Preschool V is for Volcano Unit

This week was V is for Volcano week for Mini Piwi. She is crazy about a song called "Hot Lava' from Jake and the Never Land pirates and the Dinosaur train episode 'under the Volcano'.

PBS kids has a lesson plan around this episode and it was a great start to a week of fun. We displayed the Simple Eruption diagram printable from PBS kids.

The tricky part was finding books we could read that weren't too graphic for Mini Piwi. For now Mini Piwi is more focused on the Volcano as a land form rather than for it's dangers.  The Fiery pictures in Big sis's encyclopedia worried her a bit.

Here's what we found:

Land (by Donna Herwick Rice) is an Time early reader full of beautiful photographs of the different Biomes on Earth. It was a perfect for a Pre K introduction to land forms.

Volcanic Valley ( by Loli C Froeb)  is a cute lift the flap Dinosaur train tie in about Pteranodon familys' trip to visit a Volcano and all the stops along the way. Dinosaurs, Lift the flap and volcanoes -it has it all as far as Mini Piwi is concerned

A day on the mountain (by Kevin Kurtz) was too amazing to leave in the library this week. It takes you on a journey up the side of a  mountain where you met the animals and plant there along the way. The realistic illustrations appeal to all ages but the text will hold the attention of older elementary kids. Even though it is not about a Volcano it did give rise to a discussion about whether all Mountains were volcanoes.

Giant Octopus to the Rescue (adapted by Allison Inches)  is based on a Go Diego Go episode where the team has to rescue animals from an erupting underwater volcano. I used it when we were talking about Volcanoes that we can't see under lakes and at the bottom of the Ocean.

Eruption: Story of Volcanoes (by Anita Ganes) was our one 'fiery' volcano book. It has some impressive and colorful eruption photos but nothing too scary. We used this when we were talking about Volcanologist and what they do.

An Island Grows (by Lola M Schaefer) is written in short rhyming couplets and was a simple lesson in how Magma becomes lava and ultimately gives rise to an island. Big Sis appreciated the 'lesson' more than Mini Piwi who liked the cute illustrations.

Using the PBS Kids lesson plan Mini Piwi made a Volcano and Dino land from Playdoh. We didn't 'erupt' it until later on the week when she played 'Volcano Dr'.

 To practice the letter V this week Mini Piwi

 Traced with Glitter glue

Made play doh Vs by folding the 'sausage shapes' we had made

We used some awesome apps to search for Volcanic and Earthquake activity and take a tour of Volcanoes.

Discovery Channel's Extreme World -Ultimate Volcano was one of the eight interactive subjects

Volcano Tour took us on a Virtual tour of 80+ volcanoes

We finished up the week with Mini Piwi playing  'Volcanologist for a day' or Volcano Dr as she called it...check out the post here

 To see what Big Sis did for Volcano week click here