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Pre-K and K

SOCIAL STUDIES

Elmo’s Neighborhood

Who are the people and what are the things in your neighborhood? Students visit Sesame Street to discover what a neighborhood is and how neighborhoods are interdependent as they identify types of people, places, and things that make up a neighborhood. They also see how they are alike or different from other people and things in the neighborhood. This lesson now incorporates the Elmo’s World section of the Sesame Street exhibit.
1 hour UPK
Pre-K
Available Tuesday through Friday

Happy Holiday Traditions!

Available November 25–December 19, 2008
Sing a song! Make an ornament! Decorate a tree! This playful lesson helps young children learn about Christmas long ago while enjoying age-appropriate, hands-on activities among the museum’s collections.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Kitchen Helpers in the 19th Century

What was life like before fast food, washing machines, and microwave ovens? Students visit One History Place and learn for themselves as they role-play household chores expected of children a long time ago, such as pumping water, tending the stove, and using an icebox.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Playthings and Pastimes from Long Ago

What did children play with before the era of plastics, batteries, computers, and videos? Students visit One History Place to learn about early 20th-century America by role-playing the games and pastimes of this bygone era.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Train Travel Changes the World!

Take a journey into the fascinating world of train travel in One History Place. Children experience trains, role-play the jobs of railroad workers, and learn how the introduction of railroad travel changed people’s lives. Add a real train ride on the Strong Express Train for an additional 75 cents per person.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 1, 2, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

NEW! Where in the World Is Mr. Potato Head? Geography and Mapping

Available January 26–May 8, 2009
Students participate in four amazing adventures in the exciting Adventures of MR. POTATO HEAD® exhibit: a jungle safari, an archaeological dig, an undersea excursion, and an outer space odyssey. In small groups, students explore geographical areas through play. Using mapping and inquiry, they locate these geographical areas and compare and contrast them to real world maps. Mapping activities vary according to grade level.
1 hour   SS: 3    MST: 1
Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

LANGUAGE ARTS

Awesome Adventures

Students become the characters in their own adventure skits. Using the interactives in the Adventure section of Reading Adventureland and the formula for great adventure stories, students create an exciting skit and perform it on the bow of the good ship “Courageous”—a not-so-seaworthy vessel!
11/2 hours LA: 1, 4 Arts: 1
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Ernie Sounds It Out!

Ernie has lost his letters! Children help Ernie find them by using environmental clues to point the way to letters hidden in Sesame Street. During their search, students practice letter identification and sound recognition. This lesson can be expanded to include construction of word families.
1 hour LA: 1, 2
Available Tuesday through Friday

Once Upon a Time…

Transform into a character from one of six stories in the dramatic Fairy Tale section in Reading Adventureland: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Three Little Pigs, or Cinderella. Students become the cast as they select a setting, retell, and reenact one of the above classic tales.
11/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

That’s Nonsense!

Students play with language in the Word Play Station or Ultimate Dream Machine of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s astonishing upside-down house. Their play leads them to create original jokes, jingles, tongue twisters, or riddles. These young comics showcase their creative humor at the “That’s Nonsense Talent Show” to close the lesson in Reading Adventureland’s fun-filled Nonsense section.
11/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Using Drama to Develop Language

Through role-play and fantasy in Kid to Kid, students build verbal and written language skills. Students act out different jobs at the kid-sized post office and create short improvisational scenes on the “Act Too” stage, guided by museum teachers and chaperons.
1 hour UPK LA: 1, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Who Dunnit?

A mystery at the Mystery Mansion needs to be solved and your students are the detectives we need! Through deductive reasoning, prediction, mapping skills, and collaboration, detectives use their clues to crack the code of “Who Dunnit?” in the captivating Mystery section of Reading Adventureland.
11/2 hours LA: 1, 4 MST 4, 7
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Wings of Fantasy

Inspired by the fantastical costumes in the Wizard’s Wardrobe, a magical wand, or an original potion created in the Alchemist’s Laboratory in the Fantasy section of Reading Adventureland, students begin to develop a fantasy character. The Wing Shop by Elvira Woodruff fuels creative imaginations as students decide on their character’s source of magical power, good deeds, and method of travel to unknown places.
11/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

MATH AND SCIENCE

NEW! Bear Bucks: Beginning Economics

The Berenstain Bears exhibit provides a bustling environment with Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop, Papa Bear’s Woodworking Shop, the Bear Family Restaurant, Farmer Ben’s Farm, and Dr. Bearson’s Dentist Office. Students play the part of business owners and consumers when they withdraw money from the bank and engage in role-play in the exhibit. This is a fun way for students to apply basic math skills about dollar denominations, adding, subtracting, and beginning multiplication.
1 hour            MST: 3            LA: 1, 3, 4
Kindergarten
Available Wednesday through Friday

NEW! Curious George Figures It Out

Available September 29–December 19, 2008 Curious George is at it again! How high can I go? How far can I jump? How many windows can I see on that apartment? Students are naturally drawn to math problems when they can work them out in the Curious George exhibit. Students apply math concepts of classification, estimation, measurement, graphing, and addition and subtraction, allowing them to play with math at their own level and ability. Students conclude the lesson by sharing with each other their strategies for solving Curious George’s math questions.
1 hour MST: 3
Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

NEW! Playing with Math: A “Beary” Fun Day

Preschoolers are natural math buffs! Sorting, counting, and creating patterns are part of their world. Math is everywhere as they walk down Main Street in the Berenstain Bears exhibit. Preschoolers warm up with fun-filled, pre-math group movement activities. Playtime in the exhibit engages them in one-to-one interaction in the Bear Family Restaurant, sorting and matching activities at Farmer Ben’s Farm, and pattern-making activities in Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop. The lesson ends with a song about their pre-math play in the exhibit.
1 hour UPK
Pre-K
Available Monday through Friday

Very Hungry Butterflies

Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar serves as the springboard for this imaginative experience in the brand new Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden®. Children learn about life cycles as they transform themselves into butterflies through movement and music and then explore the garden to see what butterflies love to eat.
1 hour UPK MST: 4 LA: 1
Available Tuesday through Friday

HEALTH

Healthy Beginnings

Students use dramatic play, movement, and pre-math skills to determine what foods keep us healthy and strong. Dressing in the colors of the symbols from the USDA’s “MyPyramid for Kids” food and exercise guide, students discover what each symbol tells us about healthy eating. After shopping in Super Kids Market, students create healthy and balanced snacks by playing an interactive food group game.
1 hour UPK Health: 1 MST: 1
Available Tuesday through Friday