Where The Wild Things Are - Lesson Plans

Happy Wednesday night! I have all of these ideas for the book Where The Wild Things Are by Mauric Sendax and I want to share them. These are all activities that can be made as lessons or spin-offs and follow-ups to lesson plans. 

I really like the idea of brainstorming as a class about what is a wild thing and what are emotions before getting into the activities to get a feel of what they know and what you can expand on.

• Creating a "Wild Thing" Scrapbook. Providing pictures of "Wild Thing" - what it looks like, where it lives, what is it's name, what does it like to do, is it a scary wild thing and other characteristics? (Incorporate lots of different materials.)
• Collage of where the wild things live. Expand on different environments.
• Creating a story about their own "Wild Thing". 
• Create a classroom book with everyone's wild thing and facts about their wild thing. 

These ideas give children the opportunity to express themselves and get creative.

• Express feelings through finger paint. 
• Play music that reflects emotions, provide instruments and allow them to do what feels right to them...have a wild rumpus! 
• Create a wall of emotions/feelings. Take pictures of the children making different faces and label it with the emotion they are trying to express. 
• Act like a wild thing. How do they move and what do they sound like?
• Make masks! Using different textures and a range of materials. Include them in a wild rumpus!
• Trace students body doing different wild thing poses. 

Incorporate some science -learn about plants, plant with your children, and create a class garden. ...a forest grew, and grew and grew...
Or have them research a wild animal they would like to learn more about. They can create books, a diorama, masks, compare the animals features to the characters in Where The Wild Things Are.

Hope you found this helpful! Share your ideas with me! 

Day Care Confessions

Color Sorting with Pom Poms 

Sorting with Apples


Storytime. (Worksheet Activity On LlamaLlamaBook.com)


Felt and Apple Seed Counting. (By Oopsy Daisy Blog)


Ladybug Activity (By Making Learning Fun)


Did they survive? As you can tell my midnight projects are in need of some TLC. I used Self-Adhesive Paper to "laminate" them. They lasted through the tugging and pulling of the children fighting over them and crumbling them. But, right now they are bent up and look worn out only after two days.
Help I am running out of ideas for this RED/Letter A week!  (I haven't done any ONLY RED activities - besides an apple coloring.)
Most of the children are under 5 and need loads of attention. (A classroom of high energy students - imagine.) For a lot of them this is their first time around other children, and in a classroom setting. We can't passed the not sharing and tattletales to have a smooth activity.
I need to think of some team building activities for toddlers.
What are some good attention grabbers for toddlers?
Can you tell I'm new to this?

Beat The Heat!

It's pretty HOT in New York! (Hot might be an understatement.)  So I've been looking around on Pinterest and other blogs and found some summer activities to stay cool! 

 Indoor Bubble Blowing!

Play Create Explore's site has a bunch of fun ideas! One being indoor bubble blowing. All you have to do is get a bowl add some washable paint and dish detergent to warm water. Oh, and don't forget the straws.

But Fun Baths has to be my favorite idea. Giving your child a new fun themed bath every once in awhile is a good way to extend knowledge through exploration!

Build a Sand Castle!

Make "Moon Sand" using the recipe provided by Sherry and Donna for days you can't make it to the beach. Cover it and save it for another day!

Put on Your Bathing Suits!

Hit the park and run through the sprinklers, fill up some water balloons or check out Clumst Crafter's Water Blob Tutorial. She also posted a simple D.I.Y. for staying cool and having lots of fun - Water Bombs. It is so much easier than refilling water balloons!

Sidewalk Creativity!

Growing a Jeweled Rose posted the ingredients for Chalk Splat! Watch what happens when you spray some vinegar on your artwork. There are also a bunch of other sidewalk art ideas featured on the post. 

Through Pinterest I found another summer activity  - Ice Chalk. And there are a bunch of ways you can have fun with it. Like color mixing...

Playing With Food!

Get your pasta and create Octo-Ice! Great for sensory play and it's something different! 

Crystal provided other sensory play ideas and I am loving the Freezy Dough! It's great because you can extend learning through pretend play! 

Shells and Play Dough

Make your own play dough using some flour, salt and water for practicing motor skills. Add some food coloring or kool-aid for colored play dough. Add some summer themed toys like shells and dolphins! 

