This is a book to teach children about fruit, especially pears.  Pamela the cow just can’t seem to get enough pears.  This is a fun book to help the children try to problem solve how to stop Pamela from eating all the pears!

Materials

•  Several pears and a plastic knife to cut.
•  Pretty bowl
• Bag of pom poms, several tongs/tweezers, and bowls
• Several Place setting pictures with parts cut out separately
• Model for outside jumping game, see resources

Vocabulary

•  Orchard (a place where fruit and or nut trees grow.)

Before Reading the Story

            Begin a discussion about favorite foods.  Ask the children what happens if they eat too much food (I throw up, my belly gets hurting, I burp really, really loud).  Show and read the children the cover of the book.  Ask them how they think Pamela is feeling, why?

Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions, ; and for other varied purposes. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Slowly read the cover of the book sounding out the words.  Watch to see if any children are able to recognize beginning letters and their sounds.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing awareness of beginning and ending sounds in words.

Reading the Story

            Stop when you get to the page where Pamela is tied to a tree.  Ask the children to help think of ways to keep Pamela from eating all the pears.  Write their ideas down on chart paper.

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

After Reading the Story

            Bring in a pear so that the children can try a small piece.  Make a graph that shows I like pears/I do not like pears.  The children can write their name on the corresponding side after they taste the pear.  After all the children have put their name on the pear graph, ask them if more or less children liked the pears.  How many children in total said they liked pears?

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on one or two attributes. AND Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying and writing familiar words such as their own name.

Discovery

            While you are preparing a pear for the children to taste test, pass one around so that the children may smell it and feel it.  Open it up and show the children the seeds inside.  Are there a lot of seeds or just a few?  What color are they?  Bring in two different kinds of pears, are they the same inside?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships

Music and Movement

            Do the Pear poem with the children.  As you say the poem make up simple actions for the children to do.

Way up high in the pear tree,

Two yellow pears smiled down on me.

So I shook that tree as hard as I could

And down fell the pears and were they good!

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

            Sing Where Oh Where Are All the Children, to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsZ6RS67oAY

Where oh where are all the children,

Where oh where are all the children?

Where oh where are all the children,

Way down yonder in the pear orchard.

Picking pears, put them in the basket,

Picking pears, put them in the basket.

Picking pears, put them in the basket

Way do yonder in the pear orchard.

(Do other fruits and vegies. My class liked cutting broccoli, pulling carrots, digging potatoes, picking up watermelon, etc.).

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Blocks

            Attach 5-10 yellow pear shapes, orange orange shapes, and red apple shapes to blocks and ask the children to sort by kinds or make a pattern. 

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

Art

            Cut out large fruit shapes and put them at the easel for the children to paint.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Library and Writing

            Give each child a cow shape.  Ask them to glue it too the paper and draw a picture about their idea to stop Pamela.  Dictate.  Use the chart paper from rug time to review and get the children started.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water

Pour the pom poms into the table and set out the tongs and several bowls or ice cube trays. The children use the tongs to pickup the pom poms and sort them by color.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in a series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic Play

            Put all the plastic fruits into a large bowl today and put it out on the kitchen table.  As the children play in dramatics today, ask them if they can name all the fruits in the bowl.  Do they know where the fruits grow, a tree, a vine, or a plant?

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

Math and Manipulatives

Make several place setting pictures and cut each piece out individually (fork, spoon, knife, and plate). Tell the child that they are pretending a friend is coming to eat with them. How many place setting do you need to make? Remind them that they need to set one for themselves also. How many place settings do you need if two friends were coming over? Have the child fix the place settings making sure each gets all the parts.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondences in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

Draw the jumping board on the cement using chalk. Instead of filling in with shapes, fill it in with simple pictures of fruits and vegies. Have a child stand at one end and name a fruit/vegie on the jumping board. The child jumps onto the correct square. Try naming 2-3 at a time and see if the child can jump from square to square in the correct order.

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

Transitions

Hold up a piece of plastic food from the dramatic center and ask a child to name it. Ask them if they can make the first sound in the word. Ask them if they can clap out the syllables of the word.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing awareness of the beginning and ending sounds in words. AND Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words.

Resources