Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Ella Sarah needs to get dressed but no one in her family agrees upon what she wants to wear.

Materials

15 index cards cut in half the long way. On 20 of the halves, make a small circle of color using a crayon or marker. On the remainder 10, make a bean shape with arms and legs (jumping beans)
Paint swatches from local paint store. You will need two to three of each color swatch you choose.
Clothing pattern, enlarge for children to color individual items.
An assortment of larger buttons, about 20-25 in all.
A parachute or large flat sheet. Colored scarves.

Vocabulary

Naming articles of clothing (short sleeves, t-shirt, blouse, long sleeves, sandals, sneakers, slippers, etc.)

Introducing the Story

Wear something that is one or more of your favorite articles of clothing to school today. Introduce the story by saying’ “I wore my favorite (socks) to school today because (they have cats all over them and cats are my favorite animal). If you know of a child who has a favorite article of clothing, mention it (I see Roger is wearing his baseball shirt, he told me once that he loves baseball. Roger is it one of your favorite shirts?). Let the children share their favorites if they choose to.

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

Reading the Story

As you read the story, use your voice to show Ella Sarah’s displeasure at being told not to wear her favorite outfit. Note to the children after these pages that you think Ella Sarah really wants to wear her pink polka-dot pants, her dress with orange and green flowers, her purple and blue striped socks, her yellow shoes, and her red hat! On the page where Ella Sarah looks in the mirror and feels her outfit is just right, ask the children to look at her face and tell you what they think she might be feeling.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, and poetry. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that Ella Sarah really had on a variety of colors. Ask them if they can remember some of the colors that she was wearing. Then say, “Let’s play a color game”. Get out your jumping bean cards directions on how to make is under materials. Hold the cards face down so the children cannot see the marks/colors on the opposite side. Let the children take turns picking a card and naming the color. If they get a jumping bean card they shout ‘Jumping Bean!” and everyone jumps up and down. Continue playing until all the children have had a turn or they lose interest.

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

Music and Movement

Sing What Are You Wearing Today? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmhPxdR_do

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

Discovery

Put out the paint color swatches on the table and encourage the children to find the matching cards. For older children you can get several hues in the same color family. For younger children, use swatches that are more defined. When they have matched the color swatches, ask the child if he/she can name the colors.

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.

Blocks

Put out colored blocks today. Encourage them to sort the blocks by colors or to match the blocks to colors that they are wearing. As they build ask them to name some of the colors they are using or if they have a favorite color.

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

Ask each child if they have a favorite article of clothing at home. Challenge them to draw their favorite outfit or give the child a clothing pattern to match their choice and markers or crayons to color them. As they work encourage them to talk about the article with detail., just like Ella Sarah and her family did in the story today.

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

Sand and Water

Bring the baby doll clothes over to the center today and fill the water table with soapy water. Let the children wash the clothes. As they wash, talk about the articles of clothing. Can they name them? Do they wear these at home? When do you wear the article of clothing? (I have pajamas at my house for nighttime. I have a fancy dress to wear when I go to parties. My baby has one of these.)

Library and Writing

Put the book in the center today. With one or two children at a time take a picture walk through the book. As you go through the pages ask the children what happened first, next, and last. Can they remember what Ella Sarah’s favorite outfit was?

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.

Dramatic Play

Get out all the dress up clothes today. Add jewelry and scarves if you have them. Suggest to the children to dress for a party. Comment on how lovely they look (Alison I love your blue striped skirt and green lace blouse, you look marvelous for the party!).

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex. Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills

Math and Manipulaties

Call several children over to the table to play a counting game with you. Give each child a copy of the large shirt pattern and put a bowl of buttons in the middle. The children take turns rolling a dice and adding that many buttons to their shirt pattern. After their turn they put the buttons back into the bowl for the next player’s turn. Continue rolling the dice and counting out buttons until each child has had several turns or loses interest.

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

Outdoor Play

Bring your parachute and colored scarves out onto the playground. Spread the parachute out flat and have the children stand all around the edges. Give each child a colored scarf. Have them name the color/s of their scarf and toss it onto the parachute. Once all the scarves are on the parachute, the children pick up the chute by the edges or handles and make the scarves dance by shaking their arms up and down. Repeat giving each child a different color scarf.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, and using the slide and the swing.

