Author: Shirley Hughes
When Dave loses his favourite toy, Dogger, he is desolate. But then Dogger turns up at the school summer fair, and everything seems all right – until someone else buys him before Dave can get the money! Can Dave find a way to get Dogger back?
This heart-warming story was one of my all time favourite books as a child – I can’t count the amount of times I asked my Mum to read it for me! Shirley Hughe’s beautiful illustrations will continue to bring this classic story to life for generations to come.
Here are my top Dogger activities you can do with your child to help support his/her speech & language development:
1. Due to the clear sequence of events throughout this story it makes it the perfect story to work on your child’s narrative/story telling skills.
Encourage your child to tell you what happened in the story focusing on the following elements:
- who?
- What doing?
- What?
- Where?
Twinkl have created a wonderful set of FREE resources to support the retelling of this story here.
2. There were a lot of different stalls at the summer fair. With your child why not design a game that could be played at a summer fair. You will need to do the following:
- Come up with a new game
- Design a poster to promote your new game
- Have your child come up with a list of rules for the new game
- Have a look around your house with your child to find what you need for the game
- Think about what prizes you might have for your game
- Set up your game and have other family members try it out
3. Dave spends a lot of time searching for Dogger during this story. You and your child should take it in turns to set up a treasure hunt where you hide an item and have to give instructions / clues to help each other find what has been hidden.
4. In the story Dave does lots of fun activities with Dogger (e.g. took him for a ride in a trolley, pulled him along on a lead). Encourage your child to think about what their favourite toy is and what activities they like to do with that toy?
I hope this book becomes a firm family-favourite in your home as it has been in mine over the years.