The book ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne tells the story of a girl named Handa, who decides to take seven tasty fruits in a basket to her good friend, Akeyo. Are you looking for activities to support reading ‘Handa’s Surprise’ with your children? We’ve teamed up with Walker Books to bring you a wealth of learning resources. You could combine these resources together and plan a whole topic based on this lovely story. Here are just a few to get you started: Handa is carrying a basket of fruit to her friend Akeyo. She is carrying it on her head and doesn’t notice that animals she is passing are taking fruit out of the basket. Eventually the basket becomes empty but an antelope chasing her runs in to a tree as Handa walks beneath it and fills the basket with tangerines. When Handa reaches Akeyo with her surprise she is surprised herself. The story is full of questions. Look at the use of question marks in the story. Can you write your own questions and put a question mark in the correct place? Try to make a similar story where a child organises a surprise for somebody else, but there is a surprise for them at the end of the story.

What surprises have people organised for you? Can you think of a nice surprise that you could arrange for somebody else? Gather some fruit and use this for data handling activities… What is the favourite type of fruit in the class? Make a graph to show how far each type of fruit has travelled from its country of origin. What is the average number of grapes in a bunch? You will also be able to explore the important concept of subitising with your children using these Handa's Surprise Fruit Number Cards. Can your children instantly recognise small sets without counting (perceptual subitising)? Can they also spot smaller groups within bigger sets (conceptual subitising? This will be a fun way to investigate these important mathematical ideas.

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The book ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne tells the story of a girl named Handa, who decides to take seven tasty fruits in a basket to her good friend, Akeyo. However, along the way, the fruits in her basket are eaten one by one by some cheeky animals – a monkey, an ostrich, a zebra, an elephant, a giraffe, an antelope and a parrot. There’s one final twist to the story which involves a goat and some tangerines!

As she carries the basket on her head to her friends house, various animals steal the fruits, piece by piece but an accident results in her arriving with a basket full of tangerines which are incidentally Akeyo's favourite fruit. Handa puts seven different delicious fruits in a basket to take to her friend Akeyo as a surprise. But Handa’s walk takes her past a variety of animals, and the fruits do look very inviting...” Explore Eileen Browne's sequel with Handa's Hen Activities for Early Years Children. What is Handa's Surprise? Handa's Surprise is a book about a Kenyan girl (Handa) who visits her friend with a basket full of seven different fruits as presents. Along the way to Akeyo's village, Handa contemplates which fruit Akeyo will like the best. However, each time Handa thinks about a certain fruit an animal pops along and takes that particular fruit. For example a monkey steals the banana. Unaware that various animals have taken these tropical fruits, Handa contiunes along her journey, at which point a goat bumps into a tree and a bunch of tangerines fall into Handa's basket. Much to Handa's Surprise Tangerines are Akeyo's favourite fruit.Draw a map showing Handa’s route to see Akeyo and add pictures which shows the events which took place along the way. Collect some fruit and vegetable into a basket and draw it. What colours / textures will you need to show? Handa carries seven delicious fruits to her friend Akeyo as a surprise But thanks to some hungry animals she meets along the way it's Handa who's in for a surprise! --cover

Rewrite the story from Handa’s point of view. What does she think happened to the original fruit in her basket? This activity is based on the popular book by Eileen Browne, Handa’s Surprise. This colourful book tells the story of a young girl, Handa, who wants to take a basket of delicious fruits to her friend. Read the story, then have a look at this fun fruit printing activity. Handa’s Surprise is beautifully illustrated book for children in nurseries and reception classes. The story is set in a village in Africa, and the pictures are bold, traditional and bright coloured to capture the imaginations of little ones. This book can be used to cover a range of subjects across the early years curriculum e.g. numeracy (counting animals, fruits), art (drawing fruits, make displays), geography (discussed exotic fruits, wild animals, Africa), knowledge and understanding of the world (habitats, traditional clothes, culture), science (taste fruits, healthy eating). The ideas in this wonderful EYFS Reception Topic Planning Web: Handa’s Surprise will be perfect for you if you're looking for enjoyable and engaging learning activities for your reception children based on this much-loved book.This book tells the story of Handa and her friend Akeyo. At the beginning of the story Handa puts seven different fruits in her basket to take to her friend Akeyo. As Handa makes her way to Akeyo’s village she tries to imagine which fruit Akeyo would like best. Every time Handa describes each of the fruits in her basket; an animal native to Handa’s part of the world takes it out of the basket. Eventually when Handa’s basket becomes empty a goat breaks free from its rope and runs in to a tangerine tree which results in the tangerines falling in to Handa’s basket. Still unaware Handa arrives at Akeyo’s village telling her that she has a surprise for her. When she takes the basket of her head Handa is the one who is surprised as her basket which originally had 7 different fruits is now full of tangerines The book uses relatively simple language and could probably be read independently by a six or seven year old. This said, it uses a variety of punctuation marks which could possibly used as a platform for a more advanced lesson. Here are a few resources you can use to whip up some educational activities based around the story: