The wind blew, and blew, and blew. This story told in rhyme is the tale of the winds mischief one day as it blew through town.

Materials

• Bubble Solution and bubble blowers (blowers can be made using pipe cleaners or cylinders)
• A box of materials that will blow with a strong breath or a hand fan and items that will not
• 1 straw per child
• Watered down tempera paint
• Several colors of crepe paper but into 2 foot lengths
• small clothesline and clothespins

Vocabulary

• Content (to be happy with something)
• Words from story to be acted out in movement

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children to look out the window, can they see the wind? (No). How can we tell if the wind is there? Let the children describe their observations. Explain that we can not see the wind but we can see what the wind is moving. Ask the children if they can tell from which way the wind is blowing?

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

Now hold up the book so the children can see both the front and back cover. Ask them if they can think is happening? Can they think of a good title for the story?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability 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.

Read the poem, Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti. Can the children think of other places they have seen the wind blow? (Once I was at the beach and the wind blew the sand into my eyes, the flowers, the wind blew my hair all messy, my dogs ears were in the wind).

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

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

Reading the Story

As you turn each page, ask the children if they can guess what the next thing will be blown by the wind? Give them a hint by telling them to look carefully at the pictures for clues.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability 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, the wind was blowing blustery hard to make all those items fly away. And though it is fun to play outside on a windy day, there are times when it is important to stay indoors and be safe. Ask the children if they can think of why this would be so? (A storm is coming, a tree could fall, a tornado might be nearby). Spend a few minutes talking to the children about tornados and what you should do if there were one. Have a tornado drill.

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 a box filled with items that will blow with your breath and items that will not. Have the children try to blow the items off the table and sort according to those that can be blown and those that can not be blown. Puff ball, styrofoam plate, crayon, feather, wadded piece of paper, flat sheet of paper, a block, plastic bowl, scissors, etc.. Ask the children if they can think of any items on the playground that a strong wind could blow away? Make a list.

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

Music and Movement

Tell the children to pretend to be a tree. Plant your feet firmly onto the ground. Now pretend that there is a slight breeze blowing and your branches (arms) tremble slightly. Explain that now the wind is picking up and getting stronger and it moves your branches (arms) all around. The wind is getting stronger still and now it is making your trunk (body) sway and bend. Reverse the order.

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

Sing, I Wish I Was a Windmill to the tune of Did You Ever See A Lassie. Children swing arms in big loops as they sing.

Oh I wish I was a windmill, a windmill, a windmill

Oh I wish I was a windmill, I know what I’d do.

I’d swing this way and that.

I’d swing way and this way and that way

And this way and that way,

Oh I wish I was a windmill, when the wind blew.

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

Tell the children that you are going to act out some of the winds movements from the story. Give each child a length of crepe paper and put on some lively music. Can the children make their crepe paper sweep up into the air, whip back and forth, toss it up into the air, lift it up and let it fall to the ground, whirl it, flutter it, all throw them up so that they mix in the air and fall to the ground.

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

Blocks

If you have foam blocks or light cardboard blocks, encourage the children to use these today and when they have finished building a tower, to blow the structure over. Can they build a tower 10 blocks tall?

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

Art

Make paper fans. Give each child a piece of colored construction paper that they can color on. After they have colored, show them how to fold it accordian style back and forth to make a fan. Fold one end over and staple.

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

Waterdown some of your paints and put them on the table with a spoon. Give each child a straw and have them practice blowing air out of it (remind them NOT to suck in or they will get paint in their mouths). The child dips a spoonful of paint onto their paper and uses the straw to blow the paint across the paper. Continue using more paint. This is best done using the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) as they will run together making new colors.

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

Library and Writing

Ask the children to think of something that the wind blew in the story or in their experiences. Have them illustrate their idea. When they are finished, write across the bottom of the page; The wind blew (child’s name and item) The wind blew Kerry’s hat. Hang these on the wall or turn them into a classroom book.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water

Water and boat play today. If you do not have small boats, you plastic lids. Challenge the children by asking, How many counting bears can you put onto the boat before it begins to sink?

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

Dramatic Play

Tell the children at your house after you wash your clothes you hang them on a clothesline for the wind and sun to dry them. Show the children how to hang the dress-up clothes and doll clothes onto the line.

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

Math and Manipulatives

On the length table make tape marks every 6-inches apart. Give a child a puffball at one end of the table and see how far they can blow it with one big breath. How many lines were they able to cross over with their puffball? How many breaths did it take to blow it from one end of the table to the other? Give each child a ten-frame to use to record their count.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Outdoor Play

Bring your bubble play outside. Show the children how to figure out which way the wind is blowing (lick a finger and the side that feels cool is the direction from which the wind is blowing). Have the children stand with their backs to the wind to produce the best bubbles.

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

Show the children how to tie one end of the crepe paper to the fence. If is is a windy day, let the wind flap them. If it is not a windy day, weave the crepe paper in and out of the fence.

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

Transitions

Ask the children to name something that the wind could blow away with a gentle breeze (like when you blow something), a blustery wind (like in our story today), or a tornado like wind. Ask what is something that the wind could not blow away? Accept all answers.

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

Resources

bubble blowers from cylinders

            This book will help young children begin to look up into the sky and be more aware of what is floating over head.

