The farmer is very lazy. Why are people lazy sometimes? How does this impact on other people? How can we try to stop ourselves from being lazy? Read the story again, this time leaving spaces for children to join in with the repeated phrases and animal noises. Reading the story again and again helps children to read more of the story themselves and builds their confidence in books and reading. Talk together Look together at the pictures in the two endpaper spreads showing the view of the fields and farm on the hill in the distance. How has the picture changed from the beginning to the end of the story? What reasons might there be for the changes? Make a newending Look at different ways of writing plurals, using animal names as inspiration, e.g. cows, sheep, mice.

They stole down the hall’ is a sentence from the book. ‘Stole’ can have more than one meaning. Can you think of other words like this (i.e. Homonyms). Find out more Read more books written by Martin Waddell here Titles include: Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? * Owl Babies The Pig in the Pond The Big, Big Sea Tom Rabbit Snow Bears * See more lovemybooks ideas Read more books illustrated by Helen Oxenbury here Titles include: The Quangle Wangle’s Hat The Helen Oxenbury Nursery Story Book Say Goodnight * We’re Going on a Bear Hunt * So Much Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes * See more lovemybooks ideas Look at the illustrations of the farm at the beginning and end of the book. How are they different? Could you draw your own farm pictures in similar styles? Find out about the animals on the farm. Why do people keep those animals on a farm? What kinds of jobs do farmers have to do to look after them? What happened to the lazy farmer? Children can imagine what the farmer did when he was chased away from the farm and tell his story. Did he feel sorry? Sing ‘Old Mac Donald’

So Much

There is a lot of speech in the book. Use this to develop, or reinforce, understanding of speech marks and how they are used. The book is available in a number of languages. Could you use these to introduce children to other languages?

Children can use animal toys to act out the story. It’s a really good way for them to get to know the story well. They could also do this on a small scale witha storybox of the farmyard scene, as in the illustration above. Compare the beginning and ending Children can create their own farm picture by drawing, painting or using collage with torn coloured paper.

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