KALANDOS ENCIKLOPÉDIA: ÁLLATOK …. IS THIS BOOK (AGE) APPROPRIATE?

’A rövid szövegek és a bájos illusztrációk nemcsak megérintik, de el is varázsolják a gyerekeket.’ Ez áll a könyv hátsó borítóján.

(Publisher’s promise: short texts plus charming illustrations equals enchanted kids)

http://www.pagony.hu/allatok-kalandos-enciklopedia

According to Pagony publisher this book is suitable for children between the ages of 4-8. This book was love at first sight for me, but the ’spell’ vanished on page 8 (which is actually the very first page after the Contents). I came across a gazelle of some sort covered in blood... (no kidding, see the picture  attached)

A Pagony kiadó ezt a könyvet 4-8 év közötti gyerekeknek szánja. Nekem nagyon megtetszett ez a könyv, egészen addig tartott is a ‘varázslat’ amíg el nem lapoztam a tartalomjegyzéket és meg nem láttam a saját vérében fekvő gazellát... oopss... Aztán tovább lapoztam és a következőket olvastam (kép az albumban):

Kérdés: Kegyetlen dolog húst enni?

Válasz: A tányérodra kerülő hús olyan állatok húsából származik, amelyeket kimondottan azért tenyésztenek, hogy később elfogyasszák őket. Illusztráció: folyamatábra: pl. bárány nyíl sült oldalas.. csirke nyíl rántott csirkefalatok...

Nekem erről Orwell Napóleonjának kinyilatkoztatása jutott eszembe: „Minden állat egyenlő, de egyes állatok egyenlőbbek a többinél.” (Orwell: Állatfarm)

Under the question mark, the green area of the book: A question: Is it ruthless to eat meat?

Answer: (roughly) the meat on our plate comes from different animals especially bred to end up on our plates.

The author of the book shares the idea of Napolen in Animal Farm (Orwell) : all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others…

Ez így rendben van? Egy gyerek ezt így elfogadja? Ez jó tanítás: Tapasztalat, akinek nagyobb gyerekei vannak?  Is it appropriate? Is it good teaching?

Halloween songs, activities, crafts, toys

        October is dedicated to Halloween; we have a strong focus on it especially on Wednesdays because we have a club session each week.

I have never Halloweened myself in my life, I guess in Hungary it is a bit awkward, but because of the fact that I started Mums' English Club Nyíregyháza, well it is a must I assume. It is part of the English culture and it is fun too for little ones. So the more I dipped myself into the topic the more fun we gained from it.

The first Halloween session of the Club was fun I only regret not having taken any photos... anyway I jot down some of the ideas we played during today's session.

1st activity Colour sorting

We started singing a special Halloween edition of the Hokey Pokey song, it goes like

The Hookey sPookey 

You put your orange hand in,
You put your orange hand out,
You put your orange hand in,
And you shake it all about,

You do the hooky spookey
and you turn yourself around
That what it's all about.

2) black hand
3) orange foot
4) black foot
5) whole self

I was desperate to find something orange and black to hold during the dance (even went to Tesco last night and bought orange balloons), but then suddenly I came across with Daddy's old bicycle tyre with a puncture, so he let us use it as something BLACK and  used the Orange balloons in our other hands. It was quite funny; I try to video record it one day to keep it. After we danced and sang the Hooky Spookey we struck up a colour selecting game, we used only two colours (guess what: orange and black) I upcycled some Cappy tops which are pitch black and good size so as far as black was concerned we were all right, and we also had some orange fizzy drink tops (thanx to my brother who drinks junk.... and my mom who collects plastic tops... and I got hold of the colourful collection of hers) and also made some little pumpkin shapes. So that was the colour sorting. On the second session we used ribbons in our hands.

 

orange and black ribbons to to have an orange hand and a black hand

colour sorting activity (black and orange things I found around in the house)

Orange and black foam sheets underneath

2nd activity Making a funny pumpkin face 

Cardboard faces with different shapes to make eyes, nose and mouth

Have you ever seen a pumpkin (to the tune of Have you ever seen a Lassie)

Oh, once I had a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin.

Oh, once I had a pumpkin with no face at all.

With no eyes and no nose and no mouth and no teeth

Oh once I had a pumpkin with no face at all.

So I made a jack-o-lantern, jack-o-lantern, jack-o-lantern

So I made a jack-o-lantern with a big funny face.

With big eyes and a big nose and big mouth and big teeth.

So I made a jack-o-lantern with a big funny face.

We sang the first verse of the song with a no-face-at-all pumpkin and the second verse with a big funny face pumpkin. After getting the gist of it, children were happy to make a big funny face for the pumpkin. I found a good pumpkin template on the Internet. And we also used the well known facial parts from the Funny Faces board game. 

3rd activity -pumpkin basketball

Then we moved on and played some Halloween basketball. I selected orange tiny plastic balls (we have a great lot of colourful balls with a ball bit) mixed with some orange balloons. I prepared one Jack o Lantern balloon face that was the target and also used an IKEA Trofast storage box. Fastened the jack o lantern to it facing the children and then they had to hit the face with the ball. (well that was the idea, but the children were more interested in throwing the balls away or climbing in the basket :) I did not go crazy to stick to the original plan, I got used to adapt to the scenario the children make. And while they started throwing things away we sang the Mr Pumpkin eyes so round song.

Mr Pumpkin, Mr Pumpkin
Eyes so round, eyes so round
Halloween  is coming, Halloween is coming
To your town, to your town.

Here the round eyes were associated with the balls.

4th activity-incy wincy spooky spider

We had so much about the strictly Halloween songs, then we moved on and started making little incy wincy spooky spiders. Which was fun. I used Cappy orange juice tops (I have been collecting for ages saying it might be good for something, their time have come :) Daddy made some holes on the tops, one on the top part and 6 little holes on the sides for the legs. We used pipe cleaners for the skinny legs and wiggly eyes. I cut a straw in half and that was the 'waterspout' (needs some imagination I must admit) tied a string on it so that the spider can go up and down (use it as a wrench) (wrench? is this the right word, I must check it up in a dictionary....) So we sang the incy wincy spider with the children, each using his/her own spider. Then I put some rubber tyres on my fingers imitating I am a great big spider and struck up the There is a spider on my toes rhyme. It wasn't that scary after all, I hope (well it did not make anybody cry).

5th activity - finding a worm to eat

It sounds kinda gross I know. I bought some Haribos for this purpose, special ones; they are exact copies of little worms. Well it turned out that it was a mistake. (the children got carried away with eating the Haribos and stopped listening, then when I told them that there were no more Haribos, they started crying for more, one of the little boys even wanted to go home :) so I fell in my own trap, but next time, there were no Haribos :) instead I used these so called pipe cleaners and cut straws to little pieces and we played a lacing activity.

the pipe cleaner worms, a lacing activity

Ah, and it went with the song Nobody Likes me, Everybody hates me quess I go eat some worms.

6th activity - the bumble bee song

Baby bumble bee... we kept it simple, the focus was on the music, it is such a good song, pity it is so gross, I love the song, but I cannot identify with the song (karma killer), that is why I selected it as one of the least acceptable children's songs.... 

I used these props (choking hazard, so I could not give them to the little ones, though they wanted them badly, I do not blame them, these bees are so cute.

And that was it for Halloween.