Apartments...

On Tuesday we learned about apartments!  When I asked the kids where else a person can live that is not a house, they replied with "a castle" and "a tower!"  When I explained what an apartment is, I could tell the kids were not too familiar with what it is. 

 We added the letter B to our alphabet house.  B is for apartment building!

 I explained that an apartment building is one big building with many homes inside of it.  Mother Goose provided us with a number line of elevator buttons.  The kids took turns tapping a number that I called on the provided buttons as we sang the song "In the Elevator" to the tune of "London Bridges."

"Going up to number 6,

number 6, number 6.

Going up to number 6,

in the elevator!

Going down to number 3..."

 I taped the elevator buttons on the wall.  The kids pretended to be riding in an elevator as they played throughout the day. 

 Mother Goose provided us with this writing paper, and apartment sheet and cards.  I encouraged the kids to cut apart their cards and place them face down on the floor.  They could flip over one card at a time, then find the same number and color on the apartment building.  They could identify which letter "lives" in that apartment and practice writing that letter on the writing paper. 

 This activity kept them quiet and engaged for quite some time.  I heard a number of the kids say, "This is fun!"

 I asked the kids why they think there are many apartment buildings in big cities.  I wrote the number 2 and 20 on two separate post-it notes.  I asked the kids to pretend our colored blocks are houses (or apartments).  They were asked to put the matching amount of blocks on each post-it note. 

 Putting two blocks on the first post-it note was simple because there was plenty of space.

 I watched intently as the second volunteer started counting out 20 blocks for the second post-it...

 When he ran out of space, he instantly knew he would need to stack the blocks.  I explained that many people want to live and work in a city.  By stacking homes like in an apartment building, there is more opportunity for space.

 We compared the first post-it with two blocks to the countryside.  We compared the tall stack of blocks to the city.  I asked the kids to point to the one they would want to live in...

 I asked the kids to draw a picture of either a city or a countryside.  Almost all the kids drew a picture of the city.  They included cars, and roads in the their drawings and lot's of windows on their buildings.  I think the big city fascinates most of them.

 We split into four groups.  I assigned each group to a different set of blocks.  I challenged the kids to try to build a tall apartment building with their blocks.

Soft and squishy blocks...

 Foam blocks...

 Wooden blocks...

The waffle blocks turned out to be the most challenging for the kids.  By the end of our activity everyone had gathered to help.

 This was about how tall they could get the waffle blocks on their own, until I stepped in to help.

 I gave them a few pointers and pointed out the notches on the sides of each block.  With a little help, they were on their way to making a very TALL apartment building!

 Once it got too tall to reach, they asked me to "help make it touch the ceiling!"

 The kids were so excited and thrilled!  I got excited when I heard a few of the kids call it "The Leaning Tower of Pisa!"  They still remember that lesson from February!

 Next, I explained that apartments can have many stairs.  I challenged the kids to see how many stairs they could climb without resting!  They got such a giggle out of this because I never let them "play" on the stairs.

 Mother Goose provided us with this new book of the month!  It is a different story about Goldilocks retold by Leslie Falconer (CEO of Mother Goose Time).  In this story Goldilocks loves her baby bear.  She loses her stuffed bear because her bedroom is a BIG MESS!  She dreams about going to a bear cottage in the woods and discovers another big mess!  She cleans up the cottage and then rests in one of the beds.  When the bear family discovers her, she wakes from her dream.  Goldilocks then clean her room and finds her lost baby bear!  The kids loved it!  I couldn't help but chuckle at the valuable lesson taught in the book.  How many times have we told our kids, "Clean up your mess and you might be able to find your lost toy." Lol!

 After reading the story, I drew a period, an exclamation point, and a question mark on three separate pieces of paper.  I set them in different spots of the room.  I read the book a second time, and each time we saw a punctuation mark the kids ran to the matching piece of paper on the floor.  This was a great way to get our bodies moving, and learn at the same time!

 I also set out these Goldilocks storytelling pieces that attached to our felt board.  The kids had fun retelling the new version of "Goldilocks!"

 For our next activity, we headed outside.  I asked the kids what they would like best about living in a tall apartment building.  They mostly thought it would just be cool to be so high up in the sky.  I explained that the tallest apartment building in the world is in New York City and has 89 floors!  It is 1,398 feet tall!  I gave the kids A TON of boxes outside, and let them build an apartment building any way they desired!  I cannot begin to tell how much fun they had with this!  They played with the boxes the entire time we were outside in the morning.  Then when we went outside in the afternoon, the kids demolished all the boxes and played "Box Trolls!"  Who knew boxes would provide this much entertainment! 

 They wanted a really tall building, so they started climbing the picnic tables.  I was a little worried at first, but kept a very close eye on all of them.  Luckily there were no serious injuries.

 The kids worked on the letter B page in their literacy workbook...

 They also worked on counting and number recognition as they counted apartment doors in their math workbook...

