Archibald’s Opposites, by Phil Vischer

This little story helps teach the concepts of opposites in a fun and silly way.

Materials

Opposite cards
Templates for basket, cucumber, and tomato
Roll of aluminum foil
Black and white paper

Vocabulary

Absurd (so crazy it doesn’t even make sense)
Opposites (two things that are totally different)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they have ever heard the word opposites? Ask them to explain to you what it means. Give them the definition of opposites and ask if they can think of any. If they can not or they have finished doing so, introduce the book and say that this story will help us understand opposites better.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Reading the Story

As you read, pause on each page to see if the children can name the opposite. After you have read the page say, “____ and ____ are opposites. Have the children repeat.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

After Reading the Story

Make a set of the opposite cards. Give each child a card from half the set. Hold up a card from the second set and see if the children can figure out who has the opposite.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spacial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Discovery

Show the children pictures of two objects/items. Ask the children to help you make a list of how they are alike/how they are different. (try bringing in a picture of a dog and a horse, a chair and a crate, bird and an insect, a worm and a snake)

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Music and Movement

Teach the children Everything I Always Say, to chorus of Pop Goes the Weasel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWGp9rsKuEU

Everything I always say,

You always say the opposite.

When I say open,

You say (closed).

(Continue with opposites that you and the children have been working on.)

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spacial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Sing the King of York and stand up and squat down as the song goes along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWWNFB8grkw

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Blocks

Challenge the children to build a pattern with the blocks using large and small blocks.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials.

Art

Cut out a 12 inch sheet of aluminum foil. Put out a variety of shapes cut from only black and white paper. Encourage the children to collage onto the foil.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Library and Writing

Make tracing templates out of a manila file folder for the basket, cucumber, and tomato. Have the children trace them and cut them out. Assemble the basket. Ask the children to glue one of the vegetables inside the basket and one outside the basket. Have them tell you which is in and which is out. Write it on the basket. (The tomato is in the basket, the cucumber is outside the basket).

Physical Health & development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Sand and water

Put sand in the table today. Make 56 1 inch cards from a manila file. Write a set of capital alphabet letters and a set of lower case alphabet letters. Mix them up into the sand and see if the children can match the upper and lower case letters as they dig through the sand.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to act out or make opposites while playing in the center today. (I can sit and I can stand, I put all the food in the fridge, I took all the food out of the fridge).

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Math and Manipulatives

Use counters with the children. Put 3 bears on the table. Ask the child if he can show you more. Ask her if she can show you less. Take a handful and have the child take a handful, can the child tell you who has more and less? Sort the bears by color, does one color have more or less than the other?

Mathematics/Number & Operation; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

Outdoor Play

Draw several large shapes on the sidewalk. Give the children bean bags and call out a shape. The child sees if he can throw his bean bag to land inside the shape.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, and using the slide and swing.

Transitions

The teacher says an opposite word and the child tries to name the correct response. In-Out, Under-Over, etc..

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Dear Parent- today we talked about opposites. This can be a confusing concept for young children but you can help by making a game out of it. Give your child a simple word/concept and ask them if they can think of the opposite. Some that we use in school are day-night, up-down, in front-behind, tall-short, young-old, near-far, and happy-sad.