Number Formation and Animal Zoo
This term we will be looking at numbers 0-10 and how we write these. Animal Zoo is the scheme used in Primary 1 and for continuity of learning we thought it would be a good idea to implement it in the nursery.
Each number is represented by an animal and has a story associated with it. As a way of making this fun for the children we will post possible activities , a picture of each animal and the story. If you are able to post on the blog any activities you and your child get up to that would be great and also you can add to their Learners Journey as a way of showing continued learning.
Greedy Zero – 0
Greedy Zero is a gorilla who has only just come to the zoo.There are no other gorillas but he is not lonely because he lives with a large family of chimpanzees.
All day long the chimpanzees are busy chasing each other and playing games. They climb up the trees and swing from the branches. They even use sticks to try and catch insects. But Greedy Zero never joins in. He likes to sit all day and do nothing. “Come and play,” shout the chimpanzees but Greedy Zero always says “I’m too tired.”
There is only one time of the day when Greedy Zero becomes lively and that’s feeding time. As soon as the zoo keeper brings the buckets of bananas, Greedy Zero jumps up and rushes to grab as many as possible. Then he hides under a tree and eats and eats and eats. That’s why he has such a big round tummy. When he has finished eating he throws the empty banana skins on the ground. Then he rubs round and round his tummy with his hand and says “That feels better, My tummy isn’t empty anymore.”
One day Greedy Zero took so many bananas from the bucket there was hardly any left for the chimpanzees. Most of them only had one banana each and the youngest chimpanzee had nothing at all.”It’s not fair,” she wailed and the other chimpanzees agreed. They all started to jump up and down and shouted” It’s not fair! It’s not fair!”
Greedy Zero was much too greedy to share so he scampered away with his arms full of bananas. The chimpanzees chased after him. He knew they would soon catch him up, so he stopped and hid all the bananas in a hole under the roots of a tree. Then he ran on and on until the chimpanzees caught him.” You must share the bananas,” said the chimpanzees, but Greedy Zero waved his empty hands and said , “ But look.I have no bananas at all.” The chimpanzees were angry and showed their teeth at him. Then they rushed back to tell the zoo keeper.
Greedy Zero smiled because he was rather pleased with himself for tricking the chimpanzees. The thought of all those bananas made his mouth water. “ Mmmm what a feast!” he said as he went back to find the tree.
Greedy Zero searched and searched but could not find the hole under the roots of the tree.He had been so busy running away from the chimpanzees that he had forgotten exactly which tree he had used. He searched and searched but still could not find the hole. “Oh dear,”he cried ,”now I have no bananas for dinner. What shall I do?” Poor Greedy Zero had been so greedy he ended up having ZERO bananas.
Try counting forward and back from 0 -10. Use zero as an amount when counting out every day objects. This ensures the pupil understands that 0 has a value and place on the number line.
Penguin one – 1
Penguin One lives in a large penguin pool at the zoo. One day he woke up to a wonderful sight. It had snowed in the night and everywhere was covered in a white, sparkling blanket. ”Hooray,”shouted Penguin One. “I love snow! It hasn’t snowed for such a long time!”
Most of the other animals in the zoo didn’t like the cold. They shivered and stayed indoors. But not Penguin One. He shuffled his feet in the snow and went over the icy pool to find his favourite rock, Penguin One put his foot on the ice, slipped, and skidded all over it.” This is fun! “thought Penguin One, and slipped and skidded some more.
Then Penguin One climbed off the ice and rolled over and over in the snow. He loved to feel the cold snowflakes on his feathers. But best of all he liked sliding on his tummy down his favourite rock. “Whoosh!” he went over the snow again and again and again. He was enjoying himself so much he even forgot to have his one fish for dinner.
The sun was shining brightly and slowly, slowly the snow began to melt. Penguin One didn’t notice this because he was so busy sliding down the slope on his tummy. The fluffy white snow slowly turned to a dirty grey slush. It was dirty in Penguin Ones slide because he had used it so much. He didn’t see the long black mark appearing on his tummy until the seal started to laugh at him. “Look at your dirty shirt,” barked the seal.
