"Why do preschoolers need to learn about the world and global cultures? Children live in many different communities: family,
school, church, city, nation, and world. Within each community are different
social rules and traditions. By helping our children understand how
they fit within all of these different social systems, we set the stage
for caring about and respecting people from diverse cultures and
backgrounds." Mother Goose Curriculum
I am SO EXCITED about this month's curriculum theme! I love all things multicultural in the classroom because it broadens our children's understanding and knowledge of our world. Learning about different cultures, traditions, and customs positively impacts our compassion towards one another. Not only do we learn to tolerate our differences, we learn to embrace them!
I took many more pictures this month so you can see some of the things we do that are not always sent home. This is truly only a fraction of what Mother Goose Time provides for us each month, but you get a better picture of what takes place at Sweet Smiles Preschool on a daily basis...
February is "I LOVE TO READ" month! I bought many new books to go along with our theme this month! Mother Goose starting providing a list of book recommendations for every day of the week! I am appreciative that I don't have to think about what book would go great with each lesson anymore. I am excited to sit down and READ with the kids EVERY DAY!
Week One
February is "I LOVE TO READ" month! I bought many new books to go along with our theme this month! Mother Goose starting providing a list of book recommendations for every day of the week! I am appreciative that I don't have to think about what book would go great with each lesson anymore. I am excited to sit down and READ with the kids EVERY DAY!
Travel Tools: Suitcase, Airplane/Boat, Map, Currency, Camera
DAY 1: Suitcase
What do you need when you go on vacation? A suitcase! We learned the importance of what to pack and what not to pack. We laced our own paper suitcase and added letter tiles so we could spell out our name (Names are blurred for confidentiality.)
We even played with a real suitcase and packed it up with some essential items...
Our book for the day...
DAY 2: Airplanes and Boats
What would you want to ride in to go across an ocean? An airplane or a boat?
What would you want to ride in to go across an ocean? An airplane or a boat?
We played with boats in the sensory table...
What sinks and what floats? How many fish can you fit in the boat before it sinks? Can you line the boats up from smallest to biggest? Which magnetic letters can you catch with the fishing poles?
We made a healthy boat snack...
Popsicle sticks work great for kids to spread cream cheese!
Our books for the day...
Every month we learn a new friendship building word (ex: polite, brave, grateful, responsible, forgiving). We post our friendship word on our circle time display near our color of the month bird. This month we are learning about how to be "loving!"
We have been on the lookout all month about ways we can be loving in preschool. It warms my heart when I see a friend help another friend with a project, or when someone is hurt and they give a hug to comfort them.
Here S fell over the stool and J was checking to see if she was okay. I just happened to be holding my camera so I could snap a photo of this precious moment.
There are many ways we can show our love, but the message I want so badly to be remembered this month is that we all deserve love! We are reading books that illustrate the differences we have among other people. Although we may look differently, we all laugh and cry the same way, and we all long for friendships and family! The most important things we all have in common no matter where we are from, what skin color we have, or the clothes we wear. I think this message is what makes me LOVE this month's curriculum theme so much. We can love each other and be friends, even if we are different!
We built a heart out of blocks that was big enough for us all to fit inside. We all deserve love!
Group hug...
The kids thought of many ways to show love to a friend or family member: listen to them, do a favor for them, be patient, play with them, let them go ahead of you in line, help them when they can't do something, say "I love you," and hug them. What great ideas!!! Another way to show love is to
give a gift. We wrapped up "gifts" and made cards to pass out to
friends! (We just wrapped up toys from the daycare.) The kids loved this! They struggled at first because they
didn't realize that they need to cut the wrapping paper bigger than the
object they were wrapping so that it could fit all the way around it, but with some trial and error they eventually figured it out.
Every month we learn a new friendship building word (ex: polite, brave, grateful, responsible, forgiving). We post our friendship word on our circle time display near our color of the month bird. This month we are learning about how to be "loving!"
Here S fell over the stool and J was checking to see if she was okay. I just happened to be holding my camera so I could snap a photo of this precious moment.
We built a heart out of blocks that was big enough for us all to fit inside. We all deserve love!
Group hug...
Of course S LOVED the Mickey Mouse gift bag...
We split into two groups and made a map of our community!
We traced blocks from our block center to make the buildings on our map...
We traced blocks from our block center to make the buildings on our map...
The kids were busy with this task for a while. They just kept feeding off of each other, and thinking of more things they could add.
