Weekly Learning Theme: Boats

Since Monday was Columbus Day I decided a good learning theme for last week was boats.  I didn't want to focus on Columbus since there's a bit of controversy about the impact he actually had, but I figured boats would be a good theme to tie into it.  We did talk a bit about exploring and I read Carter a book and sang a song about Christopher Columbus, but we mostly just talked about boats.  I got my weeks mixed up initially and was thinking it was train week.  We are doing train week this week to get Carter excited for his Halloween costume.  I was bummed out because I was so excited about train week and just couldn't get myself pumped up about boats, so I kept the week simple.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
2. Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.
3. Sort objects based on size or color/Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle. 
4. Play make believe.
5. Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
6. Follow simple instructions.

Activities/Movement:

• We made a sponge sailboat to start off the week's activities.  I saw the idea here and then couldn't find it again, so I just went off memory to make the boat.  We cut an old sponge to give the front end a tip.  Then we cut a hole in the sponge and inserted a straw.  I cut a triangle out of foam and put 2 holes in it so I could lace the straw through it.  I filled a large container with water and put it on Carter's craft table.  Then I showed him the finished boat and put it in the water.  He thought it was so cool.  He liked pushing it around and watching it float.  I made sure to use the word float quite a bit as it was floating and then sink when he would push down on the boat and make it sink.  That way he'd have a little bit of background knowledge for later on in the week when we tried out items to see if they sink or float in water.  I showed Carter how to blow on the sail to make the boat move and he thought it was the absolute coolest.  He kept trying to do it but couldn't quite get enough air to make it move.  

Playing with his sponge sailboat.

• We played with boats in the bathtub and sorted them based on two different attributes, color and size.  Carter loves playing with boats and watching them float.  We talked a little bit about floating and how it means to stay on top of the water.  We also talked about sinking and how it means going down to the bottom of the water.
• We also played float or sink in the tub.  I collected some random toys throughout the house and then used bath toys that float.  We talked about sinking and floating and I'd ask Carter whether he thought a toy would sink or float.  He would laugh and I'd drop it in the tub.  I'd talk about whether it sunk or floated and would explain what it meant: if it fell to the bottom of the tub it sunk, if it stayed on top of the water it floated.

Checking to see if the dinosaur would sink or float.

• I took construction paper and cut it in half.  On the top half of the paper I cut out a boat and the bottom half I cut to look like water.  I had Carter match the boat to the same color of water.  He did it with the blue boat and water and then lost interest, so we just talked about the colors and I had him point to the different colored boats and the different colored water.

Matching boats with the same color water.

• I showed Carter how to sit on the floor and row like he was rowing a boat.  He enjoyed doing it and we sat on the floor and rowed together.

Craft:

• Carter made a ship out of shapes I cut out.  We used the blue water from the sorting activity and glued it to a white piece of paper.  Then I cut apart the ships from the sorting activity.  Carter put glue on all of the pieces and then put the pieces on the picture.  I helped him get the pieces glued down where he wanted them.

Working hard to put glue on the sail.

Special Snack:

• I cut an apple into sections and then put a cheese sail on the apple boat using a tooth pick.  I didn't snap a picture quick enough before Carter grabbed the cheese sail off and ate it first.

Immediately nabbing the cheese sail!

 Make Believe:

• We pretended to be sea captains when we played with our homemade boat.  We used words they would use such as deck, tide, port, starboard, etc.

Songs:

• We sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" quite a few times.  We also sang a song about Columbus that goes to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".  The song goes like this:

Sail, sail, sail three ships,

Slowly through the sea.

Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria,

Count them one, two, three.

Land, land, land they saw,

After many days.

Hurray, hurray for Columbus,

The man who found the way.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

• We didn't have access to any boats in the area so we went with the explorer theme to come up with a field trip.  We went exploring at a nature trail near us.  We searched for new things we hadn't seen before and really paid attention to anything we could see along the trail.

Books:

 

There weren't as many boat books as I expected.  Carter enjoyed the books and his very favorite was "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".  He absolutely loved it and wanted me to sing it to him over and over!

• Boat Book by Gail Gibbons
• Boats by Anne Rockwell
• Ducky by Eve Bunting
• The Boat Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
• The Little Sailboat by Lois Lenski
• Little Tug by Stephen Savage
• Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
• Toy Boat by Randall De Seve
• Boats by Byron Barton
• Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip Christian Stead
• Little Bear's Little Boat by Eve Bunting
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera
• Big Bear's Big Boat by Eve Bunting
• Arthur's Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar
• Columbus Day by Christina Mia Gardeski- I really liked that this book discussed the history of Christopher Columbus and addressed the fact that he didn't actually discover America.
• Boats by Charles Reasoner
• Boats, Boats, Boats by Joann Cleland
• Boats, Boats, Boats by Joanna Ruane