Small Group

Lesson Plans
For Weeks: 10/6-10/10, 10/13-10/17, 10/20-10/24
Based off of collective anecdotal notes, and observations of the students interests.
2014
One of the following small group ideas will take place each day this week:
1. Originating Idea- During morning drop off I observed several students playing with the flashlights we
recently introduced. They were pointing them through different objects in the classroom to see if the
light would come through. I think this is a good time to introduce the light boxes and experiment with
colors and sorting.
Materials Needed: (Each student will have their own set of the following to themselves) Smaller
disposable roasting pan with lid that has been covered in frost paint, LED Battery Operated touch light,
plastic colored disks (blue, green, yellow, red.). Large bins with slots cut in the tops to slide disks
through for sorting.
Curriculum Content: Introducing a new tool (light boxes and colored disks), Science and Technology
(sorting), Language and Lit (Describing objects, speaking with other students and adults)
Beginning (opening statement): Yesterday during morning drop off I noticed some of you using the
flashlight to shine through different things in the classroom. I thought it would be interesting to see what
would happen when we used this light box and these colored disks together. I am interested in seeing
what you try. I also have these bins for you to use if you would like.
Middle: Earlier: Place the disks on the light box, perhaps stack them on top of one another. Strategy:
limit the students colored disks and bins to two colors only. So they will not be overwhelmed by options
and can build familiarity with those two colors. Also through discussion begin to encourage the student
to label the colors and add large color pictures to bins to assist with color association. Middle: Name
colors as they place them on the light box, and begin to sort them into different boxes. Also probably
stack them on one another. Strategy: Add more colors one by one. Discussion encourages vocalizations
of their observations of what happens with the colors when stacked. Wow that is a tall stack you have
made. I really enjoy the colors you used. Add words to the color labels on bins for sorting. Later:
Stacking the colors in different combinations and taking note of the new color that shines through;
perhaps noting that the light becomes less bright with the more disks that are added. Strategy: Add in all
colors to their baskets and model counting and sorting colors into piles. Give them colored pensile with
white paper and invite them to use these new materials to record what their colors are doing on the box.
End: These light boxes and colored disks are a new supply in our room. Does anyone have any ideas on
where we can keep them so we can use them again later if you would like? Wait for response. Have a
short discussion on new location. Inform them that we have 3 minutes before review time begins.
Encourage students to assist in picking up materials and putting them in the new light box and colors
area. Ask students how they would like to move to their recall journals.
Follow up Ideas- Add different disks with letters and numbers to that area with the light boxes; Also
putting paper and markers or crayons nearby to see if they try to draw on top of the light boxes.
2. Originating Idea: Noticed the students general interest in building and designing cities. They also really
enjoy the book, Shape Song Sing Along by Steve Songs. This book discusses shapes in art and
everyday life, I would like to link shapes and art together for a building art project.
Materials: Shape Song Sing Along by Steve Songs, CD player, wooden blocks, paint, paint brushes,
large sheets of white paper. Markers crayons, extra photos of buildings and things from the everyday
world.
Curriculum Content: Having fun with language: listening to rhyming words, visual arts: Relating things
to real things, building models. Language development. Shape recognition. Music: singing songs.
Beginning: When one student has arrived, I will begin by talking about the book we are going to be
reading and exploring today. This is the Shape Song Sing Along by Steve Songs. I was noticing how
everyone has been using the wooden blocks to build a city yesterday. This book talks about how we can
do the exact same thing with shapes. Lets have a listen, and please sing a long if you would like too.
Once book was over a brief discussion would follow. Then each child would turn to their own basket of
paints, brushes, wooden blocks of various shapes, and a large white sheet of paper. I thought it would
be very interesting to see what we could do with our own shapes and paints.
