Learning Center Ideas Use these center activities to continue children’s independent learning about people and places.
Art Center Neighborhood Mural
Listening Center Listen & Play Record yourself reading Good Night, Gorilla and make the recording available to children in the listening center, along with a copy of the book. You might also provide stuffed animals, magazine cutouts, or printed pictures of the zoo animals. Children can play with these animals to act out the story as they listen.
Set up the art center for children to work on a neighborhood mural. Write “Our Neighborhood” on the mural. Children can draw and color their homes and other favorite people and places. Label each home with the child’s name. Then draw a street connecting the homes to an image of your school.
You can also provide collage materials like magazines for cutting out pictures of local buildings and familiar places.
Block Center Box & Block Neighborhood
Classroom Library Extend the theme by adding related books and media to your classroom library. • Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton • Curious George Rides a Bike by H. A. Rey (Weston Woods Book with Audio) • Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni (Weston Woods Book with Audio) • Taking a Walk/Caminando (bilingual) by Rebecca Emberley
Provide clean, empty milk cartons or boxes for children to use as pretend buildings in the block area. Cover each box with construction paper and invite children to decorate them with doors, windows, and other details. You may want to provide magazine photos for children to tape onto boxes or blocks to create a hospital, store, or other local landmark. Invite children to add blocks and toys to make a neighborhood.
• Wild About Books by Judy Sierra (Bilingual Weston Woods Video)
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