Transitions

Call the children to the next activity or to line up by what they are wearing. (If you are wearing a shirt with buttons, shoes with laces, pants with a zipper, etc.)

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

Dear Parents, Today we read a story about a little girl who wanted to choose what she was going to wear, even if it did not match well. Encourage your child to help pick out their clothes for school. As they do, mention the colors or the patterns on the clothing. Give your child a few extra minutes to practice dressing themselves in the morning. This is good not only for their self-esteem but is a wonderful way for your child to develop large and small muscles.

Resources

The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds

Materials

White coffee filters and a spray bottle
Water washable markers
Alphabet dot cards, 1 per child
Dot stickers-lots or BINGO daubers
Ahead of time; a note to parents collecting CLEAN tin cans and old CD’s.
Water Beads
Several boxes of DOTS candy and a box of toothpicks

Vocabulary

Round (shaped like a circle, sphere, or cylinder)

Before Reading the Story

Show the children a picture of a circle, sphere, cylinder, dot, polka dots. Explain to the children that these are all called round shapes. Ask them if they can think of any objects that are round. As they name, tell them that what they named is a round circle shape, a round sphere shape, a round cylinder shape, a round polka dot shape, or a round dot shape. The idea is to put round with these basic shapes to help the children better visualize.

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

Reading the Story

Begin the story reading with the emotional anger that Vashti feels. On the page where it starts, “the next week when Vashti walked into art class…”, point to the picture and ask the children what it is. On the last page, ask the children why Vashti asked the boy to sign his line picture? Explain to the children that ALL artists sign their work. Have the children help retell the story by asking questions. WHy was Vashti angry at the beginning of the story? (She thought she could not draw and was not an artist). What did the teacher do? How did that make Vashti feel? What did Vashti do? Why did Vashti tell the boy to sign his line picture?

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.

After Reading the Story

Explain to the children that in the story Vashti thought she was not a good artist but her teacher knew that if she tried, she could be amazing. Ask the children to think about something they are really good at. If they are unable to think of something, tell them something that you see them doing well. (I like how well you can peddle the tricycle, I like how well you always clear your lunch plate and never spill food on the floor, I like how well you can cut with scissors, I like how well you play with your friends).

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

Discovery

Put out a variety of marker colors, bright colors work best. Have the children color white coffee filters using the markers. Once they are ‘finished’, fold the coffee filter in half and give it three sprays of water from the spray bottle. Open it up and the colors will have run together. Hang it to dry.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in an increasing variety of tasks and activities.

Put the DOTS candy into one bowl and the toothpicks in another. Demonstrate how to make squares, triangles, and pyramids by attaching the toothpicks to the DOTS.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the chant, Round and Round.

Round and round and round again.

I have no beginning and I have no end.

Can you guess what I am?

A circle, a circle, a circle!

(Encourage the children to name items in the shape of a circle).

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe,compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

Put on the Bert & Ernie Circle Song and encourage the children to dance to it by spinning their bodies or body parts in circles. Give each child a scarf to use while dancing.

Creative Arts/ Movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various musical tempos and styles.

Dance the Polka Dot Pants Dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chejyOzlv1U

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Blocks

Ahead of time ask the parents to donate CLEAN tin food cans and old CD’s. Add these to the block center for extra building materials.

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

Art

On a piece of paper per child, make a small black circle/dot near the center of the page. On the bottom write,”One small dot can become a _________”. Give the children drawing materials to make something from the dot.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; Approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Library and Writing

Make copies of the Alphabet Dot cards and add dots. The children can peel the dots and attach to a letter. https://easypeasylearners.com/free-alphabet-do-a-dot-printables/

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge;knows that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can individually named. 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.

Sand and Water

Add water beads and water to the table today along with scoops and bowls. Remind the children that the beads need to stay in the table.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Help the children make number charts. On a piece of paper (per child) write numbers 1-5 or 1-10 down the side of the paper. Let the children use the dots or the BINGO daubers to make the appropriate number of ‘dots’ beside each number.

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

Outdoor Play

Make a simple obstacle course using a crawl tunnel, hoola hoops, and circles drawn with chalk or any things that you might have that are a circle shape, like a dot.

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

Transitions

Ask each child to name something that is the shape of a circle, a sphere, or something that is round.

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

Resources

Abiyoyo, by Pete Seeger

Children always seem to delight in this scary story about a giant that comes to town and a small boy who thinks outside the box to save the people.