Those are some proud grins...
They loved playing with cars and other toys on our completed maps...
Our first letter of the month was the letter Gg!
We rolled the Globe ball along the tape lines of the letter Gg...
We rolled the Globe ball along the tape lines of the letter Gg...
We built the letter Gg on the light table...
Our AWESOME book for the day...
DAY 4: Cameras
We are learning about the heart shape. We made a heart shaped world. On the backside of our art project we drew a picture of people with multicultural markers. Once again, everyone deserves love no matter their skin color or where they are from...
We are learning about the heart shape. We made a heart shaped world. On the backside of our art project we drew a picture of people with multicultural markers. Once again, everyone deserves love no matter their skin color or where they are from...
We played with a heart shaped parquetry card...
We played travel BINGO! We tore pieces of paper to use as Bingo chips. The photos on the Bingo cards were pictures of things we need to pack when traveling, and places we will learn about this month...
When traveling you always want to bring along a camera! We were shown a camera from long ago that took film, and we compared it to a digital camera we see commonly used now. We made our own paper camera with photos! I love the souffle cup used for a lens!
I LOVE this book!!!!! It asks higher level thinking questions, and shows awesome photos of all the places we will be learning about this month! Instead of me just reading this book to the kids, we all sat around the table together and looked at the pages. I read what was on each page, but I encouraged the kids to talk freely and openly about what they were seeing on each page. We had a great discussion that lasted quite a while!
We learned about different currency used throughout the world!
We dug in the sand for hidden coins...
We made our own wallet with paper dollars and then played restaurant!
We discussed the different types of food found all around the world...
We discussed the different types of food found all around the world...
Our book for the day...
Week Two
World Market: Mask, Lantern, Carpet, Drum, Kite
DAY 1: Mask
I found these books to be very helpful in teaching about world markets. The book on the left is a book I received years back from Mother Goose Time...
We learned about masks from all over the world;
primarily African masks, and Carnival masks from Brazil.
DAY 1: Mask
I found these books to be very helpful in teaching about world markets. The book on the left is a book I received years back from Mother Goose Time...
primarily African masks, and Carnival masks from Brazil.
We brought our own mask to play with...
We made a Carnival mask with feathers and sequins...
We copied masks made from shapes. I added magnets to the pieces provided from Mother Goose Time. I had the kids build with the magnet shapes on a cookie sheet (from the dollar store).
We played a "Giving to the World" game. We learned the difference between a need and a want. The kids played with the plastic people counters provided from Mother Goose this month, rather than the folded paper people.
Our book for the day...
DAY 2: Lanterns
We brought in flashlights and lanterns to play with, and we made Chinese lanterns with glitter...
We brought in flashlights and lanterns to play with, and we made Chinese lanterns with glitter...
We made Chinese moon balls! The Chinese celebrate the moon during their Lantern Festival. They light fancy lanterns and eat round rice balls that represent the full moon. We made our rice balls with white sticky rice, cream cheese, cucumbers and/or craisins...
We formed the rice ball into the shape of a ball using the plastic wrap...
These were pretty tasty!
Our book for the day...
DAY 3:
We weaved magic flying carpets!
We weaved magic flying carpets!
Even my three year old's did quite well with this project!
Our book for the day...
DAY 4:
We made our own drum!
We made our own drum!
Paul even played a drum solo for us!
We completed an ABBC pattern card with instruments. Then we made the same pattern using the sound of the instruments!
Our book for the day...
DAY 5:
The next letter we learned this month was the letter K! K is for kite! L brought in a kite to show! We tested dropping different objects in the room. We wanted to see which items floated down slowly like a kite, and which items fell fast to the floor. We learned that our dancing scarves, tissues, paper, and silk leaves all fall slowly to the floor. All the other objects we tested fell quickly and straight down to the floor.
Our book for the day...
The next letter we learned this month was the letter K! K is for kite! L brought in a kite to show! We tested dropping different objects in the room. We wanted to see which items floated down slowly like a kite, and which items fell fast to the floor. We learned that our dancing scarves, tissues, paper, and silk leaves all fall slowly to the floor. All the other objects we tested fell quickly and straight down to the floor.
