Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola

What happens when Big Anthony does not listen to Strega Nona and does what she asks him not to?

Materials

A box of cooked spaghetti
Several different kinds of pasta that can be strung
Box of cornstarch
Two to three cookie sheets

Vocabulary

Pasta (another name for fancy noodles)
Grazie (thank you in Italian)
Confess (tell the truth)
Hero (someone who everyone admires and thinks is cool)

Before Reading the Story

Talk with the children about the importance of listening to adults. Why do you think they make rules for children? Have you ever disobeyed your parent, what happened? Explain that the story today is about a boy named Anthony who did not listen when an adult told him not to touch something.

Reading the Story

Sing song Strega Nona’s directions to the pot. Encourage the children to hum along with you. There is a great reading of this story on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=PGVXwMX0e5w.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they can recall some of the jobs that Big Anthony does for Strega Nona. Ask them if they ever help anyone at home or school? What kinds of jobs do they do for others? List on a piece of paper.

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.

Discovery

Put out cookie trays with a cornstarch and water mix. Put the cornstarch onto the tray and slowly add small amounts of water. You will know when the consistency is correct because you can scoop up the cornstarch mix in your hand but then the warmth of your skin makes it sort of melt between your fingers. Let the children experiment with this mix. Can they write their name in it? Talk about the cause and effect.

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

Sing the Pasta Pot song to the tune of Are You Sleeping? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVnmz2t5q-k

Blocks

Encourage the children to build Strega Nona’s house. The children can build it and then destroy it pretending that they are the pot of spaghetti.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Art

Cut pieces of yarn about 8 inches long. The children can dip these into bowls of paint and then drag across a piece of paper. Add a spoon to the bowl of paint to help the children with dipping the yarn.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and water

If you center allows you to use food, add cooked noodles to the table. How do they feel?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; chooses to participate in an increasing variety of tasks and activities.

Library and Writing

Use cooked pasta or pieces of yarn (pretend spaghetti) to draw letters and shapes with. You can draw the child’s name on a large piece of paper and the child can take glue, cover the lines and then attach yarn on top.

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.

Dramatic Play

Add a large pot to the center today and the children can act out the story. What else can you cook in your magic pot? Also add a kerchief and a small apron if available. Hang the picture of Strega Nona in the center.

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.

Math and Manipulatives

Bring in several different kinds of pasta that the children can string. Can they make a pattern with their pasta?

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing patterns and shapes, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Outdoors Play

Weather permitting, give the children large buckets and add dirt, water, pine needles, rocks, sand, etc. Make bubbling pots of whatever.

Transitions

Re-read the magic chants that Strega Nona said to the pot. Ask the children if they can name the rhyming words. As the children go to the next activity, give them a word and ask them if they can make a rhyming word for it.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

Resources

My Apron, by Eric Carle

This is a story of a boy who helps his uncle to do his job/work. It is hard work but the boy is proud. Follow him through the day as he proudly helps his uncle and receives his own apron.

Materials

Bag of flour or plaster of paris
Shoe boxes or cereal boxes, one per child

Vocabulary

Apron; (What you wear over your clothes to protect them and keep them clean while you work).
Plasterer (The person who mixes the stuff that is used to make a house)
Chimney (The part of the house that rises out of the roof where the smoke and heat come out)

Before reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what kinds of work their parents do for a living? Write down their responses. Explain that parents do many different kinds of jobs. Talk about your job as a teacher and other jobs within your center. Ask the children if they know why adults need to get jobs (to make money, so we can buy the food, cause they have to work).

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

Reading the Story

As you read make a point of noting the times of day “In the morning my Uncle Adam and I go to work”-ask the children where they go in the morning? All morning while the boy carries the plaster ask the children what kinds of things they like to do at school in the morning-play, go outside, build with blocks. Talk about lunch time, what you are going to have that day. When the boy talks about all afternoon, ask the children what they do in the afternoon-take a nap, read books, play, etc. Late in the afternoon-explain that this is when the children go home from school.

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

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know any jobs that they might like to do when they get grown up? You can then try to find pictures of these on the internet and print them out and write the child’s name underneath. Do any jobs have more than one person who chooses a job type? How many children chose to be firepersons?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, or preferences.

Discovery

Ask parents to supply a tool from their trade that the children may display and examine in the classroom. Or bring in a variety of tools from different job types (menu, hammer, stapler, stethoscope, cash register, pencil, etc.). Ask the children if they can name the tools and who might use them.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Music and Movement

Put on some music and have the children pretend that they are going up stairs and down stairs. Do this marching like activity for a whole song. Stop and ask the children how their legs feel. Imagine doing this all day long as a plasterer, now that’s hard work!