Middle: Early: They will probably paint and stamp their blocks randomly on their paper. Just trying to
paint the whole shape and get the image on the paper. Strategy: By providing them with examples of
simple building forms like a tree with a rectangle for a trunk and a circle for the branches, or a house
with a square body and a triangle rough. Then perhaps they could match up the images on their own and
try to replicate them or make their own structures. Middle: My middle learner will probably build some
simple structures, having angles and lines meet up as closely as possible. They would also be naming
some of the shapes out loud as they used them. Strategy: I could provide them with the book so they
could go back to the part where Steve Songs sings about drawing a city full of shapes and beach. To
give them more ideas and examples for what they could create. Later: these students would be building
more intricate structures that would resemble everyday building and things we see. They would also be
using each shapes name out loud as they used it. Strategy: Through discussion with them about their
pictures, using open ended questions and positive comments only, we could discuss which shapes
worked best for which buildings and what they were imagining their picture to be.
End: After finishing visiting which each student I would comment on the time and how we needed to
be finishing up with where we were. I would ask, Where do you think the best place for our pictures to
dry is? and then encourage each student to please put there blocks and paint brushes in the sink and to
put the paints back into the art area.
Follow up: We could revisit our paintings while they hang up on the wall, listening to the shape song
book again. And we would continue to use the wooden blocks with the photo examples of different
structures. While on our nature walks we could play shape eye spy when we looked around in nature.
3. Originating idea: The weather outside has been beautiful and the students really want to head outdoors. I
would love for them to explore the woods in the backyard play area. And recently we have been playing
eye spy with colors a lot.
Materials: Good weather, a Rainbow of Paint Chip Cards with a large hole punched in each one, the will
be bound together with a binder ring. A bucket with a handle to collect their color samples in.
Curriculum Content: Gross Motor movement: running, jumping, and walking. Building language skills,
and exploring the outside world.
Beginning: I will have each students jacket waiting at the table along with their own rainbow eye spy
book. As we put on our jackets I will say, Once upon a time there lived a king, who demanded that his
subjects find the new set of royal castle colors. He gave each one of his scavengers a color map to make
sure that the colors they found were allowed in the kingdom and a bucket to bring back what they found.
Our job is to hunt in the royal forest for all of the colors needed.
Middle: Early: the early learner will probably run around and hop from area to area. Mainly focusing on
one possibly two colors. Strategy: By finding example colors on my own, I could point out a few
examples and ask some open ended questions on what they found or are looking for. And we could talk
about the colors and how they look. Middle: While running around and exploring they would hit most
of their colors, naming them as they go. Filling their buckets with many examples of one or two colors
they can find. Strategy: By talking about the contents in their buckets and getting them to stop and
compare it to what is in their color map. Perhaps I could engage them into hunting for more difficult
colors to find. Later: Running around finding as many colors as the back yard could offer. Using the
holes in the books to compare each shade of color to whats on the card. Also they will describe the
difference between the shades. Strategy: giving them a sketch book so they could try and draw pictures
of the items that were too big to be brought inside.
End: I would call all of the Royal scavengers together and say it was time to bring the king the colors
that we found. Everyone would go inside, hang their jackets up and then I would invite them to grab
their recall journals; Where they could use tape or glue to secure their treasures down.
Follow up: As my small group students began to make their color colleges, I will walk around and
discuss where they found the best colors, which was their favorite and which color was the easiest to
find.
4. Originating idea: I really wanted to work on language and literacy. Particularly an interest in letters and
writing. Lately students have been showing an interest in textures and last week we tried doing leaf
rubbings with leafs we found on the playground.
Materials: Sandpaper Alphabet cards, paper, pealed crayons.
Curriculum Content: Sensory and texture discovery. Language and Literacy: Writing of any kind. Arts:
drawing, rubbing. Speaking out loud (to trade cards or color crayons with other students to try new
letters).
Beginning: I will begin by introducing the new sandpaper letters to everyone, and I would be passing out
two or three letters to each student. I will model how I like to feel the letter with two fingers at a time.
Oh this paper feels interesting; I wonder what you will think of the texture. After we have discussed
the texture for a few minutes I will remind the students of last week when we did our coin rubbings in
our recall journals. I would then model how to do a rubbing of my letter.
Middle: Early: I believe the early learner will be caught up in the texture of each letter and will just
want to keep feeling it with their fingers. They will have difficulties naming each letter which is okay.
