How Ducklings Grow, by Diane Molleson

Wonderful pictures help explain all about ducks.

Materials

Pie pan, baby food oil, eye dropper, and food coloring
Feathers for gluing
26 ducks

Vocabulary

Before Reading the Story

Tape a large piece of paper to the wall divided into three columns. In the first write, What we know. In the second write, What we want to know, In the third write, What we learned. Show the children the cover of the book. Ask the children what they know about ducks. Write their responses in column one. After the children have told all they know about ducks, ask them what they would like to know about ducks. Write these responses in column two.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes. AND Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.

Reading the Book

Take your time reading the story so that the children can have time to study the pictures. Allow discussion along the way.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that the third column you made was for things that the children learned from the book about ducks. Let them respond. Use the pictures if they do not respond to help them begin to talk more about ducks.

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

Discovery

Put the book into the center along with paper and pencil so the children can try to draw ducks.

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

In the book it talked about how water rolls off the ducks feather because they have oil in them. Bring in a pie pan and fill it with a little water. Mix some baby oil with food coloring. Let the children use an eye dropper to drop colored oil into the water and see what happens.

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

Teach the children a duck song like Five Little Ducks http:// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw9veQ76fo

or The Little White Duck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57RWhz76y8

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

Blocks

Encourage the children to make a pond or lake for the ducks. If you have a rubber duck put it into the center.

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

Art

Cut out duck shapes from construction paper. Let the children make a feather collage on top of the duck.

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

Sand and Water

Fill the table with water and add rubber ducks to float. Encourage the children to find other objects in the room that float.

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

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Make two sets of the 26 ducks page. Cut them out and let the children match the like ducks. Put an alphabet letter onto each duck pair or numbers, colors that you are working on.

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

Outdoors

Play follow the leader. The teacher can be the mother duck and the children follow along behind. Make quacking noises as you lead the children to or around the playground.

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

Transitions

Tell the children to listen closely and count your quacks. Quack out loud for each child 1-10 quacks depending upon where each child is developmentally.

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

Resources

Home for a Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown

It is spring time and Bunny is looking for a home somewhere under something. Along the way he meets several animals but none have a home for a bunny. Finally he meets another bunny and together they find the perfect home for bunnies.

Materials

10-12 animal pictures who live under and above the ground
Cotton balls
Rabbit shape

Vocabulary

Bunny (another name for a rabbit)
Habitat (the different kinds of places that animals live)
Bog (a wet grassy place near a pond)
Burrow (a tunnel underground where rabbits and other animals live)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what a bunny is. Show them the cover of the book and read the title. Ask them if they know where a good place for a bunny to live is. Tell the children that bunnies usually sleep all day in their burrows and then come out at night. Bunnies can sit so quietly that they hardly move at all. Ask the children if they can sit as still as a bunny.

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 & Communicating; 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

After Reading the Story

Talk about the different homes in the story and who lived in them (a tree, a bog, a log). Ask the children where people live (in a house, an apartment, a trailer). Ask what kinds of things you find in a people house.

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

Sort animals by those that live under the ground and those that live above the ground.

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.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the finger play, Here is a Bunny

Here is a bunny with ears so funny Hold up 2 fingers like a peace sign

And here is his hole in the ground Make a circle with your other hand

When a noise he hears, he pricks up his ears Stretch bunny ears on hand

And jumps in his hole in the ground Put bunny hand through circle hand

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

Put on some music and do the Bunny Hop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgLL_q5FMCU

Left foot out, left foot out

Right foot out, right foot out

Jump forward, Jump backwards

Jump forward three times.

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

Blocks

Challenge the children to make bunny tunnels/burrows.

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

Art

Cut out simple bunny shape. Put watered glue into bowls and add paint brushes. The children paint the glue onto the bunny shape and then pull cotton balls apart to decorate.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Creative Arts/Art; develops growing abilities to plan, work independently, and demonstrate care and persistence in a variety of art projects.

Library and Writing

Ask the children to draw their home. When they are finished, write their address on a piece of paper and encourage them to copy the numbers. The teacher can help write the street name.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops ability to identify personal characteristics, including gender and family composition. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Sand and Water

Add dampened sand to the table and dig bunny holes.

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

Dramatic Play

House play today. This would be a good day to let the children use rags and water to clean the shelves and make the dramatic play area clean and a perfect home for children.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; develops growing capacity for independence in a range of activities, routines, and tasks.

Math and Manipulatives

Let the children build with small blocks or Legos and make homes. Put out small people or animals that they can put inside their homes.

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

Play bunny tag on the playground. The children hop on all fours like rabbits. Put hoola hoops on the ground and the children can hop into their bunny holes where they are safe and can not be caught.

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

Transitions

Play I’m thinking of an animal. (I’m thinking of an animal that lives in a barn and gives us milk to drink. I’m thinking of an animal that lives in the trees of the jungle and eats bananas and swings from its tail.)

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

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.