Make Believe

To finish out the summer, we’re doing a make believe theme. This is a little different than the fairy tale theme from last week, as that was more whimsical and princess like while this one I think of more aliens, robots, monsters, pirates etc… They are both make believe, but the different themes kind of evoke a different feeling.

After this unit, we’ll take a week off before starting back up with our fall themes, like All About You, Community Helpers & Transportation. You can find my themes page here which will link you to any of the themes you want.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read Ten Lepers Color one man from the 10 lepers worksheet Fill a box with things your’re thankful for (plastic food, shoe, play money). Talk about what it would be like without those things. Learn to sign thank you Print and laminate the place setting and have child set the table. Say something they’re thankful for at mealtime. 
Language (2) R-Z monster letter match Letter hop** Hide letter R-Z flashcards in sensory bin. Pull the letter, say the sound, dot it on pg 5 of printable Letter poke & find R-Z – pretend the letters are trapped and need saving Driving letters**  
Language (4) Introduce There & of Sight word hop** Pirate short vowel game  Letter poke & find (letters for there, of & where) once they have saved the letters, arrange them into the sight words Driving words** 
Math (2) Stuffed animal math** Write 16-20 on post it notes and put out of order. Have child help put them back in order I Spy teen numbers Flip, say, cover game Robot mountains** 
Math (4) Stuffed animal math** Use fraction magnets to talk about division (could also make some out of plates) Where is the hidden treasure?** Count up a bag of m&ms (or other snack) and divide them among everyone in the family – write out the equation Lego division** 
Art/Sensory Play the floor is lava game Smash Mat – Use different vocabulary to describe the picture and have child smash a playdo ball into the picture you are describing Color a treasure map  Watch Charlie & the Chocolate factory & then talk about the role that Willy Wonka’s imagination played – you can make popcorn and eat candy too Get out the dress up bin for dramatic play  
Science
Geography
History 
Make elephant toothpaste Pick a magic trick to teach Map fact or fiction  Candy sensory test** Real v make believe sort 

Letter/Sight word hop – write words or letters on paper plates and put them on a path (alien path, pirate path or whatever). have child hop over each one saying the word/letter until the end.  

Stuffed animal math – For the younger child, set up 6 stuffed animals then count out 20 pieces of play food – feed the food to the stuffed animals and play. For the older child, set up 6 stuffed animals and give them 6 pieces of play food. Write 6 / 6 on the easel and have them divide up the food between the stuffed animals. Have them tell you how many pieces of food each one got – complete the equation. Then repeat this with 3 stuffed animals, 2 stuffed animals & 1 stuffed animal.  

Driving letters/words – With masking tape, make review letters/words. Draw dotted lines on the tape to make it look like a road. Have child drive a ‘space ship’, ‘pirate ship’, or some other fun thing over the masking tape to the treasure. 

Robot Mountains – On butchers paper, write #’s 16-20 in a zig zag formation. Draw a mountain to the right of the 20, and a robot to the left of the 16. Draw a similar scene 2 more times so that there are 3 chances for the robot to get to the mountain with slightly different tracing paths (zig zag, squiggly, straight for example). Have child connect the dots to get the robot to the mountain. 

Lego division – use lego bricks to help solve word problem equations that you make up (ex. If the pirate had 16 swords to share with his brother and sister, how many would each get? If there are 12 shoes to split between 3 aliens, how many does each get?) 

Where is the hidden treasure? – On a piece of paper, write out 5 simple division problems (ie: 4/2, 6/3 etc.. ) After your child is done coloring the map from art today, use post it flags to write the answers to the 5 problems and post them on a map landmark (ie: the ship, cannon etc..). Place one other post it with a random number that is not associated to a division problem on a final unmarked landmark. You now have a map with hidden treasure and a lot of decoys. To find the which landmark really holds the treasure, solve the equations (using unifix or some other manipulative) and take the post it with the answer off the map. The final post it left at the end is where the treasure is really buried. 

Candy sensory test – Get a couple of candies and have your child describe what they see, feel, hear, smell and taste for each one. I recommend pop rocks, runts, sweet tarts, m&ms (from the math activity) and something chocolate like 3 musketeers. After sampling for the test, you can eat some during the movie.