Teacher Appreciation Week + Gift Idea

Sorry for the delay.  But we did sort through all your comments to make sure each thing you did received an entry and then we placed the entries in to random.org.

And the winner  of a family pass to The Princess Festival is:

 Diana, who wrote, "My granddaughters would love this as they are always dressing up like princesses!"

Congratulations!  Please check your email or contact mommylessons101@gmail.com so we can get you your pass!  Welcome to all our new readers.

Below is a twist on our mother's day gifts in case you need teacher appreciation or end of the year ideas for those amazing teachers!

I have to say that I love the way Teacher Appreciation Week has changed over the years.  I was a teacher and I loved the sweet things my students brought me as appreciation.  My favorite gifts I remember getting: Picture of me and the child or class in a frame, heartfelt notes, Great Harvest Gift Basket, Gift Card to Barnes and Noble, Caramel Apple, etc.

This year, I even adapted our mother's day gift basket into a teacher appreciation basket!  It was a hit.  Here's the note we included:

Thank you for being an INCREDIBLE teacher! Here’s a little basket to show my appreciation…

Starbursts because you have always taught me to shoot for the stars!
Popcorn because you give me a listening ear anytime an idea “pops” into my head
Glue Sticks for your ability to stick by your students, no matter what!
Post-it-notes because you don’t postpone teaching us what matters most
Kleenex to symbolize your compassion for your students
Smarties for teaching us to all be smarties!
Paperclips because you always keep it all together

Thanks for everything!

In addition to gifts, our school {and I think many others} have moved on to making it a full teacher appreciation week. I used the above basket for the "bring your teacher a supply" day.

Monday - Bring your teacher their favorite fruit

Tuesday - Wear your teacher's favorite color

Wednesday - Bring your teacher their favorite treat

Thursday - Bring your teacher a classroom supply

Friday - Write your teacher a note, draw a picture or make a collage and tell them why you appreciate them

All Week: Please donate a book that you family as already enjoyed to the teacher's classroom.  Inscribe the inside cover with your name and year.  Please do not purchase a new book, pass on your love of reading with a recycled book!

Other Ideas: Celebrate your teacher's favorite team, bring your teacher's favorite drink, bring a flower {made, homegrown or store-bought}

Another cute idea I saw was an

Around the World Theme...

Monday- they'll receive a passport visa and pencils

Tuesday- they'll get a fortune cookie and chopsticks

Wednesday -  French pastries for breakfast

Thursday- Ireland with gold coin candy in little pots

Friday - Caterer sets up a taco/burrito bar.

Add some flair by decorating the school in countries flags.

We are almost to the end of the school year.  Time for some summer boredom busters coming up!

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10 Picture Books in Honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month

Today (March 8th) is International Women's Day. In some countries this holiday is much like Mother's Day. Men give flowers and gifts to the women in their lives. Others focus more on political activism for women's rights. In the United States, the whole month of March is also considered Women's History Month. So in honor of that, I headed to the library to check out some picture books about women to read to my children. I actually had a hard time finding nonfiction picture books about historical women that were short enough to keep the attention of my young children--ages 5, 3, and 2 (if you have any recommendations I would love to hear suggestions in the comments!) I found a few that we enjoyed, but I also broadened out to  include some fictional books that feature strong female characters. Below are some of the books we read and enjoyed.

10 Picture Books with Strong Heroines

(Both Fictional and Historical)

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World  by Jen Cullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler--This is the true story of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathi. It is really suited for older children (The description says 7 and up) because it has a lot of text, but my 3-year-old and 5-year-old surprised me by sitting through it all. They were very captivated by the vibrant illustrations.


Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage  by Claire Rudolf Murphy and Stacey Schuett--My kids enjoyed this story about the fight for women's rights. It is told from the first-person point of view of a young girl so perhaps that helps children connect with the story more.


You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer by Shana Corey and Chesley McLaren--This is a lighthearted introduction to the women's rights movement in the U.S. It is a short and easy read, so even though it lacks the depth of some books, it still brings up some issues women used to face and is a great choice for young children.

Me . . . Jane  by Patrick McDonnell--My kids love monkeys--especially chimpanzees. So this book about Jane Goodall was a perfect fit for them. It is a 2012 Caldecott Honor Book.

