Yesterday we kicked off our new unit with the book Press Here by Herve' Tullet. Tullet's books are bright, playful, and creative, which makes them some of my favorite to use in the preschool classroom.
Press Here is full of directional language and really plays on children's curiosity as they watch the magic unfold on each page. Here's an example from the first few pages of the book:
Press the dot on the first page, and two appear on the next! Children are excited and amazed by what they can "cause" the book to do as they read. (And believe me, it only gets better!)
Press Here also incorporates red, yellow, and blue (the primary colors), along with black and white, which made it the perfect tie-in for our colors/color mixing theme. After we finished reading, we made tissue paper dot collages using different sized circles.
We used paintbrushes to cover a sheet of white tagboard with a mixture of glue and water, then (gently) placed the tissue paper circles onto the sticky surface.
This was a process-based activity, meaning there was no specific end-goal in mind or "right way" to complete the project. The idea was to allow children to explore the materials with minimal teacher input as to what they were "supposed" to make. A few learned very quickly that rubbing the tissue paper would cause it to tear, and that too much glue would cause wrinkles. These kinds of discoveries are so much more meaningful when children figure them out for themselves, in their own time.
Pulling individual circles from a stack was also great for developing fine motor skills.
Our collages are dry but still need to be hung; we'll update you on the results once that's done. Have a great night!
Press Here is full of directional language and really plays on children's curiosity as they watch the magic unfold on each page. Here's an example from the first few pages of the book:
Press the dot on the first page, and two appear on the next! Children are excited and amazed by what they can "cause" the book to do as they read. (And believe me, it only gets better!)
Press Here also incorporates red, yellow, and blue (the primary colors), along with black and white, which made it the perfect tie-in for our colors/color mixing theme. After we finished reading, we made tissue paper dot collages using different sized circles.
We used paintbrushes to cover a sheet of white tagboard with a mixture of glue and water, then (gently) placed the tissue paper circles onto the sticky surface.
This was a process-based activity, meaning there was no specific end-goal in mind or "right way" to complete the project. The idea was to allow children to explore the materials with minimal teacher input as to what they were "supposed" to make. A few learned very quickly that rubbing the tissue paper would cause it to tear, and that too much glue would cause wrinkles. These kinds of discoveries are so much more meaningful when children figure them out for themselves, in their own time.
Pulling individual circles from a stack was also great for developing fine motor skills.
Our collages are dry but still need to be hung; we'll update you on the results once that's done. Have a great night!
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