Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton

Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann have worked together for a very long time. Now people are saying that Mary Ann is too old to work. Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann set out to prove that they can still do the work of any modern machine. Will they be able to? What will happen to Mary Ann if they fail? This classic story tells of a faithful friendship with a happy ending.

Materials

A book about construction and earth moving machines.
Construction plans for 4 simple structures.
Cookie sheet
One very strong magnet
Graph paper

Vocabulary

Steam Shovel (an earth moving machine that digs great big holes)
Cellar (an underground room. Sometimes called a basement)
Corner (the place where two borders or lines come together)

Before Reading the Story

Share pictures of construction sites and the kinds of vehicles/machinery that is used on a construction site. As you look at the pictures, talk to the children about how each piece has a special job to do. Look at the pictures and notice the size of the equipment, the kinds of wheels each has, and if the children can guess how the machine is used (for scooping, digging, rolling, carrying away debris). Introduce the story by showing the children a picture of a real steam shovel and a modern shovel.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction and poetry.

Reading the Story

Before you begin reading hang a piece of paper on the wall where everyone can see it. Have a marker handy so that when you get to the parts of the story where MM and MA cut a corner, you can draw their progress. On page 15 stop and ask the children what they think will happen to Mary Ann. When you get to page 20, ask the children if they think MM and MA will be able to dig a cellar in just one day. As you get to the pages where MM and MA make a new corner, have the children repeat Go Mike Mulligan Go! On page 37 ask the children “How will MM and MA get out? What do you think will happen?”

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

Point out the paper on the wall with the four corners nice and square. Ask the children if they can name the shape. Play a shape game with the children. Cut out the Mary Ann steam shovel and cut out 4-6 shapes that you are working on with you children large enough to cover the steam shovel. The children can then take turns hiding the steam shovel under a shape and guessing which shape it is under by naming the shape. You can add another teaching concept by making each shape a different color. The guesser must then guess by naming the shape and the color (Is it under the red circle?).

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

Discovery

Magnet play today. Take a large cookie sheet and tape some blocks to the ends to make a table with the cookie sheet being the top. Put magnet marbles or small nuts and washers on top of the cookie sheet. Put the strong magnet under the cookie sheet and show the children how dragging the magnet from underneath will cause the items on top to move. You could also add a piece of paper and a small bit of paint so that when you drag the marbles/nuts, it makes marks upon the paper.

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

Circle, Triangle, or Square by Hap Palmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWtLONv826Y

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

In the story MM and MA dig faster and faster. Put on music that moves to different tempos and let the children dance or move accordingly.

Creative Arts/Movement; shows growth in moving to different patterns of beat and rhythm of music.

Play In and Out the Windows. Have the children hold hands and make a circle with their arms up in the air. Choose one person to step into the center of the circle. As the children sing the verse, In and Out the Windows the child moves under arms and around and through the circle. At the end of the verse another child goes into the center of the circle and the first child comes out and helps form the circle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MibnLIXnLcE

Go in and out the windows,

Now go and pick a friend.

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.

Blocks

Add any construction vehicles you might have. Add hard hats and construction plans for a building. Trace around blocks to make simple blueprints for the children to copy building or use the ones included.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to take shapes apart and put them back together again.

Art

Give each child a piece of graph paper and colored pencils. Encourage them to make various sizes of squares. After they color the squares they can cut them out and glue to a large piece of paper.

Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools and materials, such as pencils, crayons, and computers.

Writing and Library

In the story, MM and MA made nice straight corners as they dug their building. Have the children trace around shapes and letters today. Practice drawing nice straight corners when possible and then talk about the corners and help the children count how many they see on each of their tracings.

Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools and materials, such as pencils, crayons, and computers. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

Dramatic Play

In the story MM and MA worked together to dig a cellar for the town hall. It was a hard job. Give the children damp rags today and ask them to tackle the job of cleaning the dramatic play center. Talk about working together to make sure that all of the items are put away in their correct space. They can use the damp rags to wash the shelves, dishes, and furniture. Make sure to thank them when they are finished for a job well done.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops a growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Math and Manipulatives

Encourage the children to build houses today using Duplo’s, small cubes, dominos etc. Use words to describe the parts of the house/building. (Wall, roof, window, door)

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.

Outdoors Play

Encourage the children to use the buckets and large trucks to pretend to be working a construction sight. Add hard hats if you have any available. They can pretend to dig out a foundation or build a tall building/mountain from the sand. If you do not have large trucks, the children could wash the bicycles and other riding toys.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; participates in a variety if dramatic play activities that become more extended or complex.

