What We’ll Build: plans for Our Together Future: The breathtaking new companion to international bestseller Here We Are: The breathtaking companion to international bestseller Here We Are

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What we build is the story of a father and a daughter and how they want to build a home for themselves and more. It is about the love between a parent and their child and the endless possibilities and opportunities of life. A rare and enduring story about a parent’s boundless love, life’s endless opportunities, and all we need to build a together future. The perfect baby shower gift or gift for new parents! Problematic classics: All that mostly Medieval, pre-20th century stuff where children are eaten by witches or ogres if they disobey their parents, or otherwise mutilated (fingers cut off, turned into mince pies, etc), or terribly sexist stuff where women are almost always damsels in distress/princesses in towers waiting on some plastic Ken doll. Colorful, fun, something we choose to basically never expose to our kid except via movie time (i.e. old Disney). Children will love his playbook for building a future of love and imagination, and they will delight in the special relationship the father and daughter share.”— Booklist

We will also be setting you a Half Term challenge to make up your own dance to one of your favourite songs! Look out for a video on Evidence Me towards the end of the week! In our singing sessions, we introduced the song ‘Five Currant Buns’ and the children have loved acting this out as bakers and customers! Task 1:Think again about what you think these two characters might build. See if you can imagine the things they are building and think about them building those things. Where are they? What do they look like? What are they building? What are they using to build?

This week is road safety week. As a class we have talked about the importance of holding an adult’s hand when crossing the road, as well as looking at the different road signs and what they mean. We played a game where we needed to look and follow the road signs such as stop and go. Now think carefully about the word build. What do you think of when you first hear this word? What sort of things do you think can be built? Make a list of all the things you can think of. In small group times, we have been talking about friendship and how we can share using kind words with our friends, such as using ‘my turn, your turn’. We are continuing to share our talking boxes in group times for those children that have been the focus of that week. It has been lovely to hear about all the special things in our children’s lives, we can’t wait to hear more!

With offspring prone to crashing his Zoom meetings and his studio over on the other side of the Atlantic, he has found creating in Belfast a challenge. The couple had set up a quiet area in their bedroom for work calls: “But that was like a red rag to a bull to the kids, knowing that one of us was trying to avoid them. They would just come bombarding in.” A father and daughter set about laying the foundations for their life together. Using their own special tools, they get to work, building memories to cherish, a home to keep them safe, and love to keep them warm. His output has become increasingly political. What We’ll Build contains a reference to a Trumpian construction: “[We’ll build] a fortress to keep our enemies out, and higher walls for when they shout. But you don’t always lose, and you don’t always win. So we’ll build a gate to let them in.” The father-daughter duo build their home, the only material thing they construct, and then they invest their time in the importance of building love, hope, resilience, forgiveness and warmth. The tools are laid out at the very beginning, a selection of hammers, saws, drills (and a tiny pink pig!) from a shiny, red toolbox but we come to realise that the real 'tools' we need as parents when building our futures together are trust, comfort, compassion, unconditional love. The toolbox appears throughout the book as if to remind us that we carry these tools around with us on our parenting journey. |I read Here We Are years, a letter from a parent to his child. Another of Jeffers’ heartfelt picture books (he does regularly manage to elicit tears) and stir emotions. And so elegantly as well. Without effort it seems.

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This touching and inspirational picture book features a young girl and her father, who make plans to build a glorious future together. As they gather up their tools, they discuss all the incredible things they will make. Their construction projects range from tangible objects, including a house, a tall tower and an unsinkable boat, to more abstract concepts, such as building friendships, setting aside love for difficult times and aiming high by creating a road to the moon. At the end of a tiring day, their heads buzzing with an abundance of amazing ideas, they build a fire, curl up together and fall fast asleep, making this a perfect bedtime read. The father-daughter duo build their home, the only material thing they construct, and then they invest their time in the importance of building love, hope, resilience, forgiveness and warmth. The tools are laid out at the very beginning, a selection of hammers, saws, drills (and a tiny pink pig!) from a shiny, red toolbox but we come to realise that the real ‘tools’ we need as parents when building our futures together are trust, comfort, compassion, unconditional love. The toolbox appears throughout the book as if to remind us that we carry these tools around with us on our parenting journey. Oliver Jeffers does it again with another visually stunning and narratively endearing book, this time written for his young daughter. The text is sparse, reflecting how each word and phrase was carefully chosen to convey a tone of care, wonder, and determination. Accompanied by colorful, expressive, and detailed illustrations, this book highlights life’s endless opportunities and a parent’s enduring love. It’s the perfect read for any kind of new beginning~ beginning of the school year, beginning of the calendar year, beginning of a new birth year, or even the beginning of a new life (an excellent baby shower gift for parents to read to their littlest little)~the perfect book to inspire littles to plan and work together to build the future of their dreams, while reassuring and affirming them that you will be there to support them and build alongside them the entire way.

In rhymes, Jeffers also shows us the family they create together, a dad and girl curled up at night by a fire, a pair using their imaginations to ‘play’ games where they visit the moon. One thing that stood out as a hindrance for the book is that the language was a little tough for the kid, she was unable to understand some words. Hence, the need of an older person to sit with and read. What We'll Build' is a timeless classic in the making for every parent and educator building a future for the children in their care. The story begins with the father and daughter building a door, symbolic of the many doors we can open for our children as parents and educators. Open doorsstand for opportunity, hope and positivity which are recurrent themes in the book. The children have also enjoyed listening to the story ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy, where Miss Wilson and Mrs Campbell acted it out with props. The children were then able to retell the story themselves during playful learning, making the different sounds that could be heard in the house and the garden, including a drippy tap, a humming fridge and hedgehogs snuffling.Agenda books: Anti-Racist Baby, Feminist Baby. I gave my kids Buddhist baby books and I already feel embarrassed/silly about it. Like I'm taking advantage of their age and impressionability to start a brainwashing campaign. Anyway, these are the books that have Important Values that the parents are anxious to impart on their kids, but that are probably just waaay over the kids' heads and I almost feel bad dragging them into the shitty parts of society (prejudice, etc), especially when it's clumsily written. Don't get me started on the anti-racist baby book: "point to policies, not people" - right. I'll tell that to my toddler. : Inspired by the birth of his daughter, and in the same vein as Here We Are, What We’ll Build is a rhythmic and heartwarming father and daughter story from the beloved Oliver Jeffers. Told in rhyming text with Oliver’s signature art, What We’ll Build is the perfect story to cherish together. My thoughts Now that I am swimming in kid culture all day, every day, I have been slowly forming opinions - as and when my limited remaining cognitive energy allows. One of these slowly-forming opinions is on children's books. I've noticed something. There are several "types" of children's books: Jeffers wrote this book for his daughter Mari and it is the story of a father and daughter exploring the endless possibilities and adventures that they can enjoy as they build their lives together. When you have thought of something, take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw what you imagined. You could add some colour as well if you like.