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Curriculum>Literature Based Curriculums
momofsix 09:21 AM 07-13-2010
I have always written my own "curriculums". But this year as I was going over new plans I decided I wanted to do something different--a literature based curriculum. In the fall, most of my group will be turning two, with a few older and younger. i am looking for somethiong similar to this, but not something that costs $300!
http://www.ittybittybookworm.com/?catID=14230

I love the idea of basing our activities around great literature (for 2 year olds)
and if I have to I will write one myself, but it would be SO easy and less time consuming to not have to do it all myself!
Thanks for your input!
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Vesta 09:45 AM 07-13-2010
I love using books as kick off points for lesson plans and activities, because they are almost a no brainer.
I also like doing "author studies", and just do activities based on the different books by the author instead of a theme.
Eric Carle can get you through at least 3 weeks.
David Shannon, Mem Fox, Kevin Henkes, Margie Palatini, Mo Willems, Judy Schachner, David Catrow, Shel Silverstein, Tom Arnold, Leo Lioni, Tomi Depaola, Mercer Mayer, Graeme Base, Robert Munsch, Dr Seuss....
Shoot, just that list could get you through 20 weeks easy.

Just check out the books and then use them to develop your plans. Some books are good enough you can pull a whole week out of just one.

We're doing oceans and beaches right now and I'm using a bunch of Non-fiction books as well as "The Sand Castle Contest" "Swimmy", "Don't Eat the Teacher", "Shark in the Dark", "Turtle in the Sea", "Mr Seahorse", "A House for Hermit Crab", and "A Beach Tail".
I have some other ones out, but they're too far away for me to see the titles.
I use a vinyl rain gutter attached to the wall to display the books that go along with the theme of the week and also more out on our display table.
They have access to all the other books too, but I set them out "special".
Anyway, that's the way I like to do it.
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momofsix 10:12 AM 07-13-2010
I love the vinyl rain gutter idea! Do you just screw it into the wall? Could you post a pic?
Thanks for the list of authors, I might just end up doing it that way too.
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Vesta 11:16 AM 07-13-2010
I wish I had bookmarked the website I stole the idea from, but I can't find it. Here's another example though.

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/oliver_2.html

Mine is no where cool as this one, I just have a nice 8 ft. section that runs along the back of the couch that they can get on their knees and get books from. I wish I had room to do something like they do in the picture.

The most expensive part is buying the brackets, but I think my shelf ended up costing $8? Just screw the brackets into the wall and slide the gutter in. We have the extra that we cut off in the basement, I just can't quite commit the wall space.
Hmmmm, now I'm looking underneath a window.... someone may get put to work tonight.
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toddletots 11:26 AM 07-13-2010
One of my favorite resource books is Story Stretchers by Shirley Raines and Robert J. Canady. It is printed by Gryphon House, and they also have a Story Stretchers for Toddlers and Two's. They list a book, and have differents curriculum areas such as art, cooking, music, science etc. with activities relating to the book.

Something new we are doing at our center is making flannel boards to accompany our favorite books. We are using milk filters, that can be run through your printer, or colored on. For the person who isn't artistic, you can place them over the pictures and trace, then color. They are avalible at fleet/farming stores.
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momofsix 12:15 PM 07-13-2010
I had used story Stretchers before, but forgot the name-thank you!
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Jenjo 07:31 AM 07-14-2010
You can come up with great lesson plans using the internet, so many authors have websites now and you can sometimes find great ideas on their websites of things to do to go a long with certain books.
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