Dr. Seuss

Dramatic Play

Dr. Seuss Land

Truffula trees, decor, and stuffed animals and books. It was pretty open for the kids to interpret and play as they wanted, and they had fun! There were often animals and things in the blocks that wandered over to this forest. They also loved the Dr. Seuss stuffed characters.

Blocks

If I Ran a Zoo, Dr Seuss' Book of Animals and toy animals


McElligot's Pool and 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and fishing poles


Dr. Seuss' ABCs and ABC blocks


What Pet Should I Get? and pets (forgot a pic)

Art

Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and oobleck! (cornstarch and water)


Marble painting
They dropped the marbles onto the papers and rolled the marbles around in the tray.


Baking soda tray with colored vinegar and eye droppers. Fun science activity, and great fine motor skills with the eye droppers!


Glue and pom-poms

Small Manipulatives

Hat Matching, Cat in the Hat


Wikki stix


Circus puzzle, If I Ran the Circus


Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton counting links




Writing

Dr Seuss stickers, these were a hit!


Dr Seuss stamps


Reading Center


Snack

Cat in the Hat fruit kabobs (bananas and strawberries). They had fun making them and worked on their patterns, and strengthened small motor skills.

Colored goldfish, sorting and counting (1 Fish 2 Fish)

Green Eggs and Ham


Large Group

We learned the words author and illustrator.

Day 1, we read Cat in the Hat and painted our own hats, practicing patterns.

Day 2, we read Horton Hears a Who, and sorted pom-poms balls by color and size.

Day 3, we read My Many Colored Days and did an art project. I traced a person onto contact paper, then they got to stick colored tissue paper squares onto it.

Day 4, we played rhyming bingo to practice rhymes.

Small Group

Week 1, my group played rhyming memory.
The other group practiced counting with the Horton counting links.

Week 2, my group read Wocket in my Pocket, then made up funny rhymes in our journals and illustrated them.
The other group played with the pattern blocks pattern cards and made patterns.

Friendship and Valentines

Dramatic Play

We had a Post Office for sending valentines and letters to our friends. The kids loved this dramatic play center! I had to explain a lot about what a Post Office is, since many haven't been or don't remember it, and they caught on quickly. They loved working there and could use the phone, computer, or cash register, plus they got to stamp the letters coming through. They also had to collect the mail from the big mailbox and deliver it to mailboxes around the room.
They loved stuffing envelopes and adding stamps and sending them in the mail. They really enjoyed this center!

I added Valentines to the shelf on week 2:






  



Blocks

Puppet theater




Dinosaurs with the book, Mine-o-saur

Valentine beanbag toss game


Art

Paint with colored sweetened condensed milk



Foamie ABCs and glue


Valentines boxes

Rolling and stamping out sugar cookies for snack, then playing with pink play dough.

Small Manipulatives

Bears and pattern cards


People floor puzzle and lacing beads


Valentines flat marble pages


Small 12-piece puzzles

Magnet board:

Pattern block puzzles


Valentine 1-10 puzzle


Reading


Writing

Colored pencils

Valentine stickers

Valentines

Large Group

We learned the word cooperate this week. They caught on quickly and used it constantly throughout the day to point out whenever they were or weren't cooperating.
We learned a song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, "Before you take something away, stop and ask if it's ok." We watched a clip the first day, then listened to and sang the song the other 3 days. We also sang Daniel Tiger's song about taking turns "you can take a turn, and then I'll get it back."

Here are some great topical friendship episodes or clips. The one we watched isn't on YouTube yet, but we watched it off the PBS Kids app.

This was a snowy week so we had to get fully dressed in snow clothes to head outside. They were totally bummed about only watching short clips of Daniel Tiger, so I actually used it to help us get ready to go. I turned it on, then would help 2 kids at a time get their snow clothes on while the others watched. We were able to get all 8 dressed and ready to go without chaos, in a 13 minute video clip! I rarely have any screen time at school, but was relieved to find episodes about friendship that tied into the theme, and helped us to get ready to go outside with less chaos than usual.

Day 1, we watched a Sesame Street clip to learn about cooperation. Then we read I Can Cooperate. We made patterns with little people. Then I put them with partners, and they had to cooperate to make a pattern together.

