Anyone who has watched Sesame Street will probably recognize this song story.  If you know the tune, please sing it to your children and definitely teach them the chorus!

(This would be a good book to use if you do have a student with a disability or disfigurement and you notice that other students are not playing or interacting with that student because they are different).

Materials

• A globe or map of the world
• A map of your state or county

Vocabulary

• Alike (to be similar or to be the same)
• Different (to not be similar or not be the same)
• Unique (one of a kind)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what it means to be unique? Help the children talk about some ways that they feel they are unique. (I am the only brother in my family, I have longer eyelashes than my friend Koko, I am the only one here with the name Michael).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

            Ask two children; a boy and a girl (works best with more outgoing children) to come up to the front of the group.  Tell the children that today you want to talk about same and different.  Ask the children in the group to help name ways that the two children are different (he’s a boy and she’s a girl, she’s got a pony tail).  Now ask them to name ways that they are both alike (they got eyes, they are both wearing shorts, they both have a baby sister) Explain to the children that everyone is different but also alike.

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

Reading the Story

Learn the tune  or use  the youtube song as you turn the pages to the book.

After reading the Story

            Pull out your world map/globe and show the children where you live on it. Now see if you can find France, Texas, Mecca, and Peru. Point out the mountains and the ocean. Remind the children that people live all over the world. Their houses and clothes might look different but inside people all are the same; they need love, friendship, and food and water.  If you have a more localized map, show the children where the school is located on it.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in contexts of the classroom, home, and community.

Discovery

            Bring in real pictures of people from around the world and how they live.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; progresses in understanding similarities and respecting differences among people such as genders, race, special needs, culture, language, and family structures.

Music and Movement

            Teach the children the chorus of the song/book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezAwndQ5FRs

We all sing in the same voice, the same song, the same voice.

We all sing with the same voice,

And we sing in harmony!

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

            Sing The More We Get Together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJS_xckWY0

The more we get together, together, together, together

The more we get together the happier we’ll be

Cause your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends

The more we get together the happier we’ll be

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

            Put on music from around the world and add the instruments for the children to join in..

Creative Arts/Music; experiments with a variety of musical instruments.

Blocks

            Add people to the block center today.  Talk to the children about the kinds of homes they live in. Is it an apartment or single family home? Does it have one bathroom or more? Do you share a room with your sibling/s or do you have a room all by yourself? Challenge the children to build a house like theirs.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; demonstrates increasing ability to set goals and develop follow through on plans.

Art

            Draw self portraits.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Library and Writing

            Ask the children to help you make a list of rules about being a friend.  Write all their ideas down.  You can make a book about this by having the children illustrate the pictures, or taking pictures of your children following their rules?  Entitle it, How to be a Friend.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem-Solving; develops increasing ability to sind more that one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Sand and Water

Put water in the table today with boats that float and small bear counters. Tell the children that some people live in houseboats on the water. Ask them if they think they would like to live on a boat, why or why not?

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Dramatic play

            Put out any multicultural and fancy dress-up clothing you may have.  Scarves work well for skirts, saris, turbans, and capes. Add any books or pictures of people from around the world. Use your globe or map to show the children where the individuals live.

Social & Emotional/Knowledge of Families & Communities; progresses in understanding similarities and respecting differences among people such as genders, race, special needs, culture, language, and family structures.

Math and Manipulatives

       Use pictures of children from different cultures to make a memory game. Make 2 sets of each picture. Turn the cards upside down and the children take turns trying to match sets.

Physical Health & Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being over directive or submissive.

Outdoor Play

            Play Categories with the children.  Think of a category such as breakfast foods, animals that live on farms, clothes that we wear.  The children must name something in the category and can not repeat something already named.  If they do, then start a new category.  This is fun if you have a slide or climber where the children must answer before they slide or go up the climber.

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

Transitions

            As the children are going to the next activity, call on two of them with an opinion question.  (Kerry and Roger do you like spaghetti?  Then point out if they are alike or different.  “They are the same, they both like spaghetti!”  “They are different because Roger likes spaghetti but Kerry does not”).  Use the words either alike or different with each set of children.

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

Resources

Dear Parent-

            We spent some time today looking at a map to see where our state and town are.  Get out a local map with your child and show them the street that you live on.  Or go to Google Map and see if you can find your house.  Talk to your child about your address.  Show them where the numbers are located on your house or mailbox.