I've heard it said before that kinesthetic learners are natural "doers" in life. They do best when they are actively participating in activities. Mother Goose Time is very knowledgeable about this. They intentionally plan monthly activities that get the children up and out of their seat. They continuously provide materials to touch, explore, and to play with. I have had a lot of kinesthetic learners over the years! I introduced the kids to the Spanish words for this month. I taped the words on the wall and asked the kids, "How high can you jump?" We learned that the highest kite ever flown reached 14,509 feet in the sky! We tried to jump and reach the kite photo on the wall. We all identified the photo we could reach and practiced saying that word in Spanish. It was also fun to measure ourselves to see how tall we were and what Spanish word we were closest to.
We are given new journals every month. We worked on the letter K page page in our journal.
We were given our own monthly "I Can Read" book titled, Where in the World Is It?
Our sight words for this month are: where, here, & find.
Our sight words for this month are: where, here, & find.
Our book for the day...
Week Three
Natural Wonders: Grand Canyon, Ayers Rock, Matterhorn Mountain,
Victoria Falls, and Sequoia Trees
DAY 1: Grand Canyon in Arizona
What can break rock? Did you know water can break rock?!? Water is what formed the Grand Canyon. We learned all about the Grand Canyon! We made craters in sand with rocks. We experimented with dropping different sizes of rocks from varying heights. We measured our craters to see if any of this made a difference in the size of the crater.
The Grand Canyon is made up of over 40 different layers of rocks!
We layered play-dough and then cut through it to see what our layers revealed!
We built the Grand Canyon out of blocks!
We used a blue ribbon for the Colorado River and our people counters provided this month through the curriculum. The kids even made river rafts out of Legos!
On this day we were given our own Passport! We will pretend to travel to a new place every day for the next two weeks, and record each place as we go!
Natural Wonders: Grand Canyon, Ayers Rock, Matterhorn Mountain,
Victoria Falls, and Sequoia Trees
DAY 1: Grand Canyon in Arizona
What can break rock? Did you know water can break rock?!? Water is what formed the Grand Canyon. We learned all about the Grand Canyon! We made craters in sand with rocks. We experimented with dropping different sizes of rocks from varying heights. We measured our craters to see if any of this made a difference in the size of the crater.
We layered play-dough and then cut through it to see what our layers revealed!
Each day that we record in our passport the kids will get a sticker to place on their page. They were asked to copy the name of the place we learned about by writing it themselves, and then draw a picture to match their words...
The kids LOVED that their passport had a photo of them on the inside! They had a spot where they could write their name and age, and I wrote their address.
Our book for the day...
DAY 2: Ayers Rock in Australia
On this day we learned about Ayers Rock in Australia! We colored a picture of Ayers Rock and then painted it with glue and sprinkled red sand on our art to add texture!
We brought in rocks to share!
We sorted our rocks by size, color, and shape (rough or smooth edges)...
We used rocks to trace the outlines of the letters and shape we are learning about this month.
I challenged the kids to make letters or shapes without using the templates provided.
J was pretty excited he made the letter L all on his own...
We also worked on some math! Numbers 6 and 16 counting cards...
Our books for the day...
DAY 3: Matterhorn Mountain on the border of Switzerland and Italy
Here we are working out our math story problems we were given for this month (Ex: There are six mountain climbers on the rock. Four got tired and climbed back down. How many were left on the top? We pretended the block was the mountain.)
On this day we learned about Matterhorn mountain right on the border of Switzerland and Italy!
How can we get to the top of a mountain? We can hike, drive, or take a cable car! We made cable cars. I threaded our cable cars on yarn and hung the yarn between two chairs for the kids to play with! They loved this one!
We work in our workbooks everyday.
On this day we were measuring how high each climber was on the mountain...
We learned that the Matterhorn mountain is very steep! Steep was a new vocabulary word for some of us. I decided to take out our tubes for the kids to play with. We raced cars and other objects down the tubes. We experimented with changing how steep the tube was to see if it made the cars go faster or slower.
On this day we learned about Ayers Rock in Australia! We colored a picture of Ayers Rock and then painted it with glue and sprinkled red sand on our art to add texture!
We sorted our rocks by size, color, and shape (rough or smooth edges)...
J was pretty excited he made the letter L all on his own...
Here we are working out our math story problems we were given for this month (Ex: There are six mountain climbers on the rock. Four got tired and climbed back down. How many were left on the top? We pretended the block was the mountain.)
How can we get to the top of a mountain? We can hike, drive, or take a cable car! We made cable cars. I threaded our cable cars on yarn and hung the yarn between two chairs for the kids to play with! They loved this one!
