Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mrs. Wishy Washy Literature Unit

Although we do a lot of reading in our house, I've never tried focusing on one book for the whole week. So, for the letter W, I decided to try something new. I put together a literature unit based on the book "Mrs. Wishy Washy." We had a lot of fun, and the book was simple enough that both kids were able to enjoy it. Here are some of the activities that we did.

Sensory Activities:

1. We made our own mud by mixing cocoa with water. Then we made a tub of soapy water. The kids rolled the farm animals in the mud, and then gave them a bath in the soapy water. Lexy enjoyed re-enacting the story as she did it. Soon, Josiah wanted to add trucks to the mud mixture. This was TONS of fun for them, and lots of cleanup for me. If I'd only had Lexy it wouldn't have been such a mess.



2. We printed a playdough mat from here. They made playdough animals using cookie cutters and put them in the tub.

3. Lexy made a pig picture and painted "mud" onto the picture. The "mud" was a picture of shaving cream and brown paint.


Literature Activities:

1. I found felt board character printables for the story at Monkey See, Monkey Do. We told the story using the characters. The kids enjoyed putting them onto the board and playing with them.


2. I printed Sequencing Cards from here. Lexy put the story in order using the cards.


3. I printed this book. Lexy put the book in order and added the missing word "in" on each of the pages. We also attached the animals to make it an interactive book.




4. We acted out the story as a family. Each of us had an assigned role. They had fun jumping and rolling in the mud.


5. Lexy worked on site words more this week. I printed off the puzzles from here that went with the site words we have already been working on.

Geography Activities:

1. We discussed the differences between living on a farm versus living in a city. Lexy sorted farm pictures from city pictures.


2. Lexy created her own version of our city. She glued rectangles on as buildings and houses. Her city is by no means proportional or accurate, but it was cute to see what she thought was important to include. She included our house, the swimming pool, Mamma and Pappa's house, their pond, Abby (their dog), ballet school, church, the Children's Museum (with a dinosaur sticking out of it), a friend's house with her swingset, Daddy's Work, the grocery store, the park with a sandbox, and the fair. I added roads for her, and then she glued vehicles onto the roads.



Math Activities:

1. We worked on counting by tens using this activity printed from Making Learning Fun.



In the Kitchen:

1. Both kids helped make some chocolate pudding. They had fun dipping animal crackers into the "mud" and eating them.


Science Activities:

1. We talked about the differences between real mud and our chocolate pudding mud.

2. We made bubbles by blowing through straws. Then, they were able to observe that you can poke objects through bubbles without the bubbles popping if the bubbles were wet. They had a lot of fun with this, until Lexy got a mouth full of bubbles and didn't want to blow anymore.



We definitely enjoyed the literature unit and plan on doing more! Other activities that we enjoyed this week include: music class, ballet class, library group, MOPS, and church.

To see what other preschoolers have been doing this past week, check out the Preschool Corner!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

WOW! What a great preschool week!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Great week! We read Mrs Wishy Washy Christmas before, but not an original Mrs Wishy Washy. It gave me an idea to get a book once the weather warms up a bit and get Anna give her outside farm animal a good bath. Poor plastic animals spent their entire winter outside. "Dirty" doesn't begin to describe them.
I am also very impressed with Lexi's city - she did a great job on it - another idea that I am going to steal :)

Debbie said...

What a great week. I have heard of this book but haven't read it yet. Love Lexy's version of her city that is awesome!

Brandie said...

I love the dirty farm animal/clean up! I'll have to remember this idea for the spring when I'm able to send the mess outside! I also love how you had her make a mini-city!

kewkew said...

I've never heard of the book, but I just checked and our library system does have a few copies. I can't wait til we get to the letter W because now I have a book we can read and some activities to do. I just discovered your blog through the Preschool Corner,looking forward to getting to know you better. I love the snack idea and the muddy/clean up activity. Maybe when we do the letter W it will still be summer and we can do it outside! Thanks for all the great ideas.

Ticia said...

I love your interactive book. That looks like a lot of fun to read/play with.

Walking Fruitfully said...

Wow Mandy--you are so creative. I was at Homeschool Creations and saw your link on the Preschool Corner post. I am so glad you are using your names as I am sure I would slip up :) We are not a big farm by any stretch, but we have our chickens and goats. We currently have chicks and one kid (baby goat) so far. I know it is a bit to drive, but I'd love to have y'all for a field trip :)

Mandy said...

We would love to come visit your farm! Lexy was just asking when we could visit a "real" farm. We'll have to plan a day when it gets a little warmer!

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