P3 Read Write Count Activity Bag

The Primary 3 activity bag is packed full of fun items for you and your child to spend time playing, learning and having fun together.

What’s inside the bag?

Two books :
- “You’re Called What?!” by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson
- The Knight Who Said “No!” by Lucy Rowland and Kate Hindley.
Galactic Fantastic with time and story activity cards on the reverse.
A notebook and writing pencil.
Three multisided dice.
A parent/carer guide full of games you can play together

Galactic Fantastic

Read Write Count Galactic Fantastic card game

There are lots of different ways you can play Galactic Fantastic. It's a great game to get their maths homework done without them even knowing it! Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Galactic Fantastic games to play at home

Tip #1: Finding different categories

Aim of the game:

To win as many cards as you can from the pack by choosing the winning category in each round.

How to play:

To start the game, shuffle and deal all the cards amongst the players.
Each player holds their cards so they can only see the top card. The first player starts by reading out a category e.g. mass.
The player with the highest number on their top card wins, and that player collects all the cards in play. It is then their turn again to choose one of the four categories (height, mass, age or special skill) from the next card. If two or more cards share the top value, then all the cards are placed in the middle and the same player chooses again from the pile (the winner of the hand takes those cards as well).
The person with the most cards at the end is the winner.

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Tip #2: Challenges

Challenge your child to do the following:

Find the heaviest and lightest alien.
Find the tallest and shortest alien.
Find the alien with the highest special skill score. Ask your child if they agree.
Find an object in your house which is similar in height to one of the aliens.
Sort the cards with the aliens in order of age – which ones are younger than your child?

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Tip #3: Make your own card

Can your child create another alien from one of the home planet? They can use the template in their notebook to make their own card.

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Story Cards

By shuffling the cards and choosing at random, a different set of images is produced which can be used as the starting point for a story. The cards include three themes to help tell the story: settings, characters and objects. Look at the cards together and see if your child can identify the pictures.

Story card games to try at home

Tip #1: Describing words

Choose one of the cards and identify the picture e.g. cat. Ask your child to think of as many different words as they can to describe the image. They could draw the image in the centre of a page in their notebook and write the words around it.

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Tip #2: Draw a story

Ask your child to choose three cards with images and then draw a picture with all of them in it. Encourage them to explain what is happening in the picture. They could use this as a plan for a story.

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Tip #3: Pass the story

One player starts the story by choosing one of the cards and making up a sentence based around the image. Each player takes it in turns to choose another card and add a sentence to the story. The sillier the story ends up, the better!

Want more? Here are loads more story-telling games.

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Multisided Dice

Tip #1: Higher or lower?

3 multi-sided dice

Roll the three dice and add the numbers together, then guess if your next roll will be higher or lower than this total. If you are right, you can have another turn. When you get it wrong, it is someone else’s turn. For an extra challenge, find out the difference between the numbers on your dice and the other player’s.

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Tip #2: 100 wins

Using the 100 square in your child's activity notebook, take turns at rolling the three dice. Add the numbers together and colour in the square. You can use any combination of the three dice. First person to get four in a row wins!

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Tip #3: Reach 50

Each person rolls all three dice – add or take away the numbers to see who can get the closest to 50. Are there any other ways you can play this game?

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Routine Cards

Tip #1: Match up

Scottish Book Trust routine cards

Match up the activities with the different times of the day. Ask your child to think about their day – do these activities happen at the same time every day for them?

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Tip #2: Charades

Choose a card and act out the activity – can the other person guess which activity each of you are miming?

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Tip #3: My routine

Using the cards, can your child sort the activities into the order they would do them? Can they draw picture in their notebook of an important part of their, routine and the time it happens at? They could also use the cards to show their favourite activity and the time they do it.

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The Knight Who Said “No!” by Lucy Rowland and Kate Hindley

The Knight Who Said “No!” illustrated children's book by Lucy Rowland and Kate Hindley

Have you ever woken up feeling “No!?” – A tale of friendship between a dragon and a little knight.

Games to play with "The Knight Who Said No"

Game #1: Spot the pattern

On the first page there are lots of shapes and patterns – can your name some of the shapes? Can they spot a repeating pattern? Your child could even design their own castle made up of different shapes and patterns.

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Game #2: Who’s that character?

Ask your child to pick one of the villagers from the book. Think of a name for them and imagine what they do. Can you find any clues from the pictures?

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Game #3: New adventures

At the end of the book, Ned and the dragon go on a new adventure. Can your child make a comic strip about their next adventure in their notebook?

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Tip #4: Counting the dragons

Can your child count the number of dragons they see in the story? How many big dragons and tiny dragons are there? Can they find the difference between these numbers?

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“You’re Called What?!” by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson

"You're Called What?!" illustrated children's book by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson

There is a very long queue at the Ministry of Silly Animal Names – why is everyone laughing so much?

Games to play with "You're Called What?!"

Game#1: Pick a letter

There are some animals in the queue who have not been given a name yet in the book. Can your child pick a letter from the alphabet and think of some silly names for them? This is a fun way to help with their spelling and writing.

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Game #2: Fact file

There are lots of photos of animals on the back page. Can your child draw or take a photo of an animal and create a fact file for it in their notebook?

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Game #3: Order up!

The animals have to stand in a queue. If they were in size order, from smallest to biggest, who would be first and who would be last? Which animal is the biggest and which one is the smallest? Can your child think of a different way to order the animals?

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Tip #4: Have a laugh!

The animals in the story do a lot of laughing. Ask if your child can imagine what the different laughs would sound like. Can they act them out for you?

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Parent/carer guide

Here is a PDF copy of your parent/carer guide for your Activity bag.

P3 Read Write Count Activity Bag

What’s inside the bag?

Galactic Fantastic