Transportation

We began the week with a look at The Construction Alphabet Book. We used straws to add design to a dump truck printable from this site. The inspiration came from this site.

Our patterning activity we used this week came from the unit I purchased from TPT.

We also had time to work with vehicles, cookie cutters and play dough.

The next book we looked at explored the world of racing with Racing with NASCAR.  We painted a race car worksheet with q-tips.

We also made our own track with our shapes.

Other table activities included a pre-writing worksheet that I placed in a sheet protector. We also used the following color cards with color paintbrushes I have from Mother Goose Time. The worksheet we used with pom-poms came from this site. I also used the worksheets at the light table.

 Our sensory table activities included vehicles with colored rice and rocks with oatmeal. We also explored treasure in the water with boats after our look at boats.

After reading the book Toy Boat, we made our own toy boats inspired by this site. We also made sure they floated by exploring with water.

The next book we explored was The Travel Game. In the book, Tad and his aunt Hattie spin the globe and look at pictures from the spot their finger falls on in a picture book. We played the game using images from the internet to see children in the country going to school, playing and more. 

The next book we explored was Easy Street. We made a magnetic car game with the street sign worksheet from this site, cars from this site, magnetic strip and colored clothes pins.

Our science experiment this week came from this site. We also checked the glass after having overnight to travel. The red water traveled faster than the yellow water for us. We ended up with half of a glass full after having the entire night to "travel."

Other activities this week included working with our nuts and bolts activity, free play at the light table and a gem transfer activity.

 Next week, we will take a look at St. Patrick's Day and the color green. Until then, check out this clip of Wheels on the Bus by Go Fish and this video from our unit next week:

 

Transportation and More Dr. Seuss

   This week, we began our look at transportation with The Little Engine That Could. We focused on using the words "I can" instead of "I can't" whenever we are trying an activity. We also made our own train inspired by this site. Our sensory experience included trains and boards to create an incline.

    I purchased a unit plan from Teachers Pay Teachers written and developed by Tami at Teaching Preschoolers. The following activities are from this unit plan.

For our exploration with cars, we painted on paper with the wheels as inspired by a workshop I attended in the past. We also explored shaving cream with cars and raced cars outside as inspired by this site.The car race was a big hit and I had one child move the track to test out in different areas and at different angles. These activities were inspired by our look at Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus.

We also had an opportunity to race airplanes as inspired by this site. I did not include the balloon this week as I really wanted to explore angles and figuring out which angle produced the best speed. The children also figured out that pulling the string tighter produced better speed as well.

Another fun activity included a magnifying pictures game that was found here and here.

We also read the book Ron's Big Mission and looked how Ron changed an unfair rule. We also made our own rockets to go along with our story.

We took time this week to honor Dr. Seuss' birthday by reading Happy Birthday to You!, exploring with ice boats as inspired by this site, and enjoying a colorful cake.

 As we have all developed a case of "Spring Fever," I added some colorful activities to the light table that were a big hit this week. One activity included lime jello crystals mixed with salt to produce a treasure hunt with paint brushes and another encouraged sorting.

We had a short week this week and will continue our look at transportation next week. The children were very involved in play this week and I wanted to add this link that describes the benefit of play in development. In this setting, play sometimes expands into other activity periods and those other activities are put on hold to visit in the future. I will leave you with a video from one of the songs from this week.

Rhythm and Rhyme

We began our look at rhythm and rhyme with Mother Goose. We explored "Baa Baa Black Sheep" with our Mother Goose collection and Raffi. We focused on the words that rhymed and came up with some of our own... wool- bull, sheep- sleep, etc. We used the following activities to go along with the rhyme:

This folder game is from a Carson-Dellosa resource book I own.

 

We explored activities using cotton balls:

Our art project included painting with cotton balls to make a sheep. This activity was inspired by Teach Preschool.

The next book we explored was Juba This and Juba That. We watched the following video and did our best to dance like the man in the video.



We used permanent markers to color our own rhythm sticks. The sound changes according to which end is used.

We also used our Jack Hartmann DVD to explore rhythm. We love the "Hip Hop Tooty Ta" song.

For our look mittens and kittens, I used the following folder story that I have had for a while. The rhyme is from a Jean Warren resource book I own. The rhyme explores all of the colors as the kitten looks for her blue mitten. I love how the color appears in the mitten area as each sheet is removed.

We also practiced hanging mittens and gloves as inspired by Teach Preschool. We also painted with mittens using a tape-resist on black paper with white "snow" paint.

We also explored snow with our mittens and gloves in the sensory table. We looked at how mittens and gloves protect us as well as melting snow and how the properties change.

We also used the following worksheet from this link for our table games and light table.

We explored music and sound with Wiggle Waggle Fun: Stories and Rhymes for the Very Very Young. We also sang and recited different rhymes from our Jewels: Children's Play Rhymes big book. We used clapping to explore the rhythm. We made a shaker to go along with our rhymes.

 

At the end of the week, we explored rhymes from Tortillitas para Mamá and Other Nursery Rhymes. We also watched authentic tortillas being prepared and had our own taste test between wheat and white flour tortillas. Our sensory activity included cornmeal, wheat flour and white flour.

 We also explored sound with a variety of containers and items to place inside the containers. We compared the items, sounds and decided which container produced the biggest or smallest sounds.

We also played "Hot Cross Buns" with water glasses.

Some of the other activities included fishing for numbers and searching for letters.

We also had free time at the light table and time for play dough this week.

Join us next week as we begin our two- week unit on transportation. I purchased curriculum from Teachers Pay Teachers that I am excited about teaching. Until then, enjoy a video we used with our books this week.

 

  

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