Grace for President by Kelly S. DiPucchio and LeUyen Pham--In this story, a girl named Grace dreams of being the first president of the United States, and she starts on her journey by running for class president.

Miss Rumphius  by Barbara Cooney--Miss Rumphius has a grandfather that encouraged her to make the world more beautiful. So, in a small and simple way she makes the world a better place. I love this book because it shows that we don't always have to do great, dramatic things to make an impact.

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow--This is a charming fictional book that is perfect for preschoolers. When Molly Lou Melon faces a boy at a new school who teases her, she stands up to him and shows the other children that her differences can actually be assets.

Willow by Denise Brennan-Nelson, Rosemarie Brennan and Cyd Moore--Willow frustrates her art teacher by always veering from the established examples of what her art should look like. But in the end, it's the teacher who learns the value of self expression.

The Paper Bag Princess  by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko--Roles are reversed in this picture book about a princess who saves a stuck-up knight from a dragon.

Fanny's Dream  by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner--This is another "fairytale" story that has a twist from your traditional plot ending. Fanny dreams of meeting her fairy godmother and being whisked off to the mayor's house to marry the mayor's son just as Cinderella met her prince. But when her fairy godmother finally arrives, Fanny realizes that she is happy with her life the way it is. I love this story because it shows that "happily ever after" can come in many different ways--not just through marrying a prince.

If you have older readers, you could find even more books to share with your children at your local library. While I had a hard time finding shorter picture books about many historical women whom I admire, I saw a lot of biographies or longer books in the juvenile nonfiction section of the library that would be great for older kids.

I would love to hear your comments, too. Do you have any favorite picture books featuring strong women or girls? What women from history are your heroes and why?

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Science Lesson Plan: States of Matter

Before I had kids of my own, I spent a summer as a science camp teacher. I loved doing hands-on activities with children to teach them about science. Some of the parents jokingly called our science camp "toy camp" because most of our science lessons had some sort of hands-on toy that we gave the children which was associated with the concept of the day. That's the great thing about science. We can find science experiments all around us--even in our toys--it isn't just some boring thing we read about in textbooks. 

Later, after I was no longer teaching summer camp, some of my friends who were teaching their children at home asked me to be a "guest teacher" for their preschool and kindergarten age kids. So I adapted one of my lessons about states of matter for the children. This lesson was a big hit with the kids.

States of Matter Lesson Plan

Objectives:

(1) Students will be able to identify the difference between solids, liquids, and gases.

(2) Students will be able to understand that matter can change from one state to another.

Key Terms:

• matter
• molecule
• solid
• liquid
• gas

Materials Needed:

• magnifying glass
• random small objects to observe
• containers with solids, liquids, and gases
• test tube
• balloon
• baking soda
• vinegar
• diet coke
• mentos
• handouts
• scissors
• crayons
• glue

Lesson Activities:

Matter and Molecules

First, I introduced the term "matter." I taught the students that matter is all of the "stuff" around us. I had students take turns pointing to matter that they saw in the room.

Then I introduced the idea of molecules. I had the kids look at a few items of matter through a magnifying glass and see if they could notice anything different looking at the items closely. Some things you don't notice about objects until you look at them with a magnifying glass. Molecules are so small that we can't see them even with a magnifying glass but they are still there. Everything around us is made out of tiny invisible molecules.

States of Matter

Next, I taught the different types of matter. I did a human demonstration in which the kids became the molecules. First I had them stand close together making a wall. I had them stay still, and I showed them how I couldn't get through their wall. I explained to them that they were acting like a solid. We defined a solid and identified other solids in the room. Next I had them spread a little bit apart. They were allowed to move a little, but not very much. I showed them how I could "swim" through them because they were acting like a liquid. We defined a liquid and identified liquids in the room. Finally, they became gas molecules. They loved spreading out and running around. I showed them how easy it was for me to run in between them. We defined a gas.

To test their knowledge I pulled out containers with different objects. I had old baby food containers that I filled with random liquids and solids. I also had one empty container to represent gas. I let the kids take turns choosing a container. Each child opened the container and got to examine the object inside. Then, I quizzed them on whether that object was a solid, liquid, or gas.

