Homes We Live In
Here are four big ideas about places families call home we are helping children explore.
- Ø Most families live in some kind of home or shelter
- Ø There are many kinds of homes and each is different, both inside and outside
- Ø Some children may have more than one place they call home
- Ø Families sometimes move from one home to another
You may have seen this list on the new chalk board by the sign in sheet .
I have neglected this year to ” post ” lesson plans and this is my feeble attempt at letting you know what we are working on. Today at lunch I asked each child to tell me something they know about houses and most of these were mentioned. Some of our friends do live in more than one place. Some of our friends are in the process of moving to a new home. Most of us live in different kinds of houses. We talked about how some houses have a garage but others have a carport. The kids thought it was funny when I talked about an airplane landing in an airport and a car ” landing ” in a carport. One of our friends distinguished at the time that she parks in a parking lot because her family lives in an apartment.
It only seemed fitting since we were eating oatmeal ( aka Porridge )
to tell the story of ” Goldilocks and the Three Bears ” this morning. The kids seemed to love the more contemporary feel to my story and the little bears squeaky voice. This story is not only good for talking about homes but also stranger danger, story sequencing and sizes.
After hearing the story we played a game called thumbs up or thumbs down.
I asked the children to give a “thumbs up” for things that are real and a “thumbs down” for things that are make believe .“Do bears live in the woods?” (Thumbs up – Yes)
- “Do bears live in houses?” (Thumbs down – No)
“Are bears different sizes?” (Thumbs up – Yes)
“Can there be a Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear?” (Thumbs up – Yes) - “Do bears sit in chairs?” (Thumbs down – No)
“Do bears sleep in beds?” (Thumbs down – No)
“Do bears eat porridge for breakfast?” (Thumbs down – No)
“Do bears eat blueberries?” (Thumbs up – Yes)
“Do bears sometimes frighten people?” (Thumbs up – Yes)
Following breakfast we charted ” Oatmeal is…. ”
Doing activities like this not only get the children to thinking about descriptive words and using an expanded language but also reminds them that print has meaning.
We had many new learning tools on the table today. An old ” Dont Spill the Beans ” game. Can you imagine how many times the beans got spilled ? A house shaped tea pot to practice gently pouring, a shapes game and a house . I placed tiny people out hoping to watch for one to one correspondence ( and I saw that ) but I also saw some sorting going on.
