Sing the nursery rhyme "Little Bo Peep" with the children. Repeat the first line, but pause before the word "peep" to let the children complete the rhyme by saying "sheep." Explain that these are rhyming words. Hold the free strand of a ball of wool and roll the ball toward a child in the circle as you say the word "peep." Ask the child to roll the ball back to you and to say a word that rhymes with "peep." Let each child have a turn. Encourage the children to make rhyming words by using a variety of onsets, such as "keep," "weep" and "deep." Praise all attempts, including creation of any "nonsense" rhyming words, such as "meep" or "feep." Ask the children to remind you of the rhyming words they have created and list them on the whiteboard. Use a different colored marker pen to underline the rhyme "eep" in each of the words.
Let the children make "Bo Peep Sheep" baked potatoes by following a recipe from the "Big Cook Little Cook" section of the CBeebies website. Through this activity, children can learn about hygiene, healthy eating and how materials change by heating and cooling. Provide a small baking potato for each child to wash, prick with a fork and wrap in a piece of kitchen foil. Place the potatoes in the oven for about 45 minutes at 230 degress Celcius. Let the potatoes cool and then cut them in half. Scoop out the cooked potato and place into a bowl. Mash the potato with a fork and then add 2 tbsp. grated cheese and 1 tsp. Greek yogurt to the mixture. Spoon the mixture back into one of the potato shells and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes. Add a dollop of yogurt for the sheep's head. Cut black olives into circles for the sheep's eyes and into strips for its ears and legs.
Encourage the development of children's hand-eye coordination skills and creative thinking skills with a craft activity to make lamb faces. Use white circles of card, white paper plates or circular margarine tub lids, on which the children can glue shredded white cotton wool. If you prefer, follow links at the DLTK website to make templates for the children to use on black felt or black paper to make the lamb's ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Provide craft accessories, such as beads, colored pieces of ribbon or colored pom poms for the children to let them add further individuality to their work.
Play practical math games that teach recognition of numerals zero to 10, and counting, addition and subtraction skills. Use a set of 10 plastic or wooden toy sheep, or print off 10 pictures of sheep, mount them onto card stock, laminate and cut out. Place a numeral card--for example, the number "5"--onto a circle of green paper that represents a grassy field. Tell the children that Little Bo Peep has found five sheep and ask a child to count out the corresponding number of sheep toys or pictures. Ask other children to recognize different numerals and count out the corresponding numbers of sheep. For a greater challenge, count out 10 sheep and ask the children to close their eyes while some of the sheep "wander away." Remove and hide some sheep. Ask the children to open their eyes, count the remaining sheep and try to work out how many are missing. Let them use their fingers to help, if necessary.