Once Upon a Time
Center Enhancements
The theme for March is "Once Upon a Time". I felt it was necessary to have themes from all areas of studies. This is my first one that focuses on literature. Here is the set up for each center of the classroom.
Art Center
The Art Center has been morphed into "Gepetto's Workshop." Using the classic fairy tale, Pinocchio as inspiration, children can make their own marionette. I found the puppet template at puppetworks.org.
This activity helps to build fine motor skills -- especially those linked with cutting and threading.
Blocks Center
The Block Center was enhanced based on the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs. Obviously, since the pigs construct made houses out of different materials, I decorated boxes to resemble the supplies.
Luckily, there are other rooms in the center that also have the hard plastic blocks. I traded some other colors to fill the top shelf with red "brick" blocks.
Each material (sticks, bricks, and straw) have a little piggy in stereotypical attire for the occupation that correlates to the building material (i.e. mason for bricks). I found the picture by doing a Google image search.
The blocks representing both the straw and sticks are made from milk cartons. I saved milk cartons from meal times for about three weeks to have enough for this enhancement, and another project. The cartons were rinsed, air dried, and formed into a box using tape.
Next, the straw bricks were covered in yellow butcher paper. Each of the rectangle faces were covered in glue and rolled in hay. Once the glue dried the blocks were covered in contact paper. This final step was purely to keep the straw from falling off and creating a huge mess daily.
The stick bricks were wrapped in brown butcher paper and covered in contact paper. In this case the contact paper made it easier to glue the large tongue depressors or craft sticks to the sides. It also gives a smooth surface to re-glue any sticks the kids pry off.
Dramatic Play
This center has been turned into Jack and the Beanstalk. The timing couldn't have been better either; Jack the Giant Slayer recently opened in theaters.
There is a beanstalk made with green butcher paper. It was cut into thin strips and rolled on a diagonal. I scrunched it as I rolled it to give it a more organic look. It is rooted in place by a cardboard tube at the base which is velcroed to the the carpet wall. It is also clipped to the ceiling.
The golden harp is constructed out of 3/4 inch PVC pipe, 90 degree elbow joints, and 45 degree elbow joints. Once the all the pieces were cut and attached (using PVC primer and PVC glue), it was spray painted in Rust-o-lium pure gold spray paint. Two coats on each side was enough to cover all the specs printed on the PVC. The strings are gold yarn that have been tied and hot glued in place.
Although it is hard to see in the pictures, I wrote on the window with Crayola window markers. It says:
"Fe, fi, fo, fum! Look out Jack here I come"
The golden goose was a lot of fun to crochet. I modified a swan pattern to be about three times larger and altered the wings. The golden eggs were large Easter eggs sprayed gold with the same paint as the harp. The nest is a burlap sack in a shallow tub.
The looting sack was from a jersey sheet set and the "magic beans" were glass beads from the science center.
Language and Writing Center
Several fairy tales are showcased in this center. There's the nursery rhyme "Queen of Hearts" which references Alice in Wonderland. We read it as a class and it will stay up through the duration of the theme so the children can practice their reading skills.
There are also several story bags--bags that contain major characters and elements of stories. The contents of the bags can be used to build language skills as children retell the fairy tales or make up original stories.
Each story bag has it's own canvas bag that has the title and decorations relating to the story on the front. The back of the bag lists the items for each story.
The characters for each story was hand drawn and transferred to a vector image. You are welcome to download a PDF of the characters.
Large Motor Center
This center is set up to help kids work on balancing skills as they cross the Troll's bridge from the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The bridge was created using the balancing segments from our Great Room (indoor play area.) The troll was found via Google image search.
Manipulatives Center
This center uses the tale of Elves and the Shoemaker to help children focus on the self help skill of tying their own shoe laces. I also asked parents to send their child to school in tie shoes. This will help foster the need for building this fine motor skill.
The boots are both made of leather to fit with the cobbler idea. The picture instructions were also found through a Google image search. There are two sets of instructions: one for the bunny ear method and one for the wrap around method.
Math and Science Center
This center has two enhancements. One is a size sorting based on the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The bears, chairs, bowls, and chart were all made free hand with paper. They were laminated for durability.
The other is a telling time exercise based on the idea of Cinderella and the importance of midnight. There are several other stories that also use relevant time.
There are 12 clock cards around the table. Each one is set to help recognize the time at the top of the hour.
The card has a digital style clock on the outside and a matching analog clock on the inside. The times were written on with Sharpie marker after lamination. If my class masters reading this time quickly, a quick nail polish remover wipe will allow me to reset all the times.
This clock was decorated like a pumpkin to specifically be Cinderella's coach. There aren't any batteries in it, so children can freely change the time and practice reading it. It is attached to the wall with Velcro.
Music Center
The music center also has two enhancements. One is the soundtrack to Into the Woods (a musical which combines several fairy tales into one story.)
There are also two environmental sound shakers made to look like books. They were made from cereal boxes that were covered in white butcher paper and contact paper. Then a laminated construction paper cover was double sided taped to the "pages". The Emperor's New Clothes is filled with rice and The Frog Prince is filled with oatmeal.
Sensory Center
The sensory table is filled with different books that were falling apart. Each one was cut in a different way. This can challenge children to match the pages together. There are also magnetic letters mixed in. The idea for this center is to illustrate the various textures of print and books.
Extras
Puzzles
A few pages from the books used in the sensory table were turned into double sided puzzles for the kids to solve. Each of these were cut in different ways to help keep the pieces organized.
Table Tops
Each open table has pictures of fairy tales and words relating to fairy tales. We use them as a way to immerse the children in the language of the theme.