On this day we were measuring how high each climber was on the mountain...
On this day we learned about Victoria Falls in Africa! We made and danced with waterfall wands!
It was fun to make a waterfall!
Our book for the day...
DAY 5: Sequoia National Park in California
On Friday of this week we learned about the Sequoia trees in California!
Mother Goose provides up with a colorful map of the world every year. We learn about a new country every month. The country for this month is the good ol' US of A! We started our day by labeling the United States with a sticker and we reviewed the colors and design of the American flag. We pointed to California on the map, where the The Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park is located.
We looked at photos of tree houses on the internet. We were so amazed! We were given a piece of paper with a paper frame that looked like wood. We designed our own tree house! We discussed who would live in our tree house with us and how we could get up and down from the tree.
Trees and plants are alive!
We were amazed to see our bean seeds have sprouted from last month's dinosaur unit!!
We were introduced to a new computer game that includes 8 different life science topics! One the topics on the game is "Living vs. Nonliving!" Each game includes an educational video we can watch and learn from before we play the game.
A squirrel is living!
We were given four new story sequence wands. We discussed what was happening in each photo and then placed the photos in order. We had to draw what we think would happen on the fourth wand. We first photo was a picture of a seed, then a seedling, and then an old tree. The kids decided to draw a dead bare tree for the fourth frame. We discussed what a dead tree looks like, and how long a tree can live. The kids did not know that a dead tree can still remain standing for quite some time. We placed the cards in order and acted them out.
I cut sticks of varying lengths from outside. We used the sticks to measure objects in the room. N measured her body. She stated the stick was longer than she was!
Here the boys are comparing the length of their sticks to the height of the stool...
Lastly, we placed five of the sticks in order from longest to shortest...
We worked on the letter Q page in our journal. The kids drew a picture of a sequoia tree with Q shaped leaves. They were also challenged to complete the sentence, "Sequoia trees are..."
These kids were so proud of themselves!
They completed our map of the USA while I was preparing lunch!
All on his own, J decided to build a Sequoia tree from Legos at the light table! This was exciting for me to see the things I taught them come out through their play time!
Our BEAUTIFUL book for the day...
On this day we got we got our new multiethnic dolls from Lakeshore Learning! I applied for a grant in the Fall and this set of dolls was what I was approved to purchase. We are so excited that there are 4 boys, and 4 girls. I also love that they look like little kids and not babies. We practiced being "loving" to these dolls right away...
Week Four
Man-made Wonders: The Great Pyramid, Machu Picchu, St. Basil's Cathedral, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and The Great Wall of China
DAY 1: The Great Pyramid in Eygpt
On Monday this week we learned about The Great Pyramid in Egypt. The Great Pyramid is in a desert where there are camels! We made camel puppets on a craft stick...
The kids glued a piece of fabric to the back of their camel. Have you ever taken a ride on a camel?
How loving! N was helping R with his piece of fabric.
R was having a hard time getting his fabric to stick on his camel...
The desert is a place where food and water is scarce. A camel stores fat in its hump for times when it is hungry, but there is no food to be found. We packed our own snack for today. We saved our snack for later when we will be hungry!
How loving! N and N are holding open the Ziploc baggies for their friends while they scoop their food in.
The Great Pyramid was built by hand, not machines! Imagine carrying all those big heavy rocks and bricks! We tried to lift heavy objects in the room. We even tried to lift up our friends!
We were introduced to our puzzle for the month. I like to put magnets on the back of the puzzle pieces and have the kids build the puzzle on a metal cookie sheet (from the dollar store). This way the puzzle pieces don't shift around too much.
I spread the pieces of the puzzle around the room. The kids brought back the pieces to the puzzle, but acted as though they were carrying big heavy bricks. They are really good actors! Each time they brought back a puzzle piece they helped assemble a part of the puzzle.
We discovered we can build all sort of things with cups! Even pyramids!
Small cups...
Big cups...
Even cups on the light table!
We learned all about mummies! We learned that the pyramids in Egypt were mostly built as tombs to bury the country's pharaohs and queens. A mummy is a body wrapped in bandages. When a pharaoh died, his mummy was placed in the pyramid with jewels and coins. We wrapped our dolls and stuffed animals with toilet paper to act this out...
We also wrapped our friends...
J was good at playing the part. He was pretending he was dead...
