Excellent investment

Posted by Unknown on 22nd Jul 2015

What a beautifully, well thought out resource! I loved the book as the images cover the pages and the children enjoyed looking at them and identifying what they could see in each ‘scene’. There is lovely rhyming language throughout and a particular phrase that repeats itself throughout the book which worked wonderfully with a group of my child’s friends, including two children with special educational needs. One of the older children was keen to read the story to the younger ones. As the story progressed they all joined in with the phrase “climb aboard the river boat! We’re sailing down the Nile.” They got louder and more excited every time this phrase appeared. Even after the story had finished they were still singing to the phrase, which was quite impressive given that some of the children present were aged 8 to 10 years old! They explored the bag which they got very excited about, and I must admit that I was too, I don’t know much about Egypt so I was just as curious as the children. Some children were explaining to me what some of the objects were which was great as some of them are very shy but the story meant they were all able to add comments, even the younger ones were recalling what had happened in the story and some were making up their own little stories. It was really lovely to watch as they entertained themselves for 30 minutes if not more. I read out the food section in the activity booklet and they were amazed at some of the facts provided. The 4 and 5 year olds were repeating back to me how the Egyptians used to have 40 types of bread. Some wanted to dress up too! Some of the older children used the story and objects as props for recalling information that they had learnt at school and seeing the look on their faces it really seemed like this had consolidated and enriched their learning. They were all absorbed in the book and ‘Egypt’ and wanted to read another book which was great and beats sitting down watching television or getting paint everywhere! Excellent investment!