Many practitioners build up collections of stories that children enjoy, and they themselves feel familiar and safe with. Sometimes it can be difficult to move outside this 'comfort zone' and explore new, equally exciting and stimulating books. While most practitioners and parents will be familiar with Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Walker Books, £5.99), this week's project gives practitioners opportunities to explore a less familiar book that offers a twist on the traditional tale - We're Going on Lion Hunt by David Axtell (Macmillan Children's Books, £4.99).
This wonderful multicultural book gives children opportunities to make links with one of their old favourites and also see that favourite stories can be adapted and developed by authors, and, indeed, themselves!
The rhythmic text is based on a traditional rhyme which was also a popular campfire song, so some practitioners may remember the words from their own childhood. Various versions exists (see box).
When young children see books as exciting, interesting and fun they will choose to read for themselves and share books with others. This book is one that children and adults will want to revisit again and again and this revisiting will help the children to retell the story independently.
AREAS OF LEARNING - KEY
(1) Personal, social and emotional development
(2) Communication, language and literacy
(3) Mathematical development
(4) Knowledge & understanding of the world
(5) Physical development
(6) Creative development
ADULT-LED ACTIVITIES
On the move
Explore moving in different ways to accompany the story.
Adult:child ratio 1:8
KEY LEARNING INTENTIONS
(1) To work as part of a group, taking turns
(2) To enjoy rhythmic activities
(5) To travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment
RESOURCES
- Laminated signs reading 'under', 'over, 'through', 'around'
- A4 laminated pictures of swamps, water, long grass, caves, downloaded from the internet
Preparation
- Ensure the children are familiar with David Axtell's We're Going on a Lion Hunt and have had opportunities to retell the story together.
- Set up the outside area with climbing apparatus and/or rugs, blankets, crates, tyres and pallets so that children have opportunities to go under, over, around and through obstacles. Attach the laminated signs, where appropriate, to the obstacle course.
Activity content
- Revisit the book with the children, encouraging them to join in with the rhythmic text. Then chat about how they could go over, under, around and through long grass, water and a swamp.
- Give the children opportunities to explore different ways of moving. How could they move through water? Paddling, wading, jumping, leaping, swimming?
- When the children have had time to move around in different ways, ask them what other obstacles they could face - snow, crevices, quicksand, lava. Spend some more time exploring ways to move over, under, around or through all their suggestions.
- If appropriate, add some more structure to the activity. Add some music and call out a hazard - for example, 'swamp'. The children will have to choose a way to move around and do so until the music stops.
- When the group activity begins to wind down, introduce the obstacle course to the children and encourage them to use it independently.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Through, over, under, around, obstacle, swamp, lake, sea, water, wave, grass, wade, swim, paddle, move, avoid, swish, swash, splish, splash, squish, squelch
Questions to ask
- What sort of journey did you have on your lion hunt?
- Which is your favourite way of moving? Is there another way to travel through water?
- What else could you have found on the way? How could we get past it?
- How do you think we could get across hot lava? Or deep, deep snow?
Extension ideas
- Encourage the children to create their own obstacle courses and set appropriate challenges.
- Make photo books of the children involved in obstacle courses and use speech bubbles for children's speech about what they did, and why.
BY THE BOOK
Make a book based on the story of the lion hunt.
Key learning intentions
(2) To use writing as a means of recording and communication
(2) To ascribe meaning to marks
(4) To perform simple functions on ICT apparatus
Adult:child ratio 1:4
RESOURCES
- We're Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell
- cuddly soft toy lion or puppet
- digital camera and printer
- glue sticks
- assorted markers
- speech bubbles
PREPARATION
- Make an A4 card book.
Activity content
- Revisit the book with the children. Decide what they want to go on a hunt for - a lion, or something else? A dinosaur, dragon, whale?
- Encourage the children to think of where the hunt might end up - a cave, castle, house, volcano?
- Discuss the hazards that they may meet on the way.
- Support the children as they take photos of each other and print out the images.
- Encourage each child to choose one 'obstacle' to draw and act as a scribe to record their comments in the speech bubbles - 'squishy squashy mud'
- Begin to fix the photos, pictures and drawings into the book.
- Finalise the book, using the sequence from the original story and adding the children's own words - 'oh no ... a lake of toffee, can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it, got to go through it. Sticky, stucky, sticky, stucky!'
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Book, author, illustrator, beginning, middle, end, text, speech bubble, image, drawing, camera, print, print, fix, stick, adhesive
Questions to ask
- Why do you think it would be good to hunt a scary monster?
- What did you do first? And then what?
- What do we need to write about the dragon hunt? How can we remind ourselves what you said?
- What can you tell us about your journey?
Extension ideas
- Provide simple zig-zag book formats for children to make their own versions of We're Going on a Lion Hunt.
- Support children's descriptive language development through a 'who am I?' game. Ask one child to think of a wild animal and describe it, one clue at a time. For example, I have four legs, I have hooves, I have a swishy tail, I am black and white, I have stripes. Other children can ask one question after each clue - 'Are you a horse?'
CHILD-INITIATED LEARNING
Role play
Additional resources and adult support
- Provide rucksacks with maps, torches, compasses, water bottles, paper, markers and other resources for explorers.
- Set up a 'base camp' with camouflage netting, sleeping bags, campfire, metal mugs, plates and bowls, and a 'cave' with minibeasts and a 'lion'.
- Model the use of specific resources and act 'in role' - as an explorer, a vet hunting a sick lion, or someone who has found a lost cub to be returned to its mother.
