Pre School Planning Made Easy - A Comprehensive Curriculum

Design

Each unit is organized around a topic which is interesting to young children. For every unit, we have provided Spanish and English vocabulary lists and activities for learning in the areas of language, academics, motor, music, literature, and cooking. Many of the activities can be used in more than one learning area, and may also be used in other units just by changing the topic. Each unit was designed to provide at least a week’s worth of activities, however, time should be open-ended and lengthened or shortened depending on the interest of the children.

Under the heading of Special Activities, we have listed more unusual or complex activities or ideas which require leaving the classroom or inviting someone to visit. In the literature lists for each chapter, we have tried to include classics as well as new titles, and Spanish translations. It is our belief that books need to be constantly available to the children. In some instances, you may wish to make the book lists available to parents who could then use them at the library or to purchase books as gifts. The music section contains a mix of rhymes, chants, traditional songs, sheet music, tapes, and records. We have an extensive list of nursery rhymes, chants, action verses, and words to familiar tunes in the appendix. We have also provided complete references to albums, tapes, songbooks, and videos. A materials list has been provided for those activities in which numerous items are required.

Whenever possible, we have credited the original source of the ideas, however in some cases, it is just something that we have always done, and no one can remember where or how this idea originated. Some ideas were inspired by suggestions found in the material included in our resource list.

Our goal has been to select child centered activities which require as little adult intervention as possible. It is our belief that exploration, play, and interaction with other children is the most natural, comfortable, and successful way for young children to learn. Chapter I will help to clarify the role of the adult in the different activities.

In the Spring / Easter and Winter Holidays chapters, we have tried to include a variety of activities which accommodate cultural and religious differences. In an effort to remain bias free, we have purposefully alternated the use of masculine and feminine pronouns.

New materials and ideas are emerging everyday, and we know each teacher who uses the activities that we have presented will have many ideas of her own to add. It is our hope that this book will be a framework on which to build a complete, child centered, language rich curriculum.

TEDDY BEARS

VOCABULARY / CONCEPTS:

• Have each child bring a favorite bear from home to share and be his friend/partner for the day/week. Let the children tell about their bears: where they got them, where do they stay in their rooms, why do they like them the best, etc.
• Act out the story of the "Three Bears". Take turns using a large, a medium, and a small sized bear brought in by different children. Make sure each child has an opportunity to play a role with her bear. MATERIALS: children’s bear, large medium, and small sized bowls, chairs and "beds".
• Suggest the children nurse a bear back to good health. Pretend to be doctors or nurses nd bandage bear with cloth bandages cut from strips of cloth. MATERIALS: old fabric torn into two inch strips of various lengths.

PRE-ACADEMIC:

• Have the children compare bears. Weigh and measure them. Which ones are softer or more squeezeable? Sort them as to color or size or whether or not they have a bow. MATERIALS: scale, measuring tape.
• Encourage children to draw pictures of their bears and "write" a story about their special friend. Write down what the child related under each drawn picture. MATERIALS: paper, crayons or markers.
• Assist in counting the number of bears "visiting" class. Count the number of bears in the different categories created by the children sorting bears by color, size, etc.
• Provide counting bears for children to sort by color.