The story of Dear Zoo is an absolutely favourite within Cart Mill. The younger children in particular enjoy this story.  To add more challenge for the older children, today we learned the Makaton signs for all the animals while reading the story.

The boys and girls were great at copying the signs! The monkey and the lion were definitely the favourites!

Due to the simple language and repetition, children of all age and stage can join in and it gives them the confidence to be the ‘reader’ too. Many children with minimal language due to their age or having English as an additional language will know the names of animals and/or can join in with the repeating line of ‘I sent him back.’ This is great for developing their social skills and allowing them to be part of a group.

We read the story three times altogether then one of the girls asked if she could read it to her friends. The other children happily joined in with the actions and putting the animal puppets back in the zoo.

The boys and girls then took turns of reading the book and continued to play with the puppets to create their own stories.

If you would like to learn how to read Dear Zoo using makaton you can follow this link and join in with Singing Hands.