Who has the fewest pancakes? Children often understand the word ‘more’ or ‘most’ but struggle to understand the word ‘fewer’ or ‘fewest’. Join in a role play game and make your own ‘Pancake Parlour’ using some of the mark making and maths activities at the same time. Have you remembered it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday 14 February? Why not make a card for someone in your family or see if you can post one to someone special that you might not be able to see at the moment?

Throughout the story the wolf struggles with tasks such as reading, writing, and counting and had no one to help him. But with perseverance and hard work he managed to do it all by himself. Good message to children even though it may take a little bit of time if you try hard you will succeed.Have a go at drawing or painting your favourite type of pancake. What toppings would you put on it? Now it was time to make the pancakes. But wolves aren't very good at cooking, so Mr Wolf called on the Three Little Pigs. “Please can you help me cook my pancakes? I'll share them with you,” he said kindly. A great story! The plot twist ending is super for questioning with children as to what the right thing to do is, you can use this as a discussion point. Should the wolf let the neighbours enjoy the pancakes even after the refused to help him? Then an element of humour and unexpected ending will hopefully make the children laugh. If Mr Wolf wanted to have a pancake party and invite some friends to his house, what would he need to send them? That’s right, an invitation. Perhaps you could plan a Pancake Day party for next week and make some invitations to send to people in your house. In Nursery, we always get lemons to squeeze when joining in with pancake day celebrations. If you have a lemon squeezer and can add an extra lemon or two to your basket, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy squeezing lemons and talking about what’s inside the lemon. This is also a great activity for strengthening little fingers!

Also, remember that playing with playdough is a great way to develop finger and arm strength. So, using a rolling pin to flatten playdough to make pancakes is another good activity to do. Tip: If your child is struggling to put enough pressure onto the rolling pin to flatten the dough, try asking them to stand up and do it on a surface/table at their height.

Looking for something different

Can you spot any other story characters that you recognise? Which story are they from? Have you read it?

Another good activity for helping to build strength in children’s upper arms, is ‘whisking’. You can do this whilst making pancakes but you could also let your child play with some soap and water and enjoy whisking it to see what happens. If you don’t want lots of mess around the sink, try it at bath time instead. Mr Wolf thought very hard for a moment. There was only one decent thing to do. “Oh, very well then,” he sighed, “you had better come in.” You're very clever, “said Mr Wolf. “Can you help me write my shopping list, please?” “No!” said Wee Willy Winky. “Go away!” He slammed his door - BANG! “There's no need to be like that,” said Mr Wolf quietly. And then, with his bulging tummy not quite full, Mr Wolf sat down to eat his pile of pancakes - and he did it all by himself.Mr Wolf looked in his cupboard for the ingredients, but he couldn't find anything he needed. “I'll go to the shop,” he decided, and he settled down to write a list. But wolves aren't very good at writing, so Mr Wolf called on Wee Willy Winky. How many pancakes have you made? Count each pancake, touching them as you say each number. Sometimes it helps to line objects up to ensure that you count each one only once and try to remember to stop at the last pancake. How many were there? Count again to make sure. Mr Wolf had never made pancakes before, so he took his big recipe book down off the shelf and looked inside. т 2. Mr Wolf has to carry out the tasks himself, some with great difficulty, but does eventually end up making some deliciously smelling pancakes. The waft drifts over to his neighbours, who then come to Mr Wolf’s house demanding pancakes. After some thought, he kindly invites them in, but unknown to his greedy and unhelpful neighbours, he was planning to eat them, washed down with the delicious pancakes he had made all by himself! The familiar other characters should be identifiable to children and therefore making connections to other stories such as the three little pigs and little red riding hood. Although ‘rude’, ‘rotten’ and ‘greedy’ neighbours the wolf appears to be the kinder person and doing the decent thing even though some people are not always nice.