Bookbug Picture Book Prize 2018 learning resource
Creative activities for the three shortlisted books
CFE Levels Early and 1 (Age 3-7)
Contents
1 / Who are these resources for?2 / See the authors reading their books
2 / Activity for all books: shared reading
2 / Activities for Gorilla Loves Vanilla
7 / Activities for Little Owl’s Egg
10 / Activities for The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee
14 / Resources for pupils with additional support needs
Who are these resources for?
These resources are designed to be of use to any nursery teacher, primary teacher or librarian looking to use the three shortlisted books in the Bookbug Picture Book Prize 2018 as an inspiration for cross-curricular learning. As well as this, the resources will also help you to create a buzz about the shortlisted titles and the Bookbug Picture Book Prize.
Remember that every P1 child in Scotland receives the P1 Family Bag, which contains the three shortlisted books. It also contains an activity book for parents and children – this can be a great way to create a link between school and home, as pupils do fun activities based on the books they’ve been introduced to in school.
See the authors reading their books
You can find videos of the authors reading their books on our website. Each video contains a full read through, as well as a special activity idea from each author. You’ll find the videos and find lots of other information about the Bookbug Picture Book Prize at
Activity for all books: Shared Reading
Shared Reading Outcomes for younger pupils: Lit 1-11a. Outcomes for older pupils: Lit 2-03a, Lit 2-11a, HWB 2-13a,
Shared Reading is a great way for older and younger pupils to share and discover books together.
Shared Reading involves older pupils reading picture books out loud to younger pupils. It hands the older pupil the responsibility of making sure a young child enjoys discovering a book, and is a great boost to older pupils’ confidence, especially if they do not see themselves as readers initially.
For a complete introduction to shared reading, including case studies, videos and a unit of activities to take you through the process, check out this page:
Gorilla Loves Vanilla
Written by Chae Strathie and illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne
There’s a queue for ice cream cones at Sam’s Sundaes, and the animals in the queue have some strange requests. Sam whips up blue cheese ice cream for Mouse, fish finger Ice Cream for cat, and even worm ice cream for Chicken. When Gorilla shows up, no one’s quite sure what he’ll order, and his choice surprises everyone! Your pupils will love seeing the various wacky ice cream creations, and the book provides a great opportunity to talk about difference and sharing.
Using the book as an ice breaker with a new classLIT 0-02a, LIT 0-09a, HWB 0-10a, HWB 0-14a
All of the characters like different flavours of ice cream. Encourage your class to find out about each other’s favourite things – there are lots of different activities you can do to get them chatting:
- Gather pupils in a circle and introduce a large ball – a beach ball is preferable. Tell the pupils something that you like, then choose a pupil to throw the ball to, and ask them to tell the group something that they like. Once they’ve answered, ask them to throw the ball to another pupil and repeat the process.
- To encourage variety in pupils’ questioning, you can give each pupil a fun-size packet of coloured sweets, and assign a different question to each colour. As pupils take a sweet out of the bag, they can ask the question assigned to that colour of sweet. See more here:
- You can also encourage variety and choice in pupils’ questioning by writing different questions on a large ball, and asking pupils to throw the ball to each other, asking a question of their choice to the recipient. See an example here:
If you don’t want pupils to throw and catch, the ball can be passed or even rolled across the circle.
Learning about sharing and difference HWB 0-01a, HWB 0-05a, HWB 0-10a, Lit 0-09a
This is a good activity to follow on from the previous one, where pupils learned about each other’s favourite things. Alternatively, you can have this discussion after reading the book.
Discuss the following with your pupils:
- All of the characters like different ice cream flavours. What foods do you like and dislike? What about your classmates – do they like different foods from you?
- What activities do you like? What about your classmates?
- Do you think it would be good if everyone liked exactly the same things as each other?
- Do you think that friends have to like exactly the same things as each other? Can you be friends and not like the same things?
Food chainsSCN 1-02a
The chicken wants a cone full of worms, which can lead nicely in to an introduction to food chains.
Here are some resources to help you introduce food chains:
- This short BBC video talks generally about how food chains work:
- This short presentation and game from the RSPB gives a slightly more in depth explanation:
- This card sort activity from TES is also useful – you’ll need to create a free login for the site to access the resource: You could choose to cut off the text on the cards and ask pupils to get in groups, take a card each and stand in the correct order.
