Build a Bay

Materials

building blocks
large bin of water
blue towel or blanket
plastic animals and boats

Language/L.PK.MA.5.a: Demonstrate understanding of concepts by sorting common objects into categories (e.g., sort objects by color, shape, or texture).
Literature/RL.PK.MA.3: With prompting and support, act out characters and events from a story or poem read aloud.
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.5: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.

MA Draft STE Standards:

Physical Sciences/Matter and Its Interactions: Structure and Properties of Matter/PS1.A: Describe, compare, sort and classify objects based on observable physical characteristics, uses, and whether it is manufactured as part of their classroom play and investigations of the natural and human-made world.

Head Start Outcomes:

Language Development/Expressive Language: Engages in storytelling.
Literacy Knowledge/Book Appreciation and Knowledge: Retells stories or information from books through conversation, artistic works, creative movement, or drama.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Logic and Reasoning/Symbolic Representation: Represents people, places, or things through drawings, movement, and three-dimensional objects.

PreK Learning Guidelines:

English Language Arts/Language 4: Engage in play experiences that involve naming and sorting common words into various classifications using general and specific language.
Science and Technology/Physical Sciences 20: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.

Build a Bay

Skill Focus: Fine Motor Skills, Imaginative Play, Creative Expression, Listen and Speaking, Vocabulary

Educator Prep: Place a large towel in the center of the Block Area. Set the clear bin of water on top. Explain to children that this water is the bay.

Tell children that the “blue” water in the center is the bay and you want them to build the coastline around it, or the land area around the bay. Hold up the first page of Who Sank the Boat? as you remind children that a bay is an inlet of the sea with a wide mouth that partly enclosed by a curved coastline. Encourage them to act out the story of the animals in the bay. After children have acted out the story, have them use the plastic animals and boats to test whether they float or sink.