Transitions

As the children go to the next activity ask them if they can name things that have wheels. List their responses onto a piece of paper. When they run out of wheeled objects, ask them to name something that can be square or another shape that you are working on.

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

Resources

Johnny Appleseed, by Steven Kellogg

September 26^th, is the birthday of Johnny Appleseed. This is a great time of year to introduce the children to this folk hero and to have fun with apples.

Materials

Apple for cutting or tracing the words
Several varieties of apples for the children to try
Small White paper plate per child.
Shades of red, yellow, and green tissue paper.
Apple tree growth cycle
Apple trees for blocks

Vocabulary

Apple varieties of those being used in your taste testing
Sapling (a seedling, in this case a tiny apple tree)
Respectful (showing care and thoughtfulness)
Boisterous (loud and noisy)

Before Reading the Story

Bring an apple to the rug and ask the children to guess what shape is inside the apple. After the children have guessed, cut the apple in half and show them the star shape that the seeds make. Tell them that there is a star inside every apple. Count the seeds. There are always 5 seeds inside an apple and they make the shape of a star. Ask the children to repeat back how many seeds are in an apple? What shape do the seeds make? Tell the children that today’s story is about an apple star named Johnny Appleseed. He is an apple star because he planted apples all over the United States for people to enjoy.

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

After reading a page, stop and talk about it if you feel your children are getting lost. This story is more difficult for younger preschool children but is a good introduction into an American Historical figure (social studies) and fun to do in the fall when apples are always fresh and in season.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

After Reading the Story

Talk about how Johnny was respectful of nature. Ask the children if they know what respectful means. Talk about ways that the children are respectful of nature. (I don’t step on the bugs when they are on the playground. I only smell the flowers and not pick them, I don’t take the leaves off the bushes cause the bush needs leaves). Talk about how the children show concern and thoughtfulness towards one another and the school environment. (I am nice to her when she plays with me, I throw the paper in the garbage and not the floor).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; develops growing understanding of how their actions affect others and begins to accept the consequences for their actions.

Discovery

Appleseed growth cycle cards. Can the children put them in 1-6 order?

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

Put out apples and plastic knives for the children to dissect and use their senses to discover apples. How does the apple feel, taste, smell, sound when you bite it?

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

Music and Movement

Teach the children the following poems,

Eat an apple

Save the Core

Plant the Seeds

And grow some more!

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

________________________________________

Way up high in the apple tree,

Two red apples smiled down on me.

I shook the tree as hard as I could,

Down fell the apples and they were good!

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

Sing, I like to eat apples and bananas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5WLXZspD1M

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows increasing ability to discriminate and identify sounds in spoken language.

Blocks

Tape simple apple trees to rectangular blocks and encourage the children to make rows and patterns.

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

Art

Give each child a white paper plate. Use small squares of tissue paper and glue to collage. When it is dry, add a stem and leaf to make an apple shape. Encourage the child completely fill in the paper plate with tissue paper squares?

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

Library and Writing

Give each child an apple shape. Ask them to cut out the apple along the dark line and then use markers to go over the light lines to write, thank you Johnny Appleseed.

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. 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

Put dirt in the table today along with unifix cubes. The children can pretend that the unifix cubes are apple seeds and plant them. Then they can dig for the seeds and collect them by color. How many red unifix cubes did you find? How many green?

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

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Make s simple tree picture on a large sheet of construction paper for each child who will play the game. 3-4 children at a time is a good number. Give each child a pile of 15 red dots/ apples. The children take turns tossing a dice and then putting that number of apples/dots onto their tree. The first child to get 15 onto their tree is the winner.

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

Outdoor Play

Let the children dig small holes around the playground or in the sand box and pretend to plant seeds.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; progresses in physical growth, strength, stamina, and flexibility.

Look for seeds on the playground. If you find seeds, collect them and bring them in to the discovery center. Can the children identify what kinds of seeds they are?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; developers growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Transitions

Bring in several kinds of apples. Let the children each try a small piece of each and then graph the one that they liked best.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; developers growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concepts; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Resources

**Make 4-5 sets of copies and color the apples red, yellow, and green. Use in blocks to make apple tree patterns.**

Curious George rides a bike, by H.A.Rey

When Curious George gets a bicycle he goes on quite an adventure around town.