Changing Matter

I introduced the idea of changing matter by talking about super heroes. Super heroes have many different talents--some can fly, some can turn invisible, some have super strength. We get to be super heroes today by becoming matter changers (just like Frozone in The Incredibles). I had the kids chant "1-2-3 Matter changers!" with me.

I then taught students about how matter can change from one form to another. I explained the example of an water, ice, and steam. We talked about how when we are cold we like to cuddle up in blankets to get warm. But when we are hot, we like to run around and have fun. Molecules are the same way. When they get cold, they get closer together. When they get hot, they spread apart. When can change matter by making it hot or cold.

I then told students that we can change matter in other ways. Sometimes when you mix two different things you can make a new thing--like when you bake cookies. You can do that with matter. You can take two kinds of matter and turn them into a different kind of matter.

I pulled out the balloon, baking soda, vinegar, and test tube. I had the students look at each item and decide whether the item was a solid, liquid, or gas. Then, once they had observed the baking soda and vinegar, I used a funnel to pour some baking soda into the balloon and some vinegar into the test tube. Then I attached the balloon to the test tube. We did our chant "1-2-3 Matter Changers!" and I lifted up the balloon to allow the baking soda to drop inside and mix with the vinegar. The reaction of the baking soda and vinegar caused the balloon to inflate on its own. I explained to the students that the solid and liquid had created a gas that was now filling the balloon. A video of my preschool aged boys doing this demonstration is below:

Playing with Matter

For our finale, I took the kids outside to play some more with matter. On the way out, we identified solids, liquids, and gases around us. Then, I pulled out the materials for our last experiment. I had a bottle of diet coke a pack of mentos. I also used the special test tube below:

  

I had students identify states of matter one more time. I explained that the diet coke actually had both a liquid and a gas in it. The bubbles were the gas. I had the kids guess what they thought would happen if I mixed the solid mentos with the liquid soda and gas bubbles. Then, we loaded a pack of mentos in my test tube and dropped the mentos into the soda. The kids loved watching the diet coke geyser shoot up in the air. I explained to them what had happened. When we dropped the mentos in, the gas bubbles all stuck to the mentos. Because the gas bubbles were jumping around taking up so much space, there wasn't enough space for the liquid in the bottle anymore. So the liquid was pushed out into a fountain. After the explanation, we tried the experiment one more time.

And just in case, you've never seen this demonstration before, here's a classic video of diet coke and mentos geysers in action.

Review

For a review activity, I had students color a solid, liquid, gas handout that I had made. Then they they found pictures of items that represented each state of matter and glued them on top of the corresponding state of matter. I had some clipart of several items I had found from searching online already printed for the kids to sort. You could also have them look through magazines or advertisements for items to fit into each category.

Some examples of pictures of items that would fit each category:

Liquid: juice, water, soup, soda
Solid: car, apple, watch
Gas: wind, steam, bubbles

Below is an image of the States of Matter handout I created that you could print out to go with this activity:

We had a lot of fun experimenting with solids, liquids, and gases. For more ideas for teaching your kids about science, check out my Science Pinterest Board.

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Presidents' Day Activities and Books for Kids

Presidents' Day is coming up on the 18th of February. It is always the third Monday of February, around the actual birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12th) and George Washington (February 22nd). Last year, I wanted to make this day a special holiday to introduce my pre-school aged children to some of the presidents of our country. Here are a few of the things we did celebrate:

Pretend Play

I printed out an image of the seal of the President of the United States. I then attached this to one of our stools to make a "podium." The kids took turns standing at the podium and pretending to be President. They gave "speeches" and I asked them questions as if we were having a "press conference."

Crafts

I created black silhouettes of each of my children. Then, I gave them red and blue markers, paper, and glitter to decorate these silhouettes in a patriotic manner.

To create a silhouette, you could do it the old-fashioned way and tape a piece of black paper to a wall and then have your child stand in a profile position in front of that paper while you shine a light on the child and trace the shadow of the head. Then you cut out the shape that you traced and glue it to a contrasting color of paper. Or, if you'd rather do it all on the computer as I did, you could  just snap a profile photo of your child in front of a plain background and use your photo editing software to convert that photo into a plain black silhouette. To create the silhouettes below, I took pictures of my kids in front of a plain white wall. Then I  uploaded the photos to my computer and opened them in Photoshop. I increased the contrast on the photo and used the magnetic lasso in Photoshop to select their faces. I then filled my selection with plain black and put that selected black profile onto a plain white background which I then printed out for them to decorate.

