This week we were lucky enough to join in with an online session with the famous children’s author Eileen Brown.

Lots of us had already enjoyed some of her stories such as Handa’s Surprise and Handa’s Hen. As part of the session Eileen read these stories too us, she explained how sometimes she is the author of the books, sometimes she is the  illustrator and sometimes she is both!!

After reading the books we joined in with some story telling through actions. We acted out Handa’s suprise. This stared with us walking to her friend Akeyo’s village where she ends up with a surprise fruit in her basket. We acted out being the different animals who take the fruit along the way. Can you be the…

monkey taking the soft yellow banana

ostrich taking the sweet smelling guava

and the zebra taking the round juicy orange!!

At the end of the story Handa is very surprise to see that the basket is now full of tangerines which had fallen from the tree!!

As part of the session we also learnt a bit about Kenya. This is where Eileen Browne’s books are set and where the main character, Handa, lives. We looked on the map to find Kenya which is a country in Africa and talked about the different types of animals that feature in the story.

Following the session we had Eileen’s books out in the classroom. Some of us enjoyed looking through the stories and drawing the fruits, some enjoyed drawing their favourite part and some of us even had a go at re-writing our favourite story! You can see lots of pictures below.

Well done Year 1. A great end to a brilliant first half term! Well done everyone – we are really proud of you all!!