This is a book that honors the planet earth by telling about her unending cycles.  It is a nice story to read to help answer some of your children’s why questions about nature.

Materials

•  Several shirt boxes and small balls or marbles.
• Strong flashlight
• Blue food coloring
• Several clean cans with holes poked in the bottom (to allow water to flow through)
• Pictures of day and night

Vocabulary

• Break on the sand (crash to the shore)
• Cycle (repeating a process over and over).

Before Reading the Story

Bring in pictures of day and night. Hold them up one at a time and ask the children to tell you what time of day it is.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to the attributes of time and temperature.

Reading the Story

On the page where the boy is playing with his friend and they drink lemonade on the porch, ask the children if they can guess what time of year it is. What are some other things you do in the summer?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to the attributes of time and temperature.

As you continue reading the book, allow the children to add any information they may have that goes along with each page.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

After Reading the Story

            Talk about what season you are in currently and then move forward from there talking about the next season and changes that will occur. Allow the children to add any information that they may have.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Discovery

            This experiment will have to be done on a sunny day.  Ahead of time you will have to cut each child’s letters to their name out of paper.  Have the child then tape these to a piece of dark construction paper.  These are laid out in the bright sun for 2 days.  After 2 good days of lying in the bright sun, bring them inside and have the children carefully peel the letters off of the construction paper. The paper will have faded from the sun and their name will appear. Or if your center has a budget, purchase Light Sensitive Paper https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/store/sun-sensitive-paper.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr4vXpsSe7AIViInICh0WRAsSEAAYASAAEgIQ_vD_BwE

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shape and sound.

Music and Movement

If you have a rainstick, let the children experiment making rain sounds. Add other instruments and encourage the children to make a rain storm by starting softly and then getting louder and louder then softer and softer again.

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

Put on some music and dance like the wind. Can you twirl around, blow low to the floor? Be a tree and let your branches/arms gently sway in the breeze.

Creative Arts/Movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various musical tempos and styles.

Have the children sit in a circle. Explain to them that you are going to play day and night. The teacher stands in the center of the circle with a bright flashlight and slowly turns around. Remind the children that the mother in the book talked about how when one part of the world is in daylight, the other half is in darkness or night. Explain that when the sun/flashlight is shining you are awake, it is day. When the sun/flashlight is not shining you are asleep, it is night. Have the children pretend to be asleep and awake depending upon if the flashlight is shining on them.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to the attributes of time and temperature.

Blocks

            Add natural elements from your area to the center.  Place out a basket with acorns, sticks, sweet gum balls, pinecones, marsh grass, seed pods, etc..

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Art

            Cut out blue circles that are able to fit in the bottom of the shirt box.  Put a marble in a small cup of green paint with a spoon.  The child can scoop the marble out and put it on his blue circle/earth and marble paint across it by rocking the box back and forth.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Library and Writing

Give the children black construction paper and white colored pencils or chalk to practice writing their names. Hang them on the wall for everyone to see how hard they are working on their letters.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name.

Sand and Water

Add some blue food coloring to the water today. Ask the children if they can make waves, remind them the water needs to stay in the water table! Add cleaned cans with holes poked in the bottom (using a nail) to make rain.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Dramatic Play

            Put out dramatic play clothes that represent the season you are in and the one that follows (spring; sweater, boots/summer; bathing suit, floppy hat/ fall; sweater, backpack /winter; boots, mittens).

Creative Arts/Dramatic PLay; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.  AND    Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to the attributes of time and temperature.

Math and Manipulatives

Use a variety of sequencing cards for the children to sort and put in order.

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

Outdoor Play

Hang wind chimes on your playground. When they chime, remind the children that it is the wind moving that causes the sound. Bring out scarves and let the children run flapping them in the wind. Bring out bubble solution and watch which way the bubbles blow. Look at the clouds, which way is the wind blowing them?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Transitions

            Talk about how your routine/schedule is also like a cycle, it goes from beginning to end and starts over again.  First we do ____, then we do _____.  After our lunch we _______. If you have a visual schedule, let the children take turns pointing out what you do during each part of your routine.

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

Resources