Why have I been ignoring my littlest friends? Most of the sets I provide for the kids in my classroom are for age three and up, not only because of the size of the pieces, but also the quantity of pieces and complexity of the sets. Enter my Toddler Build a Bot set!
Teachers, put these fellows out in your fine motor area or your book corner along with some individual flannel boards. Librarians, these would be great on a felt table or large felt wall.
Librarians and teachers, these would be great to use during a story time! Put your bases on the board, and then hand out the accessories to the kids, naming the colors and shapes as you go. Then announce "Let's build some robots together! If you have a yellow shape, come up and put it on one of the robots..." Continue this way until you have what will surely be some extraordinary bots :) This is a great way to build color and shape recognition, and to build vocabulary as you use words like dial, gear, antennae...
Here are some robot books to go along with the theme:
Little Bot and Sparrow by Jake Parker
Bitty Bot by Tim McCanna
The Robot and the
Bluebird by David Lucas
Robots Robots
Everywhere by Sue Fliess
Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! by
Todd Tarpley
...and some more goodies:
The Lights on the Robot (to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)
The
lights on the robot blink on and off, on and off, on and off.
The
lights on the robot blink on and off, as he moves around!
(Continue
with more verses: arms/up and down,
Dials/turn
left and right,
Legs/go
up and down,
Power
on the robot powers down/when it’s time for bed!)
If You’re a Robot and
You Know It
If
you’re a robot and you know it clank your coils (clap)
If
you’re a robot and you know it clank your coils (clap)
If
you’re a robot and you know it and you really want to show it clank your coils
(clap)
Continue
with: “Clunk your gears” (stomp feet), and “Press your buttons” (“Beep beep”)