Construction | Book Play Everyday

This colorful book shows Mouse building the letters of the Alphabet. With plenty of new words, there is lots of room for conversation as you read. It comes with an alphabet poster to boot!

Materials

Many small boxes, toilet tubes, pipe cleaners, and other building junk
Several rolls of masking tape
Tool pictures
An old small appliance (toaster, wall clock, radio, hair dryer) Plug cut off!
10 paper plates

Vocabulary

Many unusual words look through the book ahead and make sure you can define words that you think your children might not know.

Before Reading the Story

Bring pretend or real tools to the rug. Ask the children to help you name the tools and what they are used for.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of families & Community; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Reading the Story

As you read, draw your finger over the letter that Mouse is constructing. Take time to talk about each picture with the children as there are lots of unusual words. With the help of the children define what it is that Mouse is doing on each page.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shape and sound. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

After Reading the Story

Bring out your tools again and review what each is called and what it is used for.

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

Discovery

Bring in an old small appliance that you have removed the plug from. Let the children disassemble it using small screwdrivers, pliers, and wrenches. (Make sure you pay attention to the children’s play as there may be small parts).

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

Music and Movement

Sing the Alphabet Song with the children. Ideally have an alphabet chart with you that you can point to as you sing the name of each letter.

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

On each of the 10 paper plates write a letter of the alphabet. Scatter them about and have the children stand in a circle around the letters. Let them take turns jumping from 1-5 letters as you call the letter name out. Or call out the letter sound and have the child jump.

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

Blocks

Add tools to the center along with a couple construction hats.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of families & Community; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Art

Let the children experiment with 3 dimensional building. Put out the boxes and building junk you collected along with various lengths of masking tape. The children can tape the boxes together and add pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, etc. Take these outside and drop paint onto them.

Creative Arts/Art; develops growing abilities to plan, work independently, and demonstrate care and persistence in a variety of art projects.

Sand and Water

Tell the children that shovels are also a tool. What do you use a shovel for? Fill the table with sand and include shovels for digging holes.

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

Library and Writing

Use the lines and circles that you cut out and let the children try construction their own alphabet letters. Can you make a letter in your name? Can you make one like this? As they make the letters, observe who is able to name the letter/s.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Dramatic Play

If you have lots of play tools you can put some in here as well as the block center. If not, perhaps the children can pretend to call the plumber and a child from blocks can come make a repair or lend a tool.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of families & Community; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Math and Manipulatives

Use the tools pictures and the small mouse. Hide the mouse under a tool while the child’s eyes are closed. The child must guess which tool the mouse is under. Give the child clues as to where the mouse is hidden; “If I wanted to hammer a nail into the wood, which tool would I use, If I wanted to take apart that chair what tool would I use, If I wanted to make this block smaller which tool would I use”?

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on a single attribute. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Outdoor Play

Take out plastic hammers or some half arch blocks from your block center. Gather a variety of leaves or flower heads and show the children how to put the leaf under a piece of light colored paper. The leaf needs to be sandwiched in between the paper and a hard surface like the sidewalk or a board. The child hammers the paper on top of the leaf. Pick up the paper and you will see a design made by the leaf. Try doing several different kinds of leaves or flowers.

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

Transitions

Dismiss the children to the next activity by first letter in the children’s name. Say (and write the letter), “If your name starts with the letter R you may go to the next activity.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; increases in ability to notice the beginning letters in familiar words.

Dear Parent- today we read an alphabet book. You can help your child learn the letters of the alphabet by working with him/her to recognize and name the letters that make his/her name. Magnet alphabets on the refrigerator are a fun way for children to play and with letters.

Resources

This simple text story and wonderful bright pictures makes it easy for children to see all that goes into building a house.