An extra advantage to doing this on the computer is that once you have done the initial work of creating the profiles, you can print out as many copies of the profiles as you want.

Another craft we made was this cute double-sided Lincoln and Washington craft:

 

We also made Lincoln and Washington finger puppets using a penny as Lincoln's Face and a Quarter for Washington's face:

One final craft we did in honor of Abraham Lincoln was making our own little log cabins out of sticks. My kids collected sticks from the yard and together we formed it into a little cabin shape. Then, I hot glued the sticks together. Once the glue was cool the kids played with their homemade cabin.

Books

We checked out quite a few books about presidents from the library. Below are a few of my kids' favorites:

What Presidents Are Made Of by Hanoch Piven

My boys loved the funny illustrations and random little facts about selected presidents from George Washington until today.

Madam President by Lane Smith

This book follows a little girl who is pretending to be president. The illustrations are very fun. And despite the fact that it is mostly humorous (i.e., she attends a "state funeral" of a pet frog and the "national disaster" is that her room is a mess), along the way kids actually learn a few vocabulary words about the job of a real president.

Presidents' Day  by Anne Rockwell

This is a simple and straightforward book about a school class putting on a play for Presidents' Day. I liked that it was short and sweet--a good length for preschoolers--but at the same time it still taught my kids a few things.

Game and Songs

We played a Presidents Matching Game that I created by printing off two each of pictures of several presidents. You can find pictures of all the U.S. Presidents here. 

We listened to Take Your Hat off When the Flag Goes By. We also sang a few Presidents' Day themed songs found here.

For more ideas, see my Presidents' Day Pinterest Board. These activities would also be great for election time or other patriotic holidays.

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Chinese New Year Crafts, Books, and Activities for Kids

The Chinese Lunar New Year is this coming Sunday, February 10th. This is a big holiday for many of my kids' friends, and though we aren't Chinese ourselves, we still like to get in on some of the fun.

Last year, we had a lot of fun reading books, doing crafts, and playing pretend for this holiday.

Crafts and Pretend Play

On cardstock paper, I printed out one copy of this template for a miniature Chinese takeout box for each of my children. I gave my children stamps and a stamp pad decorate their boxes (though you could have your kids decorate with markers, paints, stickers, or whatever you want). When they finished decorating their boxes, I cut them out and assembled them into three-dimensional take out boxes.

We filled our homemade fortune cookie boxes with these simple felt fortune cookies that I had made following an easy tutorial. Then, we added the completed take out box and cookies to our play kitchen for some fun pretend play.

It is also fun to do a thematic craft based on the Chinese calendar animal for the year. The year 2013 is the year of the snake. We made these egg carton "dragons" last year--but they could just as easily be "snakes" for a craft this year. To create these, I cut up pieces of an egg carton for the bodies. The kids painted the egg cartons as they desired. Then, I cut out one more slot from an egg carton for each head and the kids painted that as well. We glued googly eyes and a red tongue onto each head and then attached the heads to the bodies to complete the effect. The kids loved moving these crafts around and playing make believe with them after they dried.

We also dressed up in some Chinese costumes we had (they were actually brought to us from China from our grandmother many years ago).

Field Trips

For a related field trip if you are in the LA area, I strongly recommend the Autry Museum of the American West. It has a hands-on exhibit for children about Chinese Americans that includes an early 1900s Chinese American home, dress ups, masks, a play Chinese restaurant, and more. That museum is free to the public the second Tuesday of every month.

Also, the Pacific Asia Museum is free to all on the 4th Friday of each month and my kids loved that as well!

 Books and Stories

I told my children the story of the Chinese Zodiac, and we all checked our birth dates to see which animal we were based on the year we each were born.

We also read some picture books about the Chinese New Year that we picked up from our local library. One of those was Bringing in the New Year  by Grace Lin. It was a great book for little ones. It has simple, short text and bright illustrations that show the Chinese New Year celebration through the eyes of a child. A few end pages give some fun informational facts about Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Dates

Because the Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar, the corresponding date on our Western calendar changes from year to year. Here are the dates for the Chinese New Year in future years:

Chinese New Year 2013: February 10, 2013
Chinese New Year 2014: January 31, 2014
Chinese New Year 2015: February 19, 2015
Chinese New Year 2016: February 8, 2016

I hope you all have a lots of fun celebrating this year! Be sure to also check out my Chinese New Year Pinterest Board for more ideas I have collected.