Penguin One tried to wipe the dirty mark off his smart white tummy feathers but it wouldn’t come off. “Dirty shirt, dirty shirt,” taunted the seal. But Penguin One just smiled and said “It’s not a dirty mark. It’s a number one because I am the best sliding penguin in the world.I’m the world’s number one
Lets see if you can show us what “One” is using an object. It could be one brick, one pencil, one stone. Anything you can find to show us one. Then ask child to bring you 1 of of the objects. Use chalks to draw number one then ask child to copy. Have a look when out on the daily walk to find number ones in the environment Penguin one rhyme Penguin One Is having fun Sliding in the snow , Looking funny On his tummy as fast as he can go But now his shirt Is covered in dirt , A smudge from neck to toe He wipes it off And wipes it off But its still there OH NO!
Ticklish Two – 2
Ticklish Two
In the Zoo there is a little lake where the water birds live. In middle of the lake you will often see a beautiful white swan gliding on the water. She is very proud of her long, curved neck and her lovely white feathers and she always swims in the middle where all the visitors can see her.
Sometimes the other ducks and geese are annoyed because she spends all day showing off. She never swims with them around the edge of the lake because she says the tall water weeds tickle the top of her head and drop brown fluffy seeds on her fine feathers. So the other ducks and geese call her Ticklish Two.
One year Ticklish Two laid 2 large eggs. She sat on them to keep them warm and hissed at anyone who came near. After a few weeks two tiny cygnets pecked their way out of the eggs. As they grew up Ticklish Two taught her two cygnets how to swim and soon they joined her in the middle of the lake. They were very naughty. Sometimes they splashed her fine feathers and this made her very cross . ”SSSSSS don’t be naughty,” she hissed at them.
One day they found two very long feathers floating on the water. Then they did a very naughty thing. They picked up the feathers in their bills and used them to tickle their mother. As you know, Ticklish Two is very ticklish and soon she started to giggle. The more the cygnets tickled, the more she giggled .Soon she was giggling so much that she couldn’t swim in a straight line any more. When the other ducks saw Ticklish Two zigzagging across the lake with the two naughty cygnets still tickling her, they laughed and laughed. Poor Ticklish Two!
Number Formation 2
Tell the child how to stroke Ticklish Two correctly. Always start at her bill, go round her head, and slide down her neck and straight along to her tail. Remember if you start at the tail you ruffle her feathers the wrong way. Help the child to avoid reversing the whole number by pointing out the direction Ticklish Two swims in, that is, away from her cygnets. Perhaps looking at a picture of a swan may help during this activity.
Butterfly Three – 3
Butterfly Three lives in an airy Butterfly House with lots of rare butterflies and moths.He needs the warmth of the Butterfly House as he comes from a very hot country.
The Butterfly House is a jungle of green plants with bright flowers. Visitors come to see the butterflies because they are so beautiful. At first,they can be difficult to see because they are as bright as the flowers.But if you look carefully you can see them feeding from the flowers.
Butterfly Three is so hard to see because he is so brightly coloured. He sits on the flowers with his wings together so he can show off the patterns under his wings. He is very proud of the 3 coloured rings which make up each circle. You can also see the three parts to his body: his head,his chest and his tail.
When Butterfly Three finishes drinking nectar from the flowers, he loves to fly around the Butterfly House . He flaps his wings-flap,flap,flap,-and silently glides round the house.He loves to fly low over children heads. He gives them such a surprise because they can’t hear him coming. “Look at that giant butterfly,” they say ” It’s so beautiful!”
One day Butterfly Three was going to feed from his favourite flower when he met a giant moth.”I wouldn’t go on that flower if i were you,” he said “there are three very strange looking bugs on it.” Flap,flap,flap went Butterfly Three and landed on the flower. He found three strange bugs crawling up the stem. They asked if they could live on the plant and Butterfly Three told them he didn’t mind at all.
A few days later word had spread around the Butterfly House about the three strangers.The other butterflies didn’t like them. “They are so ugly,” said one butterfly. “They will frighten the visitors,” said a second.”The zoo keeper must get rid of them,” said a third. But Butterfly Three thought this was unkind and said there was plenty room for everyone.He flapped his wings – flap,flap,flap- and flew angrily away.