The kids LOVED the song on our circle time CD for today. It was an instrumental song titled, "Pharaoh Sleeps." It started out kind of slow and "scary" sounding. I asked the kids to lay on the floor with their eyes closed and listen to the music. When the tempo picked up the kids felt the need to get up and dance faster. They had so much fun! They requested hearing the song over and over again!
They danced like zombies and pretended the mummies were coming back to life!
I took out Wedgits on the light table.
The kids were free to build a pyramid or anything of their choice...
These were our books for today. Both were recommended by Mother Goose Time. The book about mummies was very informative, but a little lengthy. I skimmed through the pages, but I am thankful I still read it. The pictures were fun enough to look through. The second book is a children's atlas. Each page talks about a different continent. It is not a book you can sit down and read entirely at one time, but I still highly recommend it. I know my own boys will get enjoyment out of reading this for years to come.
DAY 2: Machu Picchu in Peru, South America.
On Tuesday of this week we learned about Machu Picchu!
We started our morning playing with new Toobs full of world landmarks. I made photo cards for the kids to match up the toy to....
They got excited when they found a landmark that we have already learned about...
N was excited when I told him he has visited Mt. Rushmore!
L was excited when I told him this landmark was located in Mexico.
He will be visiting Mexico soon!
N ran to go and get the photo of him and his brother at Mt. Rushmore. It is so much fun to make connections to what we are learning about!
It was fun to listen to their questions and see them wonder...
The curriculum stated that we should review our ABBC pattern on our calendar for the month. We pretty much do this every day, so it was no surprise to me that the kids knew exactly what would come next in our pattern for today.
Our circle time displays are placed on hooks. This way I can keep them out of the way during the day, but still take them down during circle time so the kids can interact with them. All the items displayed are on a thick poster board adhered with velcro strips...
We were introduced to our new CVC word puzzles for this month. We practiced reading the words and matching the color of the word puzzle to the color of the word card. We had to identify which letter was missing and then practice reading the word. Some of the kids sounded out the word backwards. They needed to be reminded that we read left to right.
Machu Picchu was built in Peru, South America. It is an ancient city that is now a ruin. The Incas linked the levels together by building over 3,000 steps. We discussed the difference between staircases, elevators and escalators. Some of us even recalled the musical steps at the science museum! We got some exercise by walking up and down our staircase. We counted how many steps we have and then reviewed the number 6 on our counting card. We walked up and down 6 steps. Then we reviewed the number 16 counting card. We only have 13 steps, so I challenged the kids to figure out how many more steps we would need to get to 16...
We used the number line to figure out that we would need 3 more steps to get to 16...
Someone said we could build 3 more steps with blocks. I thought that was a great idea!
This is what they created! Now we have 16 steps!
Next, we discussed that Machu Picchu is a ruin. We learned that this ancient city is a ruin because it was abandoned years ago and never maintained. Structures can be destroyed by many things including natural disasters. I asked the kids what they think is strong enough to destroy a building. They replied with "Wreck It Ralph and Hulk!" I showed them a photo of a wrecking ball machine. Then I built a tower that was tall and narrow. I asked them why they thought this structure could be easily tipped over or destroyed...
Then I asked them to work as a team and build a structure that would be stronger.
We discussed that the base of our structure would need to be larger.
After we built our strong structure we took turns throwing balls at it to try and knock it down....
We examined the ruin left over from the destruction...
Then we worked as a team to rebuild and restore our structure again...
Our sight words this month are where, here & find. I asked a volunteer to pick up the flower with the word "find" on it...
We were given our own bilingual mini-book...
We cut apart the pictures. This was an exciting moment for S!
It was the first time I have ever seen her cut on the lines!!!! She was so proud of her big accomplishment, and we all cheered her on!
Then we hid the pictures in a tub of sand and had to "find" them again. We pretended we were finding treasures in the sand. Finding the Machu Picchu was considered a treasure when it was found many years after is was abandoned. Since that time many artifacts and treasures have been found that were once the Incas. These artifacts can be found in museums across the world today.
We glued the pictures in our book and then practiced reading.
The word "find" was on every page of our book.
I asked the kids to circle all the "find" words. We learned that people in Peru are called Peruvians. They primarily speak Spanish. I read the bilingual book in Spanish to the kids and had them repeat each page back to me as I read...
In our workbooks today we cut apart photo Memory cards...