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Z is for Zoo

The final unit in the Letter of the Week Preschool I did at home with my boys last year was Z is for Zoo. Here are a few things we did:

Learning the Letters

Our Z is for Zoo was the culmination of our units on the letters of the alphabet. By this time, my kids knew all of their letters, so we just played some fun review games. One simple and easy review game is as follows: Use sidewalk chalk to write the letters of the alphabet on the cement outside the house. Then call out a sound (or a letter) and have the kids race to the letter (or they could throw a ball or water balloon at the letter). I also have letters on cards that I can spread out inside and give my kids toy hammers that they bang the letters with when I call out the sound (for this one if you have multiple kids as I do, you might want to give each child his own sets of cards and toy hammer to avoid conflict).

The Books We Read

1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle

This is a cute counting book that also features a train; thus it is a favorite for my boys.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead

This Caldecott-Award winning book is a charming, imaginative story about a zookeeper who has to take a sick day and whose animals come to cheer him up.

Good Night, Gorilla  by Peggy Rathman

This book doesn't have very many words but still tells a cute story with pictures. The animals, led by the Gorilla, all sneak out of their cages and follow the zookeeper home.

My Heart Is Like a Zoo  by Michael Hall

This book is fun because all of the illustrations of animals in the book are made with heart shapes.

Giant Pop-Out Safari  by Chronicle Books

This book is a fun animal guessing game. Various clues are given and the kids try to guess what each animal is based on the clues. Then you open the pop-out page and they see a large picture of that animal.

Math Activities

We used this cute Zoo Preschool Pack to practice counting and other basic skills. My kids loved using clothespins to clip the numbers on the animal counting cards.

Science

We sorted animals into the following groups: herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. We also learned a few fun facts about the animals as we did this.

Field Trip

Of course we had to go to the zoo! We have several smaller zoos as well as one major zoo within an hour of our home, so we had a lot of choices of places to go. If you can't make it the zoo, try taking a virtual trip to the zoo. I love the San Diego Zoo Kids' Website. It has cute videos, games, and even live animal cams.

Crafts

We did this simple letter Z is for Zoo craft from No Time for Flash Cards. I outlined the shape of a Z on a paper and the kids chose animal stickers to put on the Z. Then they drew lines for the "cages" over the animal stickers. I then cut out the letter and mounted it on a contrasting color of construction paper.

To go along with the book My Heart is Like a Zoo we also made animals out of shapes, including heart shapes. I cut out several different shapes in different colors and the kids glued them onto pieces of paper in the shapes of animals. Then they decorated their shape animals with crayons and markers.

We also painted pieces of cardboard and then I cut the painted cardboard out into the shapes of animals that my kids then played with.

Sensory Bin

We made our own play dough zoos. The kids used popsicle sticks to create cages for their small plastic toy zoo animals. I also love this lovely sensory bin if you want something a bit more fancy.

Snacks

We ate animal crackers for snack time.

Games and Songs

We made a pretend zoo with our stuffed animals. My kids were the zookeepers at first. But then they wanted to be animals, so they pretended to be monkeys and I became the zookeeper. We also sang animal/zoo-themed songs such as "The Animal Fair." More zoo songs can be found here.

We had a lot of fun wrapping our letter of the week preschool at home. For more of my Z is for Zoo ideas, you can check out my Pinterest board here.

And if you are interested in all of the letters of the alphabet that we did this year, be sure to check out all of my posts:

A is for Apple

B is for Bee

C is for Cars

D is for Dinosaur

E is for Electricity and E is for Electricity part 2

F is for Fall

G is for Gumball

H is for House

I is for Instrument

J is for Jungle

K is for King

L is for Love

M is for Money

N is for Nest

O is for Octopus

P is for Pets

Q is for Quilt

R is for Rainbow

S is for Snowman

T is for Trains

U is for Umbrella

V is for Volcano

W is for World

X is for X-Ray

Y is for Yardstick

and of course this final unit above, 

Z is for Zoo.

