As an early childhood educator, I have had the pleasure of creating and making presentations at a number of child care conferences.
One of my favourite (and most popular) sessions was “Books Alive”… bringing books to life throughout your early childhood curriculum.
I have recently started exploring books this way with my daughter, and I thought I would take some time to share a sample of “Books Alive” with you.
Come check out how a book can be transformed into many fun experiences! #homeschool Click To TweetBooks Alive!
Language Arts
Read the book: Pete’s A Pizza by William Steig
Discuss various new vocabulary words from the book
Mathematics
Write and chart our favourite pizza toppings.
Look at flyers of pizzas. Count the toppings on each pizza in the picture. How many pepperoni? How many tomatoes?
Eat pizza. When cutting the pizza, the idea of fractions can be shared by first cutting the pizza in half (two pieces), then cut it in half again (there’s now four pieces)… and so on.
Social studies
Take a field trip to a neighbourhood pizza parlor. If possible, “interview” someone who works at the pizza parlor. Discuss the different jobs at the pizza parlor. Draw a map of the walk/drive to the pizza parlor.
A follow up activity can be to play pizzeria. Set up a pizza parlour. Use pizza flyers, make menus and money, gather toy food, aprons, dishes and a small table to set up a small pizza parlour in your home.
Science
Bake a pizza together. Baking is a great way to introduce science concepts to children (i.e. watching the dough rise, the cheese melt, witnessing the transformation from raw to cooked, etc.).
Art
Sculpt pizzas out of play dough!
Draw and design a pizza sign, flyer, or poster.
Music
Sing along to “I am a Pizza” off of the album 10 Carrot Diamond by Charlotte Diamond.
Physical Education
Dancing to “I am a Pizza”
Play pizza tag. Someone is the baker and everyone else is the pizza toppings.
Health
Discuss the four food groups. How can we make sure that the pizza we eat is healthy? What else would we need to add to a meal of pizza to make the meal healthier?
Additional Activities
Felt board fun. Make pizza items out of felt material. Get some new, unused pizza boxes and children can have fun assembling their own felt pizzas!
A memory game can be made easily by collecting pictures of pizzas and pizza items. Mount the pictures on durable index cards and there you go… a memory game!
Make a book about your exploration of pizzas. Take pictures of all your activities and “write” the “story” about your activities. Laminate the pages to make your book more durable.
I could go on and on… as you can see, the possibilities are endless! Are you craving pizza yet? I know I am!
I’m working on bringing Little Cloud by Eric Carle “alive” with a variety of activities. I can’t wait! It’s amazing how something as ordinary as reading a book, can easily be made into something so extraordinary!
I don’t think my 16 and 18 year old would go for this, but I’m going to give my sister in law a head’s up. This is right up her alley.
Cool ideas!
OMGosh! I love it! This is precisely how I do my lesson planning! I try to incorporate as many different things as I can but I never thought of it as making the books come alive. To tell you the truth, I always feel inadequate when it comes to homeschooling the kids. Because I don’t have a background in education, I feel like I’m not doing “enough”. But this post, because its coming from you, gives me a little boost of confidence.
I already have a post in the works about our current unit. I was actually going to post it for this week, but I was hesitant because I was so self-conscious. I was even thinking I should probably research how REAL teachers plan their lessons so I don’t look completely incompetent!
Because of how my mother raised us, I never had to learn about the early childhood stuff. My mother is wildly creative and resourceful, and so weaving learning into the fun of the everyday things was second nature to me by the time I had my first child. People would ask me “how did you teach your child to do that?” and I would stare blankly at them and say “what do you mean teach?” I had no idea I was doing anything right! Ignorance on fire! lol
I was so blessed by this post today. You have no idea, Jennifer!
I can’t wait for your Little Cloud post. I bet you’re making cloud dough! ;0
Very fun! I love how one activity can easily blend into another.
I love your breaking it down this way. Will try out this method. God Bless friend
I’m delighted that this helped you visualize what literacy-based planning can achieve. Thanks for reading Ifeoma.