Day 2, We read the Mine-o-saur, which is about a dinosaur who takes all the toys, and then has no one left to play with. We role-played sharing. We practiced asking for something we want instead of just taking it away, as well as answering "yes, I'm done" or "I'm not done yet. I'll give it to you when I'm done." We also role played taking turns.

Day 3, we read a book about friendship by Mr. Rogers and they had so many comments and questions about it! Then we played Valentines Bingo.

Day 4, we split into 2 groups. My group sorted and graphed Sweethearts candies. I had a mom volunteer and she helped her group gather valentines that the kids mailed to you. After playing post office all week, they were pretty excited to add a real stamp and have it go to their houses. They all wanted to see what kind of stamp the post office would put on it.


Small Group

Week 1, my group worked on a beginning sounds puzzle, and we practiced taking turns getting pieces to match.
The other group worked on lacing cards.

Week 2, my group extended and made patterns with conversation hearts.
The other group drew their friends in their journals.


Happy Valentines Day! Love, Miss Lisa!

Polar Animals

Dramatic Play

Week 1, Antarctica Expedition
One of the objectives of this unit is to learn that penguins live in Antarctica, the South Pole, and polar bears live in the Arctic, the North Pole. As well as identify other animals that live at either, or both, of those poles. So our first week was everything South Pole.






We had our tent for the scientists with pictures of scientists working in Antarctica. They had notebooks, pencils, maps, binoculars, and magnifying glasses. Outside the tent, they could find animal pictures and toy animals.




Week 2, the tent became a polar bear cave. The pictures and animal toys switched to those that can be found in the Arctic.








The kids loved both centers, and switching up the animals halfway through definitely made the center more exciting the second week.

Blocks

Foam animal ABCs


Bristle blocks
(forgot a pic)

ABC blocks


Fishing poles and numbered fish


We also had different puzzles and surprisingly, they really liked the 2 with world maps on them.

Art

Fake snow and polar animals. They always love watching the snow grow when I add water. This group of kids is not nearly as into sensory experiences as past groups I've taught, where they fought over these 6 spots. Several of the kids wouldn't even touch it, while some felt it, then moved on. I've never taught a group like this! The half that liked it, really liked it, and played here most of the day.

before water


after water


"Snow" paint made from shaving cream, glue, and glitter. It's so fun and fluffy to paint with, and really soft to touch when it dries!


Paint!


Shaving cream and bears. Another hit with past classes, but some kids didn't even dare touch it, and were surprised I'd let them smear it all over the table! After I joined in with a few kids, a few of the reticent ones came over, but some others wouldn't even consider putting their hands in this.


For reference, this is how my sensory-loving kids do shaving cream on a table!


Small Manipulatives

Magnetic writing boards


ABC beads

Bunch-ems


Counting books with magnetic numbers


Listening Center: Polar Animal books


Magnet board: ABCs and beginning sound sorting


Writing

Colored pens

Penguin stickers


Polar animal stickers


Large Group

We learned the word Antarctica the first week, and Arctic the second week. We also learned the song, Penguins on Parade.

Day 1, we read the book, Polar Animals, which is about penguins in Antarctica. It also talked about the scientists who go there. Then, we sorted animal toys by North Pole (Arctic) and South Pole (Antarctica), using an animal map to help us.


Day 2, we read Little Penguin and learned how penguin parents care for their eggs and babies. We tried to be penguin parents by carrying an egg on our feet. The toy eggs rolled off easily, so we did beanbags too. We learned our feet aren't like a penguin so it's hard for us, but we waddled and passed beanbags back and forth with our feet.

Day 3, we read The Three Snow Bears and compared it to the fairy tale The Three Little Bears that we'd read weeks earlier. Then we went fishing for toy fish with numbers on them. We placed the fish in order 1-10. Then they got cards with a number of objects on them to count, and match to the numeral. They liked it so much, it was the block center the next day!

Day 4, we read The Snow Bear. We sorted our polar animals by their beginning sound. They are doing so so well at hearing the beginning sound in words and isolating it!


Small Group

Week 1, my group copied, extended, and made patterns with the pattern bears. Then, they cut out winter pattern pictures to glue on and extend winter patterns.
The other group worked on number puzzles.

Week 2, my group played a number game with dice. Each child had their own die and would roll it,  and count the dots, then place an "ice chunk" on the matching numeral on their paper.
The other group made patterns with the counting bears and bear pattern cards.