I was impressed that even my young three year old knew to line up the cards to make it easier to remember where each photo was...
This was our book for the day. It was perfect for what we were learning about! Once again, another great recommendation by Mother Goose Time!
Machu Picchu!
In the afternoon hours we painted ice that we froze in a bowl with watercolor paints. I told the kids they could paint the ice with blue and green to make it look like a globe, but they just had fun painting! Because the ice was melting as they painted, they didn't need to dip the paintbrush in a cup of water like traditional watercolor painting. This kept them busy for quite some time!
It didn't turn out as vibrant as some of the photos I saw online, but it was still fun and engaging!
DAY 3: St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia
On Wednesday we learned about St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia!
Just as we have done every day so far with all the places we have learned about, we first looked for Russia on the map.
Next we worked on our color recognition while we sang a morning circle time song. Mother Goose Time is always very good about getting the kids to warm up with a song each morning. The kids chose the same color onion dome that I stated in the song to put on the tower.
We have been hanging our daily topic posters up each day.
Each morning we review the name and location of each place we have learned about...
Each month the kids receive their own postcard to design and write on. The kids were challenged to complete the sentence, "I like..." with their favorite world wonder place we have learned about.
"I like Matterhorn."
"I like Grand Canyon."
"I like Victoria Falls."
J drew a picture of him and his Grandpa under a rainbow right next to the Matterhorn mountain on his postcard...
Next, I set out a story board with pictures that match our book of the month provided through Mother Goose Time. I placed magnets on back of each story board piece so the kids could stick them to the magnetic whiteboard while they played. I also set out the world map, plastic people counters, and the Toob landmarks we were introduced to yesterday...
The kids were free to play with the pieces and make up their own story!
It didn't take long for the kids imagination to spark...
The people packed their suitcase...
then headed off to vist each landmark...
Eventually Mount Rushmore destroyed everything in its path.
and they all flew home...
Even my two youngest were making up stories together...
Next, we made our own collage inspired by the St. Basil Cathedral!
This sweetheart found the heart stamp and said he wanted to stamp a heart for his Mommy!
J glued his pieces on and then cut all the black off around his "castle." He then found the paint dobbers. As he painted his artwork he pretended he was building the structure and connecting the pieces together with with the paint dobber.
B loved "decorating" her creation with ribbons found in our collage box...
K was inspired by a friend and painted with paint dobbers too...
If you are wondering how I adapt our projects to different age levels, here's how...
I let my youngest cut as much as she wanted on her own until she was showing signs of being tired.
Then I cut apart the pieces for her and let her cut the smaller sized pieces a little more...
Once she was done with that, I placed my hand in her hand and helped her cut the rest on the lines. Then she glued the pieces on her own. She was very proud of her work!
Every month the curriculum provides us with cooking project ideas or recipe cards...
Today we made tomato basil soup being that we learned about St. Basil's Cathedral! There is no better way to learn than to use ALL of our senses!
First I let the kids explore the feel of a basil leaf...
Yes, we even tasted it. I was surprised at how many of the kids actually ate the whole leaf!
Then we started cooking! The kids used their muscles as they helped me open the tomato cans...
I put the whole tomatoes in Ziploc bags...
The kids crushed the tomatoes by squeezing the bag...
Then we dumped our tomatoes in the pot...
We broke apart the basil leaves and seasoned our soup with them
The kids LOVE cooking!
Mmm! Creamy homemade tomato basil soup!
We NEED to have grilled cheese sandwiches with our tomato soup!
Show of hands...who likes our soup? Wow!
N is a tomato soup connoisseur! If she approves, than I know it is good! :)
This is a terrible photo, but it shows that we listened to our song for the day on our Dance 'n' Beats DVD provided by Mother Goose Time. The kids LOVE Dance 'n' Beats, and so do I!!!! It gives them exercise on days when we can't get outside! For this song the woman is standing next to St. Basil's Cathedral and she is teaching us a Russian Polka dance!
Great dancing! Sometimes the kids follow along to the movements on the DVD, and sometimes they dance the way they feel. It is so much fun to watch them!
These were our books for today! They are a couple of my FAVORITE books of all time!
DAY 4: The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy
We wondered why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning. I explained to the kids that the bell tower was built on soft ground so it had difficulty supporting the weight. We learned the importance of a solid foundation by demonstrating this with a solid wooden block and a pillow. We tried to build with our cube blocks provided by Mother Goose Time, but we could not get a tower to stand on the pillow...
