Mrs. McNosh- preschool

I've been wanting to use Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash all year, and finally fit it in on 'rhyming fun' day.  There is so much you could do with this popular book, but our days are a little shorter since we've been practicing for graduation each morning.  I kept it simple.

I set up some laundry related things for the kids to play with during arrival time.  Notice the crazy Lou man rolling on the floor.  He stresses me out some days before school when I'm trying to get things ready for the morning.

The kids all enjoyed hanging up the doll clothes.  

 They did some ironing.  The mama's hung around the door for several minutes this morning watching their little ones do laundry.  They were super cute working with these things.

When I started the book, the first page shows her doing the wash with a wash board and tub.  I showed the kids my old washboard and old iron.  They thought it was great to pick up the old iron.  It's super heavy.  We talked about how much work laundry used to be. And I complain now!

Then, Mrs. McNosh hangs up her laundry on the line.  We talked about what a clothes line is and how it's used.  I showed some pictures and we talked about it a bit.  Living in the midwest, most of them were familiar with a clothesline. 

After reading the rest of the book (which they enjoyed and found rather funny), we made another class book .  The idea for this book came from Mrs. Bond's fantastic First Grade.

On each page, I added a photo of the friend and left a space for them to add a picture they drew.  I added an apple tree on my page.

I gave them a little piece of paper to draw the item they wanted and let them color and cut it out on their own.  Then, I glued them all in when we were busy dong something else.  They told me what the item was when they handed it to me and I wrote it and their name on the back so I could remember when I added it to the book a little later.

Not that I couldn't tell what they were.  I mean, clearly, this is Princess Ariel. 

Later, back in the classroom, I read the finished book and then we played a rhyming matching game. I hung one set of rhyming cards on the drying rack.  They took turns bringing a card I had passed out to them up the the rack and clipping it with the rhyming word.  These cards are free from Teachers Pay Teachers from Kristin Oldham.  You could play with them a number of ways.

At the very end of the day I read this other fun rhyming book, Miss Mary Mack  by Mary Ann Hoberman.  It's the rhyme we all knew as kids but with cute illustrations.  

We are starting to 'test' the kids now to prepare report cards.  I can't believe that the end of the year is here already.  When did that happen? 

My blog friend, Jess, has some other great laundry activities over at The Preschool Experiment.