Friday Reconnect - Week One

By Oliver Perry, Read to Them Staff

Happy Friday everyone! We hope you have enjoyed the first week of Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins! We love reading the adventures of Lumphy, StingRay, and Plastic, as they ride to show-and-tell in smelly backpacks, or go on a picnic. Our wonderful staff member Kayla helped us get to know the trio a little better in our Character Spotlight on Monday. Lumphy is anxious, StingRay is smart, and Plastic is very bouncy! We can’t wait to read more about them in the coming week!

In addition to being anxious, Lumphy is feeling a bit scared during our reading for today. He’s having a wash, and his journey to the basement has him feeling quite nervous! However, once he gets to know Frank the washing machine, he starts feeling a bit better. This helps him change his perspective of the basement. Our activity for today is to visualize that change by drawing a couple of pictures. We encourage you to create a side by side comparison of Lumphy’s experience or to represent something you once felt nervous or scared about, that you now see isn’t that bad.

To kick off the weekend and keep our brains moving, we’ve come up with a couple writing prompts for you:

• Do you, or did you ever, have any stuffed animals or toys that are your friends? If so, what kind of toy are they? What are their names? What are their personalities? If you’ve never had a toy friend, if you could have one, what would they be like?

• Have you ever had show-and-tell at school? If so, what did you bring? Write about the thing you brought, and why you chose it. If you haven’t had show-and-tell, if you did, what would you bring, and why?

• Have you ever been scared of something that turned out to be not so scary after all? What or who was it? Why did it seem scary at first?

• Describe the perfect picnic. Where would it be? Who would come? What foods would you bring? Would you bring any toys or games? If so, what kind?

• So far, we have met characters like Lumphy, Plastic, StingRay and TukTuk. Come up with and add a new character to the bunch. What kind of toy would they be? What is their name? What would their personality be? Would they be friends with Lumphy and the others? Would the Little Girl sleep with them?

We can’t wait to read the rest of Toys Go Out next week. Until then, enjoy your weekend, stay safe, and stay kind.