Laurie Jacoby and Nicki Taves Merrill Area Public Schools Head Start/Early Childhood Program Block area- Print off pictures of different kinds of planes and have the children predict the number of blocks it will take to build a plane. When done building have the children count the number of blocks they used. Dramatic Play- Make an airplane out of cardboard box Seat Ticket Have children count to have the plane take off Give children a number card and have them be the flight attendant as they find that many people or animals to seat on the plane 1
Writing- Make ticket Have number stamps to assign others when they go on the plane. License plate rubbings to make the plane s license plate or number Art- Use different shape objects to have the children make airplanes. Talk about the different shapes that it would take to build a plane. Make airplanes out of popsicle sticks, count how many sticks it took to build them. Compare the sizes of different airplanes. Table toys- Use geo blocks and have the children match up the different shapes to build airplanes. Talk about the shapes you used. Print off pictures of airplanes with numbers on them have the children count out that many people or teddy bears to ride in the plane. Or use planes with no numbers and have them make patterns on the plane. Library - Zoom, zoom, zoom song with flannel board Sensory- Airplanes, helicopters, trucks and have the children sort them by the kinds of transportation. Science/discovery- Sort different sizes and textures of wheels 2
Blocks Tape pictures of the different items that the little old lady eats onto different shape blocks. The children can then use those different shape blocks to build the scarecrow. Children can count the number of objects it took to build the scarecrow. You can make a couple different sets on different size blocks and they can measure how big their scarecrow is to help identify different sizes. Dramatic Play- Laminate leaves or leaf pictures so children can use them as food. They can pretend that they swallowed leaves and count how many they ate. Put other nature items in that they can use for food like pine cones and wood cookies. Children can talk about what kind of animals eat those kinds of food. Writing- Make a number dice/item key and have dice for the children to roll. When they roll a number they have to draw that item until they complete a scarecrow. Art- Print off a picture of a scarecrow with numbers on it. Have the children decorate the scarecrow in number order with art materials that resemble the piece of the scarecrow. Table Toys- Put the little old lady head cut out on a box and have picture cards of the different items she eats with numbers on the back. The children can feed the little old lady the cards in number order while retelling the story. Library- Sequencing cards for children to retell the story. Put numbers on the cards to help children identify numbers along with order. Sensory- Put leaves in the sensory table for the children to sort by color, size and shape. Put a large piece of paper in the area too so the children can graph the leaves and find out what kind they have more of. Science/discovery- Put different size pumpkins in the science area for the children to compare and weight. Put numbers on the bottom of an egg carton so the children can practice counting pumpkin seeds to different quantities. 3
Blocks Have habitat pictures, and animals for the story The Mitten. Children can build the habitats and sort the animals into the different habitats. After making habitats put number cards inside of them and have the children find that many animals to put in the habitat. Tape animal pictures onto Lego blocks so children can make animal patterns. Dramatic play Put a big sheet and the masks to all of the mitten characters in this center. The children can act out the story in order and count how many animals are inside the mitten. You also can put a tape measure in the area so they can measure the mitten and how much it is growing. Writing- Counting snowflakes Mitten graph Mitten tally marks Art- Mitten Graph - Give each student a large mitten on white paper. Have the students color the mitten with their favorite color and then cut-out the mitten. Make a giant graph out of the colored mittens. Generate questions and statements based on the graph. "How many students like red mittens?" Table Toys- Make an animal color code and put them in with your color connect blocks. Then make animal pattern cards. The children can then use them to make patterns. Library- Put stuffed animals from the mitten and a couple pairs of mittens in the library center. Show the children how to measure the animals with the mitten. Which ones are smaller and bigger. Then have the children put the animals in order from biggest to smallest. 4
Outside catch snowflakes on a black mitten. Compare shapes and sizes of the snowflakes. Talk about how all snowflakes have 6 sides. Sensory- Have children wash mittens and hang them up to dry. Children can count how many mittens they have, pair up the matching mittens. You also could put number on the mittens and they could hang them on the line in order. Science/discovery- Blocks- Trace each child's foot and cut them out and tape them on the floor in the block area. Encourage the children to measure the foot prints with different kinds of blocks. Compare the foot prints and their sizes. Dramatic Play- Put a restaurant area up in the dramatic play center. Put a fish tank with different shaped paper fish with numbers on them in the tank. Give the children fishing poles and they can fish for the fish that they are going to serve. Writing- Give children a large rectangle piece of paper and a ruler so they can measure and draw straight lines to make a patterned Dr. Seuss hat. For the book, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, you can put paper towel, markers, water and paint brushes in the writing center for the children to practice drawing shapes then paint with water over the top of them so they look like the pictures in the book. 5
Art- Use colored gold fish and graph them by color. Count how many of each color you have. Use them to make patterns. Head band strips and artificial flowers. Encourage children to make patterns with flowers around the headband then they can wear their Maisy Headbands. Table Toys- Take different colored paper fish or toy fish and a one or two dice and have the children role the dice and put that many fish in a picture of a fish tank. You then can ask them to count how many different colors l they have in the tank and how many of each color. Hop on Pop game Library- Make different Dr. Seuss items on a magnet board in the library area for children to sort and pattern. Sensory- Follow recipe to make Oobleck. Apples in the sand or water table with toothpicks for the children to stick together to see how many they can get to stay on top of each other. Science/discovery- Put bubble wrap in the center and encourage the children to count how many bubbles they pop. Read the book, The Tooth Book, and put a mirror in the center for children to count their teeth 6
