What the Ladybird Heard

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By using food dye, colour a water tray or if at home, have fun at bath-time – by making the Red Sea! Allow the children to experiment with different sized containers to explore volume. Many children will also find playing with water emotionally soothing.

For P1 (and older siblings) - Learn how to draw a ladybird with illustrator, Lydia Monks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpleGh5-6zU There are follow on videos from which the children can learn to draw all the characters in the book.Ladybird writing sheets - we often use sheets like these in class to help encourage children to have a go at writing. Your child could use these sheets to have a go at writing a few words linked to the story (animal names for example) or to write a sentence about something that happened in the book. If you want more activities for your little ones visit World Inside a Book Discover Children’s Story Centre.

Build a Bug Hotel and see who comes to visit. You can keep a guest log and see if the visitors change, over the different seasons - https://www.yocom/watch?v=OexxoXo9uFk

P1 children (and older siblings) might be interested to hear the story being told by Julia Donaldson. Julia explains how she came to write this story and some of her other songs and books. There is even a guest appearance by one of her favourite characters - https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors-live-on-demand/julia-donaldson Identify the rhyming words used throughout the book. Can you make your own rhyming dictionary, adding other rhyming words for the ones found? Think about the different sounds that animals make. How do we write these (e.g. miaow, purr)? Can you think of any other examples of onomatopoeia? Are there any other examples in the story? For nursery children – can they make a ladybird using playdoh, junk materials, or draw it with coloured pencils, chalks or paint? What shapes can they see? Talk about circles. All the Gruffalo fans have many more things to be super excited about as Discover Children’s story centre has an Axel SchefflerandJulia Donaldsonexhibition that brings12 of their enchanting picture books bursting to life (Gruffalo included).

Look at the vocabulary used to describe how the thieves are planning to steal the cow. What other direction words can you think of? For P1 (and older children) – the children might want to design a red lunch menu and invite their family to their red lunch! Why not do some baking? Here is the recipe for red velvet cupcakes - https://www.cookingwithmykids.co.uk/red-velvet-cupcakes/ Recap on the story of ‘What the Ladybird Heard’– whether at home or in class, read the story again with the children or invite the children to tell you or their parents/siblings the story. Gather lots of leaves and try to arrange them to make a picture. Look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy to find more examples of how nature can be used to make art. Use these as inspiration to make your own.Try to find where different farms are in your local area. What crops do they grow? What animals do they look after?

Can you make up a song which includes lots of examples of animal sounds? Get some ideas by watching this performance of a song by the author and her husband: Look at the adjectives that are used to describe each animal. How many other adjectives can you think of to describe them? Use the animal posters (see Resources below) and write adjectives on them.Have fun with this interactive ladybird counting game - https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots Remember to explore our teaching ideas for the sequel, What the Ladybird Heard Next. Teaching Ideas and Resources: English Write a character profile about Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len? what kind of people are they? Where do they live?