Cognitive Skills – Diary of a First Child

Over the last few weeks we’ve been working on The Incredible Journey – by working on, I mean ‘reading’! We’ve also done a few other activities – a board game and an animal categorising ‘game’. I’ve also made some of our usual printable activities to share with you.

I remember reading The Incredible Journey as a child, and finding it disappointing compared to the movie, and reading it now as an adult I can see why – it’s not as Americanised as the movie – the characters have names you have to think about and they don’t talk as their movie-counterparts do. It’s not a long book, but it’s not always easy reading either. It’s a beautiful story of love, courage, friendship and perseverance and purpose though, and well worth reading together.

Below you will find letter writing practice sheet, a crossword that asks questions about the story (you won’t be able to answer this from watching the movie) and an easy and a difficult maze and finally, a word search. This is a harder word search, because some of the words go backwards.

To download a worksheet, just click on the image. It’ll open a PDF in a new window for you to print.

The Incredible Journey Writing Practice

Children can trace the letters to help them learn the sizing of letters compared to each other, or simply just to practice.

The Incredible Journey Free Printable Resources

The Incredible Journey Crossword Puzzle

An 11 clue crossword puzzle – the answers are at the bottom of the page. I thought rather than use a second page, just pop them on the bottom and fold the footer area over so little eyes can’t see the answers.

The Incredible Journey Mazes

There are two mazes here to choose from – a simple one here and a tougher one. Pictured is the harder one.

The Incredible Journey Free Printable Resources

The Incredible Journey Word Search

This word search is a little harder than the ones I normally do, I think, because the words run back to front and from the bottom up. I don’t normally like doing them this was as I think it’s confusing for younger participants, but it’s how it worked out this time.

If you’ve enjoyed these activities, remember to check the rest of the tag for The Incredible Journey resources

Study Unit: Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Home / 3 - 4 years / Study Unit: Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

September 10, 2015September 27, 2015 by Luschka

Last year my children had watched most of the Roald Dahl movies available on the market, but we hadn’t read any of the books, so our Roald Dahl inspired arts and crafts were varied and mixed. Over the last few weeks we’ve been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, however, so all our activities the last few weeks have been around that.

Next week we’ll be working on Matilda, so check back in if you love that book too!

PIN THIS: Study Unit: Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory There are two versions of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie:

And there is the book, famously illustrated by Quentin Blake

While we like having fun with our ‘themes’ as we call them, I do try to bring elements of learning into them too. Remembering that my children are 5 & 3, I do keep things pretty simple, but I’m quite excited about the possibilities of redoing all these themes in years to come, and seeing how much they have grown in their understanding, and how much ‘deeper’ we can go on each topic.

Having watched the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie and read the book, I decided to do a reading comprehension ‘test’. I designed a comparison chart, so Ameli could compare what happens in the book with what happens in the movie, and also make a note of major things that happen in a similar fashion. For example, in the book, Mr Bucket tells them about the golden ticket competition, in the movie, Charlie sees the posters going up. Study Unit: Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Sticking with the loose ‘English’ or ‘Language Learning topic, we decided to make up words, something Roald Dahl is incredibly good at! This little making up words activity went down a charm, and made an amazing platform for telling our own stories. Study Unit: Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

I use the word math very lightly here, but since we’re starting out, we used measuring a bag of candies as an introduction to units of measurement.

It’s Charlie and the CHOCOLATE factory, so we had to get some inventing with chocolate going – I went for the easy option and made Jazzies, with DIY decorations for my little inventors. Not all the creative activities this weeks should include tons of sugar, so we decided to make our own party decor. We made giant lollipops, giant boiled sweets, and giant lollipop swirls. This was a great afternoon’s paper sweet crafting.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a great theme for introducing some science too – see what happens with popping candy when you pour water, coke and then vinegar into three different bowls and top them with popping candy. Measure jelly babies and put them in a bowl over night – how much did they grow? Put boiled sweets (the kind with stripes on them) into a bowl with a few drops of water. What happens to the sweets? How do the colours disperse? Could you do it on paper and see what happens with the colours? Does the paper remain in tact? Put boiled sweets in mould and put them into the oven. When they melt, do the colours mix? Do they retain their shape? Do they re-set into their new shapes? There are loads of candy experiments you can try!

At the end of a long and exciting week of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, everyone needs a good, long, relaxing bath, so this Chocolate Bath Salt recipe smells delicious, and helps induce a deep sleep too.

Study Unit: Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Printable Unit Plan

Click on this image for a downloadable, printable study unit plan.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

What have other Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fans been up to?

Wayfair has a fab roundup of Roald Dahl activities (I know it’s fab, because our post from last year is in there too 😉 )
Verily Victoria Vocalises actually went to see the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory show in London. She tells us all about what looks like a fantastic performance here. Also, if you’re able to make it to London soon, Amazon Local has a fantastic offer on the tickets right now*!
Treading on Lego has a great recipe for Chocolate Play Dough which would be a great alternative to DIY Jazzies too – or just another activity to do!
Gramma Luvlee has an amazing list of party games for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – super imaginative!

Chilly The Snowman – 24 Days Of Christmas Crafts

Home / 4-5 / Chilly The Snowman – 24 Days Of Christmas Crafts

December 5, 2013November 22, 2014 by Luschka

I bought the book Chilly the Snowman a few years ago when it was just a Pound in a local shop. I kept it in the bookshelf because I realised that Ameli was too young for it, but this year she’s just right for it! Chilly the Snowman is an activity book with mazes, spot the difference, match the shadow, colouring bits, and most important to a 4 year old, stickers! I particularly loved the press out snow scene, which now decorates our faux-mantle-place.

I was really surprised by the fact that not only did the activity book engage Ameli from the front cover to the last page, but it kept her busy solidly for 3 hours! Absolutely worth every penny, if you ask me!

One of the activities in the book is to make a snowman paper chain, which we did. Another is to decorate a snowman. Finally, there’s a ‘board game’ page as the final activity, giving you chance to play together. It’s such a fun book. We’ve since cut out pictures from the now completed book to use in other crafts and card making too!

Busy Bag: Memory Game

Home / 2 - 3 years / Busy Bag: Memory Game

February 21, 2013June 15, 2013 by Luschka

This is part five in a series on busy bags. For more information on what busy bags are, and for some ideas on bought contents for easy busy bags and more handmade ideas, read past posts in the series.

Memory games are fantastic for children, wonderful for developing logic skills, patience and memory, which in turn will help with reading and learning. Even at 2.5 years of age Ameli was able to play match with a set of cards she was given. I think this game can be made as easy or as difficult as you wish, and you could play it different ways: match the cards, match the colours, match the animals. There are loads of options.

For this game you will need:

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Card, enough for two squares each, at least.
Backing paper all in the same colour so you can’t see the colour of the squares when they’re back-side up.
Stickers with at least two identical stickers (US Link)
Glue
Sticky paper (optional) (US Link)

Cut your cards to equal size – we used 8 cards – and glue to backing paper.
Cut into individual squares again
We covered these in sticky paper to prolong their lives
Glue matching stickers on two cards at a time.

Busy Bag: Memory Game

To play, turn all the cards upside down so that one plain colour is looking up at you. Turn round one card, see i.e. the snake and a blue snail. Turn back. Turn round two new cards, i.e. Elephant ant a blue snail. Keep the blue snail, and go back to the previous blue snail, taking them out of the game. Turn the elephant around again, and turn two new cards, until all the cards are paired up.

Check back next week for more Busy Bag ideas. You will need an ice tray, mini muffin tray or something with similar compartments, shaving foam, food colouring and a paintbrush.