Early Childhood 2012

• Activity: Read the story and place the pieces on the terracotta pot. Readers Theatre script

• Runic translation activity

• Activity: Read the book with the cat beside you making the noise through the story.
• Famous cats activity

• Activity: Book is read whilst the bear is acting the story and the storyteller is totally oblivious that he is there until the end.
• Famous bears activity
• Could have phrases, words and part sentences organised and get the kids to make their own story.
• Discussion points: Young children will love pointing out that there is a bear in this story and where it is hiding on each page. Ruby’s story is influenced by other fairy tales and we see bear telling them his version of the story at the end.

• Activity: Story is read with person dressed in pink PJ’s and bubble wrap. Could also use 2 dolls.
• Discussion points: The front cover shows that this book is about bathtime! Straight colours used except for the print on the wallpaper, door panels, children’s PJ’s, bed linen and mum’s dress. The illustrations capture the different textures through the story; the lightness of the bubbles, the comfort of soft towels, hard floorboards in contrast to a soft rug, the prickly doormat and the comfy doona, all on soft naked skin! A great book to talk about contrasts. The little brother mimics everything his big sister does. This is a great rhyming book. Could have examples of rhyming words used in the story.

• Activity: Wear Viking hat and read the story
• Discussion points: The letters of the Viking alphabet are called runes and are often carved into stones as a memorial to a person. The front cover is bordered by a message using the Viking alphabet and the endpapers give us the key to what these runes mean in our alphabet. What others messages are in the book? A great book to tackle fears and being brave, also touches on bullying in a great way.

• Activity: Read the story and place the pieces on the terracotta pot.
• Discussion points: The endpapers of the book show us concrete with chalk drawing roads and toy cars. Before the arrival of the daffodil this may have been Tom’s only play space. The concrete space allows the focus to be on the terracotta pot. We only see part of Mr Yilmaz to show the size difference between him and Tom. The growth of the daffodil shows the cycle of growth as Spring approaches.

• Activity: Read the story with a dog puppet who take the hug (a scarf) and runs off with it. Let the kids study the last page. Close the page over and ask them to recall 5 things they remember.
• Discussion points: The story begins on the title pages with illustrations of Lucy getting ready for bed. Lucy is already dressed by the time the story begins. There is enough detail to tell the reader which parts of the house the story is unfolding in. The chaos of the family and the house is perfectly shown through the illustrations.

Bland, Nick and Freya Blackwood (illus) The Runaway Hug Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia

Hartnett, Sonya and Lucia Masciullo (illus) Come Down, Cat! Puffin Books, Penguin Group (Australia)

Honey, Elizabeth That’s Not a Daffodil! Allen & Unwin

Jorgensen, Norman and James Foley (illus) The Last Viking Fremantle Press

McKinlay, Meg and Leila Rudge (illus) No Bears Walker Books Australia

Quay, Emma Rudie Nudie ABC Books, HarperCollins

• Activity: Read the book with the cat beside you making the noise through the story. Famous cats activity
• Discussion points: Open out the front cover and point out that Nicholas and the cat have the same expression. The little houses in the distance and the tall city buildings give us an idea of how high the roof of the house is. The house looks more like a castle than a house and the neighbouring houses look quite normal in comparison. To accentuate how brave Nicholas was to climb the ladder, the illustrator painted the ladder reaching high up in the clouds.

• Book trailer

• Rudie Nudie costume (Sutherland Shire Libraries)

• Rudie Nudie Attach:Rudie_nudie_costume.doc (Sutherland Shire Libraries)

• Rudie Nudie attach:Rudie_nudie_costume.doc (Sutherland Shire Libraries)

Quay, Emma Rudie Nudie ABC Books, HarperCollins

• Rudie Nudie attach:Rudie_nudie_costume.pdf (Sutherland Shire Libraries)

• Book trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc-KeMXpRCc
• Rudie Nudie attach:costume (Sutherland Shire Libraries)

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Ideas for using the Early Childhood Short List 2012

Bland, Nick and Freya Blackwood (illus) The Runaway Hug Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia

Hartnett, Sonya and Lucia Masciullo (illus) Come Down, Cat! Puffin Books, Penguin Group (Australia)

Honey, Elizabeth That’s Not a Daffodil! Allen & Unwin

Jorgensen, Norman and James Foley (illus) The Last Viking Fremantle Press

McKinlay, Meg and Leila Rudge (illus) No Bears Walker Books Australia

Quay, Emma Rudie Nudie ABC Books, HarperCollins