Handa's Surprise

Product Information

One day, Handa takes a basket of seven yummy fruits to her friend, Akeyo, who lives in a neighbouring village. She is sure this will be a lovely surprise for her friend and, on her walk to the village, she imagines which fruit Akeyo would like best.

Handa's Surprise is a lovely story by Eileen Browne about a girl who wants to treat her friends to delicious fruit but her plans go awry as several pesky different animals steal the fruit from her basket! A monkey takes the banana, an ostrich the guava, a zebra the orange, an elephant the mango, a giraffe the pineapple, an antelope the avocado and a parrot the passion fruit. Collect some fruit and vegetable into a basket and draw it. What colours / textures will you need to show?

Are there more Colouring Pages available like this one?

Handa puts seven different delicious fruits in a basket to take to her friend Akeyo as a surprise. But Handa’s walk takes her past a variety of animals, and the fruits do look very inviting...” Handa’s Surprise is beautifully illustrated book for children in nurseries and reception classes. The story is set in a village in Africa, and the pictures are bold, traditional and bright coloured to capture the imaginations of little ones. This book can be used to cover a range of subjects across the early years curriculum e.g. numeracy (counting animals, fruits), art (drawing fruits, make displays), geography (discussed exotic fruits, wild animals, Africa), knowledge and understanding of the world (habitats, traditional clothes, culture), science (taste fruits, healthy eating).

In the story Handa’s Surprise, written by Eileen Browne, we follow a little girl named Handa, who belongs to the Luo tribe in south-west Kenya.Gather some fruit and use this for data handling activities… What is the favourite type of fruit in the class? Make a graph to show how far each type of fruit has travelled from its country of origin. What is the average number of grapes in a bunch? You will also be able to explore the important concept of subitising with your children using these Handa's Surprise Fruit Number Cards. Can your children instantly recognise small sets without counting (perceptual subitising)? Can they also spot smaller groups within bigger sets (conceptual subitising? This will be a fun way to investigate these important mathematical ideas. What surprises have people organised for you? Can you think of a nice surprise that you could arrange for somebody else? The story is full of questions. Look at the use of question marks in the story. Can you write your own questions and put a question mark in the correct place? Created in collaboration with the book’s publisher, Walker Books, this EYFS Reception Topic Planning Web: Handa’s Surprise is a perfect resource for practitioners who are planning work around this wonderful book.