Pre-K and K

MATH & SCIENCE

Bear Bucks: Beginning Economics

The Berenstain Bears exhibit provides a bustling environment with Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop, Papa Bear’s Woodworking Shop, the Bear Family Restaurant, Farmer Ben’s Farm, and Dr. Bearson’s Dentist Office. Students play the part of business owners and consumers when they withdraw money from the bank and engage in role-play . This is a fun way for students to apply basic math skills about dollar denominations, adding, subtracting, and beginning multiplication.
1 hour MST: 3 LA: 1, 3, 4 Career Standards 1, 2
Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

Playing with Math: A “Beary” Fun Day

Preschoolers are natural math buffs! Sorting, counting, and creating patterns are part of their world. Math is everywhere as they walk down Main Street in the Berenstain Bears exhibit. Preschoolers warm up with fun-filled, pre-math group movement activities. Playtime in the exhibit engages them in one-to-one interaction in the Bear Family Restaurant, sorting and matching activities at Farmer Ben’s Farm, and pattern-making activities in Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop. The lesson ends with a song about their pre-math play in the exhibit.
1 hour UPK
Pre-K
Available Monday through Friday

NEW! Tinkertoy Expedition

Calling all aspiring inventors! There’s no limit to what children can do using imaginative thinking in the TINKERTOY®: Build Your Imagination™ exhibit. Students will create their own Tinkertoy inventions, construct and test a wind-powered Tinkertoy model, build channels to experiment with filtration, collaborate on a design using linked computers, and more.
1 hour MST: 1, 7
Available Tuesday through Friday

Very Hungry Butterflies

What do butterflies do when they are hungry? Students explore this and other questions as they observe real butterflies in the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden^®. Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the springboard for this imaginative experience. Children focus on the butterfly stage of the life cycle and take on the role of butterflies in a fun movement activity.
1 hour UPK MST: 4 LA: 1
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

SOCIAL STUDIES

Elmo’s Neighborhood

Who are the people and what are the things in your neighborhood? Students visit Sesame Street to discover what a neighborhood is and how neighborhoods are interdependent as they identify types of people, places, and things that make up a neighborhood. They also see how they are alike or different from other people and things in the neighborhood. This lesson also incorporates the Elmo’s World section of the Sesame Street exhibit.
1 hour UPK
Pre-K
Available Tuesday through Friday

Kitchen Helpers in the 19th Century

What was life like before fast food, washing machines, and microwave ovens? Students visit One History Place and learn for themselves as they role-play household chores expected of children a long time ago, such as pumping water, tending the stove, and using an icebox.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

Playthings and Pastimes from Long Ago

What did children play with before the era of plastics, batteries, computers, and videos? Students visit One History Place to learn about early 20th-century America by role-playing the games and pastimes of this bygone era.
1 hour SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

Train Travel Changes the World!

Students take a journey into the fascinating world of train travel in One History Place. Children experience trains, role-play the jobs of railroad workers, and learn how the introduction of railroad travel changed people’s lives. Add a ride on the Strong Express Train for an additional $1 per person.
1 hour UPK SS: 1 LA: 1, 2, 4
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

LANGUAGE ARTS

Awesome Adventures

Students become the characters in their own adventure skits. Using the interactives in the Adventure section of Reading Adventureland and the formula for great adventure stories, students create an exciting skit and perform it on the bow of the good ship “Courageous”— a not-so-seaworthy vessel!
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4 Arts: 1
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Ernie Sounds It Out!

Ernie has lost his letters! Children help Ernie find them by using environmental clues to point the way to letters hidden in Sesame Street. During their search, students practice letter identification and sound recognition. This lesson can be expanded to include construction of word families.
1 hour LA: 1, 2
Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

Once Upon a Time…

Transform into a character from one of six stories in the dramatic Fairy-Tale section in Reading Adventureland: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Three Little Pigs, or Cinderella. Students become the cast as they select a setting, retell, and reenact one of the above classic tales.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

That’s Nonsense!

Students play with language in the Word Play Station or Ultimate Dream Machine of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s astonishing upside-down house. Their play leads them to create original jokes, jingles, tongue twisters, or riddles. These young comics showcase their creative humor at the “That’s Nonsense Talent Show” to close the lesson in Reading Adventureland’s fun-filled Nonsense section.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Using Drama to Develop Language

Through role-play and fantasy in Kid to Kid, students build verbal and written language skills. Students act out different jobs at the kid-sized post office and create short improvisational scenes on the “Act Too” stage, guided by museum teachers and chaperons.
1 hour UPK LA: 1, 4
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday

Who Dunnit?

A mystery at the Mystery Mansion needs to be solved and your students are the detectives we need! Through deductive reasoning, prediction, mapping skills, and collaboration, detectives use their clues to crack the code of “Who Dunnit?” in the captivating Mystery section of Reading Adventureland.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4 MST: 4, 7
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

Wings of Fantasy

Inspired by the fantastical costumes in the Wizard’s Wardrobe, a magical wand, or an original potion created in the Alchemist’s Laboratory in the Fantasy section of Reading Adventureland, students begin to develop a fantasy character. The Wing Shop by Elvira Woodruff fuels creative imaginations as students decide on their character’s source of magical power, good deeds, and method of travel to unknown places.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Kindergarten
Available Monday and Tuesday

HEALTH

Healthy Beginnings

Students use dramatic play, movement, and pre-math skills to determine what foods keep us healthy and strong. Dressing in the colors of the symbols from the USDA’s “My Pyramid for Kids” food and exercise guide, students discover what each symbol tells us about healthy eating. After shopping in Super Kids Market, students create healthy and balanced snacks by playing an interactive food group game.
1 hour UPK Health: 1 MST: 1
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Available Tuesday through Friday