Costume Ideas - For Teachers
Create a costume box and collect any Letterland props in it. You might like to name it 'Clever Cat's Costume Box'. The props can be bought, borrowed or made. Headgear is especially useful for 'Live spelling', since hats, helmets, etc. only take a moment to put on. Any props will make demonstrations of words more lively and effective. Prop making is a good area for parental involvement. Specific suggestions for all the Letterland characters are given below.
Annie Apple
Make an apple leaf collar or hat.
Mr A
Add a red and white striped apron.
Bouncy Ben
Make ears or a mask for Bouncy Ben.
Clever Cat
Make a Clever Cat mask, or just cat's ears on a headband.
Dippy Duck
Make a headband. You could also collect any spare yellow clothing.
Eddy Elephant
Make elephant ears.
Mr E
A magic wand should be an easy prop to make or find.
Firefighter Fred
Add one or two toy firefighter's helmets.
Golden Girl
Bring in a couple of old pairs of (sun)glasses and green items of clothing. Include some gardening gloves for Golden Girl.
Harry Hat Man
Make one or two hairy hats. They will be useful both now and later when the children play-act the digraph stories with h.
Impy Ink
Make a black lid-like hat from stiff card or simply use a black hat or beret to serve as Impy Ink's bottle top.
Mr I
Make one or two realistic ice cream cones.
Jumping Jim
Add some juggling balls or thread three balls on to a wire.
Kicking King
The children will enjoy helping you to make and decorate one or more crowns. In addition, you could try making Kicking King's cape using red crepe paper edged with cotton wool, or find a parent who enjoys sewing.
Lucy Lamp Light
Add old lampshades or yellow clothing.
Munching Mike
Make two monster masks, using cereal boxes covered in tin foil or painted.
Noisy Nick
Add a toy hammer and a large nail made from stiff card.
Oscar Orange
Add any orange clothing, such as an old T-shirt.
Mr O
Make a fluffy white beard from a roll of cotton wool or white fur.
Peter Puppy
The children may like to make droopy ears out of paper, with pale brown patches painted on them. These can then be attached to headbands for wearing.
Quarrelsome
Queen You will probably already have a crown in the Costume box for Kicking King, but it is useful for Quarrelsome Queen to have her own crown for words such as quick, where both characters are needed together in a word!
Red Robot
Add any red clothing and make a robot mask.
Sammy Snake
You may like to make a Sammy Snake glove puppet (using a large sock) or mask.
Talking Tess
Make a little telephone for Tess to carry.
Uppy Umbrella
Any old umbrellas would be very useful, but child-sized ones will be more practical when you progress to Live Spelling.
Mr U
Add gold buttons or braid to a jacket and find or make a toy cap similar to Mr U's.
Vicky Violet
Make a chid's face the centre for a five petal headdress.
Walter Walrus
Make a pair of grey gloves look like flippers!
Fix-it Max
Make a large red cardboard x. Or give out some tools to hold.
Yellow Yo-yo Man
Make or buy yellow caps with yellow visors. If you haven't got any yellow or other coloured yo-yos, make some pretend ones out of cardboard discs attached to string.
Zig Zag Zebra
Add some black and white striped clothing.
If you would like to know more about the system, please contact us.