Make some ice cream HWB 0-30a, TCH 0-04a
The following video tells how you to make some simple ice cream with a couple of zip bags: bit.ly/NiceIceBaby
As you go through the activity, there’s a great opportunity to talk about the ingredients and help pupils understand where they came from, as well as the sugar and its potential effect on the body. It’s a good chance to point out why ice cream should be an occasional treat!
Write a book as a team LIT 1-31a, EXA 1-03a
Chae Strathie and Nicola O’Byrne worked together to create the book, one writing the text and the other creating images.
Explain the concept of an author and illustrator to your pupils. This would be a good opportunity to get pupils talking about different books by different authors and illustrators, to see which ones they prefer.
After this, tell pupils that they are going to work in pairs. One of them is going to be an author and come up with a character; the other is going to draw a picture of that character. Then, they’re going to swap roles.
Ask each pupil to think of an animal character, and to think of one thing that character loves. It could be a food, like Gorilla in the book, or it could be an activity or a person: eg, Giraffe loves a bath, Cat loves his hat. They don’t need to rhyme, unless you’re looking to develop pupils’ skills in this area.
Ask each pupil to describe a few physical details about their character. Now, each pupil can draw a picture of the other’s character pictured with the thing they love.
You could use this activity as a launchpad for some story writing or storybuilding too!
OppositesMNU 0-01a
The customers at the ice cream shop come in all shapes and sizes, from a tiny mouse to a huge gorilla.
You can introduce Early Level pupils to small and large animals by reading them some of the following stories:
- The Lion Insideby Rachel Bright and Jim Field:
- Monster in the Hoodby Steve Antony:
- Big! By Tim Hopgood
- Oi Dog! by Kes Gray, Claire Gray and Jim Field
- Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
- The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
This could lead to a discussion about opposites: short and tall, large and small, slow and fast, etc. You could ask pupils to make up stories with a pair of opposites. For example, what kind of problems might a very short animal run into, and could a tall animal help it out?
First Level task - Big and small animalsMNU 1-03a,MNU 1-20b, MTH 1-21a, Lit 1-14a, Tch 1-03b
At First Level, ask pupils to find out about threevery large animals and threevery small ones. How tall is each animal, and how much do they weigh? Ask pupils to sort the animals in order of height or weight. Then, ask them to subtract the smaller weights from the larger ones to find the difference between each animal’s weight. Ideal pages for pupils to study include:
- Elephants:
- Giraffes:
- Polar bears:
- Rabbits:
For older readers, the Animal Corner website is a good place to navigate, and contains height, length and weight statistics for most animals:
Kids.Net is also a great place for pupils to search for child-friendly, safe information:
As an extension, pupils can plot the various heights and weights on a graph.
Numeracy: role play windowsMNU 0-09a, MNU 1-09a, EXA 0-14a, EXA 1-14a
A role play window allows children to act out real life scenarios and provides a variety of cross-curricular learning opportunities.
Create a mock-up of a café or ice cream parlour window. You can see a good example here:
This provides learning opportunities at different levels. Early Level pupils can use the window as a free play space, playing in role as shopkeeper and customer. Further up the school, the window can be used as a place to learn about money. Pupils can also design menus and signs.
Some songs and rhymes Exa 0-16a
If you want to build songs and rhymes into your work around the book, here are a few great selections which feature animals from the book:
Three Blind Mice:
Hickory Dickory Dock:
A Cat Came Dancing -
Hey Diddle Diddle:
Chick, Chick, Chicken:
Although nursery rhymes featuring gorillas are hard to find, there are some featuring their main habitat, the jungle:
Further activities
If you’re interested in exploring more of Chae’s books in the classroom, check out our resource here:
If you and your class enjoyedGorilla Loves VanillaLit 0-11a
Check out our list of funny books:
Little Owl’s Egg
Written by Debi Gliori and illustrated by Alison Brown
Little Owl has a problem: his mummy has laid an egg, which means there’s a new baby owl on the way. And Little Owl doesn’t think his mummy needs a new baby owl. But, says Mummy Owl, what if it’s not an owl inside the egg? What if it’s a penguin, or a crocodile, or a dragon? But none of these feel quite right, and in the end Little Owl thinks that a new baby owl might be just what he wants. This is a beautifully illustrated story which will create lots of discussion and provide lots of fun as pupils suggest what else could be inside the egg…
Hold a party for the new baby owlEXA 0-02a, EXA 1-02a, LIT 1-28a, MNU 0-09a, MNU 1-09a, MNU 1-09b, HWB 0-30a
Little Owl is eventually excited about the new baby owl hatching. Can your pupils help him to celebrate? Ask them to help Little Owl plan a party, designing posters, invitations and placemats. You could ask them to plan a menu of party food, and budget for food and decorations. If you go ahead and hold a party, why not invite parents along to see some of the work your pupils have been doing? This could be a good platform to gift the Primary 1 bags if you’re a P1 teacher.
