When Curious George gets a bicycle he goes on quite an adventure around town.

Materials

•             Newspapers or lots of scrap paper.
• Paper for origami boats, directions in book
•             Graph/no bicycle, 2 wheels, 3 wheels, 4 wheels
•             Clean metal coffee can with lid
•             Monkey drawing directions

Vocabulary

•             Curious (to wonder about things)
•             Celebrate (to honor someone for something special)
•             Delighted (to be very happy about something)
•             Fleet (a group of ships)
•             Admiral (the person in charge of a fleet of ships)
•             Responsible (to do the right thing, to do the safe thing)

Before Reading the Story

            Ask the children if any of them own bicycles.  What color is your bike?  Where do you ride it?  Make a graph of how many wheels are on the children’s bicycles and have the children help fill it in.  Talk to the children about bike safety rules (wear a helmet, do not ride in the street, make sure your shoes are tied, let a grown up know you are riding your bike, make sure your tires are blown up properly.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness if numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Reading the Story

            Stop along the way and ask was George being responsible, was George being safe?

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

After Reading the Story

            Go back over the story and list the things George did that were responsible/not responsible on a piece of paper. (Not responsible; riding with no helmet, riding with no hands, not finish delivering papers, going to the river, using the newspapers he was supposed to deliver for boats, going with strangers to be in the show, getting close to the ostrich,   /Responsible; helping deliver papers, staying on the bench when he was told to, using the bugle to call the men when the bear escaped, saving the bear, being in the show when he said he would).

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

Discovery

   Bring in a coffee can with the lid.  Let the children experiment putting different classroom toys inside to see and hear the effect they have on the cans ability to roll.       

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Music and Movement

            Play Peddle Round the Village, to tune of In and Out the Windows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LLGIeTuv8w  Have all the children hold hands and make a circle.  Hold their hands up while still holding hands.  Choose a child to be the first rider and have them go into the center of the circle.  As the children sing, the rider passes under the children’s arms.

Peddle round and round the village

Peddle round and round the village

Peddle round and round the village

Now go and pick a friend

(rider changes places with another child)

Language Development/Listening * Understanding; shows progress uin understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

            Play There Was A Funny Clown, sung to The Farmer in the Dell.  As you sing, let the children go in the center and do a funny trick (Children like to do somersaults to this song so make sure your circle is large enough that no one gets kicked in the face)

There was a funny clown

His/her name was Ting-a-ling

Watch him/her do a funny trick

In the circus ring.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status a & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness. AND Approches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

            Take the children on a pretend bike ride.  Have everyone lay on their backs and then put their feet up in the air and pretend to peddle their bicycles.  Remember going up hill is hard so you have to peddle slower.  Going down hill you will be peddling very fast or putting your feet out and gliding. 

Creative Arts/ Dramatic PLay; particiapates in a variery of dramatic play acticvities that become more extened and complex.

Blocks

Put out cars and other vehicles with wheels. Add a ramp, or show the children how to make a ramp using blocks. As the children are playing, ask “Why are wheels important? WHy are wheels round? What would happen if that car had square wheels? Which vehicle goes farther/faster down the ramp, why do you think that?”. Encourage the children to find classroom objects that will roll down the ramp (masking tape roll, sphere shaped blocks, pencil, crayon, small ball, etc.).

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, diffrences, anmd comparisons among objects and materials. AND Scienctific Knowledge; shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships.

 Art

       Tell the children that you want to make a book titles, On My Way to School. Ask the children to draw a picture of something that they saw on their way to school today.  Write their words at the bottom of the page. (On my way to school today I saw a big dog, a garbage truck, my friend Sam).

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community. AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, anad in play.

Library and Writing

     Make several copies of the How to Draw Curious George’s head. Give the children markers or crayons and encourage them to “read” the directions.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Sand and Water

            Ahead of time, make several newspaper boats. As the children are playing you can also help them make paper boats (the instructions are in the story). Fill the table with water today.  Let the children float their paper boats. Also include a float and sink activity (try floating objects from the room and predicting if it will float or sink-block, pencil, crayon, counter, lego, baby doll, puzzle piece). As the children try floating different objects, have them put those that float in one pile and those that do not into another pile.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety if means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Dramatic Play

            Add monkey masks.  The children can pretend to be Curious George.  Add a big hat or sombrero.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from book sand experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Math and Manipulatives

            Teach the children how to fold origami boats from paper.  See page 18 of the story.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Outdoor Play

            Bring out cloth satchels and ride the bikes.  Fill the satchels with old newspapers or just rolled up paper and be delivery boys/girls. Or have the children write notes to one another and take turns delivering on the bike.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND 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

            As the children move to the next activity have them pretend to ride a bike.  They will have to pick their legs way up in a marching fashion but then sort of kick them out in front of them as they walk.  Practice as a group and then let the children ride off to the next activity.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Resources