We've spent the last couple weeks of preschool studying Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. This is a book we own and that the kids already loved so it was fun to dive in deeper. Activities included learning about steam power and other forms of energy (they really liked watching videos of steam shovels and other steam-powered vehicles), drawing trees that were near and far, learning about stewardship, personification and onomatopoeias, learning about different landforms (mountains, canals, peninsulas, etc), making a moveable paper digger, building with blocks and playing with some new digger toys.
When I put together the lesson plans, there are some activities I'm fairly certain will be a hit (like playing with new digger toys and building with blocks). There are others I'm not so sure about but I figure it's a good introduction to those topics. Well, one of the latter surprised me in being a big hit: onomatopoeias. Megan and Matthew loved learning what an onomatopoeia was and then identifying them: "Mom, that's an onomatopoeia!" We made sounds for water flowing, the microwave running, the doorbell ringing, the clothes washer washing and many others. It's something they are still doing on a daily basis.
An energy experiment.
We put vinegar in the water bottle and baking soda in the balloon. When we lifted the balloon, we saw it inflate because of the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda. Pretty cool.
Megan and Matthew showing off their moveable diggers that they colored and we then put together.
Megan's tower of blocks--she liked to see how high she could build.
Matthew with a few of his block creations. He ended up building an entire city out of blocks.
The idea of this activity was to make "neat and square" corners like Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne did. They just enjoyed playing with (and eating) the marshmallows. Matthew built a bunch of structures with toothpicks connecting marshmallows and Megan has a marshmallow bouquet.
