In drama or dance, groups of children could act out scenes while other groups guess what they are doing with a focus to label a range of verbs.

For an art based activity, children could colour and cut animals and paint or make environments out of various materials. Older children could make animals out of clay, paint them and make small group versions of a totem pole. I have used this book extensively for many years, particularly with children with SEN to develop play, attention and listening and communication skills. This book can be made highly inclusive by asking children to comment on what they see in the pictures. Children can vocalise their thoughts whilst pointing to the image (in any language), or use various forms of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) such as Picture Exchange Communication System (PECs) or Proloquo2Go, Makaton or British Sign Language to comment and therefore be included in the class discussion. This highly inclusive and entertaining book is a must read for so many. In particular children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), English as an Additional Language (EAL), and children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through to children in Year 1 will love this book. I-spy and barrier games can be easily employed to work on attention and listening, phonological awareness and descriptive language skills. It aids language development by introducing vocabulary and supports basic sentence structure through the use of nouns, verbs and categorisation to children in a fun, repetitive, and rhythmical manner with clearly illustrated images to further support language production and comprehension.

Other activities include teacher led whole class reading and small group guided reading sessions where children can discuss images and context of the book commenting on the different animals they can see, the environments that they live in and what else they can think of living in each environment and why. This can be extended further into categorisation turn taking games such as placing toy animals into the correct habitats or playing ‘Where’s my home?’ memory and matching board games. Finally, the repetitive and structured nature of this book makes it easier to develop basic play skills for children who find play and language acquisition difficult. Therefore, children should be encouraged to play with toy animals and pre-made scenes to develop their play and language skills.

This is part of a short series of kits for primary school learners of English. It was produced to respond to the initiative of governments, including the Portuguese government, to lower the age at which English is taught in state schools. Written by Carolyne Ardron, illustrations by Paul Millard. Walking through the Jungle’ has been published in many other languages alongside English to promote inclusion and English language skills in children with EAL. This has other advantages for all primary aged children trying to learn another language such as French or German in a fun and accessible way as part of their Modern Foreign Language lessons in school. Walking through the jungle is about young explorer who adventures through the different terrains of the world meeting all kinds of animals on her way.This brilliant picture book is full of brightly coloured illustrations with a simple catchy rhythm and rhyme with extensive use of repetitive language that will encourage children widely to read and sing along.