Case study: building on the packs

Read about how the reception teachers at Monteney Primary School in Sheffield came up with their own Booktime-themed activities as well as using the resources on the Booktime website.

You could update the Monteney teachers' ideas from 2010, when the Booktime story book was "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said the Sloth, by Eric Carle, or visit the the Resources section of the Booktime site to find lots of new ideas.

How have you built on giving out the book packs?

The children loved the books as well as Booky, the Booktime character, so we have run follow-on activities based on Booky, "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" Said the Sloth and also the previous Booktime book Mr Big (where they immediately spotted Booky on the back cover!):

• Guided reading sessions using individual books from book packs.
• Collage of the animals from "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" Said the Sloth based on Eric Carle's technique of creating his pictures with tissue paper - for a display in class.
• Rainforest dancing.
• Looking at information about Sloths.
• Making our own books with stories about Booky.
• Writing speech bubbles for things we would shout to Mr Big.
• Making musical instruments decorated with the Mr Big stickers (they all wanted to choose the Booky stickers!)A visit from a musician to play jazz piano like Mr Big
• Children also independently went and drew pictures of Booky or made their own Bookys in the creative area of the classroom

Have you used any of the electronic resources on the Booktime website?

We've used the games as a whole class and in ICT sessions, where children could explore the website independently. The children love being able to use the interactive books and were fascinated to hear Eric Carle's voice in his author interview. They were really interested in his accent and how he pronounces words differently to them.

We've used some of the activity sheets for Mr Big and for "Slowly , Slowly, Slowly" Said the Sloth, which the children have enjoyed using. We've used or adapted some of the session ideas, which have been really useful.

Every time the children saw that we'd put the Booktime website on the computer, they'd shout "BOOKY!" and got very excited!