What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside

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One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Recap on the story of ‘What the Ladybird Heard’– whether at home or in class, read the story again with the children or invite the children to tell you or their parents/siblings the story. Can you sort the animals in the story using Venn or Carroll diagrams? Which ones have two legs? Which have four legs? Which ones have a beak or a nose? How many other ways could you sort them?

Can you make up a song which includes lots of examples of animal sounds? Get some ideas by watching this performance of a song by the author and her husband: Join everyone's favourite crime-busting ladybird on a trip to the seaside! With a cast of wonderful sea creatures, including a magical mermaid, and plenty of beach fun, What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside is a brilliant rhyming adventure from the bestselling picture book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. By using food dye, colour a water tray or if at home, have fun at bath-time – by making the Red Sea! Allow the children to experiment with different sized containers to explore volume. Many children will also find playing with water emotionally soothing. P1 children (and older siblings) might be interested to hear the story being told by Julia Donaldson. Julia explains how she came to write this story and some of her other songs and books. There is even a guest appearance by one of her favourite characters - https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors-live-on-demand/julia-donaldsonThis paper plate craft for The Snail and The Whale is movable so your characters can sail across the ocean, can you see the little snail on the whale’s tail? Look at the adjectives that are used to describe each animal. How many other adjectives can you think of to describe them? Use the animal posters (see Resources below) and write adjectives on them. There are some great free printable activities over on Kiddycharts which has got a What The Ladybird Heard colouring sheet, dominoes, find the ladybird activity and an activity to match the animal to the noise that they make. Invite the children to dress up like one of the characters from the book and re-tell the story for a friend, grandparent or other relative over Skype or Facetime. Think about the different sounds that animals make. How do we write these (e.g. miaow, purr)? Can you think of any other examples of onomatopoeia? Are there any other examples in the story?

Of course for this particular book we have to include some mermaid activities! I love this paper plate mermaid from Red Ted Art which comes with a free printable, my daughter has made this craft previously and it was a big hit with her.What the ladybird heard at the seaside is a fun rhyming adventure book. The characters in this book involve amazing sea creatures and the mythical sea-dwelling creature (a mermaid). This ladybird takes a trip to the seaside and spots, two bad men, planning to steal the mermaid’s desirable hair and sell it to someone famous … fortunately the detective-like ladybird has a great plan to stop these bad men! Wonderfully written, we see this little hero save the day again and out smart the troublesome duo Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len.

Housing A Forest shares a ladybird craft that you can make using recycled cardboard. More Activities for Children’s Books Draw a map of the farm on the coordinate grid (see Resources below) and use the coordinates / compass directions to show somebody how to move from one place to another. In this post you’ll find resources and ideas for ways to extend this activity, with crafts and free printables you can use.Print off these free What The Ladybird Heard wanted posters and draw in Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh. There’s four different versions so you could change who you think should be wanted and there’s also room to add some writing if you’d like to use this as a literacy activity.

Sunday Post Bright, sparkling, full of humor, subterfuge and rhyming fun, this is another exceptional title from the award winning pair of Donaldson and Monks. Not only a funny tale of whimsy, it continues to show that even the smallest, quietest and most unassuming characters around us can make the biggest differences and overcome the most difficult of challenges. Themes of friendship, teamwork and communication are prevalent in this series with the fourth installment being just as strong. Expect nothing less than bold, beautiful and brilliance I think it’s fair to say that Julia Donaldson is one of my kids favourite authors and I know that the same can be said of an awful lot of other children too. What The Ladybird Heard is one of our favourite stories (as well as the two sequels) and these What The Ladybird Hears activities and crafts are great either as extension activities for the books or just as a simple way to keep your child entertained and having fun. What The Ladybird Heard Activities and Crafts Read the story of ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson – or listen to it being read here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu9mPX7DuLALook at the vocabulary used to describe how the thieves are planning to steal the cow. What other direction words can you think of? I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). I made this paper plate What The Ladybird Heard craft with movable parts that mean you can hide away a little drawing or bit of writing too. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. We’ve been big fans of Julia Donaldson’s What The Ladybird Heard series so I was excited to hear that there was a new book out in the series and as we enjoyed it so much I thought it would be good to share some easy What The Ladybird Heard at the Seaside activities too.