But everyone in the town is in bed, and in the end, they still haven’t frightened anybody. So the little skeleton suggests that they frighten each other instead. The Funnybones books are a must for children just starting to learn to read - these funny skeletons are definitely not the scary sort! It is a particularly dark, dark night tonight, and Big and Little keep bumping into each other, making them fall to pieces, and there is only one thing to do: send in Dr. Bones, who does a great job of patching them up to stop them from bumping in the night.

The skeletons like to explore at night time. Why do we have day and night? What happens to the Earth and Sun to give us light times and dark times? The use of repetitive language and songs further add to the stories features and add a great amount of fun and laughter when the story is read aloud. Both the adults reading the text and children can join in with this. I feel that it cannot only be used as a literacy focus, but the story itself has scientific features. Children are able to extend their biological knowledge of the structure of the human skeleton. This will assist in enlarging their language vocabulary.This book is pretty near perfect, both for children just starting to learn to read, and older ones too. Using the setting of a walk to the park and to the zoo, creates familiar situations for young children. The text is easy to read, and the repetition aids fluency. It is enhanced by the illustrations, which are as humorous and quirky as the story itself. It is very, very funny. The Funnybones decide to put on a show and Cat keeps getting told to go away each time she was carrying a poster that advertised the show. The 2 ports of call were Mr. Bonehead at the Pet Shop followed by Dr. Bones at the Skeleton Surgery of the dark, dark hospital.

In the first ever Funnybones book, we are introduced to the wonderful humour and fun of the much-loved series. One night the skeletons decide to take their dog for a walk and frighten somebody. That's what skeletons are supposed to do, right? So off they go. What do you think? They had a lot of fun, but one picture shows the three skeletons running away from a skeleton of a crocodile ... Little gets bored with the quiet life on the dark, dark hill. So he decides to go to the city before he gets worried about Big and Dog getting lost. "There are too many skeletons" says the Big Skeleton in the city and even the underground has them. Mr. Bonehead: The skeleton owner of the pet shop (who wore a bigger hat called a flat cap with a pencil and an apron), who Big and Little took Dog into with a view to swapping him for another pet etc. in the episode "The Pet Shop" and everything else in other episodes.Funnybones’ can be used in the classroom in several ways. In English lessons for example, children can learn to appreciate the use of rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, punctuation, speech and simple sentences. Pupils could explore the beginning of the story to help them write their own creative story with a repetitive refrain. In KS1 classes, the teacher could also use the book as a point of reference to explain how speech marks are used as well as other relevant punctuation. A special edition of this classic picture book to celebrate its 40th anniversary - with a glow-in-the-dark cover! The book has a lot of emphasis on the word ‘dark’, such as dark dark street...dark dark house...the effect of this is that children are able to remember this and they also get a sense of the way it has been used for effect. Draw around somebody you know on a large piece of paper and label the different bones inside their body on it.

They live in a dark, dark cellar of a dark, dark house on a dark, dark hill and so the word repetition continues through this lighthearted story for early readers. The skeletons venture out of their cellar one night to find someone to scare, but everyone is in bed, so they amuse themselves by scaring each other and playing with the skeleton animals that live in the zoo. Teaching Ideas and Resources: English Big: The larger skeleton brother (who wore a mini red bowler hat in the TV series and who wore various hats in the storybooks and in his wishful ideas). He admitted "good idea" on every idea he approved of from Little. During the remainder of their adventure, they take a trip to the zoo and continue to hunt for some people to scare. As the night draws on, they come to the conclusion that everyone’s in bed so they decide to scare one another! The author uses ‘word repetition’ throughout the book to make it enjoyable to the reader and also to make it humorous. A song is also included in the book, and I remember as a child reading the book over and over again and singing along out loud! When using this book in placement in Year 2, all children joined in and sang along. They all enjoyed singing as there were a lot of rhyming and repetition words.There are lots of examples of onomatopoeia in the story (e.g. woof, miaow, boo). Can you think of any more? The pictures in the story are all based in dark places. Investigate light and different light sources. This book is about three skeletons, the big skeleton, the little skeleton and the dog skeleton. They all lived on a dark dark hill, in a dark dark house.

Funnybones, is a fantastic children’s story book which is still used in literacy sessions in the classroom. It’s a perfect book for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and into the earlier years of Key Stage One. During placement within the EYFS the children have a literacy carpet session every day which consists of one core book a week. Currently, the nursery class I’m working with have been reading the Funnybones book. The class teacher reads the story aloud to the children and then uses a range of techniques to assess their learning. The vast majority of the children are able to join in with the repetitive refrains which are used throughout the book, for example, ‘on a dark, dark hill, there was a dark, dark town. In the dark, dark town, there was a dark, dark street’ etc. Both the teacher and the children additionally use actions in particular sections of the story. These are used for the characters, big skeleton, little skeleton, dog skeleton, and objects such as the swings etc. It’s a technique which includes the children in the story telling process and further encourages them to remain engaged throughout the carpet session. This book also has many potential curriculum links to Science because of the theme of skeletons and bones. In the classroom, teachers could discuss the importance of skeletons and the names of important bones. Also, the reference to ‘dark’ and ‘night’ could prompt discussions and activities about light and dark sources. Similarly, how and why we get day and night could be explored in the classroom. With reference to Art, pupils could draw and label human/animal skeletons for a class display. Create a character profile for each of the skeletons. What are their real names? What are their personalities like? What are their favourite things? There are 206 bones in an adult human body. How many different calculations can you think of with the answer of 206? Funny bones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg is one of my most favorite childhood books!! The book is about…”a big skeleton…a little skeleton…and a dog skeleton…” one night all three were bored in bed and decided to go outside to “scare somebody”. The story goes on, the skeletons walk past the houses on the street, and the shops, and past the zoo, and past the police station and finally go to the park where they look for someone to scare!Funnybones is a great short story that decpicts the tale of three skeletons, big skeleton, little skeleton and dog skeleton. The three skeletons go out for a night walk with the intentions of scaring some people, however they can't find anyone to scare. During the course of the walk they visit the zoo, re-assemble the dog skeleton and set about scaring each other.