Would a stronger or wider base make for a bigger tower? What bricks might be best?
* Encourage them to talk later about what they did and why they did it, when building their towers.
Play possibilities
* Building simple towers with one block on top of another
* Building more complex towers, having regard for the need for a strong base and flat secure platforms
* Using the blocks for construction linked to their own ideas and direction of play
* Standing on blocks (of a large unbreakable kind) in order to make themselves taller, linking to the focus of the story Tall
Possible learning outcomes
Talks through activities and reflects and modifies what they are doing Shows interest by sustained activity or by talking about shapes and arrangements
Engages in activities requiring hand-eye co-ordination
Role play
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide a large (mummy) and small (baby) doll along with a set of clothes for each one, so that the children can investigate size by finding the clothes that best fit each of the dolls.
Play possibilities
* Dressing dolls in clothes that fit them
* Caring for dolls
* Making up stories of their own involving the dolls Possible learning outcomes Uses size language in play, such as 'big' and 'little', 'tall' and 'short'
Orders two items by length or height
Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play
Adult-led activity
Whose baby?
Play an animal matching game to extend children's vocabulary and knowledge of living things.
Key learning intentions
To extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words To look for similarities, differences, patterns and change To engage in activities requiring hand-eye co-ordination Adult-child ratio 1:4 Resources
* Matching game 'Whose Baby?' (Insect Lore 5.99, www.insectlore.co.uk) or home-made version
Activity content
* Play the game, encouraging children to take turns to find a matching pair and name the adult and baby animal.
* Talk about the animals' age and size.
* Leave the game out so children can continue playing without adult supervision.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Young, old, baby, adult, fully-grown, big, little, tall, small, names of animals young and fully-grown such as lion and lion cub, cat, kitten, dog, puppy, duck, duckling, and so on Questions to ask
* What is this animal called? And which animal is its baby?
* Do you think this is the mummy for this baby? Why not?
* Do you know what we call a baby dog?
* Do you think a lion cub would be very big? How big do you think it would be?
* Have you got any animals at home? Are they babies or fully-grown? How big are they? Do you think they will grow much bigger?
Extension ideas
* Create cards depicting adults, children and babies using pictures from mail order catalogues and invite the children to group them in different ways.
* Create a themed landscape in a builder's tray using natural resources such as compost, sand, twigs, leaves, cones and small potted plants and adding a range of animals of the children's choice, perhaps African, farm or woodland animals. Allow the children time to explore the animals and to develop their own stories and ideas.
