Part of the Storytime Saturdays Series

Listen as I read aloud What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson. This is a versatile story that can interest children 4-6 years old when listening to it, and can also be good reading / listening practice for children 7-9 years old. It is a great story to practice any of the following: farm animals and the sounds they make, how to give directions in English (prepositions), and advanced adjectives practice. Some suggested supplementary activities for each age group can be found below.

Children 4-6 Years Old

• Animals and Sounds They Make Game: Begin by making a list of all the animals in the story. Part One: Assign an action to represent each animal. Play by calling out the name of an animal. When the child or children hear the animal’s name, they do the matching action. Part Two: Now, review each animal, the action that represents it, and the sound the animal makes in English. Play by calling out the name of the animal, making the sound or doing the action. Depending on which you do, students should say the name of the animal, do the action, or make the sound.
• Animal Sorting: Using flashcards or toys that represent each animal in the story, think of ways to sort and categorize the animals (animals with 2 legs, animals that can fly, animals that are big, etc).

Children 6-8 Years Old

• Rhyming Dictionary: Make a list of the rhyming words in the book. Make your own rhyming dictionary and add other words you know to each page!
• Wanted Poster: Make a poster that features the thieves and their crimes. Present it to you classmates or family.
• Directions Maze: Make a list of the words used to give directions in the story. Go over what each word means. Create a maze or obstacle course. Put students in pairs and have one student give directions to the other in order to get through the maze/obstacle course.
• Online Memory Game: Match the pictures of the farm animals to the correct word.

Children 8 and up

• Animal Posters: Make a poster for each animal. Draw the animal and surround it with the adjectives used in the story to describe each of them. Think of additional adjectives to add to your posters that describe each animal.
• Blind Directions: Similar to the directions maze except that this time, the child going through the maze is blindfolded and can only hear the instructions from their partner!

More ideas coming soon!