Umbrella by Taro Yashima

Momo had a birthday and received new red boots and an umbrella. Unfortunately the days ae sunny and she can not use them! Momo learns to wait and anticipate the time when she can finally bring out her new boots and umbrella.

Materials

Copy of Rain on the Treetop poem for children to fill in.
Pictures of umbrellas
One umbrella and several bean bags
Several plastic containers with holes punched in the bottoms or small watering cans.
1 Silhouette picture per child and dice
Flat sheet and clothes pins

Vocabulary

Japan (if you have a map or globe, show them where Japan is and also New York. How far is it from where your school is located, show them on the map).
Indian summer (In the fall time when the weather becomes unseasonably warm and sunny)

Before Reading the Story

Hold up a picture of many umbrellas and ask the children if they know what these are? Then hold up a picture of one umbrella or bring in a real umbrella. Show the children or pantomime the motion of opening up the umbrella and placing it over your head. Encourage the children to do the same. Ask them again what this is called? When do you use an umbrella? What does the umbrella do? Do you use umbrellas in the house or outside? Why should you not open an umbrella inside the house?

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.

Reading the Story

On page 12 where Momo’s mother tells her to get up because of the rain coming, ask the children if they know what this means? (Momo can use her umbrella today!).

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.

On page 16 where her doodle disappeared on the sidewalk, ask the children if they know what happened to it?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they hold their parents hand when they walk? How do you think Momo felt now that she was walking without holding on? (Like a grown-up, happy, like a big kid).

Explain to the children that in the story Momo had to learn to wait, to have patience. Like when we are playing a class game and you have to wait your turn and it is hard because you are excited but you have to have patience. Ask the children if they can think of times when they had to have patience and wait? (When it was my birthday I had to wait for my birthday cake until after we ate dinner. My Grandma is coming and I am so excited. When my dog was gonna have puppies I had to wait and wait and have patience to see them. I want to play with the blue truck but Jimmy has it).

Discovery

Give the children colored chalk or magic markers to draw/write their name onto a piece of paper. After they have finished their drawing, let them use a spray bottle filled with water to spray over their drawing/writing. Ask them to predict what they think will happen when the water touches the paper. Were they correct?

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

Music and Movement

Sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExtyaxao0U Make hand movements to go along with. Try changing itsy bitsy to great big, huge humongous, teeny tiny.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in eye-hand coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Bring out your instruments and encourage the children to shake, rattle, or roll them as you repeat the sound of raindrops that Momo heard on her umbrella.

Bon polo

bon polo

ponpolo ponpolo

bolo bolo ponpolo

boto boto ponpolo

boto boto ponbolo.

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

Play Umbrella by Laurie Berkner and dance along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtnSmDADuA

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

Teach the children the song and movements to Come Under My Umbrella. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Q8QziZMVg

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of musical activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

Add people today. Encourage the children to build houses with roofs to get the people out of the rain.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; grows in recognizing and solving problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and interactions and discussions with peers and adults.

Art

123 Homeschool4me.com has a cute and quick umbrella art craft using bubble wrap. https://www.123homeschool4me.com/bubble-wrap-rain-craft_71

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Library and Writing

Teach the children the poem, Rain on the Treetops. After you have shared it with them, ask them to name things that the rain falls down on. Write their responses on the Umbrella picture in resources and encourage the children to decorate the umbrella and add raindrops.

Rain on the rooftops and rain on the trees.

Rain on the sidewalk but not on me!

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more that one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Sand and Water

Bring in containers in which you have punched holes or watering cans so the children can make and hear rain. Make containers with different amount of holes and hole sizes. See resources.

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.

Dramatic Play

Give the children the flat sheet and the clothes pins. Challenge them to build a fort that will keep them dry when the rain comes. If you have rubber jackets and boots, add these to your center today. Add a musical thunderstorm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIILT0eIWeA

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Math and Manipulatives

Give each child a silhouette picture of child with umbrella and a blue magic marker. The child rolls the dice and adds that many raindrops onto their picture. Play with several children at a time and have them take turns rolling the dice. Play until each child has had 5 turns rolling the dice.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways. Begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

Lay several hula hoops on the ground and tell the children that they are pretend puddles. Have the children practice jumping from one puddle to another. This could also be done on cement by using chalk to make puddles.

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

Open the umbrella and lay it upside down on the ground (like a basket). Make a mark on the ground that is the throwing line. Let the children take turns throwing three bean bags into the upside down umbrella. After each child’s turn, have them count how many bean bags are in the umbrella and how many bean bags are on the ground.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, and using the slide and swing. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare the number of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

Transitions

On a dry erase board or a large piece of paper draw 3 letters, 3 numbers, and 3 shapes. Dismiss the children one at a time by asking them to circle a letter, a number, or a shape. When 5-7 children have had a turn, make a new board. The idea is to see if the children are able to recognize what is a letter, a shape, and a number.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; knows that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics and can be individually named. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.