Secret Sky Garden

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After weeks of careful nurture, the space goes from concrete to compost: she now has her garden in the sky! She immediately wanted to plant seeds in the garden and asked her Papa if they could plant on top of the log cabin so it could be closer to the sky. She wanted her own sky garden with sunflowers, roses, marigolds, lavender, lilies and even wanted a herb garden within it with lots of mint, coriander, rosemary and parsley! She said that if she managed to make it, she would invite her friends for a tea party under it so they could guess the wonderful smells whenever the wind blew. Larra had a lot of empathy for Funni the little girl in the story and said that everyone should have friends and not feel lonely. Encourage your child to make his own imaginative flower from playdough and then write instructions as to how he made the flower. Spend some time out of doors or indoors and listen to the sounds around you. What did you hear? Can you find a way of making the sounds with instruments or household objects? You could try to create ‘a whole city of sounds’ and make a recording of them. Make a secret garden

It’s another Bookwagon day in our house. The kids were so excited to get their latest books in the post. Thanks so much for your lovely message and for everything that you do with Book Wagon. Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. Read/watch the story again with your child. Ask literal, inference and deduction questions about the story. Use picture cues to deduce some answers. One of our very favourites, “The secret sky garden”, with text by Linda Sarah and wonderful illustrations by Fiona Lumbers, combines some of the things little gosling enjoys more: flowers, music, fairy lights, planes, water cans, kids playing… This is one of the books I tend to take with me for those moments when he suddenly stops, irrespective of where we are, sits down and asks mommy to read a book. We both can’t seem to get tired of it. Look at the front cover of the book. Ask your child what he/she can see on the front cover. What is the title of the story? Who are the authors/illustrators? What parts of the front cover are grey? What parts are in colour? Why do you think the author has chosen to have some parts grey and some parts in colour?He likes to repeat “something was missing” and “definitely”, in some form; it’s a pretty long statement and he’s saying it very sweetly. The most surprising thing to me is little gosling now recognising letter “S” as “secret sky garden”. I can definitely see the link there :). There are parts of the story that could be fun for children to join in with eg the repeated ‘definitely’ or Zoo’s comments eg ‘I must be dreaming’. Reading through with sound effects would be fun, for the whine of the plane or the bells of city square. Talk about the story

Please note that Sky Garden practices challenge 25 policy, encouraging anyone who is over 18 but looks under 25 to carry acceptable ID (a card bearing the PASS hologram, a photographic driving license or a passport). The venue reserves the right to deny access. A startlingly original picture book about a little girl who creates a garden on a disused car park rooftopFill an old baking tray with soil and plant some seeds. Look after it and watch it grow. If you have a garden you could use a section of it for this. Paint a picture Through our work, children and young people feel connected to those around them, develop a sense of belonging to their local, national and global communities and take action to create welcoming, kind and connected communities.

Stay up to date with BookTrust by signing up to one of our newsletters and receiving great articles, competitions and updates straight to your inbox. Focus on the two children in the book and discuss what they liked doing. Focus on their kites. Describe their kites. Explore our activities On Sudden Hill with Benji Davies Read another story illustrated by Fiona Lumbers Lulu Loves Library Daywritten by Joseph Coelho Make a mini garden

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I have even talked the head into a little revamp of the library so that we can display them properly! Larra really enjoyed reading The Secret Sky Garden. Before we began to read she tried guessing what the book would be about; and suggested flowers being planted on clouds, a plane that was actually a garden and even a rooftop garden! She wasn’t wrong with her last guess which thrilled her more so. Secret Sky Garden (Simon & Schuster), byLinda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers, is about a little girl called Funni, who creates a garden on a disused car park rooftop.