Healthy Bodies

Dramatic Play

Doctor's Office. The kids had been begging for this center all year, so we finally got it back out!

 
 
 

 


Blocks

Small wood blocks


My Job Leap Frog puzzle (you can see on the shelf above)

Magnatiles. Again, another request. When these are out, they don't play anything else. So they were out two days due to popular demand.


Art

Playdough and face mats


Body shape stamps and paint


Making bread for snack. Than glue and magazine face parts to make faces. The things they made cracked me up!

Scrub brush painting. They were pretty unsure of this one, wondering why I let them paint with scrub brushes. I had to reassure them that it was ok.

















Small Manipulatives

Vegetable dot pages and flat marbles


5 Little Monkeys books and tape. They were so confused when I had to rewind it. It was pretty funny! And they enjoyed the story.

Doc McStuffins Memory game


Food lacing cards


Bunch 'ems. I recently found them on clearance at Target, and love finding more open-ended building toys. They're like a velcro ball. The kids liked the texture and playing with them, but just built a few simple things, then were easily frustrated it wasn't a big statue or something. They were asking me to build things for them, but I kept encouraging them to figure it out. Hopefully they'll get it after a few more times.















Emotion faces on the magnet board. They could change the eyes and mouths for more expressions.


Fruit and vegetable matching game in the pocket charts.


Writing

Stamp markers

People color crayons


Snack

Each day we tried new food groups and talked about how they help our bodies (giving vitamins and minerals, giving us energy, helping us grow, etc.)

Day 1, fruits. We had bananas, strawberries, blackberries, and grapes.

Day 2, vegetables. We ate cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots.

Day 3, we had grains and ate the wheat bread we made. Well, the bread I made the day before, then at the end of the day, they took home a slice of bread they made.

Day 4, we ate dairy and protein by having yogurt and trying different nuts.

Outside

Sensory Table:  dried macaroni with toy fruit and scoops. Kinda random, but just wanted something new. They had a lot of fun with it.


Large Group

Day 1, we learned how to take care of our teeth. We read Going to the Dentist. I used the big model teeth and toothbrush and we learned to brush all sides of our teeth. Then the kids stood up, shoulder to should, like teeth, and I "brushed" them with the giant toothbrush, front, back, and on top of their heads. It was hard with all the giggling and shaking they were doing! Then I flossed them with a jump rope. After that, they got to use dry erase markers to color germs all over the laminated teeth. Then they brushed it off with toothbrushes. Some of it didn't come off well, so I improvised and squirted on a little hand sanitizer for toothpaste, and it came right off! It ended up a great object lesson.


Day 2, we learned about germs. One of our class moms who is a nurse, which by the way, I could have invited more than half the moms in our class, came and talked to us. She showed us how to wash our hands properly. Then she talked about what it's like to visit the doctors. The kids each got to listen to their hearts with a real stethoscope.

Day 3, we had run out of time last time, so we did more talking about germs. I used fingerpaint at the germs and "coughed" it into my hand, then I high fived kids, and shared pencils with them until we all had fingerpaint on our hands, to show how germs travel. Then we all washed our hands to show how to get rid of the germs, instead of passing them.

Day 4, we wrapped up talking about all the foods we'd been eating. We talked about the different food groups from our lacing cards. I spread them out on the floor, then they each got a food ad. They could cut out as many food items as they wanted, then they put them in the group they belonged to. It was great cutting practice, which they all need! Miss Kim and I were repositioning hands a lot, making sure they keep their thumbs on top, and cut away from themselves.

As we talked about food here and at snack, I never referred to it as healthy vs not healthy, or bad vs good food. It was all just food. I talked to them about the importance of eating a variety of food groups and colors of food, not just the same thing all the time since we need all the unique things each food offers. And we talked about things like sweets being a "sometimes" food, since it doesn't give us the nutrients we need and it may have ingredients not good for us. So we just eat them sometimes. But we need the other food groups each day. I was very impressed by their willingness to try new things at snack, even if they didn't like it. I just ask that they taste it.

Small Group

We read about Bones and found the different bones on my toy skeletons. They cut out a picture of a body with the outside, and the bones on the inside too. It was mostly for the straight line cutting practice.

The other group made foods out of play dough with food molds I have, and fed them to Cookie Monster, so he could have a variety of food besides cookies!

The next week, they wrote in their journals about their favorite foods, and did a counting game with Miss Kim.

Friendship

Dramatic Play
Not really friendship related, but fun anyway. I got out the cardboard castle walls and fancy dress ups. Those of you who were here a few years ago may remember my bigger castle tower I had, but it kept falling apart, so we just went for the castle walls. I wasn't sure if it would be enough, but they loved it like this. I liked how portable it was, and when there were lots of kids in it, we made the walls extend over the block center too, so they all fit. And one of the days, they were building towers and things with blocks, so we moved the walls and made the castle smaller for a bit.

