My House is Your House

Literacy Activity 1 - Story Time (Listen Phase)

Martin reads 'My House is Your House' in the video below. Enjoy watching the video and follow along with the BOOK.pdf attached below. 

Don't forget to have a go at joining in with our call and response! You could follow along with a homemade drum if you like (a saucepan would work brilliantly!)

CHALLENGE

Can you answer these questions?

1. Which country is our story set in?
2. Can you find the dog in the pictures? (It's on most pages but not all)
3. People speak Spanish in Mexico. Can you remember the Spanish for 'My House is Your House'? 
4. How many tired children did the tired old man bring with him?
5. What did the family say to the termites?

Literacy Activity 2 - Story Role Play (Act Phase)

Can you remember the sequence of the story? You can follow along with Martin's video if you like, or just pick one scene to recreate.

Resources needed (download below):

• Printed BUILD YOUR OWN HOUSE (choose A for an easier house or B for a CHALLENGE)
• Printed CHARACTERS
• Printed COMMUNICATION BOARD
• Scissors and colouring pens/pencils

Activity steps:

1. Print out the resources
2. Build your house and cut out your characters
3. Using your house and characters, retell a part of the story. Can you remember what happened when the different characters arrived at the house? Use the COMMUNICATION BOARD to help remember the sequence and to aid communication. 

CHALLENGE

For for a real challenge you could have a go at retelling the whole story!

Literacy Activity 3 - Making a Story Map (Map Phase)

It's time to make a story map! You can either use the resources below, or for a real CHALLENGE you could make your own map with your own drawings, arrows and labels.

Resources needed:

• Your HOUSE and CHARACTERS from Activity 2
• Printed COMMUNICATION BOARD
• Printed and cut out STORY MAP JOINING WORDS
• Pens/pencils and blank paper (if doing the challenge)

Activity steps:

1. Re-watch the story video above, following along with your HOUSE and CHARACTERS
2. Make a story map using your HOUSE, CHARACTERS and STORY MAP JOINING WORDS placing them in the order of the story. You can do as few or as many scenes as you like! Don’t forget to take a picture of your map when you’re done. 

CHALLENGE!

If you’re feeling really confident, you can make your own map from scratch, doing your own drawings and captions! Can you add in our refrain ‘My House is your house – mi casa es su casa’ on your story map?

Literacy Activity 4 - Let's write! (Write Phase)

It's time to write some sentences! Enjoy completing the worksheet, or if you fancy a real challenge, why not compose your own sentences in our CHALLENGE?

Resources needed

• Printed COMPOSING SENTENCES worksheet
• Pen/pencil OR scissors and glue
• Blank sheet of lined paper (if doing the CHALLENGE)

Activity steps

1. Retell the story using your story map from activity 3
2. Complete the COMPOSING SENTENCES worksheet by either writing in the words or cutting and sticking the symbols

CHALLENGE!

Choose a scene from the book and verbally compose a sentence about it. Repeat the sentence a few times before writing the sentence in shared writing.

Shared writing is where the adult fills in the trickier parts of a sentence using a different colour pen. You can find instructions on how to do shared writing in more detail in the document how to do shared writing. You can also use Shape Coding when composing the sentence, more information can be found about this in the Shape Coding - how to guide.

Literacy extension activity

For a real CHALLENGE, can you complete the MEXICAN FOOD WORD SEARCH?

Let's get cooking!

Let's try some Mexican food! Use the SALSA RECIPE below to make some Mexican Salsa. After you've made it and tried it, don't forget to write down how it tasted on the HOW DID IT TASTE worksheet!

We can use cooking to work on so many skills, including reading and following sequences, fine motor skills, maths based learning (such as capacity) and so much more! If your child likes this recipe, you could try making it regularly over a few weeks to build independence and consolidate these skills.

Sensory Activities

Fajitas

Making and eating fajitas is a sensory experience involving many colours, textures and flavours.

You could buy a kit or, if you're feeling ambitious, try making Jamie Oliver's "Easy Chicken Fajitas".

Desert (Sand) Play

If you have a sandpit, you could recreate a Mexican desert by adding stones and plastic animals. You could even warm some of the sand by placing it in a zippy bag in a bowl of hot water.

Mexican Flag Rice

 Take some uncooked (or cooked, for a different texture) rice, separate it into 3 portions. Add a few drops of red food colouring to one third, green to another third and leave a third plain. You could also add a touch of Mexican herbs and spices for smell (cooked rice is recommended if they are likely to eat it). Lay the rice out in a bowl/tray in the shape of the Mexican flag and allow your child to play and explore.