- Ask open-ended questions that encourage the use of imaginative and descriptive language.
- Encourage the children to add resources or use equipment in creative ways to support their play.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Emptying and filling the rucksacks.
- Retelling the story of We're Going on a Lion Hunt
- Telling stories involving lions, camping or explorers
- Building tents and a campsite
- 'Cooking' food on the campfire
- Communicating their ideas, thoughts and feelings through role play
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(1) Has a growing awareness of the needs of others
(2) Uses language to recreate roles and experiences
(4) Remembers and talks about significant things that have happened to
them
(6) Uses imagination in role play
OUTDOORS
Additional resources and adult support
- Ensure the children know how to play a 'Hide, hunt and find' game. Hide a lion toy somewhere in the outdoor area and encourage the children to hunt for it. Give clues ('You're getting hot, Ramel', 'You're ice cold, Candice', 'You're boiling hot, Jack').
- Encourage the children to hide the lion and hunt for it, giving each other verbal clues.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Hiding and hunting for the lion
- Pretending to be a lion and 'scaring' others
- Moving in different ways
- Pretending to be explorers
- Using imagination to play 'hide and seek'
- Recalling the story of We're Going on a Lion Hunt
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(1) Persists at an activity of own choosing
(2) Gives clear instructions
(3) Uses everyday words to describe position
(4) Shows curiosity about the environment
(5) Shows awareness of space
ICT AREA
Additional resources and adult support
- Provide a Bee-bot, or other such programmable floor robot, on a large table or smooth floor surface. Add photographs of a swamp, lake, long grass, mud, a cave and a house (from the internet) as well as Blu-Tack. Provide card, paper and markers.
- Ensure the children are familiar with programming the robot and making it follow simple paths.
- Support the children as they retell the story and programme the Bee-bot to move from the house, to the swamp, lake, grass and finally to the cave.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Recalling the story of We're Going on a Lion Hunt
- Creating a path for the Bee-bot using the photos and Blu-Tack
- Drawing additional pictures to add to the journey
- Exploring how the Bee-bot moves
- Predicting how many moves the Bee-bot needs to make to reach each obstacle
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(1) Takes initiatives and manages developmentally appropriate tasks
(2) Retells narratives in correct sequence
(3) Says and uses number names in order
(4) Knows how to operate simple equipment
(5) Uses a range of small equipment
(6) Works creatively on a small scale
OUTDOORS
Additional resources and adult support
- Make play mud by adding water and hypoallergenic washing-up liquid to topsoil in an empty sand tray or builder's Tuff Spot. Provide empty plastic pots, boxes and mark-making equipment such as clay tools and twigs.
- Urge the children to work together collaboratively to explore the resources.
- Introduce and model the use of descriptive vocabulary.
- Observe the children and ask open questions about what they are doing and why.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Exploring the 'mud'
- Making mud pies
- Filling and emptying boxes and pots
- Making marks with the tools and their hands
- Letting the mud drip through fingers to create 'monster hands'
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(1) Responds to significant experiences
(2) Uses talk to explain what is happening and why
(4) Investigates materials using senses as appropriate
(5) Uses one-handed tools and equipment
(6) Begins to describe the texture of things
IMAGINATIVE PLAY
Additional resources and adult support
- Create a safari scene in a Tuff Spot. Create different obstacles, in a journey with damp sand, grass (fake or turf), water and gravel, topsoil mixed with cellulose paste, cocoa shells or bark chippings. Add branches, pebbles, fir cones, shells and a 'cave' (make a simple one out of a small box). Add a small furry lion, a house and toy people.
- Provide maps, paper to make maps and assorted markers.
- Encourage the children to explore the imaginative play scenario, retell the 'lion hunt' and make up stories.
- Extend children's conversations by introducing and reinforcing the use of specific vocabulary.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Retelling the story about the lion hunt and making up their own stories
- Exploring the natural resources
- Hiding or burying the lion and people
- Exploring the maps
- Making own maps or directions
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(1) Has a strong exploratory impulse
(2) Develops a simple story consistently
(3) Uses everyday words to describe position
(4) Notices differences about features in the environment
(5) Uses a range of equipment with increasing skill
(6) Uses imagination in imaginative play and stories
RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THE THEME
- Bee-bot, programmable floor robot (from £44.95), Bee-bot software (from £24.95) and Constructa-bot (Bee-bot transformed into a digger) are available from TTS Group (www.tts-group.co.uk)
- A range of lion puppets are available from Puppets by Post (www.puppetsbypost.co.uk)
- Maths through Stories by Judith Stevens (£29.50, available from BEAM, tel: 01242 267945, www.beam.co.uk)
WE'RE GOING ON A LION HUNT
The leader chants each line, then the rest of the group echoes each line and sets up a clapping, thigh-slapping rhythm.
Going on a lion hunt.
Going to catch a big one.
We're not scared.
Look, what's up ahead?
Mud!
Can't go over it.
Can't go under it.
Can't go around it.
Got to go through it. (Make sloshing sounds and move hands as if wading)
Sticks! (Snap fingers)
Tree! (Make gestures climbing up and down)
Gate! (Make gate-opening gestures)
River! (Make swimming gestures)
Cave! (Go in it and find lion. Reverse all motions quickly to get home)
READER OFFER
We have ten copies of We're Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell (Macmillan Children's Books, £4.99) to give away to Nursery World readers. Send your name and address on the back of a postcard or envelope, marked 'Lion Hunt', to the address on page 3. Winners will be the first ten names drawn on 26 July.