The important part is all the fun dress ups. I have costumes for queens, princesses, knights, fairies, a jester, king, and wizard. My dragon costume has disappeared, so that was sad. One of the days, they all wanted to be kings at the same time, so I got out construction paper and we made some more crowns for everyone.

They held many balls, and needed music, so Pandora's Disney Princess station came to the rescue. They are such adorable dancers! I even added the dancing ribbons for the last 2 days and they loved dancing with those too.





Blocks

Sometimes the castle was spread out into this area, but otherwise, we got down the foam blocks, brick blocks, and Megablocks this week and did a lot of building. I forgot pics :(

Art

Maybe it's because we didn't do anything extra special or unique, but I forgot pics of the art table both weeks! Here's what we did:

Spin Art. We used the salad spinners and coffee filters to make spin art. I especially like the fine motor strengthening that comes with using the eye droppers to get the paint on their paper. Some get frustrated at first, until I show them how to release it, then wait for it to fill up with paint. After they get the hang of it, we really have some soaked pictures! This center was busy all day.

Collages. I had a tray out with dried beans, sequins, feathers googly eyes, and pom poms. Just add glue, and they created to their heart's content.

Paint. Sometimes the kids just want to paint! And paint they did :)

Stamp markers. This was a simple art project, because we used the second half of the time using the art table to make our green eggs and ham for snack.

Small Manipulatives

Cookie sheets with small magnet builders

ABC lacing beads

Wikki Stix















ABC blocks (and yes, if you look at the box, these are straight from 1982 and still in great condition).
They actually really really liked these. I didn't expect that. I worked with them on beginning sounds and finding the block that matched the beginning sound of their figure. They also just liked hiding the figures from each other inside the blocks.




















Writing

ABC stickers

Stamps and ink pads

Snacks

The snacks were pretty typical this week, except we had cereal with milk one day. I didn't think it'd be a big deal, but they have asked if we're doing it again every day since.

On Dr. Seuss' birthday, we also made green eggs and ham. I let each child take a turn to crack an egg into the bowl. They did fairly well! I say fairly because some had more shells in the bowl than others :) It's hard to let little ones do this job, but they sure love doing it.They did great at remembering their color mixing, and referring to our color wheel, to know that we needed to add blue to our yellow eggs to make them green. I read Green Eggs and Ham to them as they ate. It was a detour from our friendship theme, but we couldn't skip this great holiday!

Also, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before. The kids really work together during snack and take turns being responsible to hand out hand sanitizer, napkins, and cups. And they also now pour their own drinks and pass the pitcher around the table. They're doing a great with this big responsibility. We've had some spills, but they're rare and it's how they learn.

Reading
We had friendship books out, but I also wanted to share our Dr. Seuss day reading center. They loved having the characters down to play with!

Large Group
So, free play doesn't have as many obvious ties to our theme as others have had. It was more just free play time, so in large group we really focused our learning on friendship skills. We learned the word Cooperation. We also learned Raffi's Sharing Song and sang and acted it out each day.

Day 1, we read Mr. Rogers' book Making Friends. It asks great, realistic questions, so it took longer than usual to read and discuss. We also watched  Sesame Street video clip about cooperation.

Day 2, we read the Mine-o-saur, which is about a dinosaur who wouldn't share. After this, I ended up reading the book every day, several times each day, in the reading center. They really think it's funny. We then sat in a circle and took turns role-playing how to enter play, and how to accept others into our group to play. We used blocks as the example, and showed how the more kids we had, the more we could build together (cooperation!)

Day 3, we read The Crayon Box that Talked. This is one of my very favorite books. I gave each child 1 crayon, and we worked together to draw a picture with all the colors, then talked about how each person is important and needed in our class.

Day 4, we read Wanted: Best Friend. They then wrote and drew in their journals about the things they like to do with their friends.

We also fit in some Daniel Tiger video clips about sharing and taking turns.

Small Group

Week 1, my group did more sharing role playing. We are working on asking if we want to use something, and also WAITING for that person to be done. I think that's the hardest part of sharing, and I'm constantly reminding them that waiting is part of sharing. I get told many times a day, that so-and-so is not sharing, when what they mean is, that person is not giving them the toy they want. I do want the person who has the toy to be aware that someone else wants it so they can give it to them when they're done, but not think they have to give it away right when someone asks for it. That's not really sharing. It was good to talk about and role play, and I keep bringing them back to this as it comes up.

