Publisher: Philomel Books ISBN: 978-0399247491 This half term, our class are appreciating the work of various children's picture book illustrators and attempting to recreate their techniques. Here is our first project, focusing on the work of Oliver Jeffers in The Incredible Book Eating Boy masterpiece! This book was one of our first choices because Oliver grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and I think that it's so important for the children to identify with local success stories. Also, Oliver uses mixed media in his illustrations and this is an area that we really needed to develop. We started off with... Read more →

Here is a free download for creating a story sequence chain based on what Eric Carle's very hungry caterpillar ate on Saturday. (You know, before the stomachache!) Simply print out the PDF on white card, colour the food items and cut around the dotted lines. We had fine-motor fun creating holes in the food with a single-hole punch and then we used a scrap of wool (yarn) for threading. There are ten items here for ordering, so you could leave the picture book open for support, or perhaps reduce the number of food items :) Talking and Listening: Some Extension... Read more →

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books ISBN: 978-0340969991 As the story opens, it seems like Cressida Cowell's small and lonely Viking hero could certainly do with some lessons in being fierce and strong before he sets out on his first voyage. A Viking should not be afraid of anything, least of all the sea! We decided to create our own crew of ferocious invaders to help Hiccup's dad, Stoick the Vast, convince his son that Vikings don't get frightened. Will they remain so brave when a storm hits and their longship is lost at sea? We provided the children with lots of... Read more →

One of the things I'm enjoying most about being back at work, is taking a class of older children for art, every Tuesday. Inspired by this wonderful non-fiction narrative by Satoshi Kitamura, the children created wonderful interpretations of prehistoric cave paintings; their artwork looks so authentic and the children (especially the boys) loved it! You can read more about the author here; as you can see from the pictures this book has lots of interesting facts interwoven into the story. It's about a modern day boy who travels back in time when he falls down a hole, to find himself... Read more →