Teaching with a Disney twist

[mainstreet1997]

So I just got back from a quick 2 night stay at Bay Lake Tower. Today was my first day at work. I teach 4 year olds so they are always excited when I tell them I was at Disney. One of my kids recently went parasailing in Mexico and I was showing him a picture of the parasailers I saw on Bay Lake. Well one of the kids saw a picture of the castle and they were hooked. That lead to watching a video of Summer Nightastic, to watching a video of Pirates of the Carribean to watching a video of Winnie the Pooh...and and on. (I know very academic right? But thank you YouTube!)

My partner made a joke about me doing a theme with Disney World for a week. The more I thought about it, its not a bad idea. Its summer, we're having fun. We did a two week unit on France for our World's Fair last November.
My kid's parents may kill me but if done right this could be fun.

Obviously my goal is to do Disney but keep it academic. Language, Math, Science, Art, Social Studies.

For example, I saw an idea where someone had pics of the original 4 bird hosts of the Tiki Room. Apparently their feather colors represent the colors of the flags they are from. I could have the kids look at the birds and then figure out what country they are from.

I would probably keep it to the 7 lands of the Magic Kingdom. Any help appreciated.

Thanks!
Katie

 

[Adventure]

Hi, I also taught a preschool group that same age.
Whenever we had a week where the theme was storybook or fantasy I would try to bring Disney ideas in as much as possible.
I remember I made a board game with some trivia questions. The kids were just getting into counting so they loved using the dice.
I had a large poster board and I think I used a Peter Pan theme. I used circle stickers for the spaces. The kids had to "fly" their piece from London to Neverland. I used some Peter Pan stickers to decorate the board. I think I also had some special spaces like landing on Tinkerbell, move ahead two spaces, Captain Hook or the Crocodile move back.
The questions were not just Peter Pan related.
They would be something like "In the movie The Little Mermaid what was the name of the Sea Witch?" (You might have to use more recent Disney movies.)
The game became so popular that we used it year round. I put the board away but on rainy days we would play Disney trivia. Sitting in a circle the kids would raise their hands if they knew the answer. I could always add new questions or change them up.
It was as much fun for the teachers as the kids.
Good luck.

 

[mainstreet1997]

Adventure -

Thanks for the great idea. I did something like this during our sports week with a football field. The kids answered math problems for their team and every time they got a question right, they moved forward 10 yards until they got a touchdown! I like the idea of "Flying to Neverland" or something but using more academic questions (what letter is this? What is 2 +2?)

Thanks again!

 

[mainstreet1997]

Just a note to tell you guys I think I'm pulling this off!!!

I've decided rule #1 will be (well actually rule #2 since rule #1 in my room is "Have fun") "You are not allowed to go home and beg your parents to go to Disney!"

But I was talking to some of my parents about it and they are excited about it. In fact one of my parents said this is a good thing. They are going to Disney in February for the first time so her son will kind of know some of the things that are down there. Besides, Dad is driving her crazy saying "Do you think we'll see that at Disney?".

So here's what I came up with.

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to talk to them a little bit about Walt Disney and were going to watch Steamboat Willie. Then were going to have a little drawing lesson how to draw Mickey's face.
Then I made a Hidden Mickey activity. I found some pics of Hidden Mickeys around WDW and turned them into coloring pages using photoshop. The kids will have to find the Mickeys and color them red.

Tuesday were making glitter fireworks. Also, I made an activity with pictures of dolls from Small World and the kids have to figure out what country they are from and write the name of the country. I only gave them 3 choices for the countries and the dolls are pretty much wearing the colors of their flag.


Thursday, I created teacups out of Sit and Spins, the kids have to estimate how many times they can spin then actually do it and see how many times they can spin and write down their answer.
We are also coloring and naming parrots to create our own Tiki Room!
Also I made my own Buzz Light Year game by printing out lots of Zurgs (which I covered with velcro), each one worth a different amount of points. Each child gets a blue ping pong ball and a green ping pong ball covered in velcro. The idea is to throw their ball at the Zurg targets, then add up how many points they got on each throw.

Friday, I made a Peter Pan game where they start at the Darling House and have to answer questions to move along the stars to Neverland. Were also going on a Haunted Mansion "ghost hunt". I printed out lots of silly ghosts (that I even painted with glow in the dark paint!) and put dots on them. The kids have to count the dots, find the same ghost on their paper and write the number on it. Were also doing a little "Critical Thinking" - I printed out the stretching room portraits and covered the bottoms and I'm going to ask the kids what they think is happening in the bottom of the picture.

I would kind of like to show them the Magic Kingdom part of the planning video as well but Im debating whether to show it to them at the beginning of the week or the end of the week.

Also, Ive made them pin straps using wide ribbon ($1 at Michaels!) and I'm making pins (hot gluing acrylic jems to safety pins) that they can earn for things like following directions, helping friends, etc. And of course they can trade!

Pics coming soon!

 

[BiggerTigger]

Katie,
Sounds really neat, can't wait to see the pictures.
It is tough to incorporate your love of something to others and try not to make others dislike you.
I was in a situation where I had to incorporate theater with teaching (reading skills, math skills, history, etc) and though the program went well, some fell in love with theater (and wanted to be stars) and others just thought it was lame and made the situation tough.
I applaude you for making a difference in a childs life. We need more teachers willing to make people want to learn.

 

[mainstreet1997]

Thanks Tigger!

I'm lucky that my kids are obviously excited about Disney as they ask to watch "the Pirate fireworks" everyday but this isn't about making them love Disney its just summer and I was trying to think of something fun to spice things up a little bit while still teaching them.