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

Blocks

Challenge the children to build a home. Can they add window and a door? Can they make stairs? How about a chimney? Let the children stage any community helpers that you might have with their house.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; demonstrates increasing ability to set goals and develop and follow through on plans.

Art

Cut out white apron shapes that the children can decorate.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

Put plaster of paris or flour and water into the table. Let the children mix it and then use popsicle sticks to spread it across shoe boxes or cereal boxes. They are plasterers.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Library and Writing

Bring in a variety of books or pictures that depict people at work. Bring in unusual careers also like a ballerina or race car driver. Encourage the children to talk about all the kinds of jobs and help them name the trade and any tools that they know are associated with it.

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

Dramatic Play

Look around and find several different kinds of aprons that you can bring into the center and let the children try wearing. You could also include a tool belt and a paint smock.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Bring in a yard stick or tape measure and measure how many inches tall the children are. Mark on the wall so the children can see. Put out rulers for the children to practice measuring the table, the chair, or a friend.

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

Outdoor Play

Get out the bicycles and pretend that it is time for everyone to go to work. One child can work the gas station pump, another could collect the toll tickets, and another could pretend to serve food through a fast food window.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations. AND Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Transitions

Use the jobs cards. Have each child pick a card and tell you one or two things about the picture. Do you know what that job is called? Can you name any special tools that they use?

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

Ask parents to write a brief description of what they do for work and illustrate it. Make it into a classroom book.

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

Hello, Fire Truck! by Marjorie Blain Parker

Very simple book about firemen. This is a beginner reader so perhaps older children can learn to sound out a read.

Materials

Pictures of fireman’s gear
Page with words to copy 911
Smoke detector
Spray bottle with water

Vocabulary

Gear (all the equipment firemen need to put out a fire)

Before Reading the Story

Color and contact the fireman’s gear pictures. Bring to the rug and tape them to a flannel board. Ask the children if they can tell who the story is going to be about by looking at the special equipment that is needed. State it is about firemen. Ask the children to help you name all the gear/equipment. Turn the board around and remove one item, let the children guess what piece of gear is missing. Play until each item has been removed at least once.

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

Reading the Story

This book is very simple and full of rhymes on every other page. Read the first page and then when you get to its rhyming word segment it out. For example; “Look-smoke and flames. Kitty is in trouble. Call 911! Quick-on the d/ou/ble”. Do this slowly to see if any children can hear and discriminate the final word.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words.

After Reading the Story

Bring in a smoke detector for the children to see up close and experience the sound of the alarm. Talk about what you should do in case the smoke detector goes off at school. Do a mock drill if allowed.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances,and activities.

Discovery

Put play phones into the center and help the children practice dialing 911, stating their name and what the emergency is.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numbers in meaningful ways. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in clarity of pronunciation and towards speaking in sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.

Music and Movement

Teach the children The Fireman poem.

I am the fireman.

Please check your smoke detector

Because they are your home protector

I am the fireman.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Use masking tape to make a ladder design on the floor. Put on music and encourage the children to jump between the rungs, walk heel to toe up the side, walk with one foot on each side bar.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances. AND Physical Health & development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, and galloping.

Blocks

Add fire trucks and encourage the children to build houses with blocks.

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

Art

Have the children draw a picture of a house using water soluble magic markers. Find a place where you can hang the house pictures up and give each child a spray bottle of water. They then spray the house pretending to put out the fire. The markers will run down the page and make a design.

Creative Arts/Art; develops growing abilities to plan, work independently, and demonstrate care and persistence in a variety of art projects.

Library and Writing

Put out cards that have the numbers 911 written on it. Encourage the children to copy the numbers.

Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools and materials, such as pencils, crayons, and computers. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Sand and Water

Have the children bring their picture from the art center and spray it in the water table today.

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

Bring in fireman props you may have (3 foot piece of hose, boots, jackets, and plastic helmets. Talk about how the firefighter must put on all the gear before he/she heads out to a fire.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Make two sets of the firefighter gear pages and cut out the pictures to make a memory game to play with the children.

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

Outdoor Play

Use bicycles or wagons and pretend that they are fire engines racing to the fire. Make sure the children are making loud siren noises so that everyone else will move out of the way!

Creative Arts/Drama; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play activities. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Transitions

Give each child a turn to practice dialing 911 and stating who they are and that there is a fire. Send a note home today that encourages parents to practice their address and phone number with the children so that they can call for help in an emergency.