Project: Create "Get Well" cards.
Goal: Help students to understand sympathy, share their feelings, and learn the days of the week.
Days of the Week
1. Talk about the days of the week: Is there something the class does routinely on certain days each week? Are there individual activities students do on a weekly basis?
2. Have students pick their favorite day of the week and illustrate why it is their favorite.
Sympathy for Others
1. Discuss times when you have not felt well. Share the things that cheered you up and made you feel better. Ask students to draw a picture of a time when they were not feeling well. Ask them to show what made them feel better.
2. Create "Get Well" cards. This could be done at a specific time when someone in the class, another teacher, or the principal is sick. This could also be done at any time during the year for children at a local hospital.
Helping New People
(Such as the Substitute Teacher)
1. This is a great book to use in preparation for a time when you may be out of the classroom. Introduce your students to the idea of another teacher supervising them. Describe the ways in which they could help the substitute.
2. Talk about what it feels like to be a new member of the class. Ask them to remember how they felt on their first day of school.
Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten
Project: Create a small town in your classroom.
Goal: Introduce students to the basic industries of their town or neighborhood, and learn basic geometric shapes.
Identifying Shapes
1. Introduce shapes and their names, using large cutouts. Talk about what shapes you can see in everyday objects around the classroom.
2. Divide the class into shape teams (circle, triangle, etc.). Ask each team to draw the things around them that have their shape. Let them explore the classroom and playground for help (e.g., square windows, rectangular door, etc.).
3. For a rainy day, hold a scavenger hunt in the classroom. Hide objects that represent all the shapes around the room. Each team then has to collect the objects that have their assigned shape.
4. After these activities, have the members of each team draw and cut out their team's shape. Ask each student to write the name of the shape on one side, and list or draw objects that have that shape on the reverse side. Attach the finished cut-outs to their individual mobiles.
Create Your Own Town
Divide the class into teams one for each of the places mentioned in the book: library, post office, and firehouse. Designate these areas in the classroom and have the class help you decorate and staff them accordingly. Students can send "letters" to each other through the post office, where everyone has their own mailbox. Create a system for borrowing books from the library. When holding fire drills, be sure to rely on your firehouse. Rotate students in these positions throughout the year.
Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten
Project: Host your own classroom circus.
Goal: Introduce students to animals and their characteristics, discuss basic alliteration, and spend a fun afternoon at your own circus.
Animals and Alliteration
1. Each student in Miss Bindergarten's class is actually an animal (i.e., Danny is a dog, Matty is a moose, etc.). As you read the story, point out these animals to the class and ask them to identify each animal. Introduce various characteristics of each animal (e.g., elephants drink through their noses, iguanas smell with their tongues, etc.).
2. Each character's name begins with the same letter as the type of animal it is. Ask students to imagine themselves as an animal whose name starts with the same letter as their first name and have them draw a picture. Attach the pictures to their individual mobiles.
Circus Day
1. Create your own circus day, with you as the ringmaster.
2. Create a variety of circus act "rings" in a circuit around the classroom, so that each student gets to "perform" each task (e.g., hula-hooping, juggling, balancing books on their heads, etc.).
3. Serve animal crackers or popcorn and juice for a snack.
Individual Student Mobiles
At this point, each student should have five pieces for their own personalized mobile. Display them for the next parent-teacher conference or for other members of the school. Afterward, students may take their mobiles home.
MISS BINDERGARTEN BOOK LIST
All of the following titles are available from Dutton Children's Books & Puffin Books, Divisions of Penguin Books for Young Readers.
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
0-14-056273-7 (40 pp.) $6.99 pb
0-525-45446-2 (40 pp.) $16.99 hc
Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten
0-525-46000-4 (40 pp.) $16.99 hc
Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten
0-525-46396-8 (40 pp.) $16.99 hc
An IRA-CBC Children's Choice
Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten
0-525-46710-6 (40 pp.) $16.99 hc
An IRA-CBC Children's Choice
Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten
0-525-46884-6 (40 pp.) $16.99 hc
Visit author Joseph Slate at
www.josephslate.com
and illustrator Ashley Wolff at
www.ashleywolff.com.
