Your child's new Read Write Count with the First Minister activity bag is packed with fun items for you to play with together. It’s free for all kids in primary 3 and they’ll get theirs during the autumn term.
What’s in the bag?
- All Kinds of Friends by Sophy Henn
- The Worry Tiger by Alexandra Page and Stef Murphy
- A notebook and pencil
- Beastie Battle card game with routine and story activity cards on the reverse
- A measuring tape
- An activity booklet with lots of ideas for using the items in the bag to play and learn.
All Kinds of Friends by Sophy Henn
Just like us, animals are friends in all kinds of ways – from hermit crabs who go on adventures with sea anemones to zebras and ostriches who help support each other. Dip into this lovely book with your child to discover all kinds of animal friends and find out what makes them special.
Game #1: Best friends
![All kinds of friends by Sophy Henn](/sites/default/files/rwc-p3-all-kinds-of-friends.jpg)
Reading this book is a good opportunity to talk to your child about their friends – what do they do to help each other out? Our page on encouraging your child to make friends has advice on how you can support your child to make friends at school.
Game #2: Animal BFF
Which animal would your child most like to be friends with? A hippo? A tiger? A gorilla? You could chat together about the pros and cons of being friends with different animals, then your child could draw a picture of themselves with their favourite animal friend.
Game #3: Fun with facts
There are lots of interesting facts about the animals at the back of the book. See if your child can find out more about their favourite animal online – this could be a good time to talk about websites they can trust and ones that might be less reliable.
The Worry Tiger by Alexandra Page and Stef Murphy
Rory is anxious about school – but everything changes he meets his very own worry tiger. This is a comforting, magical story that’s perfect for soothing worries big and small.
Game #1: Build a den
![The Worry Tiger by Alexandra Page and Stef Murphy](/sites/default/files/rwc-p3-worry-tiger.jpg)
Rory has a brilliant den in his bedroom. Can your child build their own den from things they can find around the house, like boxes and rugs? What special things would they keep there?
You could both settle down in the den to read The Worry Tiger together and try some of the mindfulness exercises at the back.
Game #2: Tiger Time
At the end of the story, Rory draws a picture of the worry tiger. Ask your child to draw a picture of the tiger – or another animal of their choice – and make up an adventure they could go on together. Where will they go? Who will they meet? What will they do?
Game #3: And relax!
The book includes a set of mindfulness exercises your child can try to help them to relax and tackle anxiety. You can find more exercises like this on our page on supporting your child’s mental health – why not give them a go?
Beastie Battle game with story and routine cards on the reverse
Game #1: Get playing
Deal all the green Beastie Battle cards with each player holding their cards so they can only see the top card. The first player starts by reading out a category. Then the player with the highest number on their top card wins and that player collects all the cards in play. Then their turn again to choose one of the four categories from the next card. The player with the most cards at the end wins!
Game #2: Story cards
These cards can be used to create new stories together. The cards include three themes to give you some ideas for the story: characters, settings and items. 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.
Game #3: Favourite animals
Ask your child to choose a favourite animal from the Beastie Battle game and see if they can draw a picture of it. Where does it live? What does it eat? They could draw this too, and maybe even collect leaves and sticks when they’re outdoors to add to the picture.
Game #4: Anything missing?
Included in the pack are some blank cards so your child can add their own animals to the game. What will they choose? You could help them research some facts about the animal to add to the card.
These videos on the Scottish Book Trust website have more ideas for playing games with the cards.
Measuring tape
Game #1: Shoe size
![Image of a 'Read Write Count' measuring tape.](/sites/default/files/read-write-count-measuring-tape-button.jpg)
Your child might know their shoe size, but do they know how long their feet actually are? Why not measure them and find out? Maybe one is bigger than the other!
Game #2: Toy sizes
What an opportunity to find out what their tallest toy is! Ask them which one they think it is and then they can go and find out.
Game #3: Room measurements
See if your child can use the tape measure to measure the length of a room in the house. See if they can keep track of where they are with a piece of scrap paper on the floor.
Game #4: Tricky shapes
Some things are easier to measure than others. A clever way to measure a tricky shape is to put a bit of string around it and then measure how much string you’ve use. See if your child can do this themselves with a funny shaped toy.