This week we had a huge amount of fun doing The Red Carpet book unit whilst learning heaps about maps.
Each week my two youngest are given a preschool adventure work box full of lots of exciting activities for them to do throughout the week. They are allowed to have a quick look through to build up their excitement for the week ahead. Over the past week we did a BFIAR book unit with The Red Carpet by Rex Parkin. The theme for the week was ‘maps’. Most of the activities were based around this theme.
Resources I Used for The Red Carpet Book Unit
Read Aloud Fiction Books
Mapping Penny’s World Hardcover by Loreen Leedy
Maps: From Anna to Zane: First Skills by Ya-Ling Huang
Fiction Books
The Marvellous Moon Map by Teresa Heapy
We read through The Red Carpet every morning. It was a huge hit with my girls. They enjoyed the illustrations and A4 immediately recognised the street scene from Katy Kangaroo. We also loved the rhythm and rhyme. We have rowed this book slightly differently to the others because I particularly wanted to introduce my pre-schoolers to map work so I could slowly move one of their study days to an earth study theme, in line with a topic a day for proper FIAR, which we’ll be integrating with B4FIAR next year.
Activities for The Red Carpet Book Unit
Little Worlds
We read through Me on the Map, which is such a lovely introduction to the world of maps. The night before I had made a file folder type activity for A4. Using different coloured foam, I cut out the shape of her and B2’s bedroom and added the area which is used as a wardrobe. I also marked the doors. Then I cut out two beds, a rocking chair, chest of drawers and rocking horse- the sum total of everything in the room:
I asked A4 to try to put together her room in a map form, just like the little girl in Me on the Map. She found this so hard. I took her upstairs and we looked at the room from the door and chatted about where everything was in relation to us. We returned to the activity. She continued to find this hard, so I helped her out by putting her bed in. From then she was off and totally got it:
She completed the map very quickly, once she understood:
Trays and Floor Activities
Most of our activities this week revolved around maps of some sort so I didn’t do too many tray activities with them, although we did manage to borrow a play mat which the girls LOVED! (Thanks Becky!)
Dora The Explorer: Dora’s Map Adventure [DVD]
Playwrite Wooden Jigsaw Car Puzzle for Toddlers
Coogam Montessori Alphabet Maze
Mummy and A4 Activity
In Mapping Penny’s World we learnt about all the uses of maps, one being that it shows an individual which the shortest route to a destination would be. I designed a small map of our nearby community. We live behind a row of local shops, one of which is a coffee shop. I marked the coffee shop with an X
We can get to the coffee shop two ways:
- Down the silver alley way to the right of the map
- Through our back garden and down the alley way on the left of the map
It is obvious (to me, anyway!) that the first route is shorter. Not to A4 though! When asked which way would be the shortest and therefore the quickest she answered the second route through the garden. We decided to check it out by walking both routes and counting our steps:
We found the first route was 138 steps, whilst the second route was 168 steps. She understood straight away that she had been wrong. You can see the routes marked in red on our map:
Special Activity
For our special activity the little girls and I decided to make a treasure map for their brother and sisters as a surprise. First we made a map of the garden using shapes I had cut out of card. We did this at the end of the week and it was obvious to me that A4 fully understood all the concepts I had been teaching her:
I had the two little girls mark on the map where they would like to bury some treasure:
And then they both went outside to hide their ‘treasure’ (fruit roll ups which looked like the red carpet):
We also hid one by the rabbit hutch, but that photo seems to have disappeared. The littles then went and called their older brother and sister very loudly and very excitedly. It was good for them to be doing something special for the older ones rather than the other way around! The older ones were in their independent study and were very happy to have been interrupted out of it!
Muffin Tin Meal
For our Red Carpet muffin tin meal I made some hotel shaped tortilla, cucumber and cheese slices; traffic lights out of red, orange and green peppers on toothpicks; two cars made from apple slices and grapes held together with tooth picks; a fruit roll up for the red carpet and some pretzels as they were mentioned in the book
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