Hicketty Picketty: preparing for Chicks R Us

This week, students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 will be learning the nursery rhyme Hicketty Picketty. We will also be reading Out of the egg, by Tina Matthews, which is a variation of The little red hen fairy tale.

The inclement weather last Friday gave Class 1HB another chance to brainstorm a digital story. This time they ended up with an Easter theme, which will prove useful with other classes as the term progresses:


An Easter tale

The subsequent week consolidates the learning with this digital quiz on PhotoPeach, which draws upon images and information gathered in 2011 after a unit of work based upon the annual Chicks R Us experience:


What’s in the egg?

Another picture book favourite is Clifford’s happy Easter by Norman Bridwell, which features a North American (spring season!) Easter egg hunt and the dyeing of boiled eggs.

And our PhotoPeach digital story about Clifford the Big Red Dog’s last visit to our school library:


Clifford & Phoebe at Penrith PS

Humpty was pushed?

Humpty on the wooden block wall

Our school has had a Humpty Dumpty mural on a classroom wall for many years now. It’s amazing how fast Humpty falls again when the three-year cyclic plan for K-2 comes around again.

As is traditional, the “Chicks R Us” and their incubator turned up this week. Only one egg to hatch now!

Chicks R Us

Chicks R Us 2

Chicks R Us 3

Meanwhile, the students suggested that a PowerPoint show about the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, made three years ago, needed one more image to make it more interesting. So, this year, Easter egg Humpty shows some leakage after falling off his wall:

Humpty

Bonjour, Monsieur Poulet!

Mr Chicken closeup on the Eiffel Tower

whiteMr Chicken on the Eiffel TowerwhiteMr Chicken's ascent

Leigh Hobbs’ infamous Monsieur Poulet, of “Mr Chicken goes to Paris”, climbs the Eiffel Tower and then (below, in my version of the story) seemingly meets an appreciative, time-travelling artist. (I’m actually working on a book trailer for this CBCA Awards nominated picture book. I hope. I have to produce something exciting for Tristan Bancks‘ final class on Monday night.)

Mr Chicken meets Leonardo

Monsieur Poulet was crafted from yellow, black and white FIMO Soft oven-hardening modelling material. Background artwork is from “Mr Chicken goes to Paris” by Leigh Hobbs (Allen & Unwin, 2009).

Mr Chicken and the Mona Lisa

I bought my copy of “Mr Chicken goes to Paris” the day it came out. It was one of those books you just couldn’t leave behind in the shop. Earlier this year, when the CBCA shortlist came out, I grabbed a copy for school. At first, I thought I’d have to forfeit mine. Mai non!

By the way, the French chair (below) is an actual miniature prop from the 2001 Australian movie, “Moulin Rouge!”

Mr Chicken in Paris

white"Mr Chicken goes to Paris" cover

I must explain, too: I was reading “Mr Chicken goes to Paris” today to a group of K-2 students, one of who just *could not* cope with me calling the main character “Mr Chicken” – especially since we read “Kip” (about a rooster) and “Bear & Chook by the sea” yesterday. Every page, the poor kid kept putting his hands over his ears and yelling, “There. Are. No. Chickens. In. That. Book!”

His young colleagues were telling me, “We all have to just ignore him.” We kept reading, of course, but I had to avoid saying those magic words, “Mr Chicken”, hence the main character was “Monsieur Poulet” throughout!

UPDATE: Okay, I think I’ve just managed to upload my book trailer as a VIDEO PODCAST! Music: “Parks On Fire (California Burning Mix)” by DJ Rkod (feat. Trifonic). http://ccmixter.org/files/DJ_Rkod/14745 is licensed under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/nc-sampling+/1.0/.

Bear and Chook by the sea: nominated!

Congratulations to author Lisa Shanahan and illustrator Emma Quay!

Last week the news broke that their picture book, “Bear and Chook by the sea”, has been shortlisted in the annual CBCA awards, in the Early Childhood category. The winners of this prestigious competition are announced in Book Week (in Term 3).

The students at my school remember the book’s creators and characters so well from last year’s Bear and Chook books rap and wish them all the best. Meanwhile, I understand that Bear and Chook themselves have been taking separate vacations:

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Bear at Sea World, on the Gold Coast

and…

Easter Show
Chook at the Royal Easter Show, Sydney.

Bears and chooks iiiiiiiin spaaaaaaaaaaaace!

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Bear and Chook’s space adventure: fun with Kindergarten book rappers in the school library today, as part of the Bear and Chook books rap. During Circle Time, the students created three new adventures for Bear and Chook and we uploaded the photos as a Flickr slideshow:

Please click here!

They (and I) hope you enjoy this digital story. You can request to read the captions while the slideshow plays.

There’s a bear in there!

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Yesterday I found the perfect stuffed polar bear I need for a school project (for the book rap on the children’s picture book “Bear and Chook”) at a local Salvation Army “Salvo’s” charity store. I’ve been pricing toy polar bears all week, and this one was just $2. He was actually dressed for Christmas (in July?), but even his garments are worth way more than $2! (Boy, am I glad I didn’t buy the one I saw for $130 during the week!)

Even better, Bear’s the perfect scale for my battery-operated “Choke-a-Chicken” (below), who’ll be standing in for the character of Chook. (Remember “Choke-a-Chicken”? A real novelty hit several Christmases ago. He does the Chicken Dance, and squawks in agony when you pick him up by the neck!)

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It was the most amazing day. I was dropped off at the station, to head into Darling Harbour and have lunch with friends at the Meat and Wine Co. I had just missed a train, so I headed off to the shops for a while, and then decided to check out the stuffed toy section of the “Salvo’s” charity store on High Street. Sure enough, there was Bear, waiting on a couch and looking resplendent in his Christmas outfit. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the woman serving me said, “$2 please”!

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Of course, I then had to take Bear into the city with me – and pay an extra 95 cents for a recyclable carry-bag – but who cares when I’d just saved $128! I also managed to miss the next fast train into the city, which was also frustrating, but again – who cares when I’d just saved $127.05!

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Introducing “Bear and Chook by the sea”: Emma Quay, illustrator, and Lisa Shanahan, author.

The “Bear and Chook” series book rap commences in Term 4 for students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1! Watch this space!