Strategy: I would work to find them the first letter in their name and talk a little bit about the shape of
the letter as we felt it. Then we could add in the sound of their name as we felt the letter with our
fingers. Middle: They will feel the letters they have very quickly and then want to try more and more of
the different letters. They may identify the first letter in their name and want to try doing a rubbing of
that on their paper. Strategy: I would place their laminated name card in front of them and comment on
how well they did on their first letter. We would work with other students to try trading for the second
letter in our name and becoming familiar with that until we have our name completely traced out and
ready to add to our recall journal. Later: these students will have quickly felt each letter and begun to
make simple color patterns with their names. Strategy: I would discuss their color patterns with them
and give them more colors next time to make more intricate patterns and give them some examples of
other words they could try and trace out. Also I could provide them with some numbers and lowercase
letters to also try.
End: I would let the children decide where the new sandpaper letters should be in our classroom and
invite them to come back and work with them whenever they would like too. I would then let them
know that there is only 3 minutes until large group time and ask them how they would like to clean up.
Follow up: adding in number to the sandpaper letters along with lowercase letters as well.
5. Originating idea: The students have been very interested in music lately. Id like to build on the idea of
making our own music and art.
Materials: Bells of different sizes attached to paint brush handles with pipe cleaners, paper and paints. A
paint smock.
Curriculum content: Music: Exploring and identifying sounds, playing simple musical instruments,
Visual Art: painting
Beginning: I will give each student their basket of materials and invite them to explore them. I wonder
what you could make with all of these things?
Middle: Early: Begin by shaking the brushes on their own first then add paint and begin painting
quickly attempting to make a lot of sounds. Moving the brush from one side of the paper to the other
very rapidly. Strategy: Through discussion talk about what they imagine they are painting. Perhaps try
and see how slowing down changes the sound of their bells and how their painting looks. Middle: They
will experiment with sound and speed. Perhaps comment on the changes out loud. Strategy: Engage in
one on one conversation with what they have noticed about the changes trying to build more compare
and contrast dialog. Late: Moving the brush around the paper perhaps playing a simple melody or
making their very own song up. Strategy: Talk with them about how the music has made their picture
look, ask open ended questions about what they think of the different sounds the bells make between the
biggest and smallest.
End: Announce that lunch time is only a few minutes away, and ask the students if they would like to
keep the bells on the paint brushes to use at a later time? Eventually agree on where they should now be
kept. Ask one of them how they would like to move their pictures from our table to the drying rack.
Follow up: Add other instruments to the art area to see how music influences the art they create. See if
anyone tries to write down their music as they play. Make sure to have examples of sheet music out for
them to explore and study.


6. Originating Idea: Outside at recess students were looking in a large pot hole, they noticed that rocks and
some toys had sunk to the bottom while leafs and paper were still on top. I want to set up a similar idea
in the classroom with objects around the room.
Materials: Tubs filled with water, small tray of different objects (hot wheels car, cotton ball, cork,
marble, toy boat, horse, dinosaur, sticky note laid flat, sticky note crumpled up, pensile, crayon, Unix
cube.) towels for each student, and towels to stand on to prevent slipping.
Curriculum Content: Science and Tech, Exploring and describing similarities and differences and the
attributes of something. Making predictions based off what they think or know.
Beginning: Short story, one day there was a little school house mouse who loved to go on adventures.
He wanted to be a pirate more than anything in the whole world. But before the mouse can set off on the
high seas, they need to know what things from the classroom would make a good pirate ship. Then I
would explain to them that we need to help this mouse find out what he should build his pirate ship out
of using what is in our trays. I would then start a discussion on what makes a good pirate ship. We
would talk about how it needs to float to keep the pirates safe. So the question is, will it float or will it
sink?
Middle: Early: Dump all of the materials in at once, begin to poke at the ones that are on the top.
