The Same or Different

Hope you had a fun Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday off from school!

(I have no photos from today's lesson. Sorry.)

Daily Question: Do you know your opposites?
Toys: FP Little People, Foam Blocks, Opposite Flash Card Games, Opposite Puzzle Pieces, Opposite Cards.

The children helped choose toy selection this morning. I pulled other things out, but the Little People (Airport and Construction Site) seem to be very popular.

The children spontaneously hid under the table, one by one, and then invited other to join them (like the game Sardines) and brought some toys under there and had a good 10 min. playing time before inviting me to "find" them and screaming "Boo!" or "You found us!" at me. This did not seem to get old but became a hilarious game to them until we needed to clean up.

I love teaching this group. I have a real affirmation that children learn best from play and each other--not in a formal "school" setting at this age.


Snack: Clementines and Ginger Snaps. There were many kind things said at snack time. "This is a good snack, "says Preston. "Thank you, Hugh," says Susie. One little guy was hesitant about the snack--he tried some sweet clementine slices and asked for more oranges and more and more cookies.

Parents, thanks again for helping send snacks to change up the variety. They really do "feast" here at snack time. They must use up a lot of energy playing.

I introduced our topic of opposites at snack time. We then smell the spicy sweet ginger snaps and then each child gets on a chair and smells the fish water--stinky, ewwh!

Circle Time: The Opposite Box. Inside the box I had places a number of opposite pairs. Each child got to peer inside the box, "discover" the opposites, and share one of them with the class. Inside was: a large, soft teddy bear and a small, hard plastic bear; a long piece of yarn and a short piece of yarn; a sparkly snowflake ornament and a dull snowflake ornament; a wet (clean) wipe and a dry (dirty) wipe; a dull pencil and a sharp pencil; a noisy bell and silence; an orange peel and a stinky eraser. etc.

Opposite Books:
The Foot Book (The Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners) by Theodore Geisel, Dr. Suess
GO Dog, Go! (I Can Read it All By Myself Beginner Books) by P.D. Eastman
*Same Same by Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter
Scruffy Teddy's Book of Opposites (Parragon Publishing) Ill. by Gaynor Berry
First Concepts: Opposites (Lift-the-Flap) (Priddy Bicknell--Big Ideas for Little People)
Opposites (Active Minds) Publications International, Ltd.
Mt Tall Book of...Big and Small, Far and Near (Preschool Press)
Exactly The Opposite by Tana Hoban (All photographs, no words)
Is it Rough? Is it Smooth? Is it Shiny? by Tana Hoban (Photographs)
Earth, Sky, Wet, Dry; A Book of Nature Opposites by Durga Bernhard


*We began with reading the book Same Same and talking about why different things can be classified as the "same" and not opposites. For instance, on the first page are pictures of a tambourine, a guitar, and a song bird. I ask, "Why are all these the same?" "Because they all make music!"the children guessed It is important to know what is the same to understand what is different.