How far can you lean? Can you lean sideways, backwards, forwards?
We sorted our photo cards that we were given for this month by their beginning sound...
I played a trick on J and gave him the letter E photo card. He caught on right away!
I can't trick these kids. They are too smart!
I laminate our letter and photo cards every month. I place them in a 3-ring binder for the kids to look through whenever they want...
We learned that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built out of limestone and marble - two very strong rocks often used in European construction and sculpture. We made our own structure with cornstarch noodles and toothpicks. The kids could assemble the pieces using the toothpicks or by wetting the noodles on a damp paper towel. It was so much fun to watch them get creative...
P thought it was cool that the noodles left color on his paper towel...
N made a necklace...
J made a "robot blaster that shoots out spiders!"
K made another type of "shooter."
B made a "head."
S made a "baby."
Next we made math towers with our cube blocks, and a die. One person rolled the die and stacked that many blocks. Another person rolled the die a second time and added the same amount of blocks to the tower. We added both numbers together and counted how many blocks we had all together on our tower.
Wow! That is a lot of math! Awesome!
We played a game of "Would you rather....?" We were given a graph with Bingo chips, photo cards, and a number of different questions. For each question asked, I placed the matching photo cards on the graph. The kids placed their Bingo chip on the column of their answer to the question. This question was "Would you rather buy a drum or a kite?" The kids all answered with "drum."
When I asked them why, they all responded by drumming on the table with their hands. They said "because playing a drum is fun!"
Would you rather visit the Matterhorn mountain or the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Again they all agreed on this one...
We used our blocks again when we did more math problems in our workbooks...
We worked on the number 16 in our journal. We wrote the sentence, "I see 16 windows." We drew a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and added 16 fingerprint windows.
Of course we had to eat PIZZA for lunch! Yummy chicken pizza with fresh veggies on a whole wheat crust!
These were our books for today. The Maya's World book was a funny story about an Italian girl who misunderstood the Leaning Tower of Pisa to be a leaning tower of PIZZA! The kids all got a good laugh out of this one!
DAY 5: The Great Wall of China
Today was the last day of our "It's a Small World" unit. We have learned A TON this month, and we ended our unit with another fun day of learning and exploration!
We started our morning with a song, "One brick, two brick, three bricks, four..." We counted out 7 bricks. I asked the kids to look at the number line and figure out how may more bricks they would need to get to 16 (6 and 16 are the numbers we are learning about this month).
Since we will be learning about the Great Wall of China we thought it would be fun to measure the walls of the daycare. We estimated which wall we thought was the longest. Then we used a long string to measure five different walls...
At the end of the wall, I marked the string with masking tape and labeled the name of the wall we measured...
After measuring, we stretched our string out and a few of the kids stood by the labeled sections. We could see which wall was the shortest and which was the longest...
Next, I challenged the kids to make the LONGEST WALL EVER! They LOVED this! They got right to work...
They started at the end of the staircase and used up all of the long wooden blocks first...
They built their wall around the train table...
Across the rug...
Down the hallway...
Even under the trampoline!
When they hit a dead end, I was impressed to see them turn their wall a different direction...
Here the wall was split into two different directions...
Back down the hallway again...
Around the slide...
Once they used up all of the wooden blocks they did not want to use anything else to continue to build more. The kids just wanted to play! Here R is adding some fun decorations to the wall...
The kids went right away to the cars and trucks basket.
They wanted to pretend the wall was a road...
Genius!
We recited the "Humpty Dumpty" poem and identified why the words "wall" and "fall" rhyme. We discussed that words will rhyme if they have the same ending sound.
The kids helped me come up with a list of other words that rhyme with "wall."
Then I took out my Lakeshore Learning rhyming houses and the kids took turns sorting the rhyming words...
We learned that the Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built by humans. Its latest measurement totaled over 13, 170 miles long! We learned that people can walk along the top of the wall. We wanted to know if we could walk on our wall and not fall! Check out these kids balancing!
The Great Wall of China was built from many different materials over about 200 years. Builders used earth, stones, wood, bricks, tiles, and limestone. We made brain bricks. We rolled a cube that had all the basic concepts we have been learning about this month (heart, red, Gg, Kk, Qq, 6, and 16). We pretended our paper was a brick. We made the picture of what we rolled on the cube with glue on our paper. Then we added yarn for texture. This was really just a fun craft project where the kids could create what they wanted with glue and yarn, but also encouraged them to remember what we learned about this month...
