Verdi, by Janell Cannon

Verdi is a young python snake who can not understand why the older snakes do not want to have fun and play with him. He decides he will never get old even though his body grows and changes.

Materials

Snakehead
Alphabet sort board and letters/those with tails, those without tails
Pattern cards for any manipulative you have
Plastic Easter eggs
Plastic snakes, rubber fishing worms or strips of thick yarn

Vocabulary

Zigzag (\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)
Jungle ( Like a woods/forest but really hot and wet)
Fidgeting ( wiggling )
Molt (loosing of a snakes skin)
Plummeting ( falling fast from something high)

Before Reading the Story

Show the front cover and tell the children that the story to today is about a snake. Ask the children what they know about snakes. Begin a list that you can add on to as the children learn more about snakes. Tell the children that many people are afraid of snakes but snakes also help people. The eat mice and rats.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes. AND Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

Read the title and introduce the book. Tell the children that the story is about a kind of snake called a python snake. Pythons live in the jungle which is like a really hot and wet forest/woods.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; progresses in how to handle and care for book; knowing to view books one page at a time in sequence from front to back; and understanding that a book has a title, author, and illustrator.

After Reading the Story

Ask if the children learned anything new about snakes, add these to your list. Find several pictures about snakes that live in your area. Talk about snakes and snake safety (Snakes will bite if you get too close. Some snakes are poisonous and can make you really, really sick. Never try to pick up a snake, move away slowly if you see a snake on the ground). It is important to talk to the children about how to be safe around a snake but not frighten them.

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

If you’re lucky, a forest ranger, park, might have a snake skin that you can borrow. Put out with a magnifying glass. Bring books and pictures of real snakes for the children to examine. Help the children to notice all the patterns on snake skins.

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

Music and Movement

Down in the Grass

Down in the grass, curled up in a heap,

Lies a big snake, fast asleep.

When he hears the grasses blow,

He moves his body to and fro,

Up and down, in and out,

See him slowly move about!

Now his jaws are open so-

Snap! He bit my finger! Owh!

Use one arm resting on a table or leg to represent the snake. Make his head by touching the thumb to the fingertip. Act out.

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

Tell the children that moving like a snake takes strong muscles. Have the children pull their arms inside their shirts and lay down on their stomach. Tell them to pretend to be snakes and try to move forward, no feet allowed! Have them try to lift their heads and shoulders up and forward to look around. Being a snake takes strong muscles!

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Blocks

Show the children how to make a pattern using blocks (square, rectangle, square, rectangle or triangle, triangle, rectangle, triangle, triangle, rectangle). Ask them to make it long like a snake.

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

Art

Tell the children that you are going to make a class snake and need their help. Give each child a piece of yellow or green construction paper. Let them decorate it. Help each child staple their paper into a cylinder. Punch a hole at each end of the cylinder. String these all together to make a long snake. Cut out the snake head and attach at one end. Hang your snake from the ceiling. (We used alphabet stamps to decorate and also pattern rollers with paint).

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artist products and experiences.

Sand and Water

Explain to the children that Snakes lay eggs and make nests in the dirt. Add sand or dirt into the table along with plastic Easter eggs and rubber snakes. Rubber fishing worms could be used as snakes (take the hooks out). Hang a picture of a snake nest on the wall for the children to see while they play.

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

Library and Writing

Show the children the alphabet sorting board. Let them use the copies of letters or magnet letters to sort letters with tails and those without.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating names of letters with their shapes and sounds.

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Put out pattern cards and manipulatives for the children to follow and make patterns. If you do not have patterns cards you can easily make these by representing a color pattern using circles or square the same color as your manipulative toy. (counting bears, rubber butterflies, unifix cubes, one-inch squares, etc.).

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

Outdoor

Play snake. Have all the children hold hands. The teacher should be the leader first to help the children get used to moving as a group. While holding hands, begin to walk around the playground. Weave in and out of equipment, trees, and each other. Explain to the children that they are going to have to walk slowly and stay in line for the snake to not be broken.

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

Transitions

Remind the children that in the story, Verdi changed from a little boa constrictor into a big boa constrictor. Ask the children tho think of things that they can do now that they are bigger that they could not do when they were little. (I can ride my bike, I can get dressed all by myself, I can write my letters, I can jump from the climber).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; Begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Resources

Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are looking for the perfect place to raise their family. As they search for the perfect place, they run across dangers. Will they find their perfect place? Where will it be?

