Pre-K teaching times, Vol. 5, Issue 8 (Apr. 2009)

BRIGHT FROM THE START
Pre-K Teaching Times GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CARE AND LEARNING

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 8

APRIL 2009

Re-Doing the Classics: Fairy Tales for

SPOTLIGHT ON:
Positive Reinforcement
Phonological Activities

Today's Pre-K Classrooms
They are the stories we remember from our own childhoods, the stories we know by heart, classic fairy tales. Most of us heard many of the same stories, with minor variations, repeatedly while we were growing up. As familiar as the stories are to us, sometimes we don't remember to use them in our PreK classrooms. Today, in addition to the classic versions of the stories, many have been re-written from different perspectives and new endings. In this newsletter we're offering some new activities on classic stories. Have fun in your classrooms and enjoy renewing some classics.

Fairy Tale Classroom Changes

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." ~ Hans Christian Andersen
Goldilocks and the Three Bears Take on Pre-K Assessment

Classic fairy tales provide numerous ways to assess children and gather documentation for portfolios. Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears for example.
Today, there are several versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Read these different versions to your children and ask them to tell you differences in the stories. You can also graph their favorite variation of the story.
Add props to the house area for children to retell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Listen and observe the children acting out the story. This would be a perfect time to take observational notes.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is also a great story to discuss math concepts. Order or serration requires children to observe and distinguish differences among two or three objects. With this story they can arrange the bowls, chairs, beds, and bears from smallest to biggest. You can use real objects in the house area and a flannel board story in the reading area.
Social studies indicators can also be observed by this story. The children might role play family members (daddy, mama, and baby) and explore the jobs family members perform to meet the family needs in the home.

Most of your observations will be recorded through observational notes, but don't forget your camera. Photos of the children acting out the story could be great for assessment. Make sure your notes are detailed so you can use the notes to report progress in several areas.

PAGE 2

Positive Reinforcement in Pre-K

It is vital that adults working
with children with distracting
behaviors be positive and encouraging.

Pre-K teachers often express concern for children who exhibit high levels of hyperactivity, impulsivity, disorganization, difficulty staying on task, short attention span, and low frustration tolerance. Many teachers find these behaviors distracting and hard to manage.
It is vital that adults working with children with distracting behaviors be positive and encouraging. A child may not feel good about himself and the fact that he is struggling in the classroom. To keep children motivated to succeed, the teacher must comment positively at unexpected times regarding good behavior. If you find a child behaving, complimenting him or her increases the positive behav-
ior and the child's interest in complying. Teachers should keep the class feeling positive towards the child with behavior issues. Often the other children in the class feel negative towards a child who hits and gets reprimanded by the teacher. When a child has a good day, the teacher can say to the class, Let's all cheer for Jane since she had a great day today. She followed the rules and kept her hands to herself.
Children who are impulsive are not good communicators and often are afraid of their

feelings. For this reason, teachers must help preschoolers use their words to express their feelings. When a loving teacher tells them it is okay to feel something and guides them into appropriate expression, they feel less anxious and oftentimes reduce acting out. It is also important to help preschool children with conflict resolution. When teachers facilitate this process, it helps children understand each other and positive ways to solve conflicts with other students. The children may then internalize the process and use it in future situations.
It is a good idea to set up a reward system for classroom behavior as opposed to individual behavior, unless a specific child needs this type of motivation. Compliment jars are a good way to reinforce positive behavior. The teacher places a cotton ball or another object in a jar each time someone in the class does well. Or a student who recognizes a friend doing something nice or following the class rules can place the object in the compliment jar. When the jar becomes full, the entire class is rewarded for their behavior (class party, pj day). Teachers made need to start with a small jar and reward frequently. Once children are engaged and excited about the process, you can increase the size of the jar.

Another idea is to create a paper chain. Every time a child behaves, that child can add a paper link to the chain. Start with the chain hanging from something low; when the chain reaches the ground, you would reward the class. By midyear, the chain could start from the ceiling.
For a specific child who needs more motivation, Bright from the Start recommends a reward system that could be implemented every half hour to an hour, depending on how severe the issue is. For example, a child might receive a sticker every half hour if he/she did not push or hit another child. The teacher would need to identify the primary behavior problem and what types of rewards might motivate the child. Sticker charts can be effective with Pre-K children if implemented correctly. Expecting a child with severe behavior problems to wait all day or week for a reward is not developmentally appropriate. Consult the Pre-K consultant who works with your program for more information on behavior charts.