Butterfly Three decided to watch over the three strange bugs to make sure no harm came to them.So with a flap,flap,flap, Butterfly Three landed on his favourite flower. He looked up and down the stem but he couldn’t see the three strange bugs. He waited and waited but still they didn’t come.
Butterfly Three was beginning to worry when suddenly out popped a ladybird from under a leaf.Then out popped a second ladybird and then a thirds. The ladybirds were bright red and each one had three black spots on her back. “Sorry we haven’t been to see you,” said the first ladybird. “Yes, we have been busy turning into ladybirds,” said the second. “But we are back now ,” said the third. Butterfly Three suddenly realised that the three ugly bugs had become three beautiful ladybirds.
Just then the zoo keeper came by and saw the three ladybirds. “That’s good,” he said,” lots of ladybirds to eat the greenfly. They will help to keep the plants healthy!” Butterfly Three heard what the zoo keeper said . He flapped his wings,flap,flap,flap, and flew off to tell the other butterflies and moths how important his three new friends were.
Activities for Butterfly Three
As the weather is lovely use chalks to draw pictures of Butterfly Three on the paving stones. Remember he has 3 circles on each wing. Perhaps you could try to write the number 3 next to your drawing.
You could also draw a triangle shaped Butterfly house with 3 triangle windows. Why triangles -Triangles have 3 sides and 3 angles just like Butterfly Three has 3 circles on his wings
Feathery Four
Feathery Four
Next to the lake there is a small wood where visitors to the Zoo can see all kinds of birds. If you stand still and listen, you can often hear them singing. Some birds perch up on the trees and some hop about on the ground.
The peacock is the most beautiful bird in the wood. His feathers are shiny blue and green and he has a gorgeous tail. When he holds his tail up, it makes a dazzling fan behind him. On the fan, there is lots of colourful circles that look like eyes. All the other birds in the wood love to see the beautiful four feathers on his head. They call him Feathery Four.
It was Feathery Four’s birthday. He was going to be four years old and he invited all the birds to a party. The birds were very excited and collected lots of seeds, nuts and berries for the party tea. They secretly wrapped up presents for Feathery Four to open. When they had finished the birds went to bathe at the edge of the lake so they would look their best for the party.
Thrush was not at all happy. Her feathers were just a dull brown and she wanted to look brighter for the party. So she went to see Feathery Four . “Please can I have one of your tail feathers to wear for the party?” she asked. Now Feathery Four is very kind and said “Of course Thrush, I would be very happy to give you one of my feathers.” He plucked out one tail feather and gave it to Thrush who flew happily away.
A little later Blackbird came to see Feathery Four. He had seen Thrush with her beautiful feather and thought his plain black feathers could do with some bright decoration too. “Please can I have one of your feathers to wear for the party? “asked Blackbird. “Of course,” said Feathery Four and he plucked another feather from his tail. Blackbird was so pleased he flew away to show all the other birds.
As soon as the other birds heard that Feathery Four was giving away his wonderful tail feathers, they all wanted to wear one for the party. One by One they went to ask for a feather. It was nearly time for the party and Feathery Four went to the lake for a wash. But when he looked at his reflection in the water he had a shock! “Oh no,” he cried, “I have given nearly all my tail feathers away!” He counted to see how many were left: one, two, three, and four. There were only four feathers left. “I can’t go to my party now,” cried Feathery Four.
But Thrush had heard him. “Don’t be sad,” she said “you still have four wonderful tail feathers and you are still the most beautiful bird in the wood. Your kindness has made all the other birds very happy.” Feathery Four knew that Thrush was right so he dried his tears and joined the party. And what a splendid party it was!
Action Rhyme
Feathery Four,Feathery Four Use 4 finger to show feathers
Lost his feathers and needs some more
Four on his head and four on his tail,
“No party for me ,” he cries with a wail. Shake head
Party Tea! Lots to eat!
Four red berries, juicy and sweet Raise 4 fingers
Feathery Four just can’t say “No”, Shake head
Peck ,peck, peck ,peck ,the berries soon go Peck each finger with the other hand
