Our new story of the week; ‘Dinosaurs in the Supermarket’, by Timonthy Knapman and Sarah Warbuton. Here are some ideas of activities you could try at home.

Song of the Week: Round and round the garden like a Dinosaur

Physical Development 

• Health and Well-being- Look at all the food items in the supermarket. Can you categorise into Healthy and Unhealthy foods? Introduce/ Discuss ‘five a day’. 

• Fruit Kebabs!- get a wooden skewer, chop some fruit (your child could help, with close supervision). Once the fruit is chopped, get your child to place onto the wooden skewer, in any order they want. This activity will encourage your child’s fine motor development. 

• Dance like a Dinosaur, have a go at singing and dancing to our song of the week, ‘Round and round the garden, like a Dinosaur’.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development 

• Look at the character's facial expression in the story, how do they feel? Why do they feel happy, sad or angry?

• In the story the dinosaurs make a mess in the supermarket. Ask your child what  they think the dinosaurs should do with the mess? Ask what they do at nursery when the classroom is untidy?. At  nursery, the children know too tidy up their toys once finished with them, we use a ‘tidy up song’ to promote this. Why not try this at home? (Youtube ‘Whistle while you work’) 

Communication and Language Development 

• Talk about the different types of dinosaur; discuss their different properties; do they have scales? Do they have a long neck?

• Narrative activity! After a few reads of the story, when your child becomes more familiar, choose a page and ask your child to retell that part of the story. (widening language) 

• Initial sounds! Our super sound of the week is ‘O’, See if you can find objects around the house beginning with the letter ‘O’ For example Orange, Olives, Onion, Oil.

Literacy Development 

• Can you draw your own dinosaur? Take into account the communication and language section; is your dinosaur going to have scales? Is it going to have sharp teeth? (use your imagination).

• Mark-making: can you recreate the dinosaurs footprints left in the supermarket? All you need is a toy dinosaur and paint, let's get creative!

Mathematical Development 

• Cut out  various sized dinosaur feet and hide them around the house/ garden, once found, count all the dinosaur feet, (you could write numbers on them to practice number recognition). Also, in-corporate language of size, which dinosaur foot is the biggest? Which one is the smallest? 

• Cut out various shapes to create your own dinosaur, ask your child to tell you which shapes they are using as they go. 

• Dinosaur shopping list game: You need to go shopping for the dinosaurs, create your own shopping list. Hide pretend food around the house/garden and see if your child can collect the correct food items for the dinosaurs. You could always play the shopping list game too, if you have this at home

Understanding the World 

• Here is a tough tray idea, using only dinosaurs and natural materials. A lovely outdoor activity which promotes imaginative play. (You could create a home for your dinosaurs)

• As you know from the story, those Dinosaurs have made such a mess of the supermarket and themselves, they are filthy! Can you clean the dinosaurs? All you need is some soapy water and an old toothbrush.

• Planting/gardening, why not plant some vegetables in the garden. The children  know all about growing from our story ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’, Snowdrops grew their own beanstalks, they were fantastic!

Expressive Arts and Design 

• Vegetable Printing- cut out various fruits, get coloured paints and have a go at creating a beautiful fruit print picture. (why not practice colour recognition)

• Salt dough Dinosaur fossils- Here is a direct link to create some of your own. https://www.makelifelovely.com/diy-dinosaur-fossils-with-salt-dough/

• Create your own musical instruments; e.g a bin and a wooden spoon. See if you create sounds which you think a dinosaur would make. For example,  bang the wooden spoon off a bin which will create loud sounds. These loud sounds could represent dinosaurs ‘stomping’ through a forest.