WHY DID I CHOOSE "HANDA'S SURPRISE"?:
- I think that the book is appropriate for children because it has't long descriptive paragraphs, so they can follow the story without problems.
- There are a lot of repetitions, so children can predict what is going to happen.
- The illustrations are very big and colorful, therefore if you read the story showing the pictures they can understand better it.
- It is useful to learn vocabulary about the fruits and animals.
- We can teach interesting values with this story, such as the respect for other cultures or the friendship.
ACTIVITIES ABOUT HANDA'S SURPRISE:
Before reading:
1. Activity related the fruits:
Instead of teaching the typical fruits (apples, pears...), we are going to teach the exotic fruits that appear in the story.
We can do an assembly and we can bring them a basket with these fruits in order to touch them and learn the textures of the fruits (spiky, soft...), the colours, the size...
We can teach the importance of eating fruits everyday, so we can talk about why it is important (it is healthy, it is good for our teeth...), how many times they eat fruit...
Finally, they can taste every fruit and they can say which is their favourite fruit.
2. Activity about the animals:
We can go to the Zoo to learn the animals and we can take some pictures of the animals that appear in the story (monkey, ostrich, zebra...). The day in which we are going to read the story we can cut out the photos in order to make a puzzle of each animal.
3. Prediction:
Before reading the story, we can show them the title and the cover of the book and we can talk about
what the surprise might be.
While reading:
1. Prediction:
While we are reading the story we can ask them questions to guess what is going to happen.
2. Activity related the numbers:
At the beginning of the story, when we are showing them the pictures, we can ask them "How many fruits there are in the basket?". So they have to count them and tell the number. Then, everytime that an animal steals a fruit we ask the same question.
After reading:
1. ICT activity:
In order to know if the children have understood the story, we can use the interactive whiteboard to do an activity. For instance, we can create a powerpoint in which we can ask them questions about the animal that is going to appear, the fruit that is going to disappear... So they have to use the mouse to choose the animal, to move out the fruits and so on.
2. Bingo:
We can play a bingo with the animals and fruits that appear in the story.
3. Go Fish:
It is a very funny and famous card game. We can create several packs of cards in which appear the animals and the fruits that we have seen in the story. So we can make groups which are made up of four children and we can give each group these cardsto play.
4. Activity related to art and drafts:
We can create masks about the animals that appear in the story, therefore we can give each child a mask that they will have to colour and cut out. Then we will put the string to the masks.
5. Drama about the story:
We can create a play about the story in which appear Handa, Akeyo, the animals... So we can use the masks that we have created. We can make two groups in order to act all the children and we can follow the same story of the book or create another one in which there are simple and short dialogues.
6. Activity about Africa:
We can talk about Africa: the country, the animals, the culture. If there is an African child in the class or in the school, he can teach us something about his country.
- I think that the book is appropriate for children because it has't long descriptive paragraphs, so they can follow the story without problems.
From our point of view, this storybook is appropriate to tell for children while we are showing the ilustrations to them. Another reason is that the ilustrations attract to them due to the pictures and the colours. The topic of this book could be very motivating for chirldren because it appears some characters like dragons, princesses or knightes and it has an unusual end in which nobody dies. Also they can learn some values such as the aid to the others, the constancy in the work or the friendship. This book can develop some learning strategies like anticipate due to the cover of the book. We can work activities before, while and after telling it. To sum up, they can also identify themselves with the characteres of the story, for instance the dragons are growing like the children.
Charlie and his family live in a small wooden house outside the town. The house has two rooms, but only one bed for all of them. The four grandparents sleep in the only bed because they are so old and tired. Charlie and his parents sleep on the floor in the other room. This house is too cold in the winter, but it is warm in summertime.