You Choose!

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Disco dancing - in the section on what you would choose to put in your house there is a glitter ball and a lava lamp. Try to get hold of these, put on some music and have a dance! Rhyming words and alliteration - have fun thinking of words that rhyme with choose (lose, snooze - include nonsense words). Try and think of words that begin with the same sound as something in the book - e.g. 'bed' - bus, banana, bear, bangle- are any of these things in the pictures in the book? You could play a game where you can only choose things beginning with a particular letter, the first letter of your name for example. Or maybe the chosen things must all have a predominant colour.

I would wear... - get out the dressing up clothes and invite the children to choose what they would wear to a party. Take a photo of each child and make a book of them all dressed up, with captions: 'Jordan would wear a bear suit'. Make a book - You Choose begins with 'Imagine you could have anything you wanted!' Collect the children's ideas about what they would choose if they could have anything they wanted and put their ideas in a book with photos and pictures. You could choose things for each other, or for someone you both know, or for an imaginary character like a pirate or a princess.Make some hats - make simple cone shaped hats and let the children decorate them however they like, or give them the choice of transforming it into a clown's hat or a princess's. Of course, the pictures provide numerous possibilities for additional things to discuss, too. ‘How would it feel to have a wizard as a relative?’ ‘Would you rather live in a cave or a treehouse?’ ‘If you had a pet dragon, what name would you give it?’ ‘What kind of person would wear pointy shoes like those?’ Choices - this book is all about choosing between things. Sometimes it can be quite hard to make up your mind. Do some circle times on choosing things. For example, have two toys that the children have to choose between and say why they chose the one they did. Odd one out - Invite the children to make an interactive 'odd one out' display, using all sorts of groups of animals, with an odd one out. Use hoops, boxes and baskets to display the groups in. The children could have fun mixing up the groups and changing the odd one out. Have a day when the children choose everything that goes out - or just in one area of the setting. This will require some negotiation and turn taking - all important skills!

You Choose" offers lots of starting points for learning and is the perfect book for following the children's lead in the activities you do. "You Choose" is the sort of book you could focus on for a week or two, followed by another couple of weeks on just one aspect of the book that the children really showed an interest in, like animals or transport. There is something in here for everyone -so go ahead and let them choose! Personal, Social and Emotional Development Counting - make sets of things from the book (vehicles/clothes/animals) and play some counting games.Sorting - use a doll's house and furniture as an opportunity to talk about sorting into rooms, counting and organising.