Animals on the Farm. (Farm Animals)

Member Name: tb4ms

Product:	Farm Animals
Date:	27/08/08 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great photos and educational.

Disadvantages: None

- The Book -

This is a non-fiction book and as the name suggests it's focus is on farm animals. There are 7 double page spreads, each one focusing on a different aspect of the animals:

* Farm Friends
The first double page has two flaps to lift. There are 7 farm animals introduced: sheep, chicken, pig, duck, goats, horses and cows.

* Farm Families
These two pages show three animal families and give the names of the male, female and offspring: goats (nanny, billy and kid), ducks (duck, drake and duckling) and chickens ( hen, cockerel and chicks). There are three flaps to lift.

* Favourite Foods
On this double page spread we are told that sheep like to eat grass, pigs eat porridge, horses eat hay, goats eat leaves and chickens eat seed. There are also three flaps to lift.

* Happy Homes
There are three flaps to lift on one of the pages which show the names of some of the animals homes: chicken coop, stable for a horse and a sty for the pigs. There is also, quite unusually a picture of bees in a beehive.

* Animal Noises
Unsurprisingly, this is all about the noises that some of the animals make and is probably the favourite section of the book as it enables children to join in with all of the noises. There are three flaps to lift and the cow, chicken, sheep, pig and dog are used as examples.

* Same Sorts
This double page spread shows how there are different varieties of the same animal. Three different types of pigs, sheep and cows and shown with the help of three flaps to lift and there are two different kinds of ducks shown.

* From The Farm
On the last two pages the reader is shown what different animals produce: sheep - wool, cows - milk, hens - eggs and bees - honey.

- Style and Format -

The book is aimed at pre-school children hence the fact that it is a board book which means that little hands are far less likely to rip the pages or the flaps.

This book is brightly coloured with great photos of the animals. It's very clearly labelled which is great for early reading and letter recognition skills.

There are lift-the-flap opportunities on every double page, 20 in total.

- Educational Values -

This book stimulates curiosity through exploration. It promotes learning through observation, talking and naming things.
It encourages and develops fine motor skills through the lift-the-flap opportunities.

It teaches children many things about farm animals; what they eat, their names, the male, female and baby names, what animals produce and so much more!

This book also offers the adult an opportunity to introduce the concept of a non-fiction book and look at the differences between this type of book and a fiction book which is one of the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage Profile for 3 - 5 year olds.

- Price -

My copy was £4.99
ISBN: 0-7513-3960-1, but amazon are selling used and new copies from just 33p.

It may also be well worth taking a look at the DK website at www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk where orders over 25 pounds get are entitled to free delivery.

There's a wealth of fun, educational books on this website which is very user friendly, listing suggested age-groups etc.

- Dorling Kindersley -

The company was founded in 1974 by Peter Kindersley and Christopher Dorling. When the latter retired in 1987 The Reader's Digest purchased 50% of the shares and it was in this year that they launched the first children's list.

DK publishes an extensive range of titles for adults and children and is the UKs market leader in illustrated non-fiction books.
- Other DK Lift-the-Flap Books -

~ Colours
~ Numbers
~ Shapes
~ Sizes
~ Time
~ Opposites
~ Counting
~ Things that go
~ All about me

This is a great book of the same high quality that many have come to expect from DK. An excellent addition to any young child's bookshelf!

Summary: A great educational book for pre-school children.