Beyond the Book: The Little Engine That Could

 At the end of my first year teaching after S was born, one of my students who had a particular affinity for baby S included an end of the year gift for him in an end of the year gift for me--an abridged edition of Watty Piper's classic tale, The Little Engine That Could in board book form. The student's mother admonished me that this would someday become S's favorite book--the one he would ask to hear again and again and again...and guess what--she was right! For many months, S has pulled this off the family book shelf at bedtime to read together. Usually my husband does the bedtime routine; he has fun inserting his own little witty additions to the story. S has this book memorized. I sometimes lack that Little Engine "I think I can" mentality when it comes to rereading the same book over and over...but repetition is the essence of learning. That predictability and consistence fosters feelings of confidence and mastery. Beyond that, this story contains two elements that S really does connect with: trains and overcoming obstacles. I felt this story theme would be a fabulous one for the week before his 3rd birthday.

Our play at home story stretchers camp has been an evolving experience. Summer has come with its own rhythm and so many great activities and events around town. We have an amazing library system and parks and rec system here. We have taken advantage of the great weather and opportunities to get out and about. In addition, with his birthday an influx of new toys has made its way into our home via very loving relatives. One of the greatest benefits of being a play at home mom is the flexibility to adapt to shifting schedules and needs. S has needed more time for free, self-directed play and been less drawn to structured activities in the house. Moving some of our structured play outside or connecting out-of-the-house activities to things we're doing at home has been a great way to proceed. Some weeks we will do story stretcher activities each day. Other weeks, we may only do a few on one or two days. Story stretchers are a great way to incorporate learning and play through early literacy whether you wish to spend ten minutes, a few hours or even a whole week. This is one reason I love this approach so much! I try to follow S's lead with this. I may have a collection of activities set to choose from and if we get to them all, great. If not, great! Here's a peek at some of the themed activities S really enjoyed from last week:

S's Safta and Saba sent this great sensory table for his birthday. He's loved using it in the kitchen with water and water toys. We used it with kinetic sand and toy trains/props for a great, interactive story drama about The Little Engine That Could. Story dramas are new to S, so he was a little confused at first about what we were doing. I began by pulling up a chair and reading the book while using the trains, props and sand to act out the story. We worked together to build the big mountain out of kinetic sand. As we got further into the story, we felt more confident to continue without the book. After telling the story once through, S continued to play-act and even found additional props to add as he expanded the story line (like tools to repair the train engine)! Using drama and playacting is a great way to expand on children's literature, whether you use props, puppets, costumes or toys. It also helps to foster dramatic play skills in children. These are so useful in play as well as in coping with childhood anxieties and navigating conflict resolution.

As we move through our story stretchers this summer, I am including some review of core concepts we worked on in our home preschooling during the year. Some weeks we review a letter or number and this week I thought it would be fun to review shapes. Getting outside is a vital part of our days and we've had some fantastic, albeit, hot weather. I initially thought we would do some shape tracing with paint indoors, but the front yard was calling S's name, so I grabbed our trains, some sidewalk chalk, and we made shape tracks on the sidewalk. S loved tracing them with his trains and then drawing his own lines and doodles for the trains to chug along.

For some more shape exploration indoors, I set out this invitation to create a shape train. I provided a variety of colors and sizes of construction paper shapes for building trains, a glue stick and full sheets of construction paper for backgrounds. S loved setting up and creating his own choo choo train! He became a little frustrated with the glue stick as he couldn't see where the glue was on the darker background he chose. He asked me repeatedly to do the gluing for him. I was nursing Y at the time and also am balancing his desire to have me do art with him versus my desire not to do it for him. In lieu of gluing for S, I offered him liquid school glue and a paint brush instead of the glue stick. He immediately felt more confident and created a great piece of art to display on our art wall!

S loves the part where I hang up his finished work! He feels proud to see his creations on display and it also encourages conversations about what we've done when his Tatty gets home from work. I also printed out this great Little Engine writing prompt for S to complete and color. I thought it was a great way to incorporate the theme of his 3rd birthday as he is getting older and bigger and more competent at tasks that were once quite difficult. He chose to write about swimming in the pool, likely because we had just made our first pool visit of the season where he did, indeed, feel more confident about swimming!

We also incorporated learning aleph-beis [Hebrew] letters into our week by continuing and finally completing our aleph-beis choo choo train! It seems only fitting that this family project we began when S was just a baby (for him) was completed the week of his upshernish (by him)!

S loved this edible train! He asked for a bowl of cucumbers and clementine slices on the side and even after he ate this train, he took to building and eating his own version!

On the day of his upshernish, S requested to go to Chuck E. Cheese, where, sure enough, he took right to the train ride, now in his big boy haircut and yarmulke! Happy Birthday, S, it's so great to be three! There are so many things you can do now!