Materials

• Peep-hole folder (a manila folder that has a one inch hole cut out of it).  Pictures to put behind the peep-hole.
• Ivory Snow Flakes or shaving crème
• 3 pieces of blue poster board
• 3 bags of white cotton balls

Vocabulary

• Symmetrical (when two sides are the same)

Before Reading the Story

            Bring your peep-hole file to the rug time.  Tell the children that you are going to play a game called Picture Riddle.  They are going to have to guess what you have a picture of by looking through a little hole.  Take a picture (pictures should be large enough that only a part of it shows through the hole) and place it inside the file so that a clue of the whole picture can be seen through the one inch hole.  Ask the children if they can guess what it is.  Move the picture around a little bit so that the children can see different parts of the picture. The children should only be able to see the bit of picture that peeps through the one inch hole.  Let the children guess.  Do several pictures.  Tell the children that today’s story is like a riddle too, that they will have to guess what the picture is.

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.

Reading the Story

            As you turn each page read, “Sometimes it looked like” and then stop and let the children see if they can fill in the answer.  Shake your head no each time you say “but it wasn’t a …”

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

After Reading the Story

            Bring a dry erase board to the group or several pieces of paper.  Tell the children that you are going to play another picture riddle game called Guess What I Am Drawing.  Begin by drawing a familiar shape or letter.  Then embellish it to turn it into something else. (A square can become a house, the letter B can become a butterfly).  Let the children guess what you are drawing. Or start with the square and ask the children to help guide your drawing. (It’s a square but what else could it turn into? Now it’s a house, I can turn it into a fire station…).

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

Discovery

            Work in small groups to create 3 cloud information posters.  On each poster draw a simple house about 2/3 down the poster board.  On the first one write; Cumulus Clouds-soft and fluffy, good weather below.  On the 2^nd one write; Cirrus Clouds-wispy and light, the weather is changing.  On the third one write; Cumulonimbus Clouds-thick and black, rain is on its way!  Now have the children use the cottons balls to make the correct clouds for each poster.  You might want to have a child or two gently stroke black paint on to the cumulonimbus cloud. When you are finished with the posters, hang them up somewhere where you can easily see them and talk about them (near the lunch table, near the door to line up for outside) throughout the week.

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

Music and Movement

            Sing Did You Ever See A Cloud?  Sung to the tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxscqqheBdQ

Did you ever see a cloud, a cloud, a cloud,

Did you ever see a cloud float this way and that?

Float this way and that way,

Float this way and that way.

Did you ever see a cloud float this way and that?

(make up two movements to go with your song. Let the children help make up movements)

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

Give each child a scarf to move to the music with. Tell them that the scarf is their cloud. Can they move their cloud above their head, low near the ground, twirling through the sky, moving all together, moving alone.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, top, under, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Blocks

            Explain to the children that symmetrical means that both sides are the same.  Talk briefly about how our bodies are symmetrical. If you cut it in half, both would have an eye, ear, shoulder, arm, leg, etc.. Show the children how to build a symmetrical structure by placing blocks on one side exactly like those on the other.  Encourage the children to work in pairs and continue to build on your symmetrical structure.

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

Art

            Let the children draw their own Guess what I am drawing pictures.  Put yours out to show and encourage them to make different ones.  For older children you can encourage them to use letters (you might have to draw the initial letter onto the page) and then they can draw around it.

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

Tell the children that today you are going to make symmetrical clouds.  Symmetrical means both sides are the same.  Ask the children if they can think of anything that is symmetrical (their bodies, a butterfly, an apple).  Give each child a large piece of blue construction paper.  Have them fold the paper in half.  On one half place a spoonful of white paint.  Fold the paper back over and use the palm of the child’s hand to flatten/squish the paint.  Open up and let the child decide if they would like to add more paint.  Continue the process.  When the child is finished, have them tell you what they think it looks like and write it on the bottom of the painting. When these are dry, you could make your own class book or bulletin board, “It looked like spilt milk”.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water

            Whip up Ivory Snow Flakes and water into a fluffy consistency and let the children use in the table today.  Or if your center allows, shaving crème. Give the children plastic forks and spoons.

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

Library and Writing

            Draw a sun onto a piece of paper.  Make 10-26 clouds from paper large enough so that they will all cover the sun shape.  On each cloud write a letter that you are working on with the children.  Have the children take turns searching for the cloud that you call out.  (Kerry, can you find the cloud with the letter K on it?).  As they identify the clouds they can pick them up off the sun until the sun is shining out alone.

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

Dramatic Play

Explain to the children that you want them to use their imagination today while they are in the dramatic center. Pay attention to what they choose to play and the roles that each child takes. Is it truely imaginative or did they use the equipment in the most standard way?

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming diffrent roles in dramatic play situations. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to gove and take in interactions; to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Math and Manipulatives

     On a large piece of paper, trace around objects from your classroom (a small block, a toy car, a plastic spoon from dramatics kitchen, etc.. Try to trace one or two objects from every center onto the paper. Put the items into a basket and have the children match them. For older children to make more difficult, trace a pencil and then put three different sized ones into the basket. Trace a kitchen set plate and put two different sized ones into the basket. The children must find the correct items and lay them over the shapes you have drawn onto the paper.   

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

Outdoor Play

            Bring out a blanket and watch the clouds float by.  Do you see anything up there?  Make sure to use cloud words as you help the children describe (fluffy, wispy, bumpy, layered, billowed, thick, and piled. 

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Transitions

           Do animal walks. Have the children pick an animal to act out on their way to the next activity.  (It looked like Kerry but it was really a soft furry cat, It looked like Roger but it was really an enormous stomping elephant).

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness. AND Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Resources