This week’s post was written by Tonii Lewis, an assistant project director at Best Practices. This is the fourth round of RT3 toolbox activity winners.
Winner #1 – Joana Otoo
Card #140: Dramatic Play
Set up a TV weather studio with a large U.S. or world map, pointers, dress-up clothes and books about weather. Post pictures of various types of weather and encourage the children to play meteorologist, reporting the weather using a microphone. SC2.4d
WPREK The Pre-K Weather Channel “We discussed different types of weather during the week and the student had the opportunity to practice telling the weather during centers. We also discussed the different roles that work together to tell us the weather everyday.”
Winner #2 – Alison Bradley
Card #133: Shadow Talk
Turn off the lights. Use a flashlight to read Whose Shadow Is This? by Claire Berge. Ask the children if they have ever used a flashlight. Show them how flashlights can also be used to create shadows. Have pre-cut silhouette animal shapes to use to form shadows on a wall or bulletin board. SC1.4b
“Read the Shape of Me and Other Stuff. We discussed how shadows are made and used sunlight as a source for making shadows. The students experimented with making shadows in the window. Instead of using puppets the students used their imagination to make their own puppets.”
Winner #3 – Martha Ward
Card #133: Shadow Talk and Flashlight Fun
Shadow Talk: Turn off the lights. Use a flashlight to read Whose Shadow Is This? by Claire Berge. Ask the children if they have ever used a flashlight. Show them how flashlights can also be used to create shadows. Have pre-cut silhouette animal shapes to use to form shadows on a wall or bulletin board. SC1.4b
Flashlight Fun: Provide flashlights and various materials such as clear plastic wrap, aluminum foil, tissue paper, cardboard, construction paper, cloth, transparency sheets and wax paper. Ask the children which materials the light will pass through. Show the children that some materials allow light to shine through and others do not. Introduce the vocabulary words “opaque” and “transparent.” For example, light will shine through white construction paper but not black construction paper. SC1.4d
“I combined both of these activities as we were learning about light. We read the book, Whose Shadow is This. After reading the book we discussed it. We created a chart: Where We Get Light– at night & day. We then explored with flashlights, light boxes, & an overhead making shadows.”
I train Georgia PreK teachers and dabble a bit in the art of blogging. Have an idea for a blog post? Email me at bestpractices@gsu.edu. On the web: www.bestpractices.gsu.edu Facebook: www.facebook.com/bestpracticespk Twitter: @bestpracticespk