Materials

Newspapers or lots of scrap paper.
Paper for origami boats, directions in book
Graph/no bicycle, 2 wheels, 3 wheels, 4 wheels
Clean metal coffee can with lid
Monkey drawing directions

Vocabulary

Curious (to wonder about things)
Celebrate (to honor someone for something special)
Delighted (to be very happy about something)
Fleet (a group of ships)
Admiral (the person in charge of a fleet of ships)
Responsible (to do the right thing, to do the safe thing)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if any of them own bicycles. What color is your bike? Where do you ride it? Make a graph of how many wheels are on the children’s bicycles and have the children help fill it in. Talk to the children about bike safety rules (wear a helmet, do not ride in the street, make sure your shoes are tied, let a grown up know you are riding your bike, make sure your tires are blown up properly.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness if numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity. AND 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.

Reading the Story

Stop along the way and ask was George being responsible, was George being safe?

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.

After Reading the Story

Go back over the story and list the things George did that were responsible/not responsible on a piece of paper. (Not responsible; riding with no helmet, riding with no hands, not finish delivering papers, going to the river, using the newspapers he was supposed to deliver for boats, going with strangers to be in the show, getting close to the ostrich, /Responsible; helping deliver papers, staying on the bench when he was told to, using the bugle to call the men when the bear escaped, saving the bear, being in the show when he said he would).

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

Discovery

Bring in a coffee can with the lid. Let the children experiment putting different classroom toys inside to see and hear the effect they have on the cans ability to roll.

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

Music and Movement

Play Peddle Round the Village, to tune of In and Out the Windows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LLGIeTuv8w Have all the children hold hands and make a circle. Hold their hands up while still holding hands. Choose a child to be the first rider and have them go into the center of the circle. As the children sing, the rider passes under the children’s arms.

Peddle round and round the village

Now go and pick a friend

(rider changes places with another child)

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

Play There Was A Funny Clown, sung to The Farmer in the Dell. As you sing, let the children go in the center and do a funny trick (Children like to do somersaults to this song so make sure your circle is large enough that no one gets kicked in the face)

There was a funny clown

His/her name was Ting-a-ling

Watch him/her do a funny trick

In the circus ring.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status a & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness. AND Approches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Take the children on a pretend bike ride. Have everyone lay on their backs and then put their feet up in the air and pretend to peddle their bicycles. Remember going up hill is hard so you have to peddle slower. Going down hill you will be peddling very fast or putting your feet out and gliding.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic PLay; particiapates in a variery of dramatic play acticvities that become more extened and complex.

Blocks

Put out cars and other vehicles with wheels. Add a ramp, or show the children how to make a ramp using blocks. As the children are playing, ask “Why are wheels important? WHy are wheels round? What would happen if that car had square wheels? Which vehicle goes farther/faster down the ramp, why do you think that?”. Encourage the children to find classroom objects that will roll down the ramp (masking tape roll, sphere shaped blocks, pencil, crayon, small ball, etc.).

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, diffrences, anmd comparisons among objects and materials. AND Scienctific Knowledge; shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships.

Art

Tell the children that you want to make a book titles, On My Way to School. Ask the children to draw a picture of something that they saw on their way to school today. Write their words at the bottom of the page. (On my way to school today I saw a big dog, a garbage truck, my friend Sam).

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community. AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, anad in play.

Library and Writing

Make several copies of the How to Draw Curious George’s head. Give the children markers or crayons and encourage them to “read” the directions.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Sand and Water

Ahead of time, make several newspaper boats. As the children are playing you can also help them make paper boats (the instructions are in the story). Fill the table with water today. Let the children float their paper boats. Also include a float and sink activity (try floating objects from the room and predicting if it will float or sink-block, pencil, crayon, counter, lego, baby doll, puzzle piece). As the children try floating different objects, have them put those that float in one pile and those that do not into another pile.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety if means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Dramatic Play

Add monkey masks. The children can pretend to be Curious George. Add a big hat or sombrero.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Teach the children how to fold origami boats from paper. See page 18 of the story.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Outdoor Play

Bring out cloth satchels and ride the bikes. Fill the satchels with old newspapers or just rolled up paper and be delivery boys/girls. Or have the children write notes to one another and take turns delivering on the bike.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND 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

As the children move to the next activity have them pretend to ride a bike. They will have to pick their legs way up in a marching fashion but then sort of kick them out in front of them as they walk. Practice as a group and then let the children ride off to the next activity.

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