The Water Hole, by Graham Base

The animals are thirsty. Count your way 1-10 and watch what happens to the water hole! Oh, and look for the hidden frog on each page.

Materials;

Cut out paper fish in several colors. Put a number on the fish 1-5 or 1-10. On the backside of the fish add the corresponding dots. On each fish, add a paperclip. Use a stick or ruler and attach a piece of yarn about 1 foot long. On the end of the yarn, tie a magnet. These will be the fishing poles (2 poles should be enough).
A variety of materials that will absorb water and those that will not. (cotton ball, paper towel, coffee filter, baby doll dress, cup of sand, cup of dirt, block, plastic toy)
Several eye droppers

Vocabulary

Delectable (another word for delicious or tasty).
Wallowing (stumbling about)
Floundering (splashing about)
Lumbering (bumping into each other and being clumsy)
Absorbed (to be sucked into or taken into the dry sand or other material)

Introducing the Story

Talk about the importance of drinking water everyday. Explain that we need to drink water to help our bodies and brains up for playing and thinking. Explain that all living things need water. Ask the children if they think a dog is a living thing, a rock, a plant, a fish, a bed, a tree, and a car?

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem-Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Reading the Story

Hold up fingers that correspond to each page. Don’t forget to look for the frogs. On page three after reading, “But something was happening”, stop and see if the children can see what is happening (the water hole is getting smaller). When you get to page 10 and there is no water left, ask the children again what they think will happen?

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

After reading the Story

Ask the children ways in which they use water besides drinking it. Get out a piece of paper and list their responses. (I take a bath in water, I play in my sprinkler, My big brother washes the car, the fireman’s got water).

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

Music and Movement

Do animal walks with the children. Can they fly like a bird? Jump like a kangaroo? Hop like a rabbit? Gallop like a horse? Slither like a snake?

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

Discovery

Put out a variety of materials that will absorb water and several that will not. Add a small cup of water and several eyedroppers. Challenge the children to suck up some water into the eyedropper and squirt onto the various materials. Did the water absorb into the item or not? Can the children guess into which items the water will absorb before doing?

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 Science/Scientific Methods & Skills; begins to uses senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Take the children outside and pour a cup of water onto the sidewalk. Take a piece of chalk and draw all around the edges of the puddle you created. Ask the children what they think will happen. Check back several minutes later, what happened to the water? Were the children able to predict correctly?

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

Blocks

Put out your animals today and ask the children if they think they can build a waterhole for all the animals to drink. Encourage them to sort the animals by like kinds or from smallest to largest.

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

Art

Encourage the children to draw animals using magic markers.

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic. AND Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools such as pencils, crayons, and computers.

Sand and Water

Today just put out water and any materials that you have to just move the water from one container to another. Examples; funnels, pitchers, measuring cups and spoons, tubing, squeeze bottles, basters, and sponges. Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Library and Writing

Put the number fish on the floor and show the children how to use the fishing pole with the magnet to ‘catch’ a fish. Can the child name the number on the fish? This can also be done with letters that you may be working on with your children.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Any kind of counting manipulatives and small cups marked 1-5 or 1-10. The children then use the counters to fill the cups up with the correct amount of counters.

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

Give each child pieces of paper, 1-5 or 1-10 depending upon the age of your children. On the top of each piece of paper write a number 1-5 or 1-10. Challenge the children to cut out shapes or draw objects 1-5 or 1-10 depending upon how large a number book you are making per child. If Juan is working on numbers 1-5, he should have 5 pieces of paper with a number written at the top of each.

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

Outdoor Play

Bring any animals you might have out onto the playground. Have the children dig a large water hole and position the animals all around. If you have access to water you can have the children carry buckets of water to dump into the water hole. Ask the children what is happening to the water as it is dumped (it is being absorbed into the sand). Encourage the children to talk about the story and act out with the animals that you have. Remind them about the importance of drinking water everyday. Tell them, “Be Smarter, Drink Lots of Water”.

Bring drinking water out onto the playground. Several times throughout your play, call the children over to the ‘water hole’ and ask them if they would like a drink. Tell them, Be Smarter, Drink Lots of Water”.

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.

Transitions

Name an animal and the child makes the corresponding animal sound. For older children challenge them to recall some of the animal sounds in the story.

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

Dear Parent-today we read a story about animals drinking from the water hole. Encourage your child to drink plenty of water as they play, especially on hot days. Remind them that they need water to keep their bodies lubed and hydrated.

