Tag small world play

Make & Play Safari

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Make & Play Safari
Joey Chou
Nosy Crow

This latest Make and Play theme will last all year round and enthuse young makers with a variety of activities, the most important being the construction of a safari scene, once the various pieces from the first eight pages have been pressed out and slotted together.

You get a jeep transporting a family of enthusiastic-looking safari goers with cameras and map,

zebras and a hippo, a lion family, two giraffes, a pair of crocodiles, meerkats, another hippo, an adult and infant elephant, a couple of monkeys to swing in a tree, a rhino and another tree with a leopard resting in its branches.

With these sturdy items – both sides of each piece is coloured – children can create and re-create different small world scenes and then carefully replace the various parts back in the equally robust card pages. (Very small children will need a little assistance in the construction and replacing of parts.)

Joey Chou’s art will appeal to youngsters, as will the activities on the other spreads. The crafty ideas are making a ‘bendy monkey’ and a pair of binoculars; the foodie ones are, a yummy snake sandwich and equally tasty-looking animal cupcakes; instructions are provided for creating a safari map to use in a game outdoors.

The words of a ‘Five Little Monkeys’ song take up another spread. I would have chosen another Five Little Monkeys song that has the monkeys swinging from a tree teasing Mr Crocodile, as it seems to fit the overall theme better, but that’s a small criticism.

All in all this is excellent value and should engage young users for a considerable time, not just the once, but over and over.

Let’s Play

jillrbennett 1 Comment

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Ready, Steady, DIG!
Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Ed Eaves
Hodder Children’s Books
As one little boy plays with his collection of vehicles, his playmat becomes the scene for Construction Crew to rumble into action. There’s Connor Crane with wrecking ball to bash and smash, big tough Dumper Dave to haul and heave, Mixer Millie is at the ready,

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followed by Ravi Roller to squash the tarmac and Doug the Digger with that enormous scoop – OOPS!

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He’s got stuck, so now it’s a case of teamwork to heave him out and complete the task …

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before that well-earned rest.

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Ed Eaves transforms the various vehicles into friendly-looking monsters, which, in combination with Smriti Prasadam-Halls’ lively rhyming text, make for a rumbustious read to share with the very young.
Teachers in early years settings may well want to take the opportunity this book offers to add some movement to the story session with the children themselves becoming the various members of the Construction Crew as the story unfolds – after an initial seated reading, that is.
Certainly this is one to add to an early years collection.

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Hedgehugs Hopping Hot
Lucy Tapper and Steve Wilson
Maverick Arts Publishing
The delightful duo, best friends Horace and Hattie return with their third story and it’s a very sunny day on which we find them attempting to play a favourite hopping game. The trouble is they’re feeling far too hot and the only shady spot doesn’t furnish sufficient hopping space. Their cooling strategies don’t meet with much success either

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and it’s well nigh impossible to emulate frogs when you make so much splash. Hiding under rocks like woodlice will certainly not work, if you want to hop that is …

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and nor will a squelchy mud covering. What about emulating that bird up there on a branch, think the friends but although it’s definitely a cooler place, it’s not suitable for jumping and …

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Hold on though, perhaps down here might be just what those spiky friends need – whatever the weather …

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Gentle humour delivered hedgehog fashion is fun no matter what the temperature: Horace and Hattie are such a joyful twosome; even in the face of all those misadventures they just bounce right back up, and that’s exactly what’s needed for a hopping game too! Lucy Tapper’s beautifully patterned illustrations capture the mood perfectly.

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