Concord Integrated Preschool
Mrs. D’s Preschool Happenings
Week of: September 21-25, 2009
Theme: Zoo ~ week 1
Reminders & Important Info!
Reminder that there is no school on Monday, September 28th for Yom
Kippur.
**SNACKS** Please limit snacks to one or two items plus a drink. Many
children are coming in with several items and they are either spending a long
time eating or taking only a bite or two of everything and then throwing the
rest in the trash. Thank you!
We began our unit by brainstorming all of the animals we could think of that you might find in a
zoo. We put up pictures of each of the animals we could think of.
Who Am I? ~ This is a great book to begin the unit after we came up with animals that live in
the zoo. Each page has a picture of animals coloring or fur patterns and the kids have to guess
which animal it is.
Land, Sea, & Air Game ~ We played a game of sorting and grouping animal pictures by where they live or spend
most of their time ...in the ocean/water, on the ground/land, or if it flies up in the sky. Some of the animal
pictures were very tricky like a turtle that can be in water or on the ground! There were also pictures of some
very strange or silly looking animals.
“Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” Songs ~ Using Mrs. D’s hand mitt and pom-pom monkeys, we sang this
song. Then on Friday, we acted this song out with kids! We also had a chance played a version of “Monkeys Jumping
On the Bed” with band-aid picture cards! Each child picked a body part to “bump” when they fell off the bed and
we put a band-aid on that body part.
“Five Little Monkeys Teasing Mr. Alligator” ~ We used the same pom-pom monkeys to sing this song. We will be
making clothespin alligators to go along with this tune.
I’m Thinking of... ~ Mrs. D would give clues about a zoo animal and we had to guess what the animal was.
YES/NO Questions ~ We worked on yes/no questions this week such as, “Does an elephant have big ears? Do
kangaroos swim?” and so on. We often did this activity to leave circle time.
Willoughby Wallaby ~ This story/song changes peoples names. You substitute the first letter of someone’s name
with “W” so Jane = Wane, Tim = Wim, or Bobby = Wobby. This is a great way to get kids started in beginning
rhyming, getting them to recognize that sounds can be manipulated, and to get them “tuned into” sound
discrimination. It is also just a great way to just have fun with our language!
Who’s in the Zoo? ~ A goofy book where zoo animals make wishes on what other animal’s body part they wished
they had. The hippo wanted a long neck like the giraffe, the bear wanted to be pink like the flamingo, and the rhino
wished he had a shell like the tortoise, along with many others. Even the zoo keeper wanted a different look! She
wanted a mane like a lion!
Sound of the Week ~ We came up with a list of /M/ words just like the sound Elizabeth introduced. We also
reviewed the sound /H/ from last week.
✩ Willoughby Walloughby
✩ Monkeys Jumping On The Bed Books We Read
✩ Goodnight Gorilla
✩ Is Your Mama A Llama
✩
Table Time
Monkeys and Bananas ~ There are eleven monkey cards. Each card is labeled with one number
0-10. You “feed” the monkey the right number of bananas (laminated banana cards) onto the
monkey’s string (i.e. monkey #6 needs 6 bananas on his string).
Animal Shadows ~ On a large poster, there are many kinds of animal shadows (animal silhouettes cut out of black
paper). You match a colored animal card to the animal’s shadow.
Going to the Zoo! Game Board ~ A Mrs. D made game similar to CandyLand. Spin the spinner to find out which
animal your game piece is going to visit next at the zoo. The family characters move around the game board moving
from animal to animal until they get to the end.
Animal Car Wash ~ In giant tubs, we placed plastic zoo animals. The kids pretended they were the zookeepers
giving the animals a bath. They washed the animals with shaving cream “soap” using a paintbrush and then they
rinsed them off with spray bottles filled with water. THIS ACTIVITY IS ALWAYS A HUGE HIT.
Crocodile Dentist ~ A store bought game where the kids take turns pushing the teeth down in the alligator’s
mouth. Be careful because one of the teeth causes his mouth to shut!
Hungry Hippos ~ Most of you know this game from childhood! A fun and exciting game that four kids can play
where you push the lever on the plastic hippos back to catch white marbles. When all the marbles were eaten by
the hippos, we took turns counting each other’s marbles and then comparing the amounts to see which hippo ate the
most marbles.
Jumpin’ Monkeys ~ Another fun game where the kids place plastic monkeys on a launcher. When you press the
launcher with your index finger, it makes the monkey jump up into the air and hopefully onto a plastic tree. You
keep making the monkeys jump until they are all in the tree!
Animal Stamps and Ink Pads ~ There were many rubber zoo animal stamps to choose from. The kids would press
an animal stamp into the ink pad and then press it on the paper. Some children added details to their pictures.
Guess Zoo? ~ A silly game where you put together two cards (a front and a back) to make up real or silly creatures.
Crafts & Fine Motor Activities
Paper Plate Lions ~ On Monday, we painted a paper plate yellow for our lions head. Later in the
week, we made a lion face with eyes, a nose, mouth and whiskers. The kids then practiced rolling
strips of yellow paper so the paper was curly. We stapled the strips around the lion’s head to make the lion’s mane.