Resources

Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey

What happens when a little girl and her mother go blueberry picking?

Materials

A tin/metal bucket or bowl.
Bubble solution and blowers
Blue food coloring
Variety of pictures of fruit plants to look at and discuss
Picture of bucket for art
Dice

Vocabulary

Pail (another name for bucket)
Tin (a kind of metal)
Hustle (to hurry in a half walk and half run way)
Storing up food (eating extra because in the winter there will be none to eat)
Tremendous (very large)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know where blueberries come from, do you think it is a fruit or a vegetable? Ask them if they have ever picked their own blueberries or other fruit that perhaps grows in your area? Look at the pictures of fruits on their plants and talk about how you would pick them, where they grow, and who likes to eat them. Let the children share any experiences. Explain that today’s story is about a crazy mix-up when a little girl goes with her mother to pick blueberries.

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

When you get to page 26 where Sal thinks it is her mother behind the rock, stop and ask the children if they can guess what they think is going to happen.

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. AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress 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

Ask the children questions about the story. Why do you think Sal’s mother was afraid of little bear? How do you think Sal felt when she was not sure where her mother was? What do you think Sal and her mother made with the blueberries when they got home? Who did Sal meet on Blueberry Hill?

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 abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Discovery

Give the children pictures of a variety of fruits and vegetables to name and sort.

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

Art

Give each child a small cup of bubble solution, which you have added 4-5 drops of blue food coloring. The children can then blow bubbles at the bucket picture or a plain piece of white paper. As the bubbles pop on the paper they will leave a blue design. Remind the children not to suck the bubble solution into their mouth.

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

Music and Movement

Clap out simple clapping patterns and encourage the children to echo them back to you (clap, clap, hold clap).

Mathematical Knowledge and skills; recognizes, duplicates, and extends simple patterns.

Sing The Bear Went Over The Mountain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-CGQXXNh0U.

The bear went over the mountain, The bear went over the mountain.

The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

To see what he could see. To see what he could see.

The Bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

And all that he could see, but all that he could see

Was the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain,

The other side of the mountain, was all that he could see.

Once the children have learned the melody, add musical instruments to accompany.

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

Teach the children the poem, Time for Sleeping.

Now it’s time for sleeping,

The bears go in their caves.

Keeping warm and cozy,

Time for lazy days.

When the snow is gone,

And the sun comes out to play

The bears will wake up from their sleep,

And then go on their way.

The children can act out the poem as you read it aloud. You could use this poem to prepare to go outside or to transition to another part of your school.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Sand and water

Add blue food coloring to the water today and let the children scoop and pour water into buckets and small containers. As the children are pouring, ask how many scoops from this container does it take to fill this other container/bucket. Which container do you think will hold more water?

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

Library and Writing

Show the children how to roll play dough into tiny berry balls. Have the children make many berry balls and then line them up on a piece of paper that has their name written on it. (The children use the play dough to cover their names with berry balls)

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds. AND Physical Health & Development/FIne Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Blocks

Put several different size buckets or boxes into the block center. Challenge the children to estimate how many blocks will fit into each container. Will more fit if the blocks are just tossed in or stacked neatly? Do all the containers hold the same amount of blocks?

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

Dramatic Play

Pretend to be cooking with blueberries today. Give the children pieces of blue paper that they can rip or cut with scissors and put on the plates or in the pans to use as food.

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

Give each child a bucket shape and show the children how to use blue or purple stamp pads to make “berries” with their finger. Have the children roll a dice and then add that many berries to their bucket.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in a meaningful way.

Outdoor Play

Give the children buckets and let them gather natural objects off your playground. (Our playground has many pine cones but you could gather leaves, pebbles, acorns, seed pods,etc). Bring out magnifying glasses so the children can look closely at the objects they have collected.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe natural processes and relationships.

Transitions

Drop teddy bear counters or other hard objects into the metal bucket/bowl. The children take turns listening to the number of items that were dropped (go kerplunk) in the bucket. After trying their hand at listening and counting they may go to the next activity.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions and interruptions.

Dear Parent, today we read a story about a little girl who went blueberry picking with her mother. As you prepare your supper tonight, take a moment and talk to your child about the fruits and vegetables that you are preparing. Ask your child if he/she can name them and talk about how they grow (in a tree, on a vine, on a bush, under the ground.