Blocks- Put different size caterpillars in the block area. Trace the caterpillars and tape the picture onto some blocks. Have the children match the caterpillar to the right block. Have the children measure the caterpillar with different items in the classroom. Dramatic Play- Have a restaurant area in the dramatic play center with all the food that the caterpillar ate. Make a pocket chart that holds tickets with all the different foods that the caterpillar ate on top. When the children order food, make them put a name marker in the pocket under that food. Put the game Elefun in the area. Have the children count and sort the butterflies that they catch. If you don t have this game you can make butterflies out of construction paper and just through them up in the air and have the children catch them in nets. Writing- Play roll a caterpillar Art- Have piece of paper with caterpillar heads and a number on them. Children use bingo dabbers to the make that many circles behind the caterpillar. Table Toys- Hungry caterpillar True or False counting game Play the game Cooties. Children get to count how many body parts they need to put on after rolling a dice. Shape pictures. Children add shape block to complete the picture. This works on one to one correspondence, shape identification, and size recognition. Library- Put a sock puppet and felt cut outs of the different foods that the caterpillar ate in the library center. The children can retell the story and feed the caterpillar. They can talk about how he is growing and why. Sensory- Put different size caterpillars and different size leaves inside the sand or water table. Let children sort them by size, and order them by size. Put all the different kinds of (pretend) food that the caterpillar ate in the sensory table with washcloths or sponges. Let the children decide what foods we wash before eating them. Science/discovery- Pictures of all of the different foods that the caterpillar ate for the children to sort in different ways (healthy, unhealthy, fruits, color) Children can graph and count. 7
Blocks- Talk about what hibernation means. Make a cave or a den out of different blocks, talk about the shapes. Predict how many bears it will take to fill the den. How many bears did it take to fill the den. Then as a group, count it. Count how many blocks it took to make the den. Dramatic Art area- Have three bowls, small, medium and large. Talk about each size and put in order. Put small food in small bowl, medium food in medium bowl, large food in large bowl. How many pieces of an item will fill a bowl? Count and compare with other bowls. Put numbers on bowls and put that many food items on it. Sensory- How many scoops of oatmeal will it take to fill a small bowl? Do the same for medium and large and compare. Put a scale in to measure the oatmeal or the bears. Put items that are hard and soft in sensory table. Have kids sort by hard and soft then count. Which has more and less. Put colored counting bears in the sensory table, sort by size or color then count. Playdough- Create a picture of a chair with no legs on it and laminate it to use as a playdough mat. Have the children make legs on chair and count them. Put a brown circle on a piece of paper and laminate it for a playdough mat. Let the children make eyes, ears and a nose nose of different shapes on bear playdough mat. With person playdough mat, make Goldilocks hair out of playdough snakes. Count how many made, make them into patterns. 8
Art- Make a bear out of different shapes. Using toilet tubes and other material, make trees for a forest to retell the story. Talk about a cylinder. How many tubes did it take to make a tree? Family house project. Graph the results of the project. Use bear foot print stamps to order by size, or make patterns out of. Use track snowshoes, have the children step in paint and make a foot print, then make the child's foot print. Use different classroom objects measure the feet and compare the similarities and differences. Table top toys- Make patterns or follow pattern cards with colored bears. Make a numbered race tracks with as many lanes as you would like to and use little bowls as your markers for a porridge race. Have the children roll a dice and move their bowl of porridge that many spaces. Or have a big chart and move the kids pretending to be the bears or Goldilocks and they can move their body the number of spaces that they roll. Goldilocks and Three Bears puzzle Three sizes of porridge, beds and chairs put in order from biggest to smallest. Sheets with different size houses and bear counters for kids to sort. Gross movement- Use large footprint print stamps to make bear tracks across a large piece of. Count the bear tracks. Have children make their own tracks, compare them to the bear tracks put feet and bear tracks in order from biggest to smallest. Can also measure them with string. Other: Read Going on a bear Hunt or Do Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn around do positional words with students. Read different versions of the stories and vote on favorite, then read that story. Follow the recipe to make porridge make a graph. Do you like Porridge? Yes or No? Have children help count out 10 gummy bears then sort them by color. Then graph the color. 9
Blocks: Use sponges or cardboard brick boxes to make a wall. When building wall you can make patterns. Make number cards and have children draw a number and make a wall out of that many blocks. For instance pull out a card with 3 on it. Make a wall with 3 do the same with 4 and 5 kids compare and talk about how their walls are the same and different. Make a wall with blocks and measure how many Humpty Dumpty tall it is. Science: Put objects in plastic eggs. Have kids predict what is inside of the egg. Then show. Make a matching game out of the eggs. Make two eggs with the same item in them and see if the children can match them by sound or weight. Dramatic Play- Put plastic eggs in egg carton with numbers on bottom of the carton and on the egg match the eggs to carton as they are pretending to cook. Cooking! Follow the recipe to make Humpty Dumpty Number Identification and shapes. Table top toys. Use persistence skills to put together a puzzle of Humpty Dumpty 10
Problem solving and creative thinking skills. What are some ways to fix Humpty dumpty. With different color sponges, cardboard brick blocks and wooden blocks, have kids make Humpty Dumpty s wall. What are ways you can teach math while children are playing with these materials in the block center? Look at dff different pictures of walls such as stone wall, brick, wood Have kids use like material to make a wall. Compare to see which one is heavier, lighter, bigger, smaller. How many of each material it took to make the wall. With wall made out of duplo blocks or other material have humpty dumpty go behind, between, in front of and other positional words. 11