PRE-K TEACHING TIMES

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 8

PAGE 3

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

It's raining, it's pouring ... a wonderful time for exploring! With the arrival of spring, invite children to discover the magic of rain. We know young children are natural explorers, and the great outdoors offer a rich and varied resource for their investigations. Nature presents kids with opportunities to discover shapes, colors, and patterns; observe transformations and growth; and gain an appreciation for ecology. It's raining so grab your galoshes and raincoat.......let's investigate!
1. Begin by making rain gauges to place in various outside areas. Visit http:// www.kidskreate.com/ rain_gauge.htm for easy directions on creating a rain gauge. Keep a class chart on the amount of rain collected over several weeks.

per tubes. Each pair could be filled with a variety of material. Children could listen to the different sounds of the tubes and match like sounds.
3. Read factual books on various cloud types, introducing children to the scientific names for clouds. Observe and photograph the sky everyday over several weeks. Create a poster for the science area by sorting cloud photos by type.
4. Make Rain in a Bag. In a ziplock plastic bag place a handful of dirt, some grass, and a few spoonfuls of water. Insert a drinking straw into the corner of the bag, and seal the bag shut. Blow air through the straw and into the bag until it is full. Carefully pull out the straw

2. Simulate the sound of rain by creating rain sticks. Push 1520 large metal brads randomly into the entire length of a paper towel tube. Wrap the tube with contact paper, leaving the ends open. Use duck tape to secure a cardboard circle to one end. Place two or three tablespoons of dried beans, elbow macaroni, small plastic beads, sequins, or small metal washers into the tube. Finish rain stick by closing end with tape and cardboard circle. Extend the concept by making pairs of rain sticks with toilet pa-

and seal, locking the air inside the bag. Tape or place the bag to a sunny window and wait a few minutes. Then watch it "rain" inside the bag!! (This is a great visual to help children understand the concept of the rain cycle and how clouds are formed.) This is also a great time to create a classroom terrarium.

5. After rain go outdoors and explore puddles. Create classroom chart stories about your discoveries.
6. Make and eat Mud Pies! Assist children in mixing two packages of instant chocolate pudding "dirt" and "rain" (milk) to make "mud." To make this part extra fun, punch holes in a Styrofoam bowl. Hold the Styrofoam bowl over the mixing bowl and pour the milk into the Styrofoam bowl. It will drip like rain into the mixing bowl. Children can help mix the mud with a spoon. Crush Oreos into mixture to make extra dirt. Scoop mixture into individual serving bowls. Each child can placed a gummi worm in the mud.
7. What goes with rain? Rainbows. Place a small mirror in a glass bowl of water so that the mirror rests against the side of the bowl. Set the bowl in direct sunlight. Move the mirror until it catches the sunlight.
8. You can make rainbows indoors without getting wet! Fill a glass with water (make sure it is full to the top) and place lid on tightly. Set it on a window sill in bright sunlight. It should project over the inside ledge just a bit. Put a white sheet of paper on the floor beneath the window, and a rainbow will magically appear on the paper.

PAGE 4
Phonological Awareness Activities for Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Listening Activity: For students who need to further develop listening skills, try the following activity.

Say two words and have

children indicate if the

words you said are the

same or different:

Bear-hair Bear-bear

Hair-chair Hair-Hair

Porridge-forest Porridge-porridge

Girl-curl

curl-curl

Make up other word pairs,

alternating words that are the

same and different.

Create a bear matching game with pictures of rhyming
words.
Rhyming Activity: Choose words from the story and ask students to think of words that rhyme with the target word. Toss a bean bag from child to child letting the child who catches the beanbag
make up a rhyming word.
Remember that when children are generating rhymes, they don't have to be real words;
they just have to rhyme.
Segmenting: (words into syllables, sentences into
words)

When segmenting words into syllables, it is a good idea to change the activity. For children who have a hard time clapping out syllables, give them colored bears to represent the number of syllables they hear. Then they will have something visual and more concrete to touch and see when you talk about how many parts or syllables are in a word. The same goes for counting out words in a sentence. Use visual markers such as counting bears to count
the words in sentences.
Alliteration: The following books offer opportunities to explore alliteration with your
children.
Bear's New Friend by Karma
Wilson
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric
Carle
Polar Bear, Polar Bear by Eric
Carle
Segmenting, Blending:
For students with well developed listening, rhyming, segmenting, and alliteration skills, introduce them to segmenting and blending words related to
the current story.
Using both hands, open one when you say b and the second when you say ear. Help children put the two parts of the word together to produce bear. Do this same activity with other words related to Goldilocks and the Three Bears or use children's names that have
only two syllables.
Help children to break words up into two parts. Use colored blocks to represent the two

parts of a word. B-ear, h-air, Ch-air, b-ed, g-irl, bowl, etc. Vocabulary: Porridge, hot, cold, first, second, third, last, growled, bears, house, cottage, woods, forest, bears, mama, papa, baby Types of bears: polar bears, grizzly bears, panda bears, black bears
Rhyming words bear-pear, house-mouse, cold-fold, redbed, hop-mop, chair-hair, tallsmall Position words: in, on, in front of, behind, beside, between, over, under, upstairs, downstairs Opposite words: open/closed, big/little, hot/cold, upstairs/ downstairs

