Night Monkey Day Monkey craft activity {Julia Donaldson Virtual Book Club for Kids Blog Hop}

I'm SUPER EXCITED to be part of a wonderful blog hop featuring some of Julia Donaldson's amazing books!! I personally have quite a few favourites (none of which are actually The Gruffalo) including Tabby McTat, Stick Man, The Whale and the Snail and Night Monkey Day Monkey.
We are actually doing a unit study on Nursery Rhymes at the moment and this week we were focusing on Jack and Jill, which includes quite a lot of opposites so the book I went with was Night Monkey Day Monkey.
I read it to the children and then while I got the craft organized Esther took it to her room and put on the CD and read it again! She LOVES books and especially ones that have cd's with them!!

I found THIS great climbing critters craft which worked perfectly for this book! After all Monkeys love to go up and down trees which is another opposite!!

 

 

 Ezekiel pulled out one of our craft books and got started on sketching a monkey so he knew how to make one. First on the chalkboard and then on paper, he's called Mike! I printed THIS ONE for Esther and the girls also made up their own out of my stamping up card stock!

I love the excitement of Esther's face with her little monkey climbing up the door....

 

 and Hannah and Zeke's idea to hang the monkeys on the highest point possible to see them go.

Here is there completed monkeys

Sophia's top left, then Hannah's and lastly Ezekiel's (the one with his string wrapped round him as he just packed him up!)
Do make sure you check out the other FANTASTIC ideas for wonderful activities with your children in the
Julia Donaldson Virtual Book Club for Kids Blog Hop!!
Thanks for popping by, I hope you liked our fun idea!
Smiles The Torrents'

Nursery Rhyme Unit study- Hickory Dickory Dock week #4

Hickory Dickory Dock is one of the coolest rhymes, with loads of extras that you can add within the study! One of the main focus's is of course TIME and clocks!

We did some craft together (art) which I made with the little girls, some TIME sheets (maths), researching different clocks and how we used to tell the time, (history) finding out about famous clocks around the world,(geography) making up our own funny poem using the H, D, D theme-like Hey Diddle, Diddle too!(creative writing and also the other rhyme for the younger girls) and lastly we will be going on a field trip to a local clock repairer. Sadly we couldn't do it in this week as they are about to re-locate, but we will soon!

This is the display I put together for this Rhyme.

 

Here is the craft that I made out of a tissue box

 

 Now for the Hickory, Dickory Craft found HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

and now for Zeke's funny rhyme

Zeke's illustration of his cow being pushed off the cliff!

Hannah's fabulous rhyme!

Hannah doesn't like to draw so she dressed up and then pretended to be Hannah from her rhyme, she even made the penny and stuck it into her project book.

It was a great week, one of those one's you have when homeschooling that make you feel really satisfied!!
Smiles The Torrents'

Nursery Rhyme unit study - Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake {an extra}

During our third week the little girls and I focused on the rhyme Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake. Looking at the letter "B" (for baker, which flowed on nicely after Baa, Baa and Blackbird) having fun with colouring in, pretend play with our oven and food goodies and then making a cake together.
Both Esther and Sophia loved it, though Esther was pretty excited when we "marked the cake with "E" and then shared it with my Mum when she came over for the afternoon.

 Little Chef Esther

 Medium Chef Sophia 

(in one of her extra cheesey smiley moods)

 Now for all of us, with my the Big Chef hat!

 There is always a mess made when cooking with the girls,

this time the egg didn't make it into the jug..... 

all good we scooped it back up and popped it in!

(for those of you who have a Thermo we just used the chocolate cake recipe!)

 Now for the tasting..... Ummmmm

 more tasting..... YUMMY!

Our Pat-a-cake marked with "E"

Smiles The Torrents'

Nursery Rhyme unit study week #3 - London Bridge is Falling down

London Bride is Falling Down is one of the most well known Nursery Rhymes around the World! It has actually been made with wood, stone, concrete and steal! It was last built in 1973.
The week we studied this rhyme we also looked at other types of bridges, did a structure craft, and.... well Hannah was unwell most of that week so I told Ezekiel on one of Hannah's sick days that he needed to build a bridge out of Lego for his "school" work that day. Afterwards we acted out the rhyme with the Lego people and Zeke's amazing bridge! It was really fun and a great project for a "sick" week!
This is what he made..... he actually printed a picture of the London Bridge and copied that!! Such a clever Lego builder he is!!

 Working out the bridge

 Getting the blue blocks for the river

 The supports of the bridge

 River, complete with plant life!

 The Finished London Bridge

with proud engineer

Ezekiel

 

 Here are the workers that Zeke added 

that had to fix the bridge after it fell!

     

 

 

 

 Hannah helped find the blocks so she wanted a picture too!

 Smiles The Torrents'

Nursery Rhyme Unit study week #2 Sing a song of Sixpence

We are now up to week 4 of our Unit study but I've been wanting to share with you a run down on each week and haven't had time to do it till now.....
For our second week we studied Sing a Song of Sixpence. There was lots we could do with this rhyme including of course Black birds, Sixpence and other old coins and rye! At the end of the week the children put together a play of the rhyme. They had soo much fun getting their costumes organized and props too, it was so delightful to see! Even Zeke got in full character and happily played along!
Here they are, posing for the camera....

King Ezekiel

 Queen Hannah

 Blackbird Esther (love the corn in the background)

 

 Maid Sophia

 

And now for the play! 

Introducing the Torrents' Children staring in ...

.Sing a song of Sixpence!

  Do join with me in the singing..

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie

When the pie was opened the birds began to sing

Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the King.

  

 The King was in his counting house,

counting out his money,

 The Queen was in the parlour

eating bread and honey,

 The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes

when along came a blackbird

   and pecked off her nose!!

 As you can see they did a great job! I totally loved the little blackbird, i must say she was my favourite!
SO cute!!
I found THIS site hugely helpful for activities for the little girls and HERE is where I made the crown for Hannah (and all the other children last year for our study on the Queen!)
The next rhyme was London Bridge, I'll be sure to post about that soon!
Smiles The Torrents'