Dramatic Play
Medieval Castle
Filled with dress-ups fit for a queen. Or princess, king, prince, knight, dragon, or magician.
And a modern kitchen with a microwave, because they gotta eat, and the kids keep asking when they can play with the kitchen again. It was played with constantly! At one point, a castle full of princesses defended their castle with a banana, whisk, and grapes from a horde of attacking dragons, so I'm sure they're grateful it was there!
Week 2, Jack's beanstalk was added after we'd read that story.
Blocks
Toy castle with fingerpuppets
Jack and the Beanstalk figures and story cards were added to the castle.
Can I just share one of my biggest teaching regrets that comes around every time I pull out my Jack and the Beanstalk box? I bought this at a UEA conference over a decade ago. There were a whole bunch, all marked down. I couldn't afford much and was getting some other puzzles and dominoes kits I love, so I only bought the one. I don't remember getting to use it while teaching Kindergarten, so I didn't see it's value then either. The kids LOVE it! Every year I pull it out, they go crazy for it. We use it together in large group, but I have to have it out to play because they love it so much. They love retelling the story and acting it all out with these little wooden figures. And the CD and story cards are so great at telling the story and helping us sequence it. I decided a few years ago to go to their website and get other stories and I was shocked at how expensive they are! So I just continue to be grateful for the one I have, and covet the others on their site. If you want them for your kids, or you're a teacher visiting the site, you can find them here.
I also had out nursery rhyme puzzles and a Frozen memory game. The memory game was a big hit, and I helped get them into small groups to play and they did great at taking turns and getting along. I was impressed!
Art
Glitter glue! So much better than the loose stuff, and such a good small motor skill to squeeze those little bottles!
Paint stamps
Sequins and sparkles! I love how it even shines in the pictures. Sparkly pom poms too, plus leftover glitter glue.
We also used the art table one morning to make our gingerbread men snack. They made the dough, and rolled and cut out the cookies. Then played play dough, and I added a Princess Sofia and Cinderella play doh toys. They shared and played impressively well with those!
Small Manipulatives
Gingerbread Man floor puzzle
Fairy lacing cards
Opposites puzzle (after we'd done it in small group)
And by popular demand, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears mini-dramatic play set up. They loved acting it out so much, they begged to do it again. So it was out for free play time when they came back the next day, and they played it over and over and over. I loved hearing them retell the story again and again and tell each other the lines "my porridge is too hot!" etc. It was darling. And such great reading comprehension!!!
The magnet board had the alphabet and a pic for each beginning sound.
Writing table
"Magic" color changing markers
Fairy tale stickers
Striped markers
Snack
Day 1, we made, decorated, and ate gingerbread men, and decorated an extra to take home. We also read the story that day.
Day 3, we ate porridge to go along with our reading of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Most of them really liked it! My family eats it for breakfast regularly. I don't think it's even technically called porridge, but thanks to preschool, it's what all my kids call it! We use this:
Large Group
We learned the word "pretend" and determined with each
story we read, if it was real or pretend. And that fairy tales are pretend stories. Because pigs don't build houses and bears don't eat porridge! They loved pointing out those silly things in each story.
We also learned the song, The Knight Chased the Dragon. It's to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel."
All around the castle, the knight chased the dragon.
The dragon said it was so fun, pop goes the dragon!
We held hands and danced in a circle as we sang, slowly, then faster and faster. They loved it.
Day 1, we read The Gingerbread Man, then did the floor puzzle together.
Day 2, we read Jack and the Beanstalk and put the story cards in order, and listened to the song and acted it out with the wood figures.
Day 3, we read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, then used the masks and props to act out the story a few times so everyone got a turn.
Day 4, we read the 3 Little Pigs and put story cards in order of the story. Then they each got pieces from a sequencing puzzle to put together, first-middle-last. Each child got to "read" their story by telling what happened in their puzzle first, next, then last. They did so so great!
Week 1, my group read The Tortoise and the Hare and talked about the opposites in the story (fast and slow). Then we matched these opposites puzzles and took turns telling what our opposites were.
The other group made these cute sticker scenes.
Week 2, my group decorated crowns and I helped each child review the letters in their name, and add their name to their crown with letter stickers.
The other group played with my math counting bears.
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