Strategy: Discuss which ones floated and which did not. Perhaps encourage them to pull some objects
out and try again to see if they can repeat the results. Middle: Drop in one or two at a time, pausing
slightly between each one to see if they slowly sink down into the water. Strategy: talk about what they
think might happen. Then discuss the results. I wonder why the car sank so fast to the bottom. And go
from there. Later: Place one item in at a time slowly and wait to see the results. Remark on any changes
that are made over time. I.e. the cotton ball originally floated but now it sank. Strategy: Give them paper
to try and record what they find, model how I would try it, discuss aloud why some things sank and
floated, and why they may have changed over time.
End: I would sing the five more minutes left song and ask the students to carefully take out all the
objects in the water. And ask them to carefully dump out their bins, providing help where needed.
Follow up: I would put those same materials back at the water table for future experiments and include
materials to tie one object to another. For example, could a cork keep a hot wheel car from sinking?
7. Originating Idea: a few of the students expressed an interest in wanting to know what my green bins,
full of paper, and plastic where for. Also Earth day is just around the corner and our community is really
into recycling. Its never something to start too early.
Materials: Large space to work in with plenty of room to move, Note cards with pictures of plastic,
trash, and paper on them attached to each childs three bins. A pile of recyclable and none recyclable
materials for each child.
Curriculum Content: Math, Seriation, comparing attributes, Science, Classification, Sorting and
matching.
Beginning: we would start at our own classroom recycling bins and take a look at what was inside,
newspaper from an old project, paper scraps from when we were cutting things out, and plastic yogurt
cups, water bottles and cardboard boxes from snack time. We would talk about what we saw and what
we felt. And we would notice what was not there. (Trash) Then move out to the gym or outside yard and
I would present each child with their piles and bins, and invite them to try some recycling of their own.
Middle: Early: easily separate the trash from the pile and throw it away. Might struggle with
remembering where everything else belongs. Strategy: Talk to them about what is in their pile and
compare it to what is in the pictures on each of the bins. Perhaps take down the number of objects and
categories in their piles, invite them to seek help from a different classmate. Middle: Sort trash and
plastic quite easily, may struggle with remembering where the cardboard goes. Strategy: talk to them
about how the cardboard feels and what it may remind them of. Also reminding them to look at the
pictures on the bins for help as well. Later: probably sort through everything quickly. Strategy: tell
them about reusing some materials. Invite them to come up with ideas on how to reuse some of these
items in our classroom right now.
End: ask everyone to work together to finish sorting the piles and bring the bins inside so we can get
ready for specials. Ask them how they would like to bring the bins in? Move accordingly.
Follow up: Ask the students to help me recycle more every day and send home a newsletter on what we
learned today and invite students to help recycle at home.
8. Originating Idea: Lately the students have been interested in measuring things. I would like to include
this with some mathematics like counting and realizing what is bigger or smaller than another thing.
Materials: Mega Blocks, Dinosaurs, animals and doll house furniture.
Curriculum Content: Mathematics: Numbers comparing the numbers of things in two sets to determine
fewer or more or the same number, One to one correspondence. Roll counting. Space, fitting
things together and taking them apart.
Beginning: I would explain their materials; everyone has a dinosaur, piece of doll house furniture, and
an animal; Along with a pile of mega blocks. What do you think we could do to settle who is the
biggest?
Middle: early: fitting mega blocks together without comparing them to the animals or objects. Perhaps
building a structure for them to climb on. Strategy: Assist the child in standing up all the objects in their
bin, putting them close together and putting their mega blocks along side of them. Middle: starting to
build towers in accordance to how tall each thing is. Lining towers up to see which one looks taller.
Arranging the animals in high from tallest to shortest or vice versa. Strategy: Talking about the towers
heights, assisting with some roll counting and one to one correspondence. Later: Counting aloud, lining
up the towers and objects in the right order. Strategy: Give them crayons and a paper to color their
results. So they can keep track of which one was the smallest or tallest.
End: Start to take down my own tower, and count them aloud as I toss them into the bucket one at a
time. Invite children to help me. Ask them to put their materials away and move however they would
like too to get ready for large group time.
Follow up- Give them more materials to measure with, like a ruler, uni fix cubes, tape, post its. And
modeling how many different things one person could measure.