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Y is for Yardstick

For our letter Y unit, our theme was "Y is for Yardstick" which included the topics of building and measuring. My younger son loves trucks and construction sites, so he was very excited about this unit.

Learning the Letter

We are always trying to find ways to make spelling and reading more fun. One fun sensory activity we did during this unit was writing letters and words in the sand. You can do this at the beach or in a sandbox, or even in the dirt outside. It made it much more exciting when we went outside and created letters that way. We also tried making letters with our Lego blocks as we were building and playing with them.

Books

Below are some of the books we read about the theme of building.

Alphabet Under Construction  by Denise Fleming

We loved the creative illustrations in this book that shows a little mouse creating all the letters from A to Z made in different ways (i.e., G is for Glueing, M is for Measuring, etc.)

I Love Tools! by Philemon Sturges

This is a sweet and simple beginning picture book all about tools.

Raise the Roof  by Anastasia Suen

In this cute book, both a doghouse and a regular house are built.

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site  by Sherri Duskey Rinker

My kids enjoyed this cute rhyming book about all the construction machines going to bed.

B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC  by June Sobel

This was a building-themed alphabet with a twist--at the end you see that all the machines have been working together to build an amusement park, and the letter Z is for Zoom.

Job Site  by Nathan Clement

This was one of my son's favorite books. It had simple text and illustrations but he loved it. It was nice to see how all the machines worked together to make a park.

Math

We played this cute, free building-themed number order file folder game.

We also practiced our math skills by measuring different things around the house. We used a tape measure to measure different items. Then, we also did some measuring with non-standard units such as blocks and toy trains.

Pretend Play

We got out our toy tool sets and our building blocks and pretended to build cities and "fix" things around our house with our tools. I got builder hats from the dollar store that my kids added to their dress-up collection.

Crafts

We tried to make these crayon-resist blue print drawings. These were a bit tricky for my kids, though, who had a hard time seeing what they were drawing. And our white crayon didn't show very well through the paint. So afterwards, we also made blueprints by drawing with white chalk on blue construction paper.

We also made these yardstick Y's. In addition to making the letter Y from brown and yellow foam, we used foam number stickers from the dollar store on the "ruler" part of the letter.

Snacks

We had carrot stick "rulers" for snack time. I also like this idea of making a "cement mixer" smoothie.

Field Trip

My husband took my older son to a Lowe's Build and Grow workshop. Every month Lowe's and Home Depot both host free building workshops for kids. My son loved it--he completed a project and even came home with a free apron and patch which he has used as he played pretend afterwards.

Family Project

Together as a family we built a sandbox. The kids went to the store with us to get the supplies, and we included them as much as possible with measuring, sanding, painting, and filling the sandbox with sand. Our sandbox is just a basic wooden frame built from 1 X 12 boards with diagonal supports on the corners, weed-block material stapled on the bottom, and a waterproof tarp cover. It was very fun to work together on this.

Songs and Games

We sang some of the building-themed songs from this website. For a fun game, we had races to fill up toolboxes with our pretend tools. I also taught my kids how to do a classic wheelbarrow race. And we spent lots of time playing in our new sandbox once we finished it!

For more of my "Y is for Yardstick" ideas, you can also check out my board on Pinterest! I also did a building-themed birthday party for my three-year-old, so check out my construction party Pinterest board too.

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X is for X-Ray (Human Body theme)

I'm not sure when it started, but my older son became very curious about what his body looked like inside. I showed him a few pictures of bones and muscles online, and then for his birthday, we gave him the Usborne See Inside Your Body lift-a-flap book (by Katie Daynes). Though it is a bit much to sit through the whole book start to finish, we read a page or two at a time, and he really enjoys it.

We have also been playing a lot with our pretend doctor kit, and so my kids were excited when we did the theme of "X is for X-ray" for the letter X. During this unit, we talked about many different aspects of our bodies--both inside and out. There are so many different directions you could go when talking about the human body. We started by doing a simple "All About Me" book from this human body unit. Then, we skipped around to topics such as healthy eating, bones, muscles, and doctors. We could have gone into depth with any one of those topics alone, but I tried to follow my kids' interests as we chose a mixture of body-related activities.

