A Friend is Someone Who Likes You, Joan Walsh Anglund

This is a sweet book that tells what a friend is, and it is not always a person. It is a nice supplement to a friendship theme.

Materials

Directions for drawing a heart
2-3 rulers
Place mats. Cover with contact paper or laminate for longer use.
1-2 box tops

Vocabulary

Friend-a buddy, a playmate, a comrade
Compliment-to say something nice or friendly about someone.

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what it means to be a friend. Let them take time to talk about what makes someone a friend. Introduce the story.

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

Reading the Story

This book has small illustrations so is best read to a small group. Allow the children to talk about the pages as you read.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction, and poetry. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions, and other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they have a friendly place they like to go, like the tree or the brook. (I go to my room, I like the park). Ask the children how it makes them feel when they are there (happy, fun, not mad). Talk about how your centers can be a friendly place to go also. Remind them that we have rules at school to help keep our room and centers friendly. Ask the children to talk about what they like to do in each center.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions, and other varied purposes. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Discovery

If you have a tape recorder, bring it into the classroom today. Give every child a chance to talk into the tape. Record your group singing or playing in your friendship band. During choice time, put the recorder out so the children can listen to the tape and try to guess whose voice they are hearing.

Science/Scientific Methods & Skills; 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 I Love You, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwLLH9EZiqc

I love you. You love me

We’re the best friends like friends should be

With a great big hug

And a kiss from me to you

Won’t you say you love me to?

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

Get out the instruments today and make music. Tell the children that you are going to be a friendship band because you all have to work together to make your music.

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

Blocks

Are your block shelves labeled? If not, trace around the various block shapes and tape them to the shelves. At cleanup time, encourage the children to work together to put the blocks away on the shelf where the shape sign shows they belong.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to be able to determine whether or not two shapes are the same size and shape.

Art

Put out interesting collage materials and one or two box tops. Give the children bottles of glue and explain that they are going to work together to make a 3D collage. This project can be done over several days. Spend one or two days gluing all the ‘stuff inside the box lid and another dripping paint over the whole thing. (We’ve used small food boxes and plastic lids, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, pine cones, shells, plastic silverware, buttons and bottle caps.)

Creative Arts/ Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and in using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Sand and Water

Add plastic tubing and funnels to the water today. To use these materials together effectively, the children will have to do some cooperating. You can also add any kind of piping you may have such as a marble works type toy.

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

Library and Writing

Teach the children how to cut out hearts. Write the children’s names on index cards. Have the children cut out hearts and then encourage them to write the names of their friends on one side and their name on the other side if the hearts. They can either make a collage of hearts or give them to their friends.

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 out your laminated placemats and let the children practice setting the table. Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Math and Manipulatives

Put out any kind of board game that requires children to take turns.

Show the children how to use the ruler to measure how long something is (the table). Keep it simple and do not measure by inches but by rulers (the table is 4 and ½ of the rulers long). Challenge the children to measure each other by one child laying on the floor and the other using the ruler to measure length.

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

Outdoor Play

Pin a large sheet of paper to the fence. Ideally it should be 3-5 feet in length and of a light color or white. Bring out your easel paints and brushes. Encourage the children to paint their hand with paint and press it onto the paper. Have the children continue until the paper is full of overlapping handprints making different colors and a classroom art piece. Have a bucket of water available for the children to wash their hands upon completion.

Social & Emotional development/Cooperation; increases abilities to sustain interactions with peers by helping, sharing, and discussion. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects,and experiences.

Transitions

Ask the children if they know what a compliment is. Compliments are something nice or friendly that we say to another person so that they know we are trying to be friendly. Dismiss the children by having child A say a compliment to child B. Child B then says a compliment to child C. If a child says they cannot think of something nice to say about one of their peers, Make sure you say one or two things before continuing. Every child should walk to the next activity hearing a compliment about themselves, no child should be left forgotten.

Dear Parent- Today we were talking about what is a friend. Talk with your child about one or two things that you think are important qualities for a friend to have. If you see your child doing something friendly for another, praise him/her and let them know that they are being a good friend.

Resources

Raindrops Roll, by April Pulley Sayre

This non-fiction book looks at rain and its effect on the environment. Beautiful pictures and poetic text make it a nice book to use in any weather or water unit.

