Children have access to plenty of books and every month we select one in particular to focus on.
We value the importance of books in the early years for your child's development. Children have access to plenty of books and every month we select one in particular to focus on. Below are a selection of books we have read to the children many with themes appropriate for the time of year or annual celebrations. By clicking on the images it will take you directly to Amazon where you can purchase the books if you wish. We encourage plenty of reading with your children at home.
Lickhill Road, Calne
The children are showing a real interest in animals and the noises they make so this month the story in the Poppies room will be the ‘Animal Book’ by Justin Smith. Why not look out for different animals while you are out and about?
They will be singing ‘Old Macdonald had a farm’, this is a favourite of theirs. Sit opposite your child and sing face to face, making the animal noises, they will love it!
The Tulips room will be reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar ‘by Eric Carle.
The rhyme as it is almost Easter is ‘Five currant buns!’
Fynamore, Calne
This month we are reading The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.
Julia’s books focus on rhyming and rhythm. A good tip when sharing The Gruffalo or others such as The Stick Man is to pause for the final word and encourage your child to fill in the blank…it amazes us how many of the children are able to do this!’
Lyneham Pre-School
This term we will be focusing on friendship and talking about how nice it is to help each other. We will be reading the traditional stories ‘The Little Red Hen’ and ‘The Enormous Turnip.’
Our rhyme of the month is Hop Little Bunnies...
See the little bunnies sleeping until it’s nearly noon
Shall I gently wake them with a merry tune?
Oh how still, are they ill? wake up soon
Hop little bunnies, hop ,hop,hop
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop , hop
Hop little bunnies, hop and stop
The children like to change the words to fit with other animals, for example sleeping Crocodiles that Snap, Snap
The story in the Lickhill Poppies room will be ‘Market Day’ The babies have been showing an interest in animals and this book encourages younger children to begin to make and copy animal noises.
They will be singing Old McDonald had a farm’ which is one of their favourite nursery rhymes and also supports their learning.
The Tulips room will be focusing on turn taking; their book is ‘Mine!’ by Rachel Bright.
The song will be ‘10 in the bed!’ which is great fun, especially when you act it out!
Our story this month at Fynamore is a firm favourite ‘Gruffalo Child’ written by Julia Donaldson. If the weather gets colder it will fit really well this month!
We will be learning a new song about the weather ‘What’s the weather like today, to the tune of 'If you’re happy and you know it, so you can learn and sing it with your child it is written below:
“What’s the weather like today….like today.”
What’s the weather like today….like today
What’s the weather like today…is it blue or grey,
What’s the weather like today….like today!’
Our stories this month at Lyneham will be Peace At Last by Jill Murphy and Have You Got My Purr? By Judy West. These stories will be supporting our Letter and Sounds program by encouraging the children to join in with the story by making the sounds with their voices or through body percussion .
Rhyme of the Month
Put Your Coat On
Put your coat on, put your coat on
And make yourself nice and cosy
Put your coat on, put your coat on
And come along out to play
You can add verses – Put your hat on, make your head nice and cosy, gloves etc
In the Poppies room the story of the month will be ‘The New Puppy!
They will be learning a new song about Fireworks, which has the same tune as 10 Green bottles.’ The words will be sent home so that you can sing it with them as well.
The children have been learning about space and rockets. Their story is ‘Come to tea on Planet Zumbee’ which is really fun.
Their song of the month is 5 Little Rocket Ships. The children will bring the words home so you can learn the song too!
The children have shown a particular interest in the Autumn changes happening around us so our story is ‘The Lonely Scarecrow.’ After we read this we made our own scarecrow, which was amazing! This links nicely to our song.
The song of the month is Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. Please join in with your children at home as they sing to you!
As lots of you are new this month we will be reading “Sam Starts School” by Barbara Taylor Cork and singing “If you’re happy and you know it.'
At Lyneham we will be reading 'It was a Cold Dark Night' by Tim Hopgood and Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
This month's rhyme is
10 SPARKLING FIREWORKS
10 sparkling fireworks, ever so bright
1 went bang in the dark, dark night.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ,
1 sparkling firework, ever so bright
It went bang, have a good night
Sang to the tune of 10 fat sausages
As so many of the babies in Poppies are interested in animal at the moment and practicing animal sounds our story is “Cock-a-moo moo” written by Juliet Dallas-Conté and our song is “Old Mac Donald had a farm” which everyone knows to sing along with!