Literacy Activities

During this unit we focused on the sound of the letter X. Not many words start with the letter X, so I challenged my kids to think of words that end with the letter "X" such as ox, fox, box, mix, six, etc. We watched the Starfall letter X sequence. My kids love the Starfall website! We also practiced writing the letter X. I found a great resource for teaching about the human body at the blog Spell Outloud. From there, we downloaded a letter X for X-ray tracing page (and we also did some of the other activities the author had found such doing a giant toddler skeleton puzzle and then singing the "bone bounce" song). To further practice writing the letter X, I taught my kids how to play tic-tac-toe, and we played it a lot with sidewalk chalk and on our dry-erase board.

Books

Our primary book was my son's See Inside Your Body lift-a-flap book. In addition, here are a few other books we enjoyed during this unit:

Curious George Goes to the Hospital  by Margret Rey

My younger son LOVES monkeys and Curious George, so this book was a perfect fit for this unit. In the book, George eats a puzzle piece and has to go to the hospital and get an x-ray. Even at the hospital he is as fun and mischievous as ever.

Parts (Picture Puffins) by Tedd Arnold.

This was a funny book about a boy who thinks he is falling apart. We were all laughing as we read it. My four-year-old son really does worry a lot about his teeth falling out when he is older and he has panicked at the sight of blood because he doesn't want his blood to "fall out." So this was a good book for him to read and remember that he is "normal."

Dem Bones by Bob Barner

 We read this book, and we also watched a video of the song and sang and danced along! My kids loved that.

From Head to Toe Big Book by Eric Carle.

 This book is about different kinds of animals--not people, but it was a good active book as we used our bodies to try to mimic the actions in the book. We connected this to our theme by talking about all the amazing ways our bodies can move.

Math Activities

For a math activity, we did the band-aid counting activity from this adorable Doctor & Nurse preschool pack. Be sure to check out the whole preschool pack for other cute doctor-related activities.

Science

We learned about the parts of the human body as we read books! There are so many directions you could go with science when talking about the human body. We didn't have time to talk about everything, but here are a few things we did:

We talked about taking care of our bodies to keep them healthy--such as eating healthy and washing hands.. When talking about eating healthy, we listened to My Body Machine. This book/CD set also has a song that has intro to all the different systems of the body--circulatory, pulmonary, etc. I actually sang on this CD as a child--I was the role of "Shiny Brite"--so my kids loved it when I told them that the little girl who was speaking and talking was me.

When talking about handwashing and germs, we read the book Germs are Not for Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick. Then, we did this hands-on activity to see the importance of washing our hands, using tissues, and sneezing into our elbows. The kids thought it was hilarious when I "sneezed" water from a spray bottle onto them.

Field Trip

Most science museums have an exhibit on the human body. I love the both the Discovery Science Center and California Science Center in southern California.

Crafts

Our first craft was Q-Tip Skeletons. I put the glue down for my boys to make it a bit easier. Then, they put on the q-tips and drew the eyes on the skulls. My older son also wrote a letter X and his name that we glued onto the page. I did the letter and name for my 2-year-old.

And then, we did these cute handprint X-Rays. I painted my kids' hands and feet white. Then we pressed their hands/feet on black paper and traced around them with white crayons.

Pretend Play

Of course, we played with our pretend doctor kit a lot! My kids loved taking turns being patients and doctors, and even treated their stuffed animals when needed. We also added to our a doctor kit a homemade light table and "x-rays" that we made. To make a homemade light table,  I bought a small clear storage box. I then put battery operated push button lights in the box. Finally, I put waxed paper on top to diffuse the light somewhat. For the "x-rays" we drew our own designs on clear overhead transparencies.

Snacks

We turned our snacks into skeletons. I used my kids' favorite snack foods--cheese sticks for and a cracker for one of my sons, and a cut up cucumber for my other son.

Games and Songs

In addition to the "The Bone Bounce" and "Dem Bones" that I mentioned above, we song other simple songs about the body such as "I'm all Made of Hinges" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

For an active game, we played some music which I would periodically freeze and then the kids would choose a fun pose to freeze in. We tried forming letters and shapes with our bodies, and we worked on somersaults, marching, skipping, and more as we talked about all of the amazing things our bodies can do.

I was also lucky enough to find a skeleton puzzle in the dollar bin at Staples. My kids enjoyed doing this small foam puzzle.

I also found a few other fun ideas for this theme and pinned them on my X is for X-ray Pinterest Board, so go check that out, too!

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