Try these fun and playful activities throughout the week to build and reinforce skills. Beginning Sounds Worm Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.

Axel was born in Hamburg, Germany. At school he was good at art, but didn't think of a career in illustration until he won a cuddly purple cow in a drawing competition. He moved to England in 1982 to study illustration at the Bath Academy of Art, and then set up home in London. The films are just lovely and they come out at the time of year when you can all be cosy and at home and watching something together. Superworm is a long, strong worm with amazing skills and a big heart, who keeps on saving the day. But what happens when he gets too full of himself and starts to ignore his friends?In this much-loved picture book, a little mouse walks through the woods and encounters a fox, an owl and a snake.

The Lizard has him trying to find treasure but in the meantime his friends hatch a cunning plan to rescue him. The garden creatures, the caterpillars and the spiders devise a way to trap the Wizard Lizard and free Superworm and it works to perfection. Rainy Day Mum shows us how to make a wormery so that we can observe what worms do. A neat way to see how worms tunnel through the ground and the important role they play in our environment. Observe a Worm Julia Donaldson is one of today's most popular writers. Her bestselling titles include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom. Although she is best-known for her picture books, Julia also writes longer novels, plays and songs. She lives in Glasgow and spends a lot of time on stage performing her brilliant sell-out singalong shows!

The Magic Light animations are such an important part of the Christmas TV schedule, I’m so excited to be part of that tradition. Butterfly is a very determined character, and a loyal friend, and I’m looking forward to seeing her on BBC One on Christmas Day.” Cariad Lloyd (multiple voices)

I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). In this book we have a worm that is super strong and super long. The worm wiggles along the animal land to different creatures and helps them in their time of need. He goes around to rescue animals who are in trouble or helps them when they are bored.On a warm summer day, cool off with this frozen dirt square dessert from This Silly Girl’s Life. It is a fun cooking activity to do with the kids. This book works really well in Early Years - it can be used as a starter for any topic related to minibeasts, nature, digging down, etc. The themes in the story can be incorporated into continuous provision activities such as tuff trays filled with soil and some of the different characters, or constructions challenges where the children investigate different way to rescue Superworm. Set up a worm playdough station for the kids to explore from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Frozen Dirt Square Dessert They requested me to read "Superworm" over and over again. They loved the Superworm chant and that there was a villain who needed to be defeated.

Make a list of words and phrases that are used to describe Superworm. Can you compare these to other descriptions of superhero characters? Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. Superworm is a wonderfully unlikely comic hero. He’s a long, strong worm with amazing skills and a big heart who keeps on saving the day. But what happens when he gets too full of himself and starts to ignore his friends? Julia Donaldson is the author of some of the world's best-loved children's books, including the modern classic The Gruffalo, which has sold over 17 million copies worldwide. She also writes fiction, as well as poems, plays and songs - and her brilliant live shows are always in demand. Julia was the UK Children’s Laureate 2011-13, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2019 was honoured with an CBE for services to Literature. Julia and her husband Malcolm divide their time between West Sussex and Edinburgh. Axel is brilliant at drawing bugs and had sneaked a lot of them into the pictures of our previous books together – so I decided to write a story all about them. Also, I thought it was time to create a real villain – Wizard Lizard is definitely not a loveable rogue, and Axel has made him look really frightening.One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are the UK’s number one picture book pair and no story-time is complete without Julia’s perfect read-aloud rhyme and Axel’s unique artwork. P is for Preschooler shares a fun way to paint using “wiggly worms”. I love that it is an open invitation to create. Dancing Worms Use the book to create a collection of rhyming words and phrases. Could you use these to create your own rhyming story?