As the children in Tulips are all getting used to their mums leaving and understanding that they always come back we thought “Owl Babies” written by Martin Waddell is a lovely, appropriate story and our song is the “Good morning” song so everyone can learn it and feel welcome in the morning!
As lots of you are new this month we will be reading “Sam Starts School” by Barbara Taylor Cork and singing “If you’re happy and you know it.'
At Lyneham we will be reading ‘Panda Makes Faces’ to build our understanding of feelings.
This term we will be continuing our interest in healthy eating, growth and life cycles. We will be reading ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carr and ‘My Dad’, written by Anthony Browne
In the Poppies room the story of the month will be ‘Little Rabbit Couldn't Sleep.’ Alex brought in this book and the children loved it.
This month Tulips book is Peter Rabbit's Colours. When you are out and about talk to your child about different objects and the colours you see. If they guess simply reply say the name of the right colour and add the name of the object. ‘The ball is red.
As we move in to June the children’s interests at Fynamore are moving towards Dinosaurs so our story this month will be Tyrannosaurus Drip’ written by Julia Donaldson
Lyneham continue learning about growth and will be planting vegetables and seeds in the garden. They will be reading Jack and Jim and the Beanstalk and Oliver's Vegetables. Lyneham will be singing 'Monkeys in a Tree'.
As we have been spending lots of time in the garden the children have shown an interest in bugs so Fynamore's story of the month will be The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
At Lickhill Road we will be learning about bugs and the weather. The Poppies room will be reading 'Bugs' and the Tulips room will be enjoying The Hungry Caterpillar. We have been finding lots of spiders in the garden and we have made a bug hotel to encourage different kinds of bugs to visit!
Lyneham are learning about growth and talking about changes of spring. Their books of the month is the Enormous Turnip, Jack and the Bean Stalk and Easter Chick. We will be singing 'Hop little bunnies'
Fynamore are concentrating on the wonderful Julia Donaldson books this month. They will include A Squash and a Squeeze, The Gruffalo and Stickman. These books focus on rhyming and rhythm. A good tip when sharing these books is to pause for the final word and encourage your child to fill in the blank....it amazes us how may children are able to do this!
The children are showing a real interest in vehicles so in Poppies we will be reading 'Big Digger'. Tulips are focusing on Easter and there book will be 'Where's Little Kitten' by Lynn Heaton.
Lyneham we will be reading ‘The Great Race’ by Dawn Casey, a story about how the animals were chosen to represents the different Chinese new year. We will also be reading Mr Wolf’s Pancakes by Jan Fearley.
Fynamore have two stories this month, one was chosen by the children, which is ‘Dogs don't do ballet’ by Anna Kemp.
Our second book is ‘Peter Puffin!’ written by Peter Horacek. This book was chosen by the practitioners as it closely links to national bird month!
As it is Valentine’s Day this month the story in the Poppies room will be a ‘Guess how much I love you’. This is a lovely little book to share together. Tulips will be focusing on transport this month and will be singing ‘Jumping up and Down on a Big Blue Tractor!’
Our stories this month will be themed around winter and the weather. Please feel free to ask about booking out a story sack for you and your child to share together at home
We have two stories this month, one is ‘Jack Frost’ written by Kazuno Kohara . If the weather gets colder it will fit really well this month!
Our second book is ‘Marvin Wanted MORE!’ written by Joseph Theobald. This book was chosen by the children as the really enjoy it!
The story of the month in Poppies will be the very popular 'That's not my teddy' which encourages the babies and younger children to touch, feel and explore various textures. They will be singing 'round and round the garden.'
The Tulips room will be focusing on feelings - their book will be 'Sometimes I feel Sunny.' Their rhyme will be the classic 'If you're happy and you know it'.
Lyneham will be linking their stories with Christmas and reading Father Christmas Needs a Wee by Nicholas Allan and Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Judith Carr. The children will also be learning about the Christmas Nativity story and singing Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle
Fynamore Pre-school will be enjoying The Gruffalo's Child it fits really well with the winter months! The children are also enjoying the story of ‘The Hairy Toe’ and our rhyme this month is ‘When Santa got stuck up the Chimney’. .
Over at Lickhill Road Poppies and Tulips will both be reading Stick Man and enjoying the classic rhyme 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney'.
For Poppies at Lickhill road the book is Tickle, Tickle and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is the rhyme.
For Tulips at Lickill the book and song is Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes.
Over at Fynamore children will be enjoying Sam starts School and singing 'If you're happy and you know it...'.
