The tiger who came to tea topic planning ideas resources EYFS
Judith Kerr’s popular children’s story book "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" makes an excellent choice for early year’s teachers to plan a unit of work. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Ten good planning ideas for early years teachers based on the popular children’s book ‘The tiger that came to tea’ by Judith Kerr.
1. Read the story ‘The tiger that came to tea’ by Judith Kerr. This popular book is more than 40 years old but is still a crowd pleaser with a class of very young children. Use your voice in an interesting way by doing a variety of voices for the characters Sophie, her Mother, the Tiger and Daddy.
2. Parcel up a package and arrange internal delivery to your class. Inside can be tiger related materials – a picture of a tiger, a paw print, and a tin of ‘tiger food’ etc. In the package, include a letter to the children from the tiger that announces he is coming to school or Nursery/kindergarten for lunch.
3. Write a shared letter to the tiger from the children and ask them to contribute ideas. Tell them that the tiger wants to know how he should behave at the table and get them to write a list of rules and table manners.
4. Decorate polystyrene cups and paper plates with orange and black stripes for the lunch party. Use strips of gummed paper, tissue paper or crayons and let the children explore their own ideas about what a tiger plate and cup should look like.
5. Let the children design and make their own sandwiches and cakes for the lunch party. Get the kitchen staff involved if this is possible and ask them to come and talk to the children about the menu and how to make it tiger friendly. Children can design their sandwiches on paper that is the shape of slices of bread. They can also make little tiger recipe books with suggestions on the range and type of food that may be included.
6. Play circle games to develop their social and emotional skills. Sit the children in a circle and have one child dressed as a tiger prowling the outside. Dressing up does not have to be fancy; a tiger face mask will do the trick! Say the rhyme;
A tiger came to tea, he sat upon my knee
He ate up all the sandwiches – and now he’s after me!
The child who is playing the part of the tiger must stop on the word ‘Me!’ and choose the child he is nearest to ‘eat’. The chosen child then becomes the tiger.
7. Design a game of tiger bingo (using tiger words or numbers).
8. Ask the children to bring on empty pots or containers and have them design a label for ‘tiger food’ as featured at the end of the story.
9. Set up a small world area with dolls house kitchen furniture, characters and a tiger so that children can retell the story through mini drama. This can also be extended to large role play areas – adapt the home corner by adding dressing up clothes and other props from the story so that children can act it out themselves.
10. Finally, ask a colleague or parent to dress up in a tiger costume and join the children for lunch on ‘Tiger day’. The theme of the final day is orange and black. Children can come to school dressed as a tiger or wear tiger colours. You could arrange face painting on this day as a fundraiser where children get their faces painted as a tiger by contributing a small donation.
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Cover of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
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This is such a brilliant book, I use it with my kids at school all the time.