Or create Beach Dough Creatures! It's really cute!

If you bake the dough you can make Shell Imprint Fossils.

Build a Tent and Camp!

Check out some Camping Themed Activities.

Simple Little Home went all out on an indoor camping experience! I love that some learning activities are included in all the fun. 

Too busy gazing at the stars? How about learning about constellations and creating Marshmallow Constellations!

Or HAVE AN INDOOR CAMPING PARTY! I love this! 

Ice Cream!!

What better way to stay cool in the summer than ICE CREAM! Make Ice Cream in a bag! This looks like a fun and easy experiment.

I made an Ice Cream color activity for secondary colors. Make red, blue and yellow ice cream scoops and brown, orange, purple, and green cones. (I'd highly suggest laminating them, so they are durable.)

Ice Cream Dough! Great for pretend play! And it looks so real! 

 

More pretend play by using this tutorial to make an Ice Cream Play Set! And a color matching game!

I am fully aware of the overuse of exclamation points! I couldn't help myself. Happy Summer! 

** I used Dreamlike Magic and Ashley Hughes clipart. 

Where The Wild Things Are - Reading Comprehension

Hi! Happy Thursday! I am starting my literacy unit with Where the Wild Things Are!! I am sharing reading comprehension ideas to provide an enriching story time. Hope you find this helpful and can have fun with this book. 

Vocabulary

• mischief - cause trouble
• vines - climbing plants, grapes grow from vines
• private - personal, only belonging to one person; secret
• gnashed - grind their teeth together
• tames - gentle; trained; calmed
• frightened - scared; intimidated; terrified
• rumpus - making a lot of noise; causing disturbance
• lonely - feeling sad from being alone; feeling alone and wanting company
• terrible - awful, horrible 
• feelings - an emotion like happy or sad

When saying the definition of vocabulary words try to add it in naturally. "Max was causing mischief; he was causing a lot of trouble around the house. He is... (provide examples supported by pictures of mischief)" 

Try using the words consistently in conversations outside of story time to enhance vocabulary and expose the words more than once. 

Understanding Sequence

  Use "Max Head" -with feelings written on one side and a facial expressions on the other- to discuss his feelings throughout the story and how they change from beginning-middle-end. Place a "Max Head" where he was feeling mischievous, mad, happy, lonely, etc in the story. Incorporate other characters' feelings like Max's mom and the monsters.

You can expand literacy skills further by introducing cause and effect. Max was causing mischief so his mother got mad and told him to go to his room.

Questions to Ask Before/During/After Reading

What are feelings? Explain some feelings and when/why you may be feeling a certain way.
What are monsters?  How do they look like? How might they act? What kind of noise do monsters make?
Brainstorm - What is a wild thing? What are their features? Where do they live? How do the wild things get around? Some can have wings.

Why did Max's mother send him to his room?
Have you ever got sent to your room? How did it feel?
Why do you think a forest grew in his room? (Introduce real v. pretend.)
Why did they name Max king of all wild things?
What is a "wild rumpus"? What are they doing?
How do you think Max or monsters are feeling?
Why did he wants to go home?
Why do you think his food was still warm?

What would you name the forest where the wild things live?
What would your name be if you were a wild thing?
Have you ever pretended that you were an animal?
How do you think the wild things sound when they talk to each other?

Ask about meaning of certain words and see if the child/children can repeat back the definition. 

Take a picture walk and have the child/children retell the story. 

Along with asking questions, provide comments about ideas like emotions, pretend, setting, wild things and summarize text/pictures. 

*I found the Max template about a year ago. I am not sure where but I will link it when I find it. 

I have a few lesson plans to share, activities including other subjects and arts and crafts ideas. 

Jumping on the wave!

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Classroom Management

Happy Wednesday! So I have been out of the classroom since school ended and I'm going though withdrawal :( . Anyway, as I reminisce on the glory days (with some challenging ones along with it), I thought I'd share this Classroom Management idea I came up with during school. After Circle Time the group separates and goes to different centers for Center Time. Before they can leave the Circle Time rug they have to make a decision on where they want to go. Sometimes it's hard for children to make decisions on their own, especially when they are used to someone telling them what to do, so, I thought a visual of the different centers would be helpful. I made this Center Time Board for the preschoolers.

