Stories, Crafts & Games
Combining story time with crafts or games makes for a lively, fun session for all to enjoy, including reluctant readers.
Choose from Lum, Lum’s Mum or Animalympics. Full details below to explain what is included with each visit.
Lum
1 hour session for KS1 children. Perfect for class visits but can be adapted for larger groups if required.
Lum’s Mum
1 hour session for KS1 children. Perfect for class visits but can be adapted for larger groups if required.
Animalympics
1 hour session for KS1 or KS2 children. Perfect for class visits but can be adapted for larger groups if required.
Kept the children interested all the way through!
Thank you for reading your book to our children. It is brilliant!
The teachers all said how much the children enjoyed the session
Using elements of the story, the format of the visit is as follows:
- Josie reads Lum’s rhyme and asks the children to draw how they imagine Lum to look. Based on his rhyme, children often think Lum is a monster or a giant;
- Josie reads the whole story to reveal that Lum is just a ‘fluffball’;
- Discuss perceptions (age dependent);
- Josie reads the story again giving the children the chance to join in with the rhymes and do actions, as well as everyone having a chance to hug Lum (cuddly toy – dependent on Covid-safe guidelines);
- Build a house for Lum (building blocks, recycling or using a template);
- Treasure hunt to find pictures of Lum (pictures are then swapped for Lum stickers).
Using elements of the story, the format of the visit is as follows:
- Dependent on space, the room is set up as a journey with workstations to mimic Lum’s journey in the book;
- Station 1: children make knapsacks which they ‘fill’ with essentials (good opportunity for children to discuss what is important to them);
- Station 2: children make flowers to create a meadow or daisy chain;
- Station 3: children have the chance to be rabbits, bees and butterflies;
- At the end of the journey, Josie reads the book to all the children.
This is an active visit with elements of crafting and sport to tie-in with the themes in the book.
- Mask Making – children have the chance to make an animal mask with craft materials.
- Animalympics Game: Josie asks the children to act as different animals, for example, ‘show me how a cat would warm up for the Animalympics’.
- After each animal warm up, the children have to guess from a choice of 3 sports which one that animal would compete in.
- Josie then reads that animal’s verse to reveal which sport they are doing.
- Everyone who gets it right, gets a point. At the end of the game, the child with the most points wins an Animalympics gold medal!
How Lum supports teaching and learning
- Character-focused to support character studies in creative writing
- Strong messages around friendship, kindness and anti-bullying
- Chanting and rhymes
- Additional craft activities to encourage recognition of shapes and measurements
How Lum’s Mum supports teaching and learning
- Character-focused to support character studies in creative writing
- Strong messages around friendship, kindness, love and families
- Chanting and rhymes
- Compass use and map making
How Animalympics supports teaching and learning
- Character-focused to support character studies in creative writing
- Strong messages around sport, endurance, challenge and individual talents
- Spotlight on animals helping behind the scenes promotes teamwork and chance to discuss ‘people who help us’
- Variety of animals presents an opportunity to research new species
- Complements topics such as animals, geography, world events, sports and values