A Cake All For Me!, by Karen Magnuson Beil

Pig is making a cake, all for himself but just as he is about to eat it some friends stop by. Will he share his cake with his friends? Count along to find the answer.

Materials

White cake mix
Bag of chocolate chips
Assorted colors of food coloring
A plastic spoon and cup for each child
Flour sifters and egg whips
Graters and a bag of carrots
3 empty one gallon milk jugs and cups for pouring and scooping.
An index card for each child with their name printed on it.

Vocabulary

Share (to let somebody use something, to give part of what you have to someone else)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what it means to share. Give examples of how you have seen the children share among themselves over the last day or two (I remember yesterday when Roger shared his markers with Kerry, that was being a good friend. I liked when I saw Sean let Alison have a turn on the bike).

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Reading the Story

Practice reading the story beforehand so that you have a nice rhythm as this is written in poem form. Point out some of the actions as you read. Also stop after 1,2, get out the moo. Ask the children if they think they know what ‘moo’ means in the story.

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

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if Pig was a good friend, why? Talk about the importance of sharing. Tell the children sometimes it is hard to share but when you do it lets another person know you are friends.

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; shows progress in developing friendships with peers.

Discovery

Make up the white cake mix according to directions. Scoop it into equal portions to make one plastic cup per child. Ask each child what color cake they would like to make. Drop the appropriate food coloring into their mix and give them a spoon to mix well. Have each child count out 5-10 chocolate chips and drop them into their batter. Continue to mix. Have a cupcake pan/s ready. The children (you may have to help) scoop their batter into a cupcake pan to make a class cake. Cook and cool before eating. If you like you can spread with a thin layer of cool whip as frosting. Yummy

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to 10 and beyond.

Music and Movement

Sing 1 Little 2 Little 3 Little children (sung to 1 Little 2 Little 3 Little Indians)

1 little 2 little 3 little children

4 little 5 little 6 little children

7 little 8 little 9 little children

10 children baking a cake! Yum!

Then count down 10-1 eating the cake! Yum!

Hold up fingers as you sing the numbers. Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and beginning to match sets.

Do Patty Cake Patty Cake with the children but change out the letter to match children’s names and see if they can fill in the name where you would have said “For baby and me”. With children who are just learning to recognize letters, make the letter sound also so the children can hear the letter sound before they guess.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; associates sounds with written words, such as awareness that different words begin with the same sound.

Blocks

Bring in a pan from the dramatic center and encourage the children to make a stove/oven that they can bake a cake in.

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

Art

Get out the play dough and your cookie cutters to pretend making cookies. Put out pieces of cardboard to put the cookies on so they can go in the oven.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Sand and Water

Put sifters in to the table with sand. Also egg whips, measuring cups, and several bowls. Encourage the children to pretend to be bakers making a cake.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Library and Writing

Ask the children if they have a favorite recipe. Ask them how it is made, dictate their directions onto a piece of paper. They can then go through magazines to see if they can find their favorite food. Let them cut it out and glue it to their recipe.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in abilities to initiate and respond appropriately in conversation and discussions with peers and adults. AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and play.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to pretend to bake or cook a yummy treat. Add the book to the center as a reference guide. Or add a cookbook that has many pictures of food.

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.

Math and Manipulatives

Bring in several graters and a bag of carrots for the children to try their hand at grating. Remind them to be careful to not grate too close to the end or they might scrape their knuckles.

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

Outdoor play

Put the empty milk jugs into the sand box along with a variety of cups to scoop and pour. Challenge the children to pour the sand into the jugs and count how many scoops it took ( 16 cups=gallon, 8 pints=gallon)

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

Transitions

Write each child’s name on an index card. Tape the index cards onto the wall in front where the children can clearly see the names. Tell the children that you are going to pretend that this is a delicious cake. Now teach your children the following poem; Down around the corner at the bakery shop, there was a beautiful cake with icing on top. Along came (child’s name) all alone, and she took a piece of cake and then went home. The child then comes up and finds their name among the names hanging on the wall.

Literacy/Print awareness; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters are grouped together to form words, and words are separated by spaces.

Dear Parent- Today we read a story about a pig who got to bake a cake. Find a time this week when your child can help cook something in the kitchen. It can be as simple as pouring milk into cereal or as complicated as baking and frosting a cake. Not only is it fun but following a recipe requires math skills and watching a cake rise in the oven involves science!

A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams

Imagine how you would feel if your home caught on fire! This is the story of a girl named Rosa and her family that this happened to. Her friends and neighbors all pitch in to help her family but still there was something missing. Through hard savings they finally had the money for that one last item they dreamed about; a chair for her Mother.

