Tag Katie Woolley

50 Words About Nature: Animals, 50 Words About Nature: Bugs / I Want To Be A Lion, I Want To Be A Monkey

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These are all books for very young children, – thanks to the publisher Oxford Children’s Books for sending them for review.

50 Words About Nature: Animals
50 Words About Nature: Bugs
Lily Holland and Debbie Powell

As an advocate for using the correct scientific terminology with young children I was excited to see this pair of books – the first two in the new series 50 Words About Nature – doing just that.
Animals takes a look at the whole of the animal kingdom – mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects and molluscs giving examples of each including a tiger, alligator, dolphin, frog, beetle and octopus, in the process defining such words as carnivore, herbivore, vertebrates, invertebrates, primates, habitat, zoologists and extinct.

In similar fashion Bugs explores first insects, then arachnids and next returning to insects, focuses on several different beetles, including some like fireflies that are nocturnal. There’s a spread featuring nocturnal moths, another looking at pollinatorsand the final one introduces entomologists. Terms used include exoskeleton, antennae, proboscis, metamorphosis, arthropods,

elytra, carapace and telson. I don’t think I met those last three until I started studying biology at secondary school. However in my experience, small children love big words, will assimilate these in context herein and enjoy impressing adults by using such terms as bioluminescence and pollinators.

Integrated into the text, Debbie Powell’s illustrations are both arresting and realistic.

I Want To Be A Lion
I Want To Be A Monkey
Pintachan and Katie Woolley

It’s time to move with two additions to Pintachan and Katie Woolley’s Move and Play series for the very young. Get your little ones, be they at home or in an early years setting, pouncing, 

creeping, rolling, running, hiding away and yawning like a lion. If you’re at home cut out the mask, add string and your child will be even more lion-like especially if they also start with a few very loud roars.

Alternatively they might prefer to emulate a monkey; in which case the starting sound is ‘Ooo-ooo-ah! after which comes the more active scampering, rolling scratching, munching (bananas of course), climbing , swinging, leaping all of which can be combined into a lively monkey dance. What are you waiting for? …

Stuck for ideas? Scan the QR code inside the front covers. Pintachan’s bright art work and the engaging texts support the development of children’s imagination and their physical development, but above all they are fun.

I’m The Train Driver / I’m The Bin Lorry Driver

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I’m The Train Driver
I’m The Bin Lorry Driver
David Semple and Katie Woolley
Oxford Children’s Books

Young children have the opportunity to imagine themselves into the driving seat of both a passenger train and a refuse collection lorry as they share these books with an adult either at home or at nursery/preschool.

Having donned the appropriate uniform the train driver climbs into the cab, puts on a seatbelt, checks the controls, starts the engine and is responsible for taking a family to the city for some sightseeing. En route there are stations to stop at to allow more passengers to get aboard, a freight train to negotiate, a tunnel to drive through slowly and carefully,

then the level crossing gates are open so its full speed ahead until the signal controller radios to say ‘switch tracks’ and off you go to the city’s main station where the passengers are eager to get off. Finally, a train driver needs to log the train’s arrival before heading home

The driver of the bin lorry has two other team members who are also responsible for collecting the recycling from all the blue bins on their round and they start work early in the morning while it’s still dark. Having set the route, off they go, the driver taking care to stay within the speed limit. The team works hard all morning,

remembering to log each bin emptied into the hopper on the lorry’s computer screen and totalling up the final number. Then with all the blue bins duly dealt with it’s back through the now busy streets to the tip where the lorry’s contents is emptied onto the ground ready for sorting.

As with others in this series, teamwork is key in the roles presented; and there are lots of opportunities for developing vocabulary and other important early learning skills such as colour, number and shape recognition.