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.

Nursery Rhymes

Dramatic Play

Bakery

Nursery Rhymes: Pat-a-cake and Muffin Man













Blocks

ABC/123 foam floor puzzle


Old MacDonald Had a Farm farm toys


Old King Cole castle


1-2-3-4-5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive

These fishing poles are back by popular demand!


Art
Cotton ball sheep

Dot paints

Glue pasta stars and sequins




Paint with sponges


Small Manipulatives

Nursery Rhyme felt boards (switched out different stories each day)






3 Little Kittens Lost their Mittens


Nursery Rhyme puzzles




Nursery Rhyme sequencing


Magnet board: counting 1-10

Writing

Nursery Rhyme coloring pages

Snack
Day 1, we had muffins and read The Muffin Man

Day 2, we made and ate pudding, and read Georgie Porgie

Day 3, we ate boiled eggs and crackers for Humpty Dumpty

Day 4, we ate cottage cheese (curds and whey) and read Little Miss Muffet

Large Group

We learned a nursery rhyme ABC song. Our word of the week was rhyme.

Day 1, we read Mary had a little lamb, Little Bo Peep, and Little Miss Muffet and found the rhyming words. Then we worked together to complete rhyming puzzle wheels.

Day 2, We found more rhymes in London Bridge and Ring Around the Rosies, then sang and danced to those songs.

Day 3, we read Humpty Dumpty and did an egg-dropping experiment. The kids built a wall with blocks on the table and they cooperated so well together! We sang the nursery rhyme and I let the egg fall off the wall. We dropped the egg on wood blocks, the rug, and a pillow. They had guessed it would break on both the blocks and the rug, but it only broke on the blocks!




Day 4, we practiced numerals 1-10 and did counting nursery rhymes, 5 Little Piggies, 1 2 buckle my shoe, and 1 2 3 4 5 once I caught a fish alive.

Small Group

Week 1, My group worked on sequencing nursery rhymes.




The other group did a montessori activity, sweeping stars into a square shape.
  

Week 2, my group did twinkle twinkle little star and a small motor activity. They had papers with a star traced on them, and they used thumb tacks to prick holes along the star, so that when they held it up to light, they could see the tiny holes. It's just good fine motor practice.

The other group practiced tracing their names with dry erase markers.

4 Seasons

This post will be a little different, because it's easier to share what we did each day and how it pertained to that season, than it would be to post the different centers, like I usually do. Each day, we studied 1 of the 4 seasons. Here's what we did!

Fall

Dramatic Play: Pumpkin patch, apple tree, leaf raking


Blocks: 4 Seasons floor puzzle


Art: Fall-colored papers and fall foam stickers


Small Manipulatives: fall pattern cards


Writing: Scented twistables crayons

Large Group: we read about the 4 seasons and sang Round and Round the Seasons Go, and Leaves are Falling

Samll Group: My group played a game calling "Raking Rhymes" and practiced rhyming words, from here. The other group independently made contact paper leaf pictures.

Winter

Dramatic Play: Hot chocolate stand and snowball throwing


Blocks: ABC trains


Art: shaving cream and bears


Small Manipulatives: Snowman counting buttons, snowman building on the magnet board



Outside: It's March and snowed today, perfect for our theme! So we played in the snow and colored it with colored water squirters.

Large Group: we read A Snowy Day, then made snow pictures. We painted white with glitter on a blue paper, then added some Elmer's glue and Epsom salt on top to make it sparkly.

Small Group:
My group played snowflake racing. I had foam snowflakes spread on the ground with numbers 1-10 on them. I'd say a number, and they'd run to it.
The independent group was working on counting, and had to line up snowman cards in order 1-10, then count that many "snowballs" (cottonballs) by each one.

Spring

Dramatic Play: planting flowers in the sensory table


Blocks: ABC Easter eggs. Each eggs had the capital and lowercase letters, and had an item beginning with that letter inside.


Art: Spring sponge painting


Small Manipulatives: Spring ABC cards and flat marbles from here, Easter bunny and flowers on magnet board



Writing: Easter stickers


Large Group: we read the ABCs of Spring, then went outside searching for signs of Spring.

Small Group: we split into 3 activities, and rotated. One made popcorn blossoms for our tree, another made bird nests for our tree, and the third played a counting game by counting "eggs" into nests with numbers, from here.

Summer

Dramatic Play: a summer beach, with ocean animals and sand with shells. I think 90% of the kids played here the WHOLE time.






Blocks: ABC blocks

Art: marble painting. We've done it in trays this year, where they roll the marbles. Today, we put the papers in old oatmeal containers for them to roll and shake the marbles around. Messy and fun!


Small Manipulatives: horse clothespin matching


Large Group: we read An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell, then made lacing suns. They used a yellow paper plate with holes punched around it, and a yellow piece of yarn tied to it. They could lace around the sides, or across the middle for a cool design, or both.

As they finished their suns, they made a 4 Seasons book. They had to practice cutting a circle, then place the season picture on the right page. Then they got to draw their favorite season.