Materials

5-10 pennies for each child
Box of salt
Jar of vinegar
A variety of real or play coins

Vocabulary

Tips (a gift of money for a job well done)
Spoiled (to be ruined)
Sofa (another name for couch or davenport)

Before Reading the Story

Bring a chair to the rug to read from today. Ask the children if they have ever lost something that was really special to them. Let them talk about how they felt (sad, angry). Tell the children that our story today is about a family that lost everything, all their clothes and toys and furniture because a big fire burned it all up. Give the children time to talk about any fire experience that they may have had. Hold up the back of the book with the picture of the chair and introduce the story.

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

Read the story using emotion.

After Reading the Story

Turn to the page where the neighbors were bringing Rosa’s family things for their new house. Ask the children if they thought their friends and neighbors were being kind? Ask the children what they would have given to Rosa’s family? Take a few minutes and talk about fire and fire safety. What should you do if your house catches on fire (get out, call 911, find your parent, call “help,help,help” if you are inside, get down low to the floor)

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

Discovery

Give each child 5-10 pennies. Ask them to sort them by shiny pennies and not shiny pennies. Ask them to count how many shiny pennies they have, how many not shiny, how many total, Let the children mix a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of vinegar, and 5 teaspoons of water into a small bowl. Put a couple pennies into the bowl and stir. Take the pennies out and wipe dry with a paper towel. The mixture helps remove the tarnish and make the pennies shiny. When they are finished have them put their pennies into a jar like Rosa and her family did in the story.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate, and name “how many” concrete objects. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge & Skills; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the song/chant I’ve Got a Penny sung to the chorus of Playground in my Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slp69VwEj4w

I’ve got a penny, I’ve got a penny

I’ve got a penny shiny and new.

I’m gonna buy all kinds of candy

That’s what I’m gonna do.

Put a variety of coins in a bag. Take turns picking out and naming the coin. Replace the word penny with the appropriate coin name. Let the child then decide what they are going to buy (Kerry’s gonna buy all kinds of headbands, that’s what she’s gonna do).

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

Blocks

Put fire trucks into the center. Encourage the children to build houses and act out being fire persons. For older children ask them if they can build a fire house. Can they include a roof?

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

Make a group chair collage. Have the children go through magazines and furniture ads and cut out pictures of chairs. When you finish the collage, the children can tell which chair is their favorite and write their name beside.

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.

Sand and Water

Water play today. Add turkey baster, hosing, and funnels.

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

Library and Writing

Remind the children that Rosa was saving to buy a chair for her mother. Ask the children to draw a picture of what they would buy their Mom if they had $100.00. Write their response under their picture. ‘I would buy a ______for my Mother.’

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

Dramatic Play

Add play money and cash register. Remind the children that Rosa’s Mom was a waitress at a restaurant. Encourage the children to pretend to play restaurant taking turns being the waitress, the cook, and the customers. Add a cash register and pretend money along with a real or home-made menu.

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

Math and Manipulatives

In a clean egg carton, glue 2 pennies head/tail, 2 nickels head/tail, 2 dimes head/tail, and 2 quarters head/tail side by side. Use the four extra egg cups to hold a variety of coins. Explain that the glued ones show the front and back of each coin. Have the children sort the loose coins into the appropriate coin cup (it does not matter if it’s heads/tails). Make sure they wash their hands afterwards as money is known to be dirty.

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

Outdoor Play

Teach the children how to play Categories. Teacher picks a category (things in your kitchen, kinds of clothes, fruits). You can either toss a bean bag to a child who then must answer or if you have a slide, the child must answer before he/she can go down the slide.

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

Transitions

Have the children sit in a circle. In the center of the circle put a chair. Give each child a block and take turns asking them to put them on, under, beside, in front, behind, near, and far from the chair. Each child can be given one or two directions before they head off to the next activity.

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

Dear Parents- Today we read a story about a family whose household belongings burnt in a fire. Although this might be a subject that is a little scary to talk about with your child, it is important. Show your child how to dial 911 (do not really call). Talk about what to do and where to go if there is ever a family emergency and you get separated (go to the neighbors house, the mailbox, the lamp post at the end of the block). It is important that children learn what you want them to do when there is not an emergency going on. Talk to them calmly and answer all their questions. Who knows, this may one day save yours or their life.

May I Bring A Friend? By Beatrice Schenk De Regniers

A little boy is invited to tea with the king and queen. He does not want to come alone and asks if he may bring his friends. This fun story is told in rhyme.

