Would these puzzles and cards etc. alongside the series have been something you would have enjoyed as a child? In the outdoor area, hang equipment such as pans, spoons and boxes on the fence and encourage children to 'play' these as instruments.

Music is an important element of Q Pootle 5. Producer Ben Butterworth says ″When we started to consider the music for the programme we didn’t want music to be just an accompaniment to the story, we wanted people’s experience to be enhanced by the music. The score had to be integral to the storytelling – creating atmosphere, adding nuance and subtlety, underpinning the emotional content of a story, driving the action of a scene, or making us laugh.″ [3] Characters [ edit ] Main characters [ edit ] Watch your children draw – I must say, I love the way children draw – I just think they have this real confidence to get something down on paper without thinking too much about what it’s going to look like, and it’s only later when they start thinking about ‘Ooh, is this right?’ that they then start to think ‘Oh, I can’t draw’ and it becomes stilted. Picasso said it took him a lifetime to draw like a child and he meant to draw with that kind of simplicity and confidence children have. There’s a great story of a little girl who was drawing a detailed picture and when asked what she was drawing, she replied ‘I’m drawing God.’ The teacher said, ‘But no-one knows what God looks like’ and the child replied ‘Well, they will in a minute.’ It’s just that lovely confidence that children have, they’re willing to have a go, to just do it and see what happens. So, my advice is to help sparingly and appreciate copiously and say, “Wow, that’s brilliant! Tell me all about it!” We wanted to give kids a good time, we did that in knowledge that what we were intending to bring were positive values. I think you always bring your own values to writing, so I brought mine and also the values of my son, Ben – without him the Q Pootle 5 series would not be out there! I also looked for other writers who shared those values so they became embedded in the series. They are not made to teach as such, but still bring things which children can learn, like how to react kindly, be unselfish and have warm friendships. Anyone who doesn't have a child addicted to CBeebies (the 'early years' BBC channel) may not have heard of Q Pootle 5. I've become rather fond of him. He's an affable little green alien who lives on the planet Okiedokie, and potters around having gentle adventures with his alien buddies. Talk about the space moon party picture and what you can both see. Count the aliens at the moon party.

identifies adult-led activities to introduce or develop children's understanding of the topic through stimulating, meaningful experiences which offer challenge. Q Pootle 5 is a friendly and fun-loving person who has a real sense of adventure. He’s very kind and loves spending time with his friends. He’s good at solving problems – but he’s not infallible – sometimes it can be a problem of his own making! The children can do many things with this book. I will recommend it to years 3-5. Firstly, they can engage in hot seating and role plays to gain an understanding of the characters in the story. They can continue the story in their own version to tell us what happens next. There is a great deal of creativity of words and crushing sounds used in different shapes and with exclamation mark. Children can explore these in comprehension, why the author did this and what effects he wanted to create.

The first is 13 episodes and I just thought I want to give really good value with plenty of choice and some favourites where children can say ‘Yay, put on that one!’ We’re also including the ‘Making of’, Okidoki Karaoke and more. The ‘Making of’ is great, it’s like a documentary filmed while we were making the series and you get introduced to the actors, see behind the scenes, so lots of stuff that both children and adults will find interesting. The second is the Christmas special which has just been put to bed this week. I’m so thrilled with it and even the sound effects and music have a real flavour of Christmas. It’s great fun and I just hope they’ll love it! Of course we wanted to maintain the integrity of the original books, but the possibilities that animation offered, the creation of a world with movement, voices, music and sound effects, inspired us to take things further. Planet Dave lives within view of Oki Doki. He is big enough for everyone to land their ships on when they visit him, and is very old indeed. It’s very different to my normal process where I spend months at the drawing board, as these books are using images from series, but we didn’t just do screen grabs. I asked the animators if they could set up scenes from the episode but make some changes because with screen grabs you’ll have the exact moment you want, which works brilliantly in animation, but when it’s just the one image, you end up with a tree or a telegraph pole growing out the top of their head! I spent a lot of time reposing images with animators and I’m thrilled with them, they’ve just come out as such great quality.Display the poster (provided with the book) in the book area to promote further discussion about the story and moon party.