Imagine That! Toys I Make Trips I Take! Spring 2012

Hello, Imagine That Preschoolers! 
I am combining the pictures of our UNI group and our Montessori group in this blog entry---as it turns out, I have pictures of the Montessori group for the "toy" activities, and pictures of the UNI group for the "seaside" activities, and not much overlap!  So by combining, you can see most of the activities we have done so far in the "Toys I Make, Trips I Take" unit this Spring!  :)

As you go through the activities and pictures, have your child show you what they have done---it may be just the catalyst to start the discussion of "What did you do in Kindermusik today?" 

The start of the unit was about a toymaker and a toy shop.  It was a fun way to start with the kids.  We pretended to be lots of different toys---A Jack In The Box, A Top, A Ball, A Toy Soldier, A Drum....and more!

Here are the Montessori Kids doing the "JACK IN THE BOX" Poem.  It goes like this:
The jack in the box jumps UP!  (Boing!)
The jack in the box goes flop  (Waahmp)  **Forgive my phonetic sound effects!!

The jack in the box goes round and round!
The lid comes down with a plop!

The Jack In The Box starts out all crunched down in the box!

The Jack In The Box JUMPS UP!!

The Jack In The Box GOES FLOP!

The Jack In The Box goes ROUND and ROUND

The lid goes down with a plop!

Then, we talked about another toy---the TOP!  This one also had a poem, but I don't have any pictures!  That's OK!  Just have your child show you!

I am a top all wound up tight
I spin and spin with all my might!
And when the spins are out of me
I lie down as quiet as can be!

Then, we tried our hand at making a top spin!  This is a great fine motor skill---it is not easy!  BUT when they get it, they are SO proud of themselves!

The next toy that we talked about was a BALL!  Such a simple toy, but so many fun games are played with a BALL!  We rolled, bounced, passed, and played catch!  It really helped our hand-eye coordination, partner play, turn taking, and fun making!
 

We even tried out being a toymaker by making 3 dimensional "toys".  The kiddos really enjoyed putting things together and telling stories about what their toys could do!

After the toymaker part of the unit, we transitioned to taking trips!  Our first "mode" of transportation was a boat.  We pretended to build a boat using our sticks as different tools.....hammer and nail, screw and screwdriver, saw, etc.  The kiddos had so many good ideas and they were very good at hammering to the beat!  The song that went with this was called "Father, Father, Build Me A Boat".  We also worked on SINGING the words to this song.  See if your little one can remember how this song goes!
Father, Father, Build Me A Boat
So On The Ocean I May Float!
La la lalala la la la la lah
La la lala lala la la la la lah!

Then we did the shapes in a boat.  The kids identified the circles, triangles, rectangles, and even....drumroll.........TRAPEZIOD!  I thought I was going to get to teach them what a trapezoid was, but they surprised me with ALREADY knowing it!!!!!  I thought I was going to faint! (When I taught 4th grade, most of my students had never heard of trapezoid, so bravo!!)

We did a listening puzzle where we pretended that we were out on the sea and there were several sounds for us to focus our listening on.  As we heard the sounds of the waves, seagulls, seals, buoy bell, and tugboat, we added that picture to the listening puzzle.  We pretended out flat sleds were boats!

Then we pretended to look and listen for other things we might hear while out on the sea!  The kids made a wonderful list of ideas.  We pretended to use binoculars for this one!  The song that we worked on was called "Out Here On The Sea" and we added our own lyrics!
Out here on the sea!
Out here on the sea!
We're looking and looking 
Out here on the sea!


I hear a ________
I hear a ________
etc.

Steady beat remains one of the BIGGEST skills we want all preschoolers to come away with.  It is the foundation of music, but is also extremely important in other skills such as dribbling a ball and cutting with scissors!

We also talked about partner clapping, and worked on making patterns such as pat-clap-pat-clap.  We did it with our own hands/own bodies and then when we got super good, we got a partner and tried coordinating our movements.  This is not easy!!  Take some time and give it a try with your child.  Think of how many neurons are firing by making a pattern and then coordinating your movements with someone else's!  And then setting it to a beat!  WOW!  The timing is so important....and so hard!