Materials

Animal Graph (the graph pictures were copied from a 5 year olds art)
Large pitcher and several herbal tea bags such as peppermint or lemon
One sheet of yellow construction paper per child to make a giraffe

Vocabulary

Evaporate (vanish/disappear, as into the dry sand)
Zoo (a home where many wild animals live)

Introducing the Story

Ask the children if they have ever invited a friend over to their house for a meal or to play. Allow them a few minutes to talk about any experiences they might have had. If you do not get any responses, tell the children about a time you invited someone over for a meal. Steer the conversation towards friendship and how sharing time together is fun whether at school or at home.

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

On the pages where the boy says, “So I brought a friend”, pause and encourage the children to say it along with you. Then turn the page and see if the children can name the animal that the boy brought along.

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

After Reading the Story

Challenge the children to name all the animals that were in the story today. Ask them where all the animals might live? Ask if anyone has ever been to the zoo? Give the children a moment to talk about any zoo experiences that they have had. Make a graph of all the animals that were in the story today and ask each child which one is their favorite. Write their name under the animal picture and hang on the wall. Count the votes for each animal and write the number beside.

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

Music and Movement

Sing your days of the week song with the children. If you do not have a song you sing, make up a chant and teach it to them.

Mon-day, Tues-day,

Wednes-day, Thurs-day, Fri-day.

Sat-ur-day, Sun-day

The days of the week

(clap out the syllables as you sing or chant)

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

Put on some music and do animal walks. Jump like a kangaroo, lumber like an elephant, use your hands to pull you like a seal, jump around like a monkey, stand on one leg like a flamingo, gallop like a horse.

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

Discovery

Remind the children that on Sunday the King and Queen invited the boy to come for tea. Fill a large pitcher with water and add 4-6 herbal tea bags. Explain to the children that you are going to make sun-tea. Put the pitcher out, covered, somewhere where there is some sun and let the children watch as the tea infuses into the water changing the color. Give it an hour or two and then let the children sample.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships.

Blocks

Add animals to the center today. Encourage the children to make cages/fences and sort the animals by like kinds.

Mathematics/Geometry & Operations; shows growth in matching, sorting, putting in series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Art

Tell the children that today you are going to make giraffes with long necks like the one that came for tea. Holding piece of construction paper the tall way, draw a line from top to bottom about 4 inches from the side. On the other part of the paper draw an oval. Let the children cut along the lines making a long strip and an oval. Show them how to attach the oval to the top of the strip, this is the giraffe’s head. Put out small plates of paint and show the children how to dip their finger and stamp up and down, up and down. These will become the spots of the giraffe. Have the children add a face with markers or paint.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.

Sand and Water

Ask the children if they can remember which animal in the story likes to swim in water most of the day (Seal). Tell the children they can be like the seals today and play in the water. Put out your favorite water table toys today and let the children enjoy playing in it.

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.

Library and Writing

On index cards, write the names of the children in your classroom, one per card. Encourage the children to find their name and their friends name and to practice writing them on their paper.

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 own name.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to pretend to cook today. As they are playing, ask them, “May I bring a friend?” and allow another child who might be interested to join the play. Challenge them to think about what they need to do to make room for another child in the center. Do they need more chairs, plates, etc.? Let the center fill up with more children than are normally allowed to play. What do they need to do to accommodate any extra friends? Watch carefully if the center starts to get too crowded and encourage them to problem solve instead of fight. We only have 5 plates but there are 6 of you, what should we do? (When I have done this, I have had children volunteer to share a plate and chair and to also leave the center. I had one child suggest that she could eat out of a pan).

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Math and Manipulatives

Use whatever classroom counters you might have. I use one-inch cubes to play. Ask the child to put 1-3 counters on the table. After they have done this, ask them to add one more. Then let the child count how many they have. Ask them to add one more and again count how many they have. Children who are able to count one more, you can ask them to add 2 more and when they get close to 10, ask them to take one away, now how many do you have?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate and name “how many” concrete objects.

Outdoor Play

Add some water to the sandbox today and let the children experiment using damp sand to make sand cakes. Watch their faces as the water evaporates into the dry sand. Explain to them that because the sand is dry, the water evaporates into it. Add more water and see what happens.

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

Transitions

If you line up to go anywhere, ask the children if they would like to call a friend to join them. When there is only one child left say, “Oh good, a friend for me” and let that child be in line with you.

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

Dear Parents- Today we read a story about a boy and his friends. Ask your child who some of the boys friends were. Then ask them to tell you about who some of their friends are at school and what they enjoy doing together.

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