9. Originating Idea: Yesterday a few students were using tongs from the kitchen center to pick up their toys
after morning work time. I thought we could apply the same idea to a counting activity.
Materials: Corks, Egg Carton only 6 openings, Tongs, and a bin.
Curriculum Content: Math: Space, filling and emptying, roll counting, one to one correspondence. Fine
motor building
Beginning: talk about the materials offered to them. Model how I plan to use my materials. Explaining
that they do not have to do the same as what I am doing. I will count aloud as I put each cork into the
little egg carton.
Middle: Early: Struggle to pick up a cork with the tongs, let alone transfer the cork into the egg carton.
They will practice just trying to close the pinchers completely while grabbing the corks. Strategy:
Allowing them more time to practice with the tongs outside of class and possibly give them slightly
larger tongs that were easier for their hands to use. Middle: pick up cork with the tongs, transfer to egg
carton. Dump out after then May or may not count, depending on how hard they are concentrating.
Strategy: Allow them to become more comfortable using the tongs and eventually start to count quietly
along for them. See if they follow my lead and then when I stop if they keep going. Later: they will fill
and empty many times, trying to add more and more corks each time and see what a difference it makes.
Strategy: Larger egg carton with more than six spots, give them smaller tongs to work with to continue
to challenge their motor skills.
End: Ask the students where they would like to keep these new fun materials? Ask them how they
would like to take all of those things over to the new area. Like the math area or the kitchen.
Follow up- include using the tongs with more activities whether counting is involved or not.
10. Originating Idea: Cars have been very popular in our class, and so has the discussion about where we
live and our neighborhood.
Materials: Blue print size print out of a neighborhood with streets, signs, houses with numbers, and a
park with a playground. Multiple cars for each child, crayons, markers.
Curriculum Content: Math, Space experiencing and describing positions, directions, and distances in the
play space, building and neighborhood. The arts, Dramatic art, Pretending and role playing, imitating
actions and sounds.
Beginning: One day a bird flew over a town, and this is what she saw. What do you think our
neighborhood looks like from way up there?
Middle: Early: driving a car all over the mat, coloring different objects as they wanted too. Strategy:
ask open ended questions about their house and what they like about their home. Just to start the dialog
going, I would back off once the students had begun to talk with one another. Middle: They may claim
a house as their own and park a car on top of it. They may scribble and color it in. Strategy: talk about
some of their favorite things that they get to do around their house, asking open ended questions and
driving cars around with them. Also wonder aloud how far is the park from their home? Late: Claim a
house of their own and started to decorate it. While they add decorations to the house and yard. They
may claim out loud that they are living in house number 13 and they are 4 cars away from the
playground. Strategy: Give them more crayons and ask them what they think the playground should
look like. Also wonder aloud how far they are from the school building. Talk about solutions for solving
the measuring problem. Provide whatever materials they require.
End: Announce that its time for all cars to pull into the garage and for the drivers to wash their hands
for before lunch. I will remind them that the car mat will be right here when they come back so they can
complete what they were doing in their busy town.
Follow up: Laminate the car mat so that it can be played multiple times, and leave it in the car building
area. Encourage children who are up to it, to build their own structures on top of the mat.








11. Originating Idea: I wanted to include more language and literacy skills into our small group and I was
intrigued by watching my students try to fish a ball out of the pond in our outside area.
Materials: Small Fish tank net, ping pong balls, large tub filled with water, laminated name plates, and
milk caps (enough for each letter in their name). Towels to dry up spills.
Curriculum Content: Language and literacy, reading in various ways, anchored movement, fine motor
skills, hand eye coordination.
Beginning: After the first student arrives I will invite them to begin to explore their materials. I would
say, I wonder what we can do with all of this stuff? I could then model how I fish out a ball with my
net and place it on the inside of a milk cap so it doesnt roll away.
Middle: Early: Attempt to fish out the balls with the net, possibly get frustrated and use their hand
instead to just match the number of caps they were given to balls. So they can measure how many ping
pong balls their name is worth. Strategy: Encourage them to keep trying with the net, and when they
become comfortable with that and are able to coordinate the actions and catch the ball, I could add the
first letter of their name to the mix and see if they can begin to recognize it. Middle: these students are
able to catch balls easily, but struggle to recognize their letters in their names. Strategy: Pull their name
plate closer and gently remind them to slow down when looking at the letters on the balls. Trying to
match up their letters like a puzzle. Perhaps convince them that this is a fishing game and they are on the
hunt for the fishies with their letters. Later: able to recognize the letters in their names and fish the
letters out easily. Strategy: Add additional letters to make it slightly trickier to find the right letters.
End: Encourage students to participate in conversation in the length of their names. Let them know that
recall time is in a few minutes and ask them to get all of the balls out of their buckets, and into the big
bucket in the middle. Ask them how they would like to go and get their recall journals.
Follow up: Give them opportunities to keep practicing using the net to get ping pong balls by adding
them to our water table. Also to make sure they know where their names are along with milk caps to
keep trying to match up the letters of their names.
12. Curriculum Content: I was noticing my students making faces at one another in the mirror and getting a
lot of enjoyment out of it. I think we could build this into our social and emotional KDI.
Materials: Handheld Mirrors, Pencils, Paper, crayons, markers, scraps of paper and glue sticks or the
glue sponge.
Curriculum Content: expressing feelings in words, visual art, drawing or creating a model.
Beginning: Id invite each student to pick up their mirror and look at their face. I would then explain that
sometimes we can tell how we feel by what our faces are telling us. I would then ask if anyone hand any
ideas how we could do this? Then we could proceed to make faces in our mirrors and try to identify one
anothers feelings; Making sure that I am an active participant as well.
Middle: Early: Making a lot of silly faces and laughing at themselves. Not really looking at anyone else
and just focused on them. Strategy: Comment on how good they are at the silly faces, ask them an open
ended question about how they come up with such good ideas. Lead into if they think of a certain things
to make them look so silly. Eventually invite them to look at the student next to them to see if they can
guess what they are thinking about too. Middle: Able to switch between two or three emotions rather
easily. Taking time to draw what their face looks like occasionally. Still not fully engaging with other
students or trying to guess what they are feeling with their face. Strategy: put laminated examples of
different facial expressions on the table, enough for everyone in the small group to at least have one.
Pick up one of the cards and model matching it up to that students own expression. Talk a little about
how the face looks. And say, I wonder if you can guess anyone elses face with the help of these clue
cards? Later: Able to produce a model of their facial expression in the medium that they choose and
have started to identify other students facial expressions. Strategy: Mention how great they are at
playing feeling detective, and talk about what makes them feel happy, sad, angry, ect. Wonder aloud
why other people feel those types of things too; Opening the door for more conversation to flow
between students.
End: Ask students where in the classroom would be a good place to keep our mirrors. They will
probably vote for the kitchen/dress up area and the art area. I will be sure to put mirrors in both places
for future use during work time. Ask them where they would like to keep their drawings of their faces?
Give them options of how to attach in their recall journals perhaps. Dismiss to put all the materials away
as a team.
Follow up: using supportive dialoged we would continue to explore feelings through our everyday play.
Asking open questions to why students or teachers may be feeling, or discussing what their faces are
telling us.
13. Originating Idea: A group of students building ramps for their cars to go down during work time.
Materials: Long wood planks, wood boxes, balls of various sizes, nice day, or access to the gym, and
photos of ramps we encounter in real life.
Curriculum Content: Art: building models, Science experiencing rates of movement, starting and
stopping on a signal, Gross motor skills of stacking, rolling, and building.
Beginning: Has anyone ever gone down a hill very quickly? I would ask, while showing them the
examples of real life ramps and hills we encounter every day. I would invite them to create what they
wanted with their materials.
Middle: Early: Stack wood blocks on top of one another as high as they can. Throw the ball at their
tower to knock it down. Strategy: Have a discussion about how quickly their parents car travels down
the hill on the way to school. Wonder aloud how we could get the ball to move fast like their parents car.
Middle: Stack blocks and add long plank of wood. Let balls move down the ramp, not changing the
height and repeating the action over and over. Strategy: Make an open comment on the speed of their
ball and ask what do they think? Attempt to model how the rates of speed change when the hill or
incline is changed. Later: Building and trying different ramps with different inclines for different
speeds; Attempting to find the fastest or slowest. Strategy: Give them a stop watch and model how it
works. Along with the stop watch I could supply them with a writing utensil and paper to record their
results.
End: Ask them whats the fastest way to move all the blocks back into our classroom? Try that method
and ask them to hang up their coats, then to move however they would like to the sink and wash their
hands for lunch.
Follow up: Building ramps with smaller models, like marble ramps with wood blocks or even books and
tennis balls. Making sure the photos of the real life ramps were in the block and building area for
inspiration.
14. Originating Idea: Watching them pretend to build with different objects, dress up as construction
workers to fix things with their tools and expressing an interest in getting to use real tools.
Materials: Play dough, golf tees, Styrofoam blocks, small hammer with claw side to pry, marbles and
gems.
Curriculum Content: Anchored Fine motor skills, Math: one to one ratio, Pretending or imagining.
Beginning: Invite them to explore their materials however they would like too and see what happens.
Middle: Early: Will pound away at everything, attempting to get the golf tees to stand on their own
without needing to hold it and using two hands with the hammer. Strategy: Model holding the golf tee
and gentally hammering it into the Styrofoam brick, narrating while I am demonstrating. Middle: They
will pound the tees into the Styrofoam easily and pull them out with their hands; Perhaps pretending to
be builders of a house or a large city building. Strategy: Invite them to use the play dough as a new
building material. And wonder aloud how many golf tees they can get to stand up in the play dough.
Later: Balancing gems and marbles on every tee and counting aloud to see how many theyve got.
Using their imaginations to create anything they want to build, still using their hands to pry up the tees.
Strategy: Talk about the parts of the hammer and the part that is called the claw. Model how to line up
the claws with a tee and pull it up to get the tee loose. Making sure to narrate the action as we go not
forgetting to encourage them to try on their own.
End: Introduce our new work bench where these materials will be all the time to work with. Invite them
to assist in setting it up by stocking and putting the bins on the shelves of the work bench.
Follow up: Continue to stock our work bench, as skills progress introduce the real nails and hammer.
Adding more tools one by one as we go down the road of learning.
15. Originating Idea: My students get a big sense of accomplishment from doing things on their own. I
would really like to include more self-care practice to our daily lessons.
Materials: Cup of water, chattering teeth wined up toy, soft bristle tooth brush, washcloth, and mirror.
Curriculum Content: Taking care of ones own needs, dramatic play, anchored fine motor movement.
Beginning: Start with a brief conversation about our teeth and the jobs that they do. Ask if anyone has
gone to the dentist before? Explain who the dentist is and talk about what they do. Also talk about how
we brush our teeth. Invite them to check out their trays. Model how to wet the brush and open the teeth
to clean them.
Middle: Early: Scrub on teeth very hard, primarily focused on the front teeth and only the outsides of
them. Strategy: have them look in the mirror at their own mouth. Talk about their back teeth and the
parts of your teeth that your tongue touches. Encourage them to try opening up the teeth to get to the
other side. Middle: Scrubbing hard at all parts of their jaws. Using a lot of water. Strategy: Bring up the
dentist again and wonder how they would touch your teeth and would they be carefully checking each
one? Later: Speaking as the dentist narrating what they are doing, trying to be careful and check every
tooth. Strategy: Encourage them to try and count how many teeth are in their mouths. Ask about how
they brush their teeth at home and what if any other things can they do on their own.
End: Notify them that in two minutes we will need our real teeth for eating snack. Ask them to help you
put the materials in the house area.
Follow up: Have a dentist come as a guest speaker, and also rally your parents and school to begin a
tooth brushing program in the classroom, so we can keep practice brushing our teeth.