Story Time

Dear Parents -
this week the theme we are looking at is water. There are different bodies of water fresh water: lakes, ponds and rivers. There is also salt water: oceans and seas. One of the books we'll be looking at this week is one which is familiar to the students.

It is called: "Little Quack" we read this just a few weeks ago.

Just to remind you:

Story Time: – “Little Quack” – - about having the courage to try something new

This story is about a family of ducklings and how their mother tells them it is time for them to leave the comfort and safety of their nest and get into the water – it’s their first time for going into the water and they are all afraid to do so.
So the mother duck gently encourages them to jump in ….”I know you can do it – you’re big now – too big for the nest – you’re brave …”
The ducklings muster up their courage and one by one get into the water – Little Quack is the smallest and the least brave (most afraid) but even he finally gets up his courage and jumps into the water.
After they have jumped in, each duck immediately feels proud of his achievement and says, “Look at me….look at me…I’m swimming….” They enjoy the water and playing in it.

This story encourages us to do new things and that when we believe we can do something (and especially when someone who loves us believes in us too), then we can do them. And then after we’ve been brave and done it then we can be proud of these achievements.

Now that the storyline is familiar to the children we can look at its setting and animal life - a pond / river - fresh water.

We'll also be looking at the strong>emotions felt by the ducklings and by Mama Duck. We'll be asking ourselves what the ducklings did when they began to feel brave (decided to get into the water) and what made them feel proud in the end (doing something for the first time and what they had been afraid to do. Can we relate to these feelings? I'm sure all of us can. At the end the ducklings discovered that what they had been afraid of was actually a FUN THING TO DO .....

We will also be looking at the story: "Herman the Helper"
This is the story of the young octopus who helps every animal (friend and enemy) he meets.

Again because we have read this one too before the story is familiar to the children, so we can concentrate on the setting of the story and its animal life - the ocean - salt water.

When we re-read a story - it becomes familiar as I have said, and we encourage the students to try and retell parts or even the whole of the story, and also to act them out, which is another FUN THING TO DO.......

Thank you

Ms Rowena