Press Here ~ An All Pinterest Lesson Plan

The end of the school year is drawing near and my lesson plans are starting to feel a little bit stale. Pinterest to the rescue! I was able to put together a lesson plan that may have been one of the most fun days we have had all year!

 At some point a few months ago, I saw a pin on Pinterest from Amazon for the delightful interactive children's book, Press Here by Herve Tullett. The pin mentioned that it contained lesson plans, too. Aha ~ that was right up alley! When I clicked over to check out the book, I discovered that there was a wonderful downloadable lesson plan available including a printable mini version of the book that I printed for each child. I have since learned that there are lesson plan links with many of their children's books. So, I ordered the book. As soon as I opened it, I knew the kids would love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Press-Here-Herve-Tullet/dp/0811879542/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315664193&sr=1-1

The children loved participating while I read the story. In fact, we read it several times! The last couple of times each child had a large dot to help them participate. There was lots of pressing, shaking, leaning and blowing going on. They were thrilled to have the mini books to take home.

Ah, but Pinterest had many more wonderful ideas to go along with the book. I found some large polka dot tape at Target and with 3 toilet paper tubes,  a shoebox lid and some marbles, I had a little marble maze!

http://creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2011/11/press-here-an-action-story/
As simple as it was, one little boy said, "I could play with this all day!" I guess I should have made more than one! It is a great tool for eye-hand coordination.

And of course, we want to be cross-curricular so I found a really fun math activity using dot painters and dollar store spinners that turned into some pretty art projects too!

http://blog.playdrhutch.com/2012/04/24/dot-dabber-dice-game/comment-page-1/#comment-1744

I used the spinners instead of dice so they could work on number recognition.

 Last but not least, I found a use for that great cardboard box I have been saving forever! Check back at my previous blog http://teachingitswhatido.blogspot.com/2011/11/dont-throw-it-awayit-has-so-much.html. Several pinners had this great activity!

http://www.theseedsnetwork.com/seeding/mad-DOT-challenge

http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/03/this-is-what-happens-when-you-give-a-set-of-stickers-to-a-set-of-kids/ 

This was just two packs of dot stickers from the Dollar Tree. They had so much fun with it, that I am going to have to go back and get more stickers! Thank you Pinterest for punching up the lesson plans! It was a great day!