Materials

Copy of small ducks
1 white paper plate per child. Fold in half and punch holes along the edge.
Yarn
Duck head/foot
Index card showing a letter from the letters the children’s names begin with.

Vocabulary

Dither (nervous and upset)
Hatch (when the ducklings come out of their shells)

Before Reading the Story

Read the title of the book but don’t show the cover yet. Ask the children if they think they know what Make way for ducklings means? Now show them the cover of the book and ask them if they know now? (get out of the way, move over, step aside, back up). Why do you think the story is called, make way for ducklings? Tell the children that this is a real story about a family of ducks who lived in Boston Gardens.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary.

Reading the Story

As you read the story stop at spots that tell about why the ducks think it is a good place to raise a family? Make note about ducks need food and shelter. When you get to the spots where it is unsafe, ask the children why they think it is unsafe for a duck? Is it unsafe for people too?

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 to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they can change their name so it ends with “ack” by putting their first letter in front of “ack”. Mary=Mack, Alison=Aack. then repeat their name saying, “quack, quack, quack ______ack” and let the children quack for a few seconds.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing awareness of beginning and ending sounds in words.

Discovery

Put several of the small ducks into the center. Show the children how to play hide and seek duck in the center. One child steps outside the center and hides his/her eyes. The other children in the center can each hide a duck somewhere in among the science toys. The child comes back into the center and looks for the ducks. When he/she finds a duck, the child who hid it quacks. Who ever hid the last duck found gets to be the hider.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows capacity to maintain concentration over time on task, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions and interruptions. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to taking turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Music and Movement

When you go to the playground today, waddle like ducks all in a line.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Teach the children the song 5 Little Ducks Went Out To Play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw9veQ76fo

5 Little ducks went out one play,

Over the hills and far away.

Mother duck said “Quack, quack, quack”

But only 4 little ducks came running back.

Continue on to 4, 3, 2, 1. When you get to zero sing or say sadly;

Zero little ducks went out to play,

Over the hills and far away.

Mother duck said “QUACK, QUACK, QUACK”

5 little ducks came running back.

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

Blocks

Tell the children that the story took place in a city. Can you build a city? Don’t forget to add a pond for the ducks!

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates growing 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/Engagement & Persistence; demonstrates increasing ability to set goals and develop and follow through.

Art

Ask the children to draw a picture of some place that would NOT be good for a duck to live (under the bed, in a car, on the house roof). After they have drawn their picture give them a copy of a duck to glue on their picture. You can make this into a book called, Ducks in Unexpected Places.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem. AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water

Water play today. Add boats and ducks. If you have no boats or ducks, use plastic lids or bowls. You can also add bear counters or similar. How many bears can float on your boat?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building wit blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Library and Writing

Tell the children that Mrs. Mallard had to know how to get to the island to meet her husband. Ask the children to tell you how to get to the playground from your classroom and then encourage them to draw a map. (You go to the door and go out over there by the drinking fountain. Then you got to go out that door and down the ramp. You turn and walk, walk, walk past the baby room and then turn there. You go to the gate and wait for the teacher to open it. Then you are at the playground).

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussions, drawings, maps, and charts. AND Language/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Dramatic Play

The ducks ate peanuts at the park. Ask the children, Have you ever taken a picnic to the park? Pack a picnic lunch. Use a basket or bag to put your picnic in. Put down a towel or blanket and the children can pretend to have a picnic in the center today.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Show the children how to use the yarn to lace through the holes on the paper plate. This will be the duck body. Either pre-cut a head and feet for the children or put on manila file so they can trace and cut out themselves. Put the head and feet onto the duck body.

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.

Outdoor Play

Teach the children the game, In the Pond, On the Bank. Tell the children that this is a listening game. Use a sidewalk or line as the divider. Call out “In the pond” and everybody jumps onto the sidewalk. Call “On the bank” and everybody jumps to the grass. Mix up your calls and try to trick the children into jumping onto the wrong one.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Transitions

Hold up an index card with a letter written upon it. Ask the children if they can name the letter, the letter sound, and whose name begins with this letter, and if any other child has this letter somewhere in their name?

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies att least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name.

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?

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.