I made little gingerbread men shaped people and wrote their names. The red ones are the Jumpstart members. (I worked with Jumpstart and our uniform was a red Jumpstart shirt.) Before they could go to the center of their choice they had to place their gingerbread man next to the center on the board. If they chose to change centers during Center Time they had to move their man again. This helps keep track of where each child should be and helps manage how many children are at each center so it doesn't get too hectic. (Dramatic Area and Art were really popular in my classroom. We made a rule that there are only suppose to be four kids at Dramatic Area at a time and 4-6 at the other centers.)

I used a poster board and lots of index cards. I drew and colored everything on the index cards, cut everything out and then glued it onto the board. The gingerbread men have Velcro on the back of them and near the centers are about 5 Velcro spaces.

First Day Jitters!

 I want to share some icebreakers with you. Starting something new and different is not easy so, I thought I'd try to come up with some icebreakers that can be altered for different age groups to get kids comfortable with each other and calm those butterflies. 

Sharing Activities

   Have everyone sit in a group and share stories, things they like, something they do with their family, etc. If you wanted to do a summer themed activity, you could bring in a beach ball and have the children pass it around. Whoever has the ball will share something that happened over the summer. Holding something while talking in a group can be less nerve wracking because the ball will be a slight distraction from everyone else. Once they get the ball, whether it be tossed randomly or going in a circle, the child doesn't have the fear of being picked on. Everyone is going to get a turn and eventually the ball will come to them.

  Another idea is using a ball of yarn or string and creating a web. For this the string should be tossed randomly to create a web. Everyone will form a circle; the teacher will start by sharing and hold the end of the string before tossing it to another person. Then the student shares something, holds another part of the string and tosses the yarn to someone else. It continues until everyone has had a chance to share. Once everyone has finished sharing you can try to untangle the web while everyone is still holding onto to the string. This will help them get used to working together as a group. 

Name Games

  Name games are good for the first day to help kids learn the names of their classmates and to help the teacher learn the names of the students. There are many different ways you can do this. One way is to get the class ready for an "outing", (a picnic,a party, a day at the beach, a day at the park, etc.) and then they would have to say their name and what they will bring. As the game goes along the next student has to say the names and items of the students before him/her. This is a good way to test their memory and having to repeat everyone's name over and over will help them remember their classmates' names.

  Another way to play the name game is to have the students pair their name with an adjective that starts with the same letter like Funny Francine or Crazy Carlos. Then the children have to repeat the names and adjectives as described in the previous name game. .

Guess Who?

  Kids can draw self portraits or write down clues about themselves and then the class has to guess who it belongs to. Kids can write down details about how they look, what they are wearing to school that day, or something that they like. The teacher reads the clues and the class has to figure out who it belongs to. 

Human Bingo

  Create bingo boards and in the spaces include statements such as, "someone whose name starts with the same letter as mine", "someone who is wearing red" and "someone who writes with their right hand." Then have the children go around the room and try to find others that match the statements on the board and then put the person's name in the space that matches. You can have the students play until everyone gets bingo or until a few kids get bingo. 

Copy Cat Game 

  Kids have to pick an action and then the class copies it. Let's say the theme is animals. The teacher will start off and say what animal she is and what the animal is doing. For example, "I am a lion and I like to roar. ROAR!" Then everyone will "ROAR!" like the teacher. If you do not have a theme, you can pick things you can do with your body, activities you do outside, or noises you can make.

We Are Similar Activity

 This activity can be played in a lot of different ways. The basic concept is to have the children see which students are like them and make them feel more comfortable. The teacher will say something like "My favorite color is blue" and all of the students whose favorite color is blue will perform a certain action. For the action you can put a line on the floor that kids stand on, you can pick random things for them to do, like jump or just have them stand up. 

 

Scavenger Hunt

  You can break the students in smaller groups so that they can work with each other on this scavenger hunt. I am a big fan of scavenger hunts! It's a great way to get them working as a team. Having a scavenger hunt in the classroom also helps them get used to the classroom and helps them get an idea of where things are. You can put the list of items you want them to find, "a sharpener" or you can make little riddles like, "you use me when your pencil is dull." 

  All of these activities can be changed around to work in or out of the classroom. They can work for children or adults. The possibilities are endless! Hope you enjoy these ideas! And I would love to hear some of your ideas!