People Who Help Us
Early Years · Reception–Year 1
Fuzzy felt shop, hospital, school and vets, with the story played back.
About the people who help us
Four fuzzy felt boards: a shop, a hospital, a school and a vets. Everything on them can be picked up and put somewhere else, the way a felt board on a classroom wall works, and the places that matter take what is put on them. Put the dog on the vet's table and it is on the table. Give the vet the bandage and the vet is holding it.
The vets and the hospital work the same way, which is the point of having both. The dog has a sore paw and the cat is poorly. Give the bandage to the vet, then take the vet to the dog, and the bandage goes on. A class that has done it once at the vets can do it again at the hospital without being told how.
Press Play and the board tells the story back from the beginning, one step at a time, with a line underneath saying what happened: the dog is on the table, the vet has the bandage, the vet gives the dog a bandage. It is the class's own story, in the order they made it, which is the retelling a Reception classroom is always working towards.
Nothing is marked wrong. Put the cake on the bench at the vets if you like: it sits there. A board that refused a piece would be telling a four year old their idea was wrong, and this is play.
The people are a range of skin tones and hair, nobody is named, and anybody can sit, lie in a bed or sit at the teacher's desk.
How to use it on your whiteboard
- 1Choose a scene: Shop, Hospital, School or Vets.
- 2Drag a piece. The place it can go glows gold, and it goes there when you let go.
- 3Give the person who helps the thing that is needed, then take them to whoever needs it.
- 4Press Play to watch the story told back from the start.
- 5Press Start again to put everything back.
Questions
- What does Play do?
- It tells the story back. The board goes back to how it started and does every move again, in order, with a line underneath saying what happened. Moving a piece about without it going anywhere is not counted as a step, so the story is what happened rather than every wiggle.
- How do you give the bandage to the dog?
- Drag the bandage onto the vet first, so the vet is holding it, then drag the vet onto the dog. The bandage goes on the sore paw. The hospital works the same way with the doctor or the nurse.
- Can two children use it at once?
- Yes. Each finger picks up its own piece, so two children can be dragging at the same time on a touch screen.
- Can we share the board we made?
- Yes. The share link carries the whole story, so whoever opens it can press Play and watch it told back.