It's all about stories!: A Story Cafe | Walking in a winter wonderland

It's nearly Christmas, so this Story Cafe, we are reading Walking in a Winter Wonderland by Tim Hopgood. It is very simply the song lyrics, beautifully illustrated. But it got me thinking about all things Wintery - snowflakes, dressing up warm, mittens, pine trees, snow, the robin, the fox and the owl.

We set up some wintry "invitations to play" - decorating the Christmas trees, small world on the tuff spot, white playdough with shaped cutters, and white pom poms with tweezers to pick up and move about.

We read the story - story props in the picture below -

Then everyone went off to make some props to take home, or to just use their imagination and engage with the resources in their own way. I was really happy when one Mum said that her little boy hadn't made any story props to take home because it was all in his imagination and he would take that home. He really had engaged with the processes of doing, rather than the finished product, a concept which I am really passionate about, and which is sometimes difficult to explain to parents (for more see the links below).

We stopped as usual for tea and biscuits, and then got back together on the carpet at the end where we sang "5 chilly snowmen sliding on the sledge", to the tune of "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed".

Tim Hopgood's beautiful illustrations sum up the lyrics and give a really wintry feel to the story, so I'm going to finish with some of them.