The Runaway Pea by Kjartan Poskitt and Alex Willmore and published by Simon and Schuster is a fantastic story about a little pea that decides he is going to make an escape from the plate and go on an adventure. The story rhymes, some of the words are written in big bold letters and and the sentences are scattered around the page which makes it more fun to read. The pictures are bright and colourful and this book became a firm favourite in our house very quickly.
Activities
Make a pod with peas
Playdough peas
Paint a pea on an adventure
Roll the peas into the pod
Grow your own peas
Pea picking at a farm
A dinner with peas
Pea hiding game
Texture talk
Pea transfer game
Indoor
In the story the little pea decides to make an escape from the plate so the first activity could be for you to make a little pea pod using paper. You could do this by making an origami boat or by cutting an arch shape out of some paper and then stick it by the edges to another sheet of paper so that you can put the peas in. then cut some little circles out for the peas. Your child/children could colour them in if you haven't got any green paper and then they can draw some different faces on their peas. Another fun activity could be to make some peas using green playdough. If you don't have any playdough available you could make some using and mixing together two cups of flour, one cup of water with a couple of drops of green food colouring and a cup of salt. Then on some pieces of card draw some pods and put a number next to them and then your child/children can make some peas with the playdough and put the correct number of peas in the pods. This will help teach them counting but it is also fun. A final indoor activity could be to paint a picture of a pea on an adventure. You can talk to your child/children about where their pea is going on an adventure and what happens to them in the end.
Outdoor
The first outdoor activity could be to get hold of some little balls and a bucket and then your child/children could roll the balls in to the bucket and they can pretend that the balls are peas and the bucket is the pod. Another fun activity could be to grow some peas in the garden. your child/children will then learn how peas grow and they can have fun watering them each day and watching how they change and grow. A final fun outdoor activity could be to go to a farm and do some pea picking. There are quite a few farms around and about that you can now go and do some pea picking. Your child/children may get to see other vegetables growing too and they will be able to see the peas in the pods and will see how they grow in there.
Food/Cooking
The first activity could be to make a dinner with some peas. You could talk to your child/children about where a pea from their plate would go on an adventure and they can be as imaginative as they want. Another activity you could get some peas, put them in a bowl and hide some numbers, letters or shapes in them and your child/children can have a hunt through the peas with their hands to find what you have hidden. If you have more than one child you could get a bit of a competition going and see who finds them all first. You could also talk about texture with your child/children during this activity. A final activity could be to put peas in a bowl and then your child/children could scoop them using a spoon and put them in to another bowl and then they can practice using a fork and put them back in to the bowl they have just moved them from. This is good practice for younger children as peas can be quite picky to eat and you could time it for older children and see how long it takes them to move the peas with the spoon and the fork. If you wanted to you could then give them a blunt knife and see if they can balance the peas on the knife.
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