P3 Read Write Count Activity Bag

Badger gets dressed up in lots of outfits as he tries different kinds of music. Can your child design themselves a heavy metal T-shirt so they can join his band? There are lots of ideas in the book to give them inspiration! How about drawing a T-shirt for one of the funny bands that appear in the book, like Quack Sabbath or Lion Maiden?

Music can really help lift the mood and making us feel better if we’re down, upset or stressed. So next time your child’s feeling grumpy or worried, why not put on some music and sing and dance around the kitchen? Letting out a heavy metal ‘Wwwaaayyyyooowwww!’ may really help too! 

You can find more tips to help children manage their worries here.

Badger doesn’t think he fits in anywhere, but when his band put on their gig, all his friends come along! How many different animals can your child spot in the gig scene? You could use this as a good opportunity to talk to your child about how we’re all different, and this is what makes life so rich and fun. 

The Perseverance Rover (or Percy to his friends) was the robot sent to explore the surface of Mars. Can your child design a robot? They could draw it or even build it from boxes and tin foil in your recycling. What does their robot do?

If they need some inspiration, they could try making this balloon-powered robot from NASA’s Space Place website. You’ll need to help them though as it’s quite tricky!

Do astronauts float when they sleep? How do space toilets work? Are aliens real? 

Children often have lots of questions about space, so why not help them find the answers online? It’s a good opportunity to help them think about what they’re reading and whether they think it’s true or not. For example, does the website they’re looking at seem trustworthy? Is the information backed up on other websites? Does every website give the same answer, or can they find different answers?

And if you’re wondering what astronauts eat, here’s an answer from Royal Museums Greenwich.

You don’t need a telescope to see the moon – and the moon is changing all the time! As it gets darker earlier, you could encourage your child to have a look at the moon every night before bed. They could even draw what it looks like in the squares of the bingo card in their bag. This could become a peaceful part of their bedtime routine. 

Visit the Royal Museums Greenwich website to find out why the moon changes, when it will next be full and what the different full moons are called – yes, they all have names! 

Have a look at all the Galactic Fantastic alien cards with your child. Which is their favourite? They could have a go at drawing their on made up alien. Ask them to think about how tall they are, how much they weigh, how old they are and what their special skill is. Make sure they give them a name!

Pick a character, item and setting from the story cards and see if your child can come up with a story about them. Select one of each at random and then let your imaginations run wild! You could take it in turns with your child to build the story sentence by sentence, and to pick more cards to add to the story.

The mindfulness cards have ideas to help your child relax. One of them suggests doing a yoga pose. In this video, Cosmic Kids Yoga show you some poses you could try – some of them are quite tricky!

Mr Wolf stands at the front of the room with his back to the other players. The other players ask “What’s the time, Mr Wolf?” and he replies with a time, for example, “6 o’clock”. The players all take that number of steps forward then ask again. At any moment, Mr Wolf can reply “Lunchtime!” and start chasing everyone. Whoever he catches is the next Mr Wolf.

To make this more challenging, instead of saying the time, Mr Wolf can draw it on the clock face in the bag and hold it up over his head. He could make it even harder by making the time “half past 6” so you only take half a step!

Open up the clock in the bag and you’ll find a game of Meteors and Rockets. It’s just like Snakes and Ladders except you go up the rockets and down the meteors. Who can be the first to 99? 

There's a dice in your activity bag, but if you don't have it to hand you can always search online for ‘random number generator’ then ask it to generate a number between 1 and 6.

On the back of the Meteors and Rockets game you’ll find a blank bingo card – a great way to liven up a trip to school or the shops. Ask your child to fill the card in with things you can spot on your journey and then see how many you can tick off.