P1 Bookbug bag

Ask your little one to write you a secret message on their whiteboard, then hide it somewhere for you to find. When you find it you can write a message back, hide the board again and then ask them to find it and see if they can read your message. You can also both draw pictures to make your message easier to understand.

Their whiteboard can also be a fun way to get them to do their spelling homework.

Think of a word and draw boxes on the board for each of the letters. Ask your child to guess letters that could be in the word. If they get a correct letter, write it in the box where it belongs. If the letter isn’t in the word, write it somewhere else on the board. If they can guess the word you’ve chosen before the board is full, they’ve won!

To help your child learn about shapes and symmetry, use the whiteboard to draw half of a picture (e.g. the outline of a butterfly, a ladybird, an octopus or a house) and get them to draw the other side. Swap roles so they draw the first half of the picture and you have to finish the drawing.

You can find more tips for making maths fun here and on the Maths Week Scotland website.

There are lots of little details to notice in this book, like the letter magnets on the fridge in the kitchen. Can your child make any words from the letters? They could write the letters on their whiteboard first.

Sidney the Smelly Sock Snake is made from… a sock! Why not having a go at making a sock puppet with your child? It’s very easy! This page on the Tiny Happy People website shows you how, and has tips for making the most of playtime with your sock puppet too.

There are lots of bright pink hats in the book. Can your child count how many there are? They could even have a go at making their own detective hat from paper – this page on WikiHow shows you what to do.

There are lots of lovely pictures of creepy-crawlies in the book. Can your child draw their favourite? Have a chat together about the creature they draw. Where does it live? What does it eat? They could even give their creature a name and make up a story about them.

There are lots of interesting facts about minibeasts in the book. Take it in turns with your child to share two real facts and one made up one and see if the other player can guess which is the fake fact.

There are lots of ways you can use this book to help your child with their maths in a fun, creepy-crawly way! For example, you could ask them to look at the sizes of the different insects and see which is the biggest. Which lives the longest? Which lays the most eggs?

The bears in the book don’t have names – what would your child call each bear? Maybe they could draw the bears using their colouring pencils, and write their new names underneath. Take a look at the different ways the bears are drawn in the book for inspiration – for example, one bear has scribbled curly fur, which is really fun to draw.

The bears in the books all become friends. Reading this book is a good opportunity to talk to your child about their friends – what do they like to do together? Our page on encouraging your child to make friends has advice on how you can support your child to make friends at school.

Can you help your child work out what kind of bear each of the bears in the book is? Panda and polar bear are quite easy to spot, but what about the others? If you’re not sure, you could have a look online – the National Geographic Kids website is a good place to start.