This was our book for the day.  This book has a lot of illustrations on each page.  The illustrations alone tell the story.  I encouraged the kids to read the book on their own and notice all that was happening on the different floors of the apartment building.

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador I receive curriculum in exchange for honest and authentic stories resulting from our experiences with the curriculum.

Alphabet House: Houses...

On Monday we started a new curriculum theme: Alphabet House! 

 I am always so thankful Mother Goose writes a monthly newsletter for teachers!

 This is the weekly breakdown of our theme!  I am pretty excited about this one! Once again Mother Goose has chosen a topic that I would not have been able to think of on my own.  They have divided the month up into four subtopics that I know will keep the kids interested.  It seems that every lesson I teach touches base on real life concepts.  We end up having rich discussions about things that genuinely affect their world.  I am so thankful for the daily topic posters and the questions provided in each daily lesson.  Yes, I said that right...Mother Goose actually gives you the questions to ask your child.  The questions are not "yes" or "no" questions.  They require a higher level of thinking, and for that I am so grateful!!!

 We are all set and ready to READ!

 We started the month of June today!  This month we will be celebrating Father's Day, and the first day of Summer!  We are also looking forward to starting two new friends on Monday, June 15th!  Our two oldest school-agers are going to start a full-time summer school program, so we will be saying goodbye to them on Friday, June 12th.  Starting June 15th we will have 12 full-time preschoolers.  At the end of the summer we will have 3 kids graduating and heading off to Kindergarten!!!

 Mother Goose provided us with this alphabet house.  I laminated it and placed magnets on the back of each piece.  Each morning during circle time we will add a new letter.  By the end of the month we will have built the entire alphabet house!

 Today we started with the letter A.  I asked the kids to brainstorm a list of things that start with the letter A.  Then I put a star next to each item that we might find in a house.

 Next, we sang "Can You Find the House?" to the tune of "The Muffin Man."

"Can (Name) find the A house?

The A house?

The A house?

Can (Name) find the A house?

What is living there?"

I inserted the kid's names into the song and asked them to flip up the matching letter on our alphabet strip to reveal what was underneath.

  Next, I introduced the kids to our new theme poster...

 I asked the kids to describe where the objects on our magnifying glasses were by given positional words (ex: beside, above, under, between, etc.)

 Then we answered these questions and acted out these activities...

 Mother Goose provided us with these supplies for a "House Painting" craft...

 First, I had each child bring in a photo of their home to show 'n' tell.  I printed each child's address and attached it to their photo.  They L-O-V-E-D sharing their photos, and talking about their home!  My hope is that they learn their address this month!

 The kids headed to the tables and wrote their house number on their craft.  They used crayons to add details...

 Then they chose a color of paint to paint their house.  They were given the freedom to choose a paint color that matched their house or not.  I was very impressed!  A lot of the kids wanted to mix their color paint with white to lighten it a bit! 

 J wanted black to darken his color green a bit...

Next, the kids practiced writing their names on these new name tags that Mother Goose provided us...

 We brought our completed name tags over to the block area.  The kids tried building the first letter of their name with the blocks..

Next, I read this book to the kids.  It is a great and simple book that teaches kids how a house is built!  Highly recommended!

 I was so super excited to surprise the kids with these new Lakeshore Learning home builder blocks!!!!  These are AWESOME!  The blocks are solid wood, and the details on them are phenomenal!  Some of the blocks even have images on both sides of the block.  The door also swings open and closes.  The windows have blue curtains for the inside of the house, and red bricks with flower boxes on the opposite side for the outside of the house!  The kids LOVED playing with them!

 "Oh no!!!  Don't go outside!  The bears are out there!"

  Later in the day I saw the kids playing with the blocks again.  I encouraged them to add the other blocks to make their creation bigger.  They replied with, "It's cool like this Brenda!"  I guess that means that you don't really even need a set of blocks to play with these.  I am curious to see what they create as the month goes on though.

In our dramatic play area my wonderful husband set up a BIG BOX for a play house!  This is the benefit of having a Packaging Engineer for a husband!  Thank you Paul!  The kids could color the box any way they desired.  Boxes are so much fun!

 I also set out a variety of other boxes and containers for the kids to explore fitting stuffed animals or dolls/babies into them.  Their animals need homes too!

When we went outside we paid close attention to the details of my home (roof, chimney, doors, windows, etc.)...

 I pointed out that my home only has a main level and a basement.  The kids were amazed when they realized the preschool is completely underground!  We discussed if their homes had a second story or not, and I pointed out some of my neighbor's homes that have two levels.

 The kids completed these two pages in their new literacy workbook....

 

The kids also completed this number 19 page in their math workbook...

 We discussed how a house needs to be built strong in order to withstand big winds and storms.  I read "The Three Little Pigs" to the kids...

 For our closing song the kids passed around a heart as we sat in a circle and listened to the song, "Home Is Where Your Heart Is" on our Alphabet House CD.