Materials

2-3 flashlights
Bubbles and a bubble blower
Several small bars of soap, like the kind you would get in a hotel, or soft soap.
8-10 small boxes (shoe box sized and smaller)
2-4 dozen rubber bands big enough to fit snugly around the largest of your small boxes
Paint brushes and buckets

Vocabulary

Ukulele (an instrument kind of like a little guitar)
Ostracized (to be kicked out or excluded from the group)
Precious possessions (most important and loved things)
Disappear (make something vanish or go away)
Brave (to challenge something and show courage doing so)
Hygiene (how to keep oneself clean)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what the word brave means. Explain that being brave means doing something even if it feels scary. Ask the children if they can think of any time that they were brave. (I stayed in my bed when there was thunder, I rode my bike on two wheels and fell down but now I can do it, I climbed to the top of the bars). Introduce the story by telling the children that it is about a very brave boy and his father who saved the whole town from a scary giant named Abiyoyo.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences. AND Language Development/Speaking and Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary.

Reading the Story

As you read, stop and ask the children how the townspeople are feeling on different pages. Why do you think they are feeling that way?

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; progresses in responding sympathetically to peers who are in need, upset, hurt, or angry; and in expressing empathy and caring for others.

Encourage the children to join in with you singing Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo. Become more vibrant, loud, and bouncy until you finally stop abruptly to end the story.

Literacy/Book Knowledge and Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Talk to the children about what Abiyoyo looked like. Did he have good hygiene? What should you do to keep your fingernails from getting long and dirty? How do you keep your feet from getting all stinky? When is it important to wash your hands, why? Ask the children why they think it is important to bath? Explain to them that when they are clean, other people enjoy more to be around them.

Physical Health and Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Discovery

Try doing shadow play today. Shine a flashlight on the wall and let the children try making hand shadows or whole body shadows. Does it make a difference if there is a lot of light in the room, if you stand in front or behind the light? Can you make a whole body shadow or an animal using your hands?

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

Music and Movement

Put on some classic guitar music and have an air band while you play and dance to the music.

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

Sing Momma Don’t Allow No Guitar Playing Around Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ODoOHoNyQ

Momma don’t allow no guitar playing around here.

I don’t care what Momma don’t allow

Gonna play my guitar any how

Momma don’t allow no guitar playing around here.

(Momma don’t allow no hand clapping, jumping, foot stomping, etc.)

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

Encourage the children to clap out the syllables as they sing Abiyoyo. Start slowly and then speed up.

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

Blocks

Challenge the children to build something really gigantic out of the blocks today. If using wooden blocks, remind them about any height rule you may have.

Physical Health and 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

Encourage the children to draw big scary giants. Older children might enjoy drawing different parts of the story. Remind them about the giant in the story, can they draw slobbery mouths and dirty fingernails?

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play. Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest in reading related activities, such as asking to have a favorite story read, choosing books to look at, drawing pictures based on stories, and engaging in pretend reading with other children.

Sand and Water

Encourage the children to take turns practice washing their hands so they don’t get all yucky like Abiyoyo. Talk about the importance of hand washing and when children should wash their hands.

Physical Health and Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Library and Writing

Paint with water on the sidewalk. The water will disappear. Can you write your name with this magic water paint before it disappears?

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

Dramatic Play

Add a stringed instrument and a magic wand to the center. Encourage the children to act out the story.

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

Math and Manipulatives

Put out a variety of small boxes, minus the tops. Show the children how to wrap rubber bands around the box and make plunking instruments. Do all the boxes make the same sound?

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

Outdoors Play

Take some bubbles outside today. The teacher can blow the bubbles and children can use a small stick or their finger to pretend to be a wand a “zoop”/pop the bubbles to make them disappear.

Physical Health and Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in eye-hand coordination used in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Transitions

Play “which is” during transitions today. Ask the children, which is… bigger, louder, scarier, taller, etc. depending upon the age of your children. Which is bigger, a cat or a goat? Which is taller a person or a house?

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences. AND Mathematics/Patterns & Measurements; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on a single attribute.

Dear Parent, It is important for children to learn to bath and clean themselves independently. As you go through your evening routines with your child, monitor his/her washing and brushing and give encouragement as they practice these skills. When they are all clean and ready for bed, comment on how nice and clean they smell.