Tag developing fine motor skills

Build Your Own Mars Colony

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Build Your Own Mars Colony
illustrated by Jana Glatt
Laurence King Publishing

What better way for youngsters to spend some lockdown time than trying out a bit of space exploration? By means of the contents of this nifty box of cardboard sheets they can do just that, blasting themselves into the deepest depths of beyond in a rocket and then coming to land on the red planet aka Mars.

The scope for imaginary play is terrific once all the pieces from the ten sturdy sheets have been assembled and the colony constructed. What does it feel like enclosed in a space ship hurtling through the pitch-blackness? How does life on a new planet feel compared to that on earth?

The laser cut, double-sided pieces pop-out easily providing all that’s needed for an entire mission Mars colony to be built.

Survival and all that entails have been considered here: there’s a dome-shaped habitat that can provide shelter, half a dozen human characters and some animal ones, a variety of vehicles and the ‘technical manual for interplanetary pioneers’ giving basic plans, unfolds into a base on which to put all the splendidly detailed parts once slotted together.

For adults looking for ways to keep their children engaged, this has great potential; it ticks a host of educational boxes but best of all, it’s terrific fun and encourages those all important flights of fancy.

Samuel (just 5) enjoyed assembling the pieces

and once he’d done so, he and his sister (7) played together with them, and Emmanuelle, having added a few items of her own, wrote a chapter of her story about one of the characters setting up a school on Mars.

Maths, Manipulations and Mindfulness

jillrbennett Leave a comment

5 Wild Numbers
Bella Gomez
Words & Pictures

Vibrant scenes of jungle animals introduce counting and the numerals 1 to 5 in this chunky book.
The thick sturdy pages accommodate a die-cut numeral on each spread with a sliding disc so that small fingers can follow the arrows, move the disc and trace the numeral for ‘One fierce tiger’, ‘Two stripy zebras’, ‘Three parrots’, ‘Four long-tailed monkeys’ and ‘Five pink flamingos’.

The rhyming text introduces exciting words such as ‘paces and snarls’ for the tiger; ‘laze’ and ‘scorching days ‘ for the zebras and even metaphorical language – ‘ their feathers shining bright as jewels’

A fair bit of pressure is needed to move the discs so in my view the value of this activity lies in helping develop fine motor skills but is of limited help in learning to form the numerals.

Shapes Colours Numbers
Dario Zeruto
Words & Pictures

This is a wordless, (apart from the initial ‘How many shapes and colours can you find?) simple, yet ingenious, chunky book that as it unfolds, encourages youngsters to find out about 2D shapes and colours, and do some counting along the way as they explore a series of gatefold flaps.

Playful, engrossing and educational, and all based on five colours, squares, triangles, rectangles, circles and diamonds.

Touch Think Learn Wiggles
Claire Zucchelli-Romer
Chronicle Books

An engaging rhythmic text, inspired perhaps by Hervé Tullet, urges young children to use their wiggly fingers to dance on each spread as they trace shapes, tap and hop, slide up and down, follow circle outlines, zigzags, and spirals as the text is read aloud.

The text is upbeat and playful, the shapes cut out in fluorescent green, pink, or yellow are attractive and inviting but the white type against pale blue pages less satisfying that the brighter shade of blue used for the cover.

ABC Mindful Me
Christiane Engel
Walter Foster Jr.

Mindfulness – paying attention to the present moment, or being in the here and now – is very much in vogue at the moment, with schools adding it to their daily programme, often sadly, tacked on as an optional after school extra rather than it being part and parcel of the curriculum.

Christiane Engel’s sturdy large format board book could help integrate it into the foundation stage curriculum at least. She takes us on a journey through the alphabet linking each letter to an activity – walk, yoga, breathe for example, or a state of mind or concept –awareness, giving, joy or thankfulness.
The rhyming text talks directly to the child and the illustrations are attractive and inclusive.

The book concludes with some creative ideas related to the book’s overall theme.

If you think young children need help to be mindful then this will be useful: I know from experience that if left to their own devices, preschool children naturally reach a state of mindfulness; adults just need to step back – it’s they, rather than children who need a book such as this.