A heart! That glue was tough to squeeze...
N had fun making shapes...
I was impressed with L's strategy here. He snipped the yarn to make smaller pieces. Then he glued his pieces on. You can see he made the number 6...
K made a "roller coaster." :)
This little one was so psyched she figured out how to snip yarn!
N made the letter K!
We worked on the heart shape in our journal. I asked the kids to complete the sentence, "I love..." A lot of the kids wrote "I love Mom." How sweet!
Our workbook activity was a lot of fun! The kids cut apart sections of the Great Wall of China. They turned all the pieces face down. They flipped over one piece at a time, and built the wall. Their goal was to build the entire wall before they flipped over the nightfall card. The kids love these types of games...
We completed a color-by-letter activity of the Great Wall of China...
The kids completed their journals, workbooks, and passports today!!! They are BEAMING with pride and so excited to take them home to show off!
We recorded what we learned this month in our scrapbooks. Each month we complete one page in this special keepsake book. At the end of the school year the kids will have a special collection of the the things they learned about at preschool this year!
The kids also love looking forward to see what things we will be learning about next. During the month of March we will be learning about space!!!!
This was our book for the day. Oh my word what an AWESOME book this was! It was a flip-me-over book that has two books in one. One side of the book is about what Kindergarten is like for the kids in China, and the other side of the book is what Kindergarten is like for the kids in the USA. I am so glad I purchased this book!
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed teaching this month!
Thanks for reading and for being so actively involved in your child's education!
On Friday of this week we learned about the Sequoia trees in California!
Mother Goose provides up with a colorful map of the world every year. We learn about a new country every month. The country for this month is the good ol' US of A! We started our day by labeling the United States with a sticker and we reviewed the colors and design of the American flag. We pointed to California on the map, where the The Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park is located.
We were amazed to see our bean seeds have sprouted from last month's dinosaur unit!!
They completed our map of the USA while I was preparing lunch!
All on his own, J decided to build a Sequoia tree from Legos at the light table! This was exciting for me to see the things I taught them come out through their play time!
Man-made Wonders: The Great Pyramid, Machu Picchu, St. Basil's Cathedral, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and The Great Wall of China
DAY 1: The Great Pyramid in Eygpt
On Monday this week we learned about The Great Pyramid in Egypt. The Great Pyramid is in a desert where there are camels! We made camel puppets on a craft stick...
R was having a hard time getting his fabric to stick on his camel...
How loving! N and N are holding open the Ziploc baggies for their friends while they scoop their food in.
The kids were free to build a pyramid or anything of their choice...
On Tuesday of this week we learned about Machu Picchu!
We started our morning playing with new Toobs full of world landmarks. I made photo cards for the kids to match up the toy to....
He will be visiting Mexico soon!
The kids were reaching up high and imagining how tall they thought each landmark would be...
This is what they created! Now we have 16 steps!
We discussed that the base of our structure would need to be larger.
It was the first time I have ever seen her cut on the lines!!!! She was so proud of her big accomplishment, and we all cheered her on!
The word "find" was on every page of our book.
On Wednesday we learned about St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia!
Just as we have done every day so far with all the places we have learned about, we first looked for Russia on the map.
Each morning we review the name and location of each place we have learned about...
"I like Matterhorn."
J drew a picture of him and his Grandpa under a rainbow right next to the Matterhorn mountain on his postcard...
It didn't take long for the kids imagination to spark...
I let my youngest cut as much as she wanted on her own until she was showing signs of being tired.
We wondered why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning. I explained to the kids that the bell tower was built on soft ground so it had difficulty supporting the weight. We learned the importance of a solid foundation by demonstrating this with a solid wooden block and a pillow. We tried to build with our cube blocks provided by Mother Goose Time, but we could not get a tower to stand on the pillow...
I can't trick these kids. They are too smart!
Today was the last day of our "It's a Small World" unit. We have learned A TON this month, and we ended our unit with another fun day of learning and exploration!
We started our morning with a song, "One brick, two brick, three bricks, four..." We counted out 7 bricks. I asked the kids to look at the number line and figure out how may more bricks they would need to get to 16 (6 and 16 are the numbers we are learning about this month).
They wanted to pretend the wall was a road...
Thanks for reading and for being so actively involved in your child's education!