Materials

Pictures of tools
Several large boxes, the bigger the better!
A sharp knife/Exacto blade
5 paintbrushes 2-3 inch width and also rollers
Pictures of animal homes
Block center blueprints
Box of graham crackers, can of frosting, string licorice cut into small pieces

Vocabulary

Before Reading the Story

Open the book up to the page that reads,” The house is built”. Ask the children to help name all the parts of a house (window, door, roof, wall, chimney, and step). Ask the children if they know who the people are that help to build houses, perhaps a parent does some sort of construction. Explain to the children that it takes lots of people to help build a house. Turn to the front cover and introduce the book.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Reading the Story

Take your time on each page and talk about what the people are doing. Talk about the tools and name the objects. Point out all the work that goes into building a house.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND 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

Ask the children if they can remember the kinds of work/ers that build the house. If they are having trouble recalling do a walk through of the book one more time and see if the children can recall what is happening on each page. Show the children the last page where the family is moving in. Ask the children to think about where things go on the inside of the house. Where would you put the oven (kitchen)? Where would you put the bed, your toothbrush, the TV, the car, etc)?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction and poetry. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Discover

Make two copies of the animal in their homes cards and cover the back so the children cannot see through the paper. Use these to play Memory with the children. Mix all the cards and lay out on the table picture side down. The children take turns picking up two cards. If they match, they get to keep them. If they do not match they must put the cards back on the table picture side down where they found them. Have the children take turns picking up 2 cards until all the pairs have been found.

Music and Movement

Teach the finger play, Houses.

This is a nest for the Bluebird Cup both hands, palms up fingers together

This is the hive for the bee Make a fist with one hand

This is a hole for the rabbit Make a hole placing fingers to thumb

And this is a house for me. Fingertips from both hands together to make a peak

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

Blocks

Make block blueprints and put in center along with hard hats. To keep these for repeated use, cover them with contact paper. As the children build with the blocks today, encourage them to read the blueprints and see if they can make the structure using your classroom blocks. I have included several examples under resources but this works best when you use your own classroom blocks and the skill levels of your children to build.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing patterns and shapes, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Art

Explain to the children that you are going to build houses. Give each child 3 graham crackers and a tiny bit of frosting. First show them how to carefully break the graham crackers in half to get 6 squares and then them how to spread the frosting on the edges of the cracker to use for paste. Put on the walls and the roof. Use small pieces of licorice strings to embellish with windows and doors. Glue embellishments on with frosting.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence/grows in abilities to persist and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences. AND Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

Add dampened sand today and encourage the children to dig burrows and make caves.

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

Have the children to draw a picture of their house. Ask the children to tell you three things about their house (the door is red, my room is upstairs, I got a window that looks at the street). Write their responses at the bottom of the page. Put all the pictures in a book form and title it Whose House? As you read the pages, the children can guess whose house it is.

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

Dramatic Play

Put out any play tools you have and let the children pretend to build a house. Add flashlight, tape measure or ruler, and hard hats.

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

Math and Manipulatives

On index cards write numbers 1-5. Use the tool pictures and ask the children to name the item. Repeat back the object clapping out the syllables. Ask the child to count the syllables while they repeat/clap the word. Put the item above the correct number index card. How many items have one syllable, two syllables, etc..

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects,

Outdoor Play

Bring out any large boxes that you have collected. Put paint into large enough containers that the children can easily get the paintbrushes and rollers into it. Put the boxes with the opening facing down. Allow the children to paint the boxes to make houses. With the children decide where the teacher will cut the windows and doors once the paint dries. Let the children use the houses on the playground.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Transitions

Hold up a tool card. Can the child name the tool? Can they tell how the tool is used or pantomime using the tool? Let the children take turns naming tools as they go to their next activity.

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.

Dear Parent- Today we read a story about building a home. Take a walk through your house today and see if your child can name all the different rooms and their purpose. Or, open up your home tool box and show your child the various tools that you use to keep up and maintain your home. If possible, give your child a scrap of wood so that they may experience hammering, screwing, and sawing.