They can also think of some gifts for the new baby owl. Little Owl has a scarf with a pattern – can your pupils design a pattern for a new scarf?
Make a Papier Mache egg and re-tell the storyEXA 0-02a, LIT 0-09a
In Debi’s author video, you’ll see a papier mache egg sitting beside her as she reads the book:
Here are some handy instructions for making papier mache eggs with your pupils:
The finished eggs would make good props for re-telling the story to others. Your pupils could also make puppets of the different animals that Mummy Owl mentions.
Writing: what if? LIT 1-14a, LIT 1-28a, SCN 1-02a, EXA 1-14a
What would happen if there really was a penguin inside the egg? Could your pupils find out all about penguins and give Little Owl some advice to help him look after his new friend?
Ask your pupils to find out what penguins like to eat, what kind of temperatures they like to live in and what activities they like to do (sliding and swimming). Ask them to write a short letter to Little Owl, or draw some pictures to show him how to look after the penguin.
The penguin might need to go home to Antarctica! If so, how would your pupils get there? Could they act out the journey?
Find out about trees and leavesLIT 0-26a, LIT 1-25a, SCN 1-01a
The first double page spread show Little Owl and his mummy inside the cavity of a tree; this is where owls tend to make their homes.
To encourage your pupils to find out about trees, you can use the following resources:
- This BBC clip tells pupils all about the life of an oak tree:
- This longer clip may also be useful to find out about trees and forest wildlife:
- This presentation on the TES website will help you introduce different types of tree to pupils (you’ll need to create a free login):
After you’ve used these resources to introduce your pupils to a few different types of tree, head out to a natural space and try to identify different types of tree. This Tree ID sheet from Woodland Trust is very handy for this task: For younger pupils, this ID sheet asks them to simply arrange leaves by colour, shape and size rather than tree type:
After this, ask pupils to record their findings in some way, describing the physical characteristics of the trees they’ve found, as well any wildlife that lives in or feeds from the tree. You can choose different ways of doing this: annotated photo galleries, narrated digital stories, illustrations, reports or creative texts like poems are all good ways for pupils to record and share their findings with others. For older pupils, the next activity might present a good option!
Numeracy activitiesMNU 0-02a
For Early Level, the book provides opportunities to count things: the number of leaves on each double page spread, or the number of ants and worms early on in the book. If you go out on a woodland walk with pupils, encourage them to collect the same amount of leaves as they found in the book.
Some songs and rhymesExa 0-16a
A Wise Old Owl:
A selection of owl rhymes:
You could also adapt this song to be about forest animals: Pupils could make up actions for each animal. For example:
Walking through the forest
What did I see?
Two little owls
Sleeping in a tree
Walking through the forest
What did I see?
Two little squirrels
Running up a tree
Other couplets that might work are ‘two little wood mice/running after me’ and ‘two little blackbirds/flying after me’.
If you and your class loved Little Owl’s EggLit 0-11a
Check out our list of books about owls:
The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee
Written by Michelle Sloan and illustrated by Kasia Matyjaszek
There’s a contest to find the bonniest baby in Dundee! The baby in this story is bound to win – he’s a wee delight and wows all the grannies on the bus. But on the trip to the contest, a series of mishaps turn him into the muckiest baby in Dundee! This book is a fun little journey towards a delightful and unexpected outcome, and gives its readers a walk through the city of Dundee, taking in a number of local attractions.
Numeracy, enjoyment and choice in readingMNU 1-02a, MNU 1-03a, Lit 1-11a
The book introduces the concept of ordinal numbers. The baby is the fourth bonniest baby in Dundee, but what’s the top favourite book in your class, and the second, and the third?
Ask pupils to read the three shortlisted books. Make a tally chart where pupils can indicate what their favourite book was, making sure that it’s big enough for everyone to see. As a class, count up the votes for each book, and write down the total for each one. Which is the favourite book, and the second and third? After this, you could ask pupils to make a display or a bar chart to show the results. Also, why not invite parents or another class in and see which book is their favourite? A parent event is the ideal opportunity to gift the Primary 1 Family Bag if you’re a P1 teacher.
Explore your local townLIT 1-28a, EXA 1-02a