Traditional Tales

I am in the throws of planning for my upcoming topic on Traditional tales for my reception class. There are so many great traditional tales and fairy tales out there, that I am having a difficult job deciding which stories to cover and in what order to cover them.  Whilst the internet is a fantastic resource, I find that I can spend literally hours jumping from one great website or resource to another without really achieving much. In fact I have spent the past few weeks happily pinning fairy tale links to my pinterest board.  Now whilst pinterest is fantastic it can be frustrating when you can not pin, due to no image being available.  With this in mind I am now jumping onto my blog so that I can link to some non pinnable websites.

Jack and the Beanstalk

My class really enjoyed joining in on the refrain 'Fee Fi Fo Fum,' and enjoyed acting out the story with this themed basket that I put together.

Teaching Resources:

When introducing a new topic/book to the class it is invaluable to have access to as many different resources as possible, just as children are individual the more different activities at hand means that you can interest even the least interested child in your topic.

The following links, take you to downloadable teaching resources to help with the teaching of this unit.  The teaching english link is particularly good.

teaching english org

I thought that I would introduce my new topic with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

So that the children can follow up on this story, I have found some video retells and story read alouds for the children to follow on the computer for our listening centres.

jack-and-the-beanstalk story by speekaboos.com 
cbeebies jack and the beanstalk
Jack and the beanstalk video retold through song

I like the cbeebies and the singing version best.

Online Game links:

design the giants castle drag the pieces into place to create your own individual castle.

The Gingerbread Man

I asked the children to help draw around one another and then they turned themselves into giant gingerbread men, by colouring and decorating themselves.  This task kept the children busy for most of the afternoon and I was really pleased to see how they focussed.

Stories to share:

Teacher led story

Reading links:

make 'an' words words that rhyme with 'man'

Online games for children to play:

Decorate a Gingerbread Man online game

I found a great free printable on line, which allows you to write in the middle of the gingerbread tummy.  This will be great to play a game of word or sound match or even rhyming words.  You could place the gingerbread around the classroom.  Give the children a matching word and they have to pin it next to the gingerbread man with the matching word.   gingerbread template

Little Red Hen

I set up a sensory play whereby children could plant seeds in little red hen's garden - which was really sand.  Children really loved burying the seeds and finding them again.

 

Stories to share:

Little Red Hen, click the button to hear the words

Reading links:

make 'en' words - starfall.com website to make words that rhyme with hen,

peg the hen, reading activity online

Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

Stories to share

British Council goldilocks-and-the-three-bears video story