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NEIGHBOURHOOD THEME

CRAFTS:

Chef
For a baker or chef make a hat by cutting a strip of white poster board, staple it to fit the size of each child’s head. Then we take one sheet of white tissue paper and staple it to the top of the poster band and fluff up the tissue to look like a bakers hat. The children wear their bakers hat and we bake some cookies for our snack. For art we make pizzas with paper plates for the crust, red paint for the sauce, yellow and white construction paper cut into thin strips for cheese,
brown construction paper cut into circles for sausage.

House Book
Supplies: wallpaper books and magazines Cut simple house shapes as large as possible from pages of wallpaper book. Provide several of these to each child. Let the children assemble their pages in book fashion by stapling several house-shaped pages together. Then let the children cut out pictures from the magazines of objects which belong in the different rooms of the house. The children glue the pictures belonging in one kind of room on each page. Make a kitchen page, a living room page, a bathroom page and bedroom pages.

Igloos
Have the children color or paint igloos on dark construction paper. Ask them to draw someone beside the igloo. Have the children tell little stories about their igloos.

Igloo Building
Make igloos using marshmallows & a bit of water to make the m stick together (or marshmallows with icing)

Igloo Construction
Use blue and white paper to construct an igloo. Cut or tear the white paper into squares or rectangles. Arrange the squares and rectangles in the shape of a dome on the blue paper. Then glue the pieces into place one at a time. Your child may wish to decorate their picture with crayons and paint to show other things that they learned about igloos. Write your child's description of their picture on the bottom of the page.

Picture of the Neighborhood
I give the children black paper. They use colored chalk or crayons and draw a picture of a neighborhood at night. Use foil stars for the sky. Attach all of the pieces of black paper together on a bulletin board. It looks just like a real neighborhood at night!
 
 

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Fire Station
Plan a field trip to a fire station.

Grocery Store
Take a field trip to a Grocery store.

Librarian
We made a trip to the library and made our own books. Cut several "9 X 12" sheets of construction paper in half. Use a hole punch to make holes down the left side of the pages. Have children make a wordless book by drawing a story.

Neighborhood Walk
Take a walk around the neighborhood. Before going, make a list of things that we think we will see. When you return, review the list and make alterations as needed!

Policeman
We also had an officer come to our classroom. We talked about if we were in an emergency how we would contact help by dialing 911. We acted out this scenario and dialed 911 explaining the situation. (a fire) We showed the children how to call for help out the window, put a cloth by the door and stay low to the ground until a police officer or fire fighter found them. We made badges out of aluminum foil.

Postman
We had the postman visit our classroom. Before he came we wrote out letters to our special adults. (Most colored pictures) Explained where the address went. We made mailbags out of paper bags from the grocery store and pretended to go to the post office. When the mailman came we sent our mail to our special adults.

Visit to the Mall
Make a Child mural for your local mall display. Use a long piece of brown wrapping paper. Put the name of your Child group across the top in large multi-coloured lettering. Ask each Child and leader to draw and colour a picture of a favourite activity anywhere on the paper. Get them to sign their artistic endeavours so all members of the group get their names on the mural. Fill the mural in with photos of group outings and meetings. Why not add as many coloured hand prints to the mural as possible? Make sure your Children put in an appearance at the mall. Shoppers might enjoy hearing them sing a song or two, and yell some enthusiastic cheers!

SONGS:

Cowboy
Home on the Range
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
And the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Firefighter (tune: "Eensy Weensy Spider")
The firefighter helps us learn our safety rules.
Playing with matches is only for fools.
If you see a fire, "Help," you'll scream and shout.
Dial 911. The firefighter will put it out.

If I Were
If I were a baker (pretend to put on a hat and apron)
What would I do?
Bake lots of cookies (make a circle with thumb and forefinger)
For me and you. (point to self and a friend)
 If I were a secretary, (pretend to type and write on a notepad)
What would I do?
Answer the phone, (hold pretend phone to ear)
"How do you do?"
 If I were a veterinarian, (pretend to put a stethoscope in ears)
What would I do?
Care for your pet (pretend to examine a cat or dog)
It's special to you.
 If I were a dentist, (look in mouth of friend)
What would I do?
Check those teeth (pretend to drill or x-ray friend's teeth)
That's good for you!

Police Officer
Police officers are helpers wherever they may stand. (Stand with feet apart, hands on hips.)
They tell us when to stop and go by holding up their hands. (Signal stop by holding up hand and go by pointing index finger.)

Smokey the Bear
Smokey the bear, smokey the bear,prowlin and a snifin the air,
He can smell a fire, be--fore it starts to flame, That's why they call him
smokey, and that's how he got his name.

Traffic Light Song
Red says stop ( hold up left hand in "stop" gesture )
Green says go. ( right arm motioning )
Yellow says wait. ( Hold up index finger )
You'd better go slow.
When I reach a crossing place (cross arms at wrist )
To the left and right I turn my face.
I walk, not run across the street. ( Use fingers )
and use my head to guide my feet. ( point to head and feet)
 

STORIES:

Helping Neighbors and Friends
Divide the group into four teams. Give each team a character name and sound to make every time the team hears its name in the story:
Chubby Chopper: "Chop, chop, chop";
Oscar Otter: "Slap, slap, slap";
Freddy Frog: "Ribbet, Ribbet. Ribbet";
and Sammy Seagull: "Squaw, squaw, squaw."
Players must jump to their feet and make the sound when they hear their name.

One day, while Chubby Chopper sat chatting with Oscar Otter, they noticed Freddy Frog croaking away to Sammy Seagull.  Freddy Frog seemed very upset, and Sammy Seagull was listening quite closely.  Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter decided they should swim over to where Freddy Frog and Sammy Seagull were sitting to find out why Freddy Frog was so angry.
When Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter got there, Freddy Frog was so annoyed he started screaming at Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter.  Because Sammy Seagull felt suddenly alarmed, he flew into the air with fright.
What caused the outburst?

Well, when Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter built their new dam, the water in the pond rose higher and Freddy Frog's favourite lily pad sunk!  It was terrible; a real disaster.  Freddy Frog no longer had any place to rest.  Of course Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter apologized and promised to find Freddy Frog a new place to relax.

As Chubby Chopper, Oscar Otter, and Freddy Frog sat thinking, Sammy Seagull suddenly squawked out, "I have an idea to help our friend!"  He instructed Chubby Chopper and Oscar Otter to build a raft of logs so Freddy Frog could rest on the raft.  Freddy Frog was so happy he thanked Sammy Seagull for the terrific idea.  Chubby Chopper started cutting down trees and Oscar Otter took them to the water.  They weaved them together to make Freddy Frog's new resting place.  Sammy Seagull flew up in the air to help Freddy Frog supervise this big construction job.  Everyone wanted it to be just perfect.  After all, they were assisting a friend.  They all worked hard and happily together, sharing whatever they had to make a good home in the pond.  When the raft was completed, Chubby Chopper, Oscar Otter, and Sammy Seagull often visited Freddy Frog on his comfortable new resting place.
 

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

Have any good food ideas? Let us know!
 

TIPS/NOTES: