Also, I have come across 2 great sites with lists of more books about houses/homes:
Have fun reading!
Showing posts with label homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homes. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Animal Homes Books for Toddler/Preschool
We have been going to the library toddler storytime this week and I wanted to share some of the books we heard. Unfortunately my sweet little boy was being not-so-sweet today and we didn't get a chance to write down the names of the books that were read, but nevertheless, here are the ones I did remember:
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Storytime Sunday: Homes Continued
Here are 2 of the very best books about houses that I know.
"A web is a house for a spider. A bird builds its nest in a tree. There is nothing so snug as a bug in a rug and a house is a house for me!" Everything from a car to a teabag to ink has a house if you think about it long enough. I absolutely love how this book thinks outside the box for the meaning of a house. The illustrations are marvelous and I especially adore the very last 2 pages: "Each creature that's known has a house of its own and the earth is a house for us all." Think about the deeper meaning that could have!
This book is so great for younger ones. It is short and very to the point. The basics of building a house, step by step all the way to moving in. Children will love it and can easily sequence the steps or act out the story.
So some of the continuing activities we did this week about building houses include:
This is AM class's venn diagram comparing 2 different houses from different areas of the world. They were able to come up with some similarities and differences.
This, however is PM class's venn diagram. And I pretty much had to give them these answers. So, I decided with the PM class being mostly 3s, they might not be ready for this activity just yet.
So here is what I made for them instead. A much easier concept. We just talked about the parts of the house and the children were able to take apart and put together the house however they wanted it. Much better results with this. Although I think I will pull out the venn diagram again and give it another try.
We used mini marshmallows and pretzel sticks to build houses as well. They were a lot more difficult to stay together than I thought. Probably should have used regular sized marshmallows. But, as you can see, one little boy persisted and was able to build an entire house and get it to stand up!
Then, we sorted photos of different types of landscapes where your house could be located.
I also printed maps of countries where each of the children's family is from. We talked about the purpose of a map and some of the features of maps. In case you can't see, all the maps are different types. Some are just regular maps and some are topographical, etc.
Where do you search for books for the studies you do in your classroom or at home with your children?
Link up your book search resources by clicking below!
"Protect the House" Experiment
We have been learning about homes around the world and we wanted to know why houses all over the world are built differently. To test out how houses react to different type of weather, we decided to do an experiment using cardboard boxes as our house and see which type of covering material would work the best to keep rain out. Here is the documentation of our work.
Protect the House Project
If you would like a blank copy of this form to use with your students, you can download it here:
Scientific Method Template
Protect the House Project
Here are the items I provided the children to choose from to cover their house. Glue, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, clear packing tape, masking tape, and construction paper.
Group 1 AM covering it with glue.
Group 1 AM Pouring the water after glue dried.
Results to Group 1 AM- DRY!
Group 2 AM hard at work covering their house with foil.
Group 2 AM covering it with plastic wrap and clear tape.
Group 2 AM adding their floor.
Group 2 AM making it "rain."
Group 2 AM Results- Floor fell apart, but dry on the inside!
Group 1 PM covered their house with plastic wrap and clear tape.
Group 1 PM making it rain.
Group 2 PM Results- A little wet on the edges, but mostly dry.
Group 2 PM covered the holes and cracks with clear tape and then applied glue.
Group 2 PM pouring the water with the watering can.
Group 2 PM noticed that the glue was starting to wash away, but the inside still wasn't wet. So, we decided to make more dramatic rain by putting our house under the faucet.
Group 2 PM Results- Even after being under the faucet, still DRY inside!!!
This experiment was so much fun. It was interesting that all the groups chose a different method to protect their house. It was also interesting to hear the children's predictions about what was going to happen to the house. They were excited about doing this and the second day when it was time to pour the water, they all wanted to participate. You could've heard a pin drop in a typically very loud classroom as they were waiting to see what would happen! I was even surprised with the results. I thought at least one of the boxes would break apart. Just goes to show, you don't always know what will happen unless you test it out.
What experiments have you done with your kiddos?
Scientific Method Template
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
More Building Houses
Here are some more photos of the kids using tools to build a house in the sensory table. To see the original post, click here and scroll down.
They really enjoyed cutting the tape and taping things together.
She taped the roof to her house.
I never even realized how great a fine motor activity taping can be. To pull the tape, cut it and keep it from sticking together takes a lot of eye hand coordination, not to mention actually sticking it onto something the way you want it and to stick more than one thing together requires even more complex movements and steadiness.
Hammering, one child on each end. What a creative way to work together.
One child actually cut all the way through the thick cardboard with our plastic saw!
The girls decided they needed to do a little bit of decorating, so they got out the markers and drew all over the tape. This is one little girl's "grouchy face." I love it!!!
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