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Lullabyhullaballoo!

lullabyhullaballooMick Inkpen
Hodder Children’s Books                       
Age 3-5


This is a gently rhythmic story about a princess’s bedtime with all sorts of imaginary scary creatures keeping her awake. Ghosts, dragons, giants and more are dealt with swiftly and soon find themselves helping to send the princess to sleep with a lullaby. The trouble is when the Princess is asleep, she snores, LOUDLY! There are lots of pictures to share and the story is great for reading aloud and joining in

lovemybooksactivitiesorangecentre

 

Share the story

Read aloud
Read the book aloud encouraging children to join in with ‘Sshing’ all the characters disturbing the princess as you do. Allow time for children to talk about what is happening and what they can see if the pictures when they want to.

Join in
As you re read the story children will enjoy joining in with more of the story, such as answering the question ‘What shall we do’ as you read it or the ‘Who me? Yes you!’ parts.

They will also enjoy joining in with the sounds stamping for the giant and oohing for the ghosts. Some keys or a can and spoon will help them rattle and clunk like the brave knights.

Talk about the story
Can children remember all the different characters in the story?
– Which one is the scariest?
– Which one is the noisiest?
– How can all the characters get to sleep if the Princess is snoring?
– What can they do?


Things to make and do

Make puppets
Make stick puppets for some of the different characters in the story together – a dragon, ghosts, knights, a giant and bears. You can draw simple shapes on thin card,  cut them out and stick onto handles made from lollysticks. Children can colour or decorate the puppet shapes.

Retell the story
Retell the story together using your puppets and a doll or soft toy in a makeshift bed as the princess.

Play a game
Take turns to say a character from the story to match with a sound they make eg

Parent: The wolves are …
Child:   Howling!
Child:   The Frogs are…
Parent: Croaking!
You don’t need to stick to the animals or the sounds in the story – it is fun to make some up as well.

Counting fun
Look at the page with all the characters singing to the Princess how many of each of the creatures can you see? Count them to check.

Sing a lullaby
Perhaps a lullaby will help the ghosts or dragon sleep – have fun changing the words of a well known one eg ‘Hush little baby’ could become ‘Hush little dragon’

Find out more

Read about more books by Mick Inkpen here.  

Titles include:

Threadbear

Just like Jasper

Jasper’s beanstalk

Kipper

* Kipper’s Birthday

Kipper’s Toybox

* See more lovemybooks ideas