Miss Kim played a counting game with them.

Week 2, our small groups focused on Dr. Seuss games since his birthday was this week. Miss Kim's group had Horton the Elephant counting cards, and attached links to his trunk to match the number.

My group learned rhyming words and played a memory game with counting words. We are also practicing tracing their names in my small group.

Feelings and Emotions

Dramatic Play
Doctor's Office



 
 
 

 
 The pictures pretty much explain it all. There was a waiting room, receptionist desk with calendar and notebooks, plus a phone, then the dr. office. There was a big chair for the big patients, and a baby bed for the dolls. We have all sorts of dr. tools, plus empty pill bottles, ace bandages, q tips, and popsicle sticks. Each day, I added something new to make it interesting. Day 2, I added glasses and band aids (those were a hit), and the 3rd and 4th days, I added dentist items so it could also be a dentist's office.

Blocks
Cardboard bricks


Puppet Theater


Art
I managed to not take many pics of art this week, but here's what we did:
 
Play dough face mats

Watercolors

Collage faces

Paint

Small Manipulatives
Feelings puzzles and game

Lacing cards

Bristle Blocks

Links, and whatever this collection of things from Wendy's are called.



















Writing
Blank faces for drawing in emotions


Outside
Snow! We switched our schedule to go outside last, to accommodate how long it takes us to get ready to go outside. The snow was so much fun! They love tubing down our little hill, and all tried it. They also love eating the snow. The second week, I also added bottles of colored water to color the snow. We've had a lot of fun outside this week! Please remember we go outside all winter, so pack all the winter clothes they'll need out there. We've had lots of cold hands this week. I have a few extra gloves, but not enough for everyone. And I've appreciated the labeled ones, since a few have been left at school and I've been able to get them home to you.

Large Group
Day 1, we read Meet the Moodsters. The Moodsters help a little boy overcome and talk about some strong feelings. I found it on clearance at Target a few years ago, and the kids love it because it came with a "Moodster Meter" that helps them share their feelings. They loved the book and the meter!
We did an activity with feelings cubes, where I would roll one cube with emotions on it, and another with animals, and they have to act out that emotion and animal. It's fun to watch.

Day 2, we read My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. He uses colors to talk about feelings. We than painted our own feelings. The papers came home just a bunch of mixed colors, but the process was wonderful! As they chose colors, they actually talked about what feeling they were showing with that color. We had a lot of great conversation going on as we painted.

Day 3, we read The Way I Feel. We played the feelings cube game, and acted out lots of different emotions from the book. We also watched a Sesame Street clip about jealousy.

Day 4, we read Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day and talked lots about grumpy feelings. After small group, we got together as a large group again to talk about empathy and thinking about how other people are feeling. We've had a few problems outside, with kids not taking turns with the snow tubes, or just jumping on them in front of other, instead of waiting in line. We watched a Sesame Street clip about empathy, then as we got them dressed in their snow clothes, they watched part of a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood episode about the same topic. It was nice to discuss a relevant topic, and we related that once outside, that they needed to think about how other people are feeling before they used a tube twice in a row, or butted in line, or took it from another person. The talk definitely helped!

Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are awesome resources for learning about feelings! I love how they describe and show them on a child's level. I especially like the songs Daniel Tiger sings. We used the song about anger all week, "When you feel so mad, that you want to roar. Take a deep breath, and count to 4." I recommend looking up episodes of both of these shows if there's a particular thing you want to teach your child, or help them with. It's most helpful when you also take the time to discuss it with them.

Small Group
Week 1, I talked to the kids about anger and sadness. We read a book about anger, then role played several situations that could make them feel angry. We practiced taking a deep breath and counting, then talking calmly to express our feelings. They were GREAT at role playing, and without much prompting, knew exactly how to express their feelings. Although, minutes later, they were fighting over blocks again and yelling, hitting, and throwing, instead of taking deep breaths and talking about it. But, that's why we're still in preschool. We'll keep working on this throughout the year.

Miss Kim did this Sesame Street worksheet to help kids talk about their feelings.

Week 2, my group and I role played different feelings with puppets in the puppet theater. I had it out in the block center this week for them to play with, so it wouldn't be new. I know they wouldn't be able to use it how I intended in a lesson, if they hadn't had a chance to play and explore with it first.
They were a lot of fun, and I loved role playing with them. Even the kids who don't like to talk in front of the class, were fine doing the puppet show. It was cute watching them choose an emotion and then act it out. It was also fun watching them doing it again during free time, after having done it with me.

Miss Kim helped the kids make pipe cleaner faces. She read an emotions book with them, and they would change their pipe cleaner to make that face expression. Then they glued on the mouth to bring their face home.