Inspired by: Monster Zoo - Week 6

The Monster Zoo Review is an engaging activity aimed at enhancing children's understanding and enjoyment of storytelling. The learning objective for this activity is to become intimately acquainted with stories, focusing on their ability to retell them and explore their unique features. During the activity, children are encouraged to engage in a group discussion about their favourite parts of the story. They are prompted to think about the elements that made them laugh and to reflect on the story's rhythm and rhyming patterns. Each child is also asked to share their favourite monster from the tale and explain their choice. To culminate the activity, the children express their appreciation for the story by writing a letter to the author and illustrator, highlighting the aspects of the book they enjoyed the most.

The Monster Zoo Re-visited takes the learning process a step further by focusing on the children's ability to revisit and make sense of their own written work. The activity encourages them to pay attention to grammar by using a capital letter for the pronoun 'I'. The children are asked to read the book another time and work together to sequence the main events, creating a class storyboard that includes key words and phrases. They then practice their oral storytelling skills in pairs or groups, retelling the story from memory. Finally, each child writes their own version of the story from the perspective of the little boy, starting with the exciting moment of discovering a letter from the Monster Zoo on their doorstep. These stories are then read aloud to ensure they are coherent and effectively convey the children's individual takes on the tale.