Materials

Several clean spray bottles
Colored chalk
A penny, a nickel, a dime, and a quarter
Eyedroppers
Piece of cardboard with a 2-inch hole cut out of it in the center
Many larger pictures cut from magazines or calendars.
A piece of yarn/string long enough to reach across dramatic center
10-12 spring loaded clothespins

Vocabulary

Before Reading the Story

Bring your piece of cardboard and many pictures to the rug. Without the children seeing the picture, place one behind the cardboard. Move the picture around and ask the children if they can tell what it is. Doing this allows them to only see one part of the picture at a time.

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to describe and discuss predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on past experiences.

Reading the Story

This is a very simple story with beautiful pictures. Take your time reading and talk about the pictures as you read. Can they name the insects? Note the shape of the raindrops; are they really tear shaped like people think?

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

After Reading the Story

Spend a few minutes talking to the children about storm safety. When you hear thunder you should go inside because lightning is near. Rushing water during a storm could knock you over (2 feet can sweep away an SUV and pickup truck!). Stay away from trees and water, even puddles, when there is a thunderstorm.

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.

Discovery

Put out magnifying glasses today with interesting nature objects. Let the children use a spray bottle of water to see how water droplets cling to the objects.

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

Make a rainstorm. Begin by tapping one finger on your knees and saying, “drop, plop, drop, plop, rain”. Next take your fingers and tap them on your knee and say, “pitter-patter, pitter-patter, rain”. Take your hands and pat your knees and say, “downpour, downpour, rain”. Clap your hands and say “thunder, thunder, rain”. Now reverse the order; downpour, pitter-patter, drip drop, rain.

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

Sing If All The Raindrops Were Lemon Drops and Gum Drops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNvL_5COPtM

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops,

Oh what a rain it would be!

I’d stand outside with my mouth open wide,

Ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops,

Oh what a rain it would be.

Ask the children to name other edibles and switch out lemon drops and gumdrops.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a questions, task, or problem.

Blocks

Encourage the children to use the blocks to make houses to get out of the rain. If you have large cardboard blocks they can make a house for themselves. If you have small wooden blocks, add small people.

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

Art

Give the children colored chalk to draw with. After the children have drawn their chalk picture, show them how to spray water on it with the spray bottle. Talk about what happens to the chalk. Or…Use a permanent marker to draw a simple umbrella shape onto a piece of paper. Give the children colored chalk and ask them to make raindrops. After they have finished making raindrops, show them how to spray their paper with the spray bottle of water.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Encourage the children to make a rain picture. At the easel put out several colors. Show the children how to fill their paintbrush with paint and then press it against the top of their paper so that the colors roll run down the paper.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.

Sand and Water

Put out a variety of things that the children can move water from one container to another (turkey baster, squeeze bottle, funnel, pitcher, sponge).

Library and Writing

Put the book into the center for the children to be able to spend time looking at the beautiful pictures.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest in reading related activities, such as asking to have a favorite book read; choosing to look at books; drawing pictures based on stories; asking to take books home; going to the library; and engaging in pretend reading with others.

Dramatic Play

Hang a piece of string or laundry line across the center. Give the children clothespins and explain that on sunny days people hang their clothes out to dry. Encourage the children to hang doll clothes on the line. When they are all hung go back to the center and tell the children it looks like rain, time to take the clothes off the line!

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Math and Manipulatives

Put a piece of newspaper on the table to catch any water drops. Put a coin onto the newspaper and show the children how to use the eyedropper to suck up water and then slowly drip one drop at a time onto the coin. Before they begin, ask them how many water drops they think the coin will hold. Let the child begin to drip the drops and count. Were they able to guess how many water drops the coin could hold? Which coin held the most, the least? What happens when you squeeze all the water from the eyedropper at one time?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects in terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

Outdoor Play

Rain makes mud. Let the children dig on the playground with shovels and add water. Make mud! Let the children experiment with the mud, can they build with it? What happens if you only add a little water? A lot of water?

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

Transitions

Pull out your cardboard and variety of pictures that you used before reading the story. Let the children take turns guessing what the picture is. (Note it is hard for children to wait turns to answer so note those who can and those who shout out).

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things,and natural processes. AND Physical Health & Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interaction, to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.