Wishy Washy Days!
Oh, lovely mud!
There was never a dull moment in the kindergarten room during this crazy unit as we met and got to know Mrs. Wishy Washy and her mud-crazed farm animals. This is a great story from which to teach emergent reading, print concepts, punctuation & voice expression and sight words, not only because of the text, but because the kids absolutely love to read it! This group ate it up!
The munchkins had a blast preparing for all the fun with the first activity of the unit: Wishy Washy Fun Bags. The bag itself is Mrs. Wishy Washy's dress and all her body parts are added to the bag to create a fun character. We filled the bag throughout the two weeks of our unit with all sorts of language & math games. The munchkins couldn't wait to take them home when out unit was over.
The excitement continued as we began to explore the components of a story: characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. We started with characters. What better way to learn about the characters of a story than to become one yourself? The munchkins had a blast sequencing the story and exploring each character through drama. Plus, everyone got to make the stick puppets for their fun bags, so Mom and Dad can take part in the little productions at home, too!
"Oh, lovely mud," said the cow and he jumped in it!
"Oh, lovely mud," said the pig and he rolled in it!
"Oh, lovely mud," said the duck and he paddled in it!
Along came Mrs. Wishy Washy.
"Just LOOK at you!" she screamed.
What fun!
This unit provided tons of reading and writing opportunities as well. The munchkins worked hard creating sentence strips to retell their favorite part of the story, and they wrote their own class version of the story. These munchkins had Mrs. Wishy Washy washing all sorts of crazy things!
When it came time for reading, these munchkins were ready to go! They did a great job creating mini-books to explore word families, making sight word flip books and partner reading from the story during center and free time. It was so fun to hear the voices throughout the day, practicing all those words and working hard to use expression while reading!
And we can't forget, that during any unit, there has to be a special snack for recipe day! Well, this one was no exception! The munchkins made their own mud! We created a class graph to see who would eat mud. What do you think the results of that graph told us?! Of course, these munchkins couldn't be tricked. They knew right away that our mud was chocolate pudding! We had fun mixing and stirring and of course, letting our animals (animal crackers, that is!) jump and roll in it. And if they needed a bath? Well that's what the glass of milk was for!
Pouring...
Mixing...
Rolling...
"In the tub you go!"
But let's not forget that we learned some math during all this fun too! The characters of the story were fabulous little manipulatives to help us count, pattern, sort, graph and add. The munchkins created a baggie full of little "counter" so they could practice all these great math skills during free time and at home too. We had fun as a class working on our addition with our addition flashcards, which were a part of our "fun bag" too.
"In the tub you go!"
But let's not forget that we learned some math during all this fun too! The characters of the story were fabulous little manipulatives to help us count, pattern, sort, graph and add. The munchkins created a baggie full of little "counter" so they could practice all these great math skills during free time and at home too. We had fun as a class working on our addition with our addition flashcards, which were a part of our "fun bag" too.
But let's not go until we take alook at these classics, which went into a book entitled:
Mrs. D Does the Wash!
Wishy Washy, Wishy Washy!
In the tub you go!
Until next time,
Giggles,
Mrs. D
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