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.

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.