Unit 6: Building Structures

Have children form an uppercase “T” and a lowercase “t” with their two index fingers. Shape pipe cleaners or roll “snakes” from strips of clay to form the letter “Tt.” Have children form their own letters “Tt.”

Use the Letter Sort Routine to help children distinguish letter shapes and recognize the shape of the target letter, “Tt.”

Have children cut out the letters “Tt” in magazines and glue them onto construction paper.

Create a mural about The Three Little Javelinas. Display the mural near the one you made last week to compare the settings.

Invite children to paint desert pictures. Allow them to shake sand onto their artwork.

Help children make paper bag construction-worker vests and safety signs to create “construction sites” for when they are building structures.

Have children measure the towers they are building and discuss ways to build higher and stronger.

Have children practice some building skills. Demonstrate how to hammer golf tees into foam pieces and how to twist a screw into a bar of soap.

Ask children to select a version of The Three Little Pigs that interests them and to look at the words and pictures on their own or with other children. 

Read Tap Tap Bang Bang aloud to individuals or small groups.

Let children role-play construction workers remodeling the Pretend and Play Center.

Encourage children to use the storyboard or story figures to retell the story on their own.

Have children build a series of houses, each higher than the next.

Have children follow directions on how to make an adobe brick.

Have children watch the video PEEP and the Big Wide World “Chirp Builds a Nest.” Encourage children to browse through books from the Library Center to find out more about how animals build their homes.

Encourage children to make up a story about one of the pigs from The Three Little Javelinas. Ask them to draw the animal(s) and write or dictate the stories.