You Choose!

Product Information

Pippa Goodhart is the author of over a hundred children’s books, including the prize-winning picture book You Choose, and the Winnie the Witch series which she writes under the pen name of Laura Owen. She trained as a teacher and worked for many years in bookselling before becoming a mother and a writer. Take photos of the children and make frames for them together, just like the pictures in the book. Display them with some of the children's ideas about friends.

Make a book - You Choose begins with 'Imagine you could have anything you wanted!' Collect the children's ideas about what they would choose if they could have anything they wanted and put their ideas in a book with photos and pictures. Have a day when the children choose everything that goes out - or just in one area of the setting. This will require some negotiation and turn taking - all important skills! In their different ways, all four books enable the reader to learn and spot a variety of types of thing, from daily activities to types of clothes and different kinds of vehicles. For older primary children...Homes - the book has pictures of different kinds of homes - talk with the children about the kind of home they live in. Look at the similarities and differences. Make some hats - make simple cone shaped hats and let the children decorate them however they like, or give them the choice of transforming it into a clown's hat or a princess's. Rhyming words and alliteration - have fun thinking of words that rhyme with choose (lose, snooze - include nonsense words). Try and think of words that begin with the same sound as something in the book - e.g. 'bed' - bus, banana, bear, bangle- are any of these things in the pictures in the book? Want a fun way to get children excited about reading? Join Pyjamarama in 2024, when children can spend the day in their pyjamas, reading and sharing stories and raising money for BookTrust. In most cases, you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you'd like to go to. This includes private hospitals, as long as they provide NHS services.

Dressing Up - have a selection of all sorts of outfits, including hats and shoes, to dress up in. Give the children things to dress up for - a fancy dress party, a ball, going to work etc. Choices - this book is all about choosing between things. Sometimes it can be quite hard to make up your mind. Do some circle times on choosing things. For example, have two toys that the children have to choose between and say why they chose the one they did. Blowing bubbles - ask the children to help make big bubble wands out of wire and fill up some washing up bowls with bubble mixture and blow big bubbles outside. To begin to punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark To understand what an adjective is Disco dancing - in the section on what you would choose to put in your house there is a glitter ball and a lava lamp. Try to get hold of these, put on some music and have a dance!For me it’s a rollercoaster of emotions that I’m trying to manipulate the reader into’ - Alex Wheatle on fictional world building, creating new language and seeing yourself in a book I would wear... - get out the dressing up clothes and invite the children to choose what they would wear to a party. Take a photo of each child and make a book of them all dressed up, with captions: 'Jordan would wear a bear suit'. There's also a recent addition, More Would You Rather, in which John imagined even more squeamish and delightful choices! If your child enjoys flip books... Follow the children's interests - there may be a part of the book the children show a particular interest in, such as animals or hats. The children could make some animal tails (fluffy bunny/stripy zebra/swishy horse/curly pig etc) for a 'guess whose tail this is?' display. Or they could decorate hats for a hanging display.

This book would be good for small groups or individual reading with children as it is based on discussion. If you had a new child in your class or were still in the process of getting to know the class then this might be quite good to spark a discussion. Books are absolutely crucial in getting us to think about new worlds': we speak to the award-winning author, Onjali Q Rauf Counting - make sets of things from the book (vehicles/clothes/animals) and play some counting games. Have a look at Nikki Dyson's Flip Flap Dogs or Axel Scheffler's Flip Flap Ocean, - both published by Nosy Crow - which allow you to choose and create new and silly combinations of dog or ocean animal. If you're looking for another brilliant vocabulary-building book...Sorting - use a doll's house and furniture as an opportunity to talk about sorting into rooms, counting and organising. If you've been referred to a specialist through the NHS e-Referral Service, booking your appointment online is easy, safe and secure.

Emphasise choice in everyday situations - e.g. which colour apron would you like/would you like milk or water to drink/shall we read this book or this one? If you were hungry, which of the delicious-looking foods would you eat? Which of the jazzy clothing options will you choose? Where will you choose to live - a fairy castle, a windmill, the Taj Mahal? Which outfit? - there are lots of games available that involve putting together a head, body and legs in different ways to make up different outfits. KarenFarishsuggested trying The Runaway Dinnerby Allan Ahlberg, while fabulous author Perdita Cargillopted for Sally Gardner's The Fairy Catalogue: 'I think that one was still being secretly enjoyed at the same time as I, Coriander! Great writer to get hooked on.'

Books by Pippa Goodhart

Odd one out - Invite the children to make an interactive 'odd one out' display, using all sorts of groups of animals, with an odd one out. Use hoops, boxes and baskets to display the groups in. The children could have fun mixing up the groups and changing the odd one out. Speak to a GP if you want to be seen at a hospital or clinic. They'll help you decide what care is best for you and make any necessary referrals. You Choose" offers lots of starting points for learning and is the perfect book for following the children's lead in the activities you do. "You Choose" is the sort of book you could focus on for a week or two, followed by another couple of weeks on just one aspect of the book that the children really showed an interest in, like animals or transport. There is something in here for everyone -so go ahead and let them choose! Personal, Social and Emotional Development This book is a brilliant way to spark children's creativity and imagination when presented with a range of scenarios to choose from. The classic Would You Rather... by BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award winner John Burningham presents children (and adults!) with a thought-provoking array of unusual choices in a slightly different way - from 'would you rather eat supper in a castle, breakfast in a balloon, or tea on the river?' to, 'would you rather be made to eat spider stew, taste slug dumplings, chew mashed worms, or drink a snail shake?'