The little red hen

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

 

My topic is soon to be The Little Red Hen with Receptions and i'm just having a think of some ideas. So far I have bread making, kneading dough, a bakers shop in my role play area, split pin hens for cutting, covering the table with paper and havign puppets for the children to act the story out and draw a story map also i'm going to do talk for writing with them so that they learn the story with the actions and then change the ending and add different characters in.

 

However outdoors and practical maths is where I am getting a mind blank. I am getting observed by an early years advisor at some point during the week so really want the children to learn lots and be really engaged.

 

I would like the children to learn about resolving conflicts (taking turns), following a story without a book, writing labels/captions, using adding vocabulary or shape vocabulary, looking at similarities/differences and change.

 

Any ideas or inspiration anyone? Thanks in advance.

[catma]

What I would say is not everything has to be in the context of the book...you might find it easier to plan activities that are just what you need to do to support learning rather than forcing them into a narrow context. E.g. you could do lots of maths games outside using tallying and calculation skills with beanbags and buckets, or number lines - instruction games like "find a number 1 less than 3" in groups. Set up shape treasure hunts and give clues as to the shape to hunt for...

Learning and engagement will be highest when children are being given enough challenge so I'd focus on that and if it works with a LRH context great, but if not don't force it, because then it can become all about the context and not the actual learning, if you see what I mean. And when I'm observing this is often the weakness not the strength.

Cx

[Guest]

I made a Little Red Hen number line which you might find useful. I printed it onto card, cut them out and laminated them. The children enjoyed putting them in order. You could omit a card, let them say which is missing and give them a map or directions to find it.

When I covered this topic we ground our own corn using a coffee grinder (also had a pestle and mortar for the children to use and to look at other ways to 'grind' the corn) - when we had enough 'flour' we used it to make playdough.

 

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

 

Good luck!

The Little Red Hen number line.docx

[millhill]

I agree with Catma's comments as it can get a bit too overwhelming if every learning objective is linked to a theme. Not all children will be interested in the story, so it might be worthwhile having some activities based on their interests as well, which probably have nothing to do with 'The Little Red Hen'.

 

However, for outdoors you could get the children to act out the story outside with some props, get an adult to model it first, then the children can do it independently (taking turns) with a 'narrator' telling the story (without the book). They could do a performance of the story for each other, writing out tickets for the show, making big posters, labelling them to advertise the performance. You could make up a song or rap about the story too and they can use musical instruments.

 

For maths, if you are making bread, you have lots of opportunities for addition/subtraction language, "how many more spoons/cups?", "we've put too much flour in, what do we need to do?". Your baker shop will also offer opportunities for price addition, sharing, '10 Current Buns in the Baker Shop'(one less from 10) rhyme.

 

The only thing I can think of for outdoor maths is having pretend (or real) bags of flour of differing weights and compare them to each other.

 

Good luck with it....I shall be doing this topic sometime soon!

[Guest]

What about weighing/measuring using measuring cups. A cup of this, 2 cups of that.

 

Tasting different breads.

 

Change the story characters.

 

Sorting different oats, beans, barkey, rice - learn the song Oats, peas beans & barley grow.

Picking up with pinching fingers

[Guest]

I have done this theme in the past and it has worked well. We visited the bakery in the village, our role play was ' little red hen's bakery', we made bread, ground our own flour. There's a 'come outside' episode where aunts Mabel and pippin go to find out how bread is made ( try YouTube) we had a variety of grains and pulses to sort in the tuff spot ( fine motor control) we also made simple windmills with paper plates and split pins. we tried different breads from around the world and lots of activities were based around storytelling and role play.

 

Deb