Rumble in the Jungle

This week in nursery we will be looking at the book, 'Rumble in the Jungle.' We hope you enjoy the story. 

Literacy

To develop listening skills and an awareness of sounds in the environment.

• Place 4 to 6 noisy items (crisp packet, keys, squeaky toy…) in a box placed on its side so the top is facing away from your child. Before you hide each object in the box show your child the sound it makes.

Sing to the tune of ‘Old MacDonald’ but using your own name or your child’s:

.......... has a box ee i ee i o

And in that box he/she has a........

Stop. Gesture and ask your child to listen and think carefully about what is making the sound. Then encourage your child to try and make the noise themselves.

• Set up a model farmyard. Describe one of the animals but do not tell your child its name. Say, for example: This animal has horns, four legs and a tail. Ask them to say which animal it is. Ask them to make the noise the animal might make. When they are familiar with the game let your child take the part of the adult and describe the animal for you to guess. This activity can be repeated with other sets of objects such as zoo animals, toy sets based on transport and musical instruments.

To make up simple sentences and talk about sounds in greater detail.  

• Socks and shakers - Partially fill either opaque plastic bottles or the toes of socks with noisy materials (e.g. rice, peas, pebbles, marbles, shells, coins). Ask your child to shake the bottles or socks and identify what is inside from the sound the items make. From the feel and the sound of the noisy materials encourage your child to talk about them. Ask questions such as: Where might we find shells and pebbles?
• Make a poster for your child to record their favourite sounds pictorially. Talk about the sounds they like best. They might even want to draw them. Ask your child to think about sounds that they do not like (e.g. stormy weather, barking dogs, car horns, crying babies) and to say why.
• Enlivening stories/ rhymes – act out and add sounds to your child’s favourite stories or nursery rhymes. For example:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (bump, crash, bang!)

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men (gallop, gallop, gallop)

Couldn’t put Humpty together again (boo, hoo, boo, hoo, boo, hoo).

Maths

To sometimes match numeral to quantity 1-5. 

• Use the jungle themed finger gym activity below, to help your child with their understanding of number and to help develop their fine motor skills.  Print off the animals on card or you could laminate them to make them stronger. If you don't have a printer, you could make your own animals out of card you might have in your recycling box. Then attach the right amount of pegs to each animal for their legs. You could also write the numerals 1-5 on a circle of card and encourage your child to peg on the correct amount of pegs for each numeral. 
• Use the jungle themed playdough mats below to improve your child's understanding of matching numeral to quantity. They will need to listen carefully to the instruction and then use the playdough to make the correct quantity.  
• Make your own set of flashcards for numbers 1-5 based on your child's interests. Then using their favourite toys, counters or anything else similar at home, encourage them to match the flashcard to the correct quantity of objects. You could also show your child a flashcard and then encourage them to count out the correct number of objects to match to the numeral. 
• Write the numerals 1-5 in bubble writing and give your child some stickers or a stamp. They can then put the right amount of stickers or stamps into each numeral. 
• Draw 5 circles, write a numeral 1-5 in each one and add on a stem to make it look like a flower. Children can then finger paint the right amount of petals on to each flower.  

Topic

Please look at the document, 'Additional activities to support your child's learning in 30-50 months' and the new document 'Summer 2 parent support activities 30-50 months' for more ideas how to support your child in the different areas of learning. Any links in bold in the new document can be found in the rainbow dated 1.06.20.