The Three Little Pigs
We introduced this unit using a children's favourite - The Three Little Pigs. We discussed WHY each pig chose a different material to build their home. So the first pig was in a rush and wanted to build his home quickly, the second little pig sourced his materials from the nearby forest, whilst we all know the third little pig took his time as he wanted to build a strong, sturdy, wolf-proof house. The children were very good at coming up with ideas for the reasons why each pig chose a certain material.
We then made a book dedicated to the little pigs. Each page was dedicated to one of the houses. We wrote a sentence using a simple sentence starter: This is a house of _________. It is ____________.
Charlie and Lola
After reading Charlie and Lola and thinking about the setting of the story e.g. rooms in the house, we talked about labels and "how they tell us what something is". We looked at vocabulary related to homes and labelled a simple house.
Then came the fun part. I split the class into groups and assigned each group a room in the house. The idea was to have each person turn into an interior designer for the day. I gave out home-ware brochures and each designed his own room to add to the class house. We are working very hard on good First Grade colouring at the moment!
Different Homes from Around the World
This week we will look at different homes from around the world. The idea of the inquiry appraoch is to have the children think up and investigate their own ideas about why people build houses in a certain way. In grade 1 we need a little bit of guidance, so this week I will introduce a home of the day and we will see where it leads us. My ideas for homes include:
tepee
igloos
houseboat
Skyscrapers
home in England
a mountain home
There are many many more options obviously, so like I said, we will have to see where it all leads! There are also many books based around this topic which I will have to get for next time!
