It’s Mine! by Leo Lionni

Fighting frogs quarrel and quibble all day long. When a heavy rain storm forces them to work together as a team. This book is a good lesson on friendship and cooperation.

Materials

Circles cut in 3-5 sizes

Vocabulary

Quarrel and quibble ( to fight and argue)
Bickering (another word for fighting and arguing)
Definitely (to show that I don’t have to do what you say with your voice)
Subsided (backed off and went down)

Before Reading the Story

Begin a discussion about friendship. That having friends is a nice thing. There are many things that you can do better with a friend than all by yourself. Ask the children if they can think of anything that they enjoy doing with their friends? (I like when my friend pushes me on the swing. I like when Jamie helps me put on the dressups and zippers me. I like Frank cause he helps me draw my name).

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; shows progress in developing friendships with peers.

Explain to the children that friends cooperate with each other. Ask them to help define what cooperation means. (When me and Jose play together in blocks. When I asked Raya for the red crayon and she gave it to me).

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Introduce the book and explain that this is a story about some frogs who did not want to cooperate.

Reading the Story

On the page where there is only one rock left and there the frogs huddled together, ask the children what they think will happen next?

After Reading the Story

Play Thumbs up-thumbs down with the children. Make up scenarios or things that you have seen the children in your class do. If it is a positive cooperative act, the children give a thumbs up. If it is a negative act, the children give a thumbs down. (Barney asked Alfred for a car and Alfred gave him one. Kerry grabbed the crayon from Lee and said “I want this now” Kim asked if she could paint at the easel and Ann said she could be next.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; increases in sustained interactions with peers by helping, sharing, and discussion.

Discovery

Show the children the page in the story where the toad appears before them. Explain to the children that frogs and toads are similar but different. https://kidzone.ws/lw/frogs/facts8.htm. Show the children pictures of frogs and toads to look at and compare. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where a frog or toad can be caught, bring one in for the day for the children to examine.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects and materials.

Music and Movement

Sing 5 Little Speckled Frogs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziGG_L9C12o Let the children take turns acting out the frogs.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Sing Mmm ah Went the Little Green Frog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwU3beZ9kcw.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in clarity of pronunciation and towards speaking in sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.

Sing You Sing a Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmoAobX5mY. Children can help make up actions to do with the song.

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

Blocks

Have the children build a pond using the blocks. Can they make the pond in a pattern? Encourage them to add blocks to be a speckled frog and they can pretend to be frogs jumping.

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

Art

Put paper on the easel and tell the children that they are to do cooperative paintings where they work with a friend to make something beautiful.

Creative Art/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; increases abilities to sustain interactions with peers by helping, sharing, and discussing.

Library and Writing

Write each child’s name on an index card. Put the cards on the table along with markers. Encourage the children to find their name and to practice writing the names of their friends onto a piece of paper.

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. AND 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.

Sand and Water

Water in the table and rubber frogs. Add a stick that floats or a plastic lid that floats along with a rock for the frogs to sit upon. How many frogs can float on the log or sit on the rock? If you do not have frogs, use green one-inch cubes as frogs.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates 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. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate, and name “how many” concrete objects.

Dramatic Play

Math & Manipulatives

Cut out circles in 3-5 sizes. Remind the children that in the story the pond got bigger and fuller of water when the thunderstorm began. Put one of the largest circles on the table and ask the child if he/she can put the next smaller circle on top and then the next smaller and then the next smaller and then the smallest. Do with squares and triangles also.

Mathematics/ Geometry & Spatial Sense; shows progress in matching, sorting, putting in series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as shape or size.

Outdoor Play

Play Leap Frog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj0JBiknaPg Have 2 or 3 children spread out and hunch down very low. The other children then jump over them using their back as support. Take turns being the frogs and the rocks.

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

Transitions

Ask the children of things they enjoy doing with a friend. Write their responses and hang it on the wall.

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; shows progress in developing friendships with peers.

Resources

Fish Eyes-a book you can count on By Lois Ehlert

Fish Eyes is literally a book for counting plus one. The pages are full of bright colorful fish that jump, smile, and flip. The book also introduces words like fantailed through cheerful illustrations.

Materials

Pictures of Eye of an Animal cards

Fish Eye pattern

Yarn, magnets, and paperclips to make fishing poles

Parachute

Vocabulary

scales

Before Reading the Story

Tape several pictures of fish onto the wall where all the children can see. Ask the children if they know what these animals are called? Where are they found? Explain to the children that fish come in many different shapes and sizes. Look at the pictures and talk about the scales, the fantails, the stripes, etc.. Ask the children if they ever eat fish, do they like it? Let them share any information they may have about fish. (I have a fish tank at my house and it has little blue fish in it. I went fishing with my Papa. You have to squish the worm onto the hook.).

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Reading the Story

As you read the story, stop on the different pages to point out new vocabulary words. Striped fish just like Anar’s shirt. Spotted like my arm that is spotted with freckles. Fantail, point to the tail and then the tail of the fish on the wall. Do you see any others with a fantail? Flashy-look at Brandon’s shirt, it is very bright and flashy. For words flipping and darting, use your hand to show what these actions look like.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

After Reading the Story

Ask a child to stand up in front of the group. Ask the rest of the children,”How many children are standing”? Ask them , “how many will there be if you add one more”? Do and then recount. Continue asking one more and then counting to see if correct. Do till 10 and then have all the children sit back down. Now ask two children to come up front, how many will there be if we add two more, took one away, etc..

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increasing abilities to combine, separate and name “how many” concrete objects.

Discovery

Print out the animal eyes and the animal pictures. The children then match the correct eye to the correct animal.

Mathematics/Patterns & Spatial Sense; shows growth in matching, sorting, putting in a series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as shape or size.

Music and Movement

Sing Bubble Pop! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RRRq4dJ58

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increasing ability to count to 10 in sequence and beyond.

Play the song Baby Beluga and encourage the children to dance and sing along with. http://www.song-bar.com/song-blog/playlists-songs-about-fish-and-other-life-aquatic

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 actions to Roll Over the Ocean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evKl-jfA1vo

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.

Blocks

Tell the children that you have made a fish game for them to play in blocks today but first they must build a fish pond. Make fishing poles with rulers, pencils, or sticks and pieces of yarn with a magnet attached. Place the fish shapes in the pond with a paperclip attached near their mouth. The children try to pick up the fish using the magnet on the fishing pole. You can colr the fish depending upon what concepts you might be working on (color, letters of the alphabet, numbers, children’s names, etc..

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

Art

Place the Drawing a Fish directions on the table and encourage the children to practice drawing fish. Once they have drawn a fish, encourage them to embellish it.

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawing, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed , creative, or realistic.

Library and Writing

Hang the pictures of the fish in the center for the children to look at and discuss. Ask them to find common properties and differences among the pictures.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increasing ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials.

Sand and Water

I have used a day that we read about fish to clean our classroom aquarium. We put the goldfish in the water table and talk about how to care for the fish for the day. I have allowed the children to”pet” the fish by gently putting their clean hands into the water and touching the fish. My classroom children have all really enjoyed this activity along with helping carry water to and from the sink for the aquarium.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; chooses to participate in an increasing variety of tasks and activities.

Dramatic Play

As the children play in dramatics today, ask them if it is ok to let another child come into the center. Use your center signs to remind the children how many are allowed at one time and is there room for one more?

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

Math & Manipulatives

Use the fish pattern and make a sheet of red, blue, green, and yellow. Cut the fish out and use for pattern play.

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

Encourage the children to use the fish to measure the length of the table, their friend, from here to there.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows progress in using standard and non-standard measures for length and area of objects.

Outdoor Play

Bring out the parachute. Have the children hold on to the parachute handles. Loudly call, “I wish, I wish, I wish I was a ______/(color on the parachute) fish! All the children touching that color run under the parachute and back out. The rest of the children make waves by moving the parachute from knees to shoulders.

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

Transitions

Say the following to each child as they move to the next activity. “I wish, I wish, I wish I was a _______?name an animal. The child names an animal and then does the animal walk, movement to the next activity.

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

Resources

Too Many Pears! by Jackie French

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
One-inch strips of colored paper in read, yellow, and green
Many pear shapes cut from yellow, green, and red paper. (Approx 15 per child)
5-10 paint sticks (free where you buy paint) and string/yarn to hang them outside

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 the children the cover of the book. Ask them how they think Pamela is feeling? 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.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

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; shows growing interest in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Bring in a pear so that the children can try a small piece. How does it smell and taste? 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?

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. AND Mathematics/Number & Operation; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with such terms as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

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!

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

Sing Where Oh Where Are All the Children?, to Way Down Yonder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeFvSs9FTo

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.

(Cutting cabbage, pulling carrots, picking strawberries, lifting watermelons, etc.)

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and poems. AND Science/Science Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, living things, materials, and natural processes.

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

Sand and Water

Put the strips of colored paper into the sensory table today along with scissors. The children practice snipping squares. Gather the squares and make a class collage on a pear shape from the easel.

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/Science Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, living things, materials, and natural processes. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasing complex and varied spoken language.

Math and Manipulatives

Put the many pear shapes out on the table with glue or paste. On a piece of per, one per child, write the numbers 1-5 going down the side. The children then glue the corresponding number of pears beside each number. Making simple number charts 1-5.

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

Outdoor Play

Hang paint sticks from tree branches on your playground. The children can jump to try to hit, throw balls at them, or use sticks to bat them.

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

Play, What would you do? Give the children scenarios that they may encounter at school or home and let them tell what they would do. (What would you do if you saw a strange dog running around your yard? What would you do if you were hungry? What would you do if you wanted a toy that your friend has? What would you do if you saw a water bottle on the table and you were thirsty? What would you do if your friend was playing with matches? What would you do if you were playing outside and you heard thunder? What would you do if…)?

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