Some kids had a great time using their strong muscles to help push down the stapler.
Zoos ~ Kids made horizontal lines by connecting a green dot on the left (start) to the red dot on the right (stop).
When we turned the paper sideways and we had “bars” for a cage. Some kids wrote their names on the top (i.e.
“Susie’s Zoo), others traced their names that a teacher wrote in yellow marker, and others had their name written
on top for them. We then placed some zoo animal stickers in our zoo.
Clothespin Alligators ~ We painted our alligators green so they have a chance to dry over the weekend. We will
assemble them next week.
Language Group…by Elizabeth
Elizabeth’s Language Group always begins with the Mystery Bag. Inside the bag is an item that
is related to our current theme/unit. She has cards that the kids will become familiar with
during the year that help them to learn to ask specific questions about the item in the bag such as “What color is
it?”, “Where do you find it?”, etc. Inside the bag this week was a stuffed animal monkey.
Each week a targeted sound/sound of the week is introduced. The kids learn how to make the sound with their
mouth, determine whether or not the sound is voiced or unvoiced, and identify objects and words with that sound.
We worked on the letters and sound “M”. “M” is the munching mouse sound.
Vocabulary related to our current theme/unit is introduced and/or reviewed each week. This week’s vocabulary
included zoo animals (polar bear, lion, hippopotamus, flamingo, zebra, snake/boa constrictor, elephant, leopard,
peacock, walrus) and zoo keeper. The vocabulary was introduced through the book “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What
Do You Hear?”. The kids guessed which animal was coming next in the story after Elizabeth gave them clues.
The kids also listened to a song on CD called “Walk Like A Rhino”. This song had us follow directions while moving in
different ways like various animals. It was a fun song and movement activity.
The Language Group finished up with a sorting game called, “Hop, Fly or Swim”. Each child was shown a picture
and then had to decide if that animal hops, flies, or swims.
OT Group…by Donna
We went to the gym for this OT group session.
Monkey Tricks ~ (Quick warm-up) For this activity, we used a stuffed animal monkey whose arms and legs get
longer or shorter when you pull on them. While sitting down in a circle, one child at a time got to pull an arm or leg
of our monkey. Sometimes the child could pick or choose which body part they wished to pull, other times they
were given a direction such as, “give the monkey long legs”.
Purpose:
• Listening to directions
• Motor planning
• Stabilizing with one hand and pulling with the other
• To increase strength, of shoulder/arms and trunk muscles
Zoo Salad ~ Each child was given an animal necklace; there were two necklaces for each animal. They were asked
to sit in a chair/cage. Donna was the Zoo Keeper and when she said, “Elephants go to a different cage” the two
children wearing elephant necklaces switched chairs. When Donna said, “go back to your cages” the children ran
back to their original cage/chair. Sometimes Donna would call out two different kinds of animals such as, “zebras
and tigers switch cages”. If Donna called out, “all animals switches cages”, all the children would get up and move
to a different chair/cage.
Purpose:
• Eye-foot coordination
• Listening skills and following directions
• Participating in a cooperative activity with other children
Animal Dance ~ This silly song calls out directions for the children to follow. We all stood in a circle and the
music gave directions as to what animal and body part we needed to move; for example; elephant shakes his ear,
whale moves a fin, monkey shakes his tail, etc,..
Purpose:
• Listening and following directions
• Sequencing various movement
• Moving body parts
Bird Walk ~ Each child was given a plastic eagle that is very neat in that it balances with it’s beak. The children
were instructed to place their bird on different parts of their body (such as their pointer finger, shoulder, palm
of hand, nose, head, etc.). Then we carefully walked around the gym either freely or in a line or circle with the
eagle on the different parts of their body, while music was playing. We tried to move slowly enough so the eagle
would not fall off.
Purpose:
• Balancing the eagle
• Motor planning
• Looking at where you are going
• Listening to instructions
Gym
Zoo Obstacle Course ~ The teachers set up an obstacle course around the gym: Different
movements or stations represented a different animal in our zoo.
• summersaults on the mat = monkeys playing
• walking on stilt romper stompers = giraffes walking
• bouncing on hippity hops = kangaroos
• crawling through a tunnel = bears in their caves
• pushing themselves around on scooter boards = turtles
• stepping on squishy dots = elephants stomping
• jumping over a jump rope as it wiggles by = jumping over boa constrictors
(we also tried catching the boa constrictors by jumping on the rope)
Open Circle
Making Class Rules ~ We had a discussion and wrote down some rules we all thought of.
“GIVE ME FIVE!” ~ This is a visual of an open hand where each finger has a different picture on
it of a how to be a good listener. When Mrs. D or one of the other teachers needs everyone’s great attention for
listening, we just say, “give me FIVE” and hold up our hand.
• a picture of an ear = listen with your ears
• a picture of hands and feet = hands and feet quiet
• a picture of eyes = look with your eyes
• a picture of a child sitting = sit on your bottom
• a picture of lips = lips are closed
Next Week’s Theme: Continue Zoo