PRE-K TEACHING TIMES

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 8

PAGE 5

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Changes for Your Classroom

Reading Area:
A Handful of Beans by Jeanne Steig Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Cinderella by Marcia Brown Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Fairytale News by Colin Hawkins Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Candice Ransom Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Valeri Gorbachev Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson Jack and the Beanstalk by Carol Ottolenghi Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman Little Red Snapperhood: A Fishy Fairy Tale by Neil W. Gilbertsen Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault (retold by James Marshall)
Rapunzel by Catherine McCafferty The Gingerbread Man by Catherine McCafferty
The Three Bears by Golden Books The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Three Little Pigs by Golden Books The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood by Toby Forward Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Diversity Books
Abuela by Arthur Dorros Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story by Tomie dePaola

Cinderella/Cenicienta by Francesc Boada Goldilocks and the Three Bears/ Ricitos de oro y los tres osos by Arnal Ballester Isla by Arthur Dorros Mama Panya's Pancakes by Mary Chamberlin Little Red Riding Hood/Caperucita Roja (Bilingual Fairy Tales) by Jacob Grimm Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa by Niki Daly The Gift of the Sun: A Tale from South Africa by Dianne Stewart The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story by Rebecca Hickox Place stuffed bears in the book area.
Writing Area Add story starter materials (container of props) to inspire children to write and illustrate their own stories. Props can include: soft animals, people figures, animal figures, pictures from magazines and old tattered books, masks, and photographs of children and their families. Include a variety of paper and writing implements, hole punches, yarn, and ribbon. Read the books during story time, then place them in the reading area for children to enjoy on their own. Listening Area

Record the children reading the books they made in the writing area. Place the books with corresponding tapes in the listening area.
The Gingerbread Boy Book & CD (Read Along Book) by Paul Galdone
Math/Manipulatives
Cinderella's Missing Shoe
Tell the children that Cinderella was actually wearing a different kind of shoe. Fill a container with various types and sizes of shoes (house shoes, slippers, tennis shoes, ballet slippers, dress shoes, sandals, boots, etc.). Encourage children to sort through the shoes and find the one without a match. To maintain interest, change out the missing shoe daily.
Dramatic Play Area
Include a Goldilocks and the Three Bears prop box: blond wig, bear masks, tie and suit jacket (papa bear), scarf and dress (mama bear), bib (baby bear), and bowls.
Art Area
Include crown making materials -- precut cardboard crown shapes, aluminum foil, sequins, ribbon, glitter, etc.
Add materials for making houses for the three pigs: small milk cartons, twigs, straw, red paper. Place the houses in the block area.
Block Area:
Display pictures of real castles. Add a castle made from a large appliance box.
Create fairy tale props by securing pictures of characters (three pigs, three bears, Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood, etc.) on towel paper rolls.
Science:
Add a Story Box for young children to
(Continued on page 6)

PAGE 6

experience and retell stories using touch. Place various items in a box that corresponds to items mentioned in a story familiar to children. For example, items for Goldilocks and the Three Bears might include fake fur, bowls, spoons, small sheet, etc. Children can handle the objects in the box one at a time and guess to what story they belong. Encourage them to describe the size, shape, and texture of each item. Rotate different story items to maintain interest.
Include materials for children to plant magic beans. After reading Jack and the Beanstalk, children can plant their own magic beans (seeds or beans) to care for and observe growth.

Music and Movement
Rainbow Music: fill glass jars with varied amounts of water (one cup of water in jar number one, two cups in jar number two, and so on). Drop different food coloring in each jar to create a variety of colors. Ask children to gently tap each jar using a metal spoon. Are the sounds the same pitch or different? Does the water amount change the sound? Which jars make high sounds, which make low?

Classroom Kitchen--Toasty Bears
Ingredients and Equipment Bread for toasting Peanut butter or honey (Use honey as a substitute if you have children with peanut allergies.) Dried fruit (for example: raisins, cranberries, blueberries, cherries) Toaster Spoons (for spreading the peanut butter or honey) Bear shaped cookie cutter
Directions Using a bear shaped cookie cutter, cut a bear shape in a piece of toast. Top with peanut butter or honey and add raisins or other dried fruit for eyes.
PRE-K TEACHING TIMES

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 8
Fingerplays

PAGE 7

Toasty Bears Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, reach up high; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, wink one eye; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, slap your knees; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sit down please. Five Little Bears Five little bears were dancing on the floor; one fell down and that left four. Four little bears climbed up a tree; one found a beehive and that left three. Three little bears were wondering what to do; one chased a bunny rabbit and that left two. Two little bears were looking for some fun; one took a swim and that left one.

One little bear sitting all alone; he looked all around then ran home. This Little Piggy This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy had roast beef. This little piggy had none. This little piggy cried, "Wee, wee, wee, wee." All the way home.

little piggies dear, Four little piggies, five little piggies Yes, they're all here!"

Five Little Piggies "It's time for my piggies to go to bed." The great big mother piggy said. "So I will count them first to see If all my piggies came back to me. One little piggy, two little piggies, three

10 Park Place South, Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30303 404-656-5957 www.decal.ga.gov