The movie theatre

CIRCLE TIME

Give each child a movie ticket. (Open movie tickets) Invite children to bring their favourite movies from home to the daycare. Arbitrarily pick one movie at a time throughout the day. Deposit all the movies in the centre of your circle time area and encourage children to name the characters or to share the storyline of their favourite movie with the group.

AREA SETUP

Star Boulevard

(Open movie star) Print and display along with children's work. Deposit one star on the floor for each child and inform your group that the stars represent your very own "Star Boulevard". Be sure to select a highly visible area so that both children and their parents will be able to admire it. If you prefer, you could also hang or pin the stars on a clothesline. Ask your local movie rental store for old movie posters and use them to decorate your daycare walls.

At the movie theatre
Decorate a large piece of cardboard to represent your movie screen. Add empty popcorn containers, a few glasses, and movie tickets (made by children)! Decorate the area by displaying a few movie posters on the wall.

PICTURE GAME

The pictures may be used as a memory game or to spark a conversation with your group. Use them to decorate the daycare or a specific thematic corner. (Open picture game - The movie theatre) Print, laminate, and store in a Ziploc bag or in your thematic bin.

WRITING ACTIVITIES

(Open writing activities-M like movie) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

ACTIVITY SHEETS

Activity sheets are prepared for each theme. Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker. (Open activity sheets - The movie theatre)

VARIOUS WORKSHOPS

Have fun with these wonderful workshop ideas provided by Caroline Allard.

Construction/building blocks:

• Add any figurines you have which represent characters from movies (fish to represent Nemo for example).
• Encourage children to build their own movie theatres or movie scenes using different types of blocks.

Arts & crafts:

• Popcorn collage.
• Smarties collage.
• Two or three-dimensional model of a movie theatre, including spectators, seats, etc.
• Individual mural or craft representing each child's favourite movie.
• Colourful cardstock, Popsicle sticks, and characters which can be cut out and used to create puppets.
• Make three-dimensional glasses using red and blue cellophane paper.
• Using finger paint, invite children to paint behind movie posters (glossy paper).
• Use yellow cardstock and recycled boxes to make boxes for nachos.
• Use black cardstock and white paint to create clapper boards.

Drawing:

• Coloring pages related to children's favourite movies.
• Creative coloring activity of one of your group's favourite movies.
• Draw in the dark with flashlights (to represent a dark movie theatre).
• Draw on a strip of paper (one picture after the other) to represent a movie scenario.

At the movie theatre:

• Chairs, a bed sheet hung from the ceiling to represent a movie screen, popcorn containers, soft drink glasses, empty candy boxes or wrappers, movie posters, etc.

At the snack bar:

• Cash register, money, empty candy boxes or wrappers, glasses, popcorn containers, popcorn machine, etc.

Manipulation:

• Memory game related to well-known movies.
• Lite-Brite game.
• Association game.
• Various sounds which can be associated to illustrations, children can pretend to be sound-effects engineers.
• An old projector, an old VHS player, a screen, a movie reel, a video cassette.
• Various accessories which can be used in movies.
• Using a children's digital camera, take several pictures and create your own movie by gluing them on a large piece of cardstock.

Pre-reading:

• Storybooks about well-known movies.
• CD and book sets children can listen to (example: Nemo).
• Use educatall.com pictures to create your own stories.

  

• Movie posters can be used to decorate the area.

Pre-writing:

• Hunt and seek activities.
• Various activity sheets related to the theme.
• Games with educatall.com's word flashcards.
• Tracing and maze games.
• Laminated drawings which can be traced with dry-erase markers.
• Observation games.

Motor skills:

• An obstacle course throughout which children must hop over popcorn containers, run around colourful candy pieces, etc.
• A treasure hunt in which children must find various items representing a movie. Once all the items have been found, watch the movie with your group.
• Bean bag toss. Replace traditional numbers with pictures of movie characters.
• Create your own movie, record it with a digital camera, and then watch it as group.

Science:

• 35 mm film. Show children how the colours are backwards.
• Perform various sound and picture tests with a camera.

Kitchen:

• Prepare nachos.
• Make your own pretzels.

LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

Word flashcards
The flashcards may be used to spark a conversation with your group, in your reading and writing area, or to identify your thematic bins. (Open word flashcards-The movie theatre) camera, film, costume, makeup, tickets, popcorn, seats, light, red carpet, screen, candy, movie theatre.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOTOR SKILLS

I am the producer
Children take turns playing the role of the producer. The other children dress up and pretend to apply their makeup before striking original poses, as requested by the producer.

Mimes
Explain what a mime is for your group. Encourage them to mime various actions (going up and down stairs, pulling on a rope, climbing a tree, etc.)

Take 1
Use your camera to film your group during different activities throughout the day. You may even film them while they are sleeping during naptime. At the end of the day, children will love watching their very own movie.

Stunt artists
Have children crawl between chair legs or under a coffee table, jump over an exercise ball or a rope strung between two chairs, etc.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

A day at the drive-in
(Open perpetual calendar-Drive-in Day) Print and display. Organize a drive-in day. Invite children to watch a movie, seated in a car they made (see craft ideas). If possible, present the movie outdoors.

ACTIVITIES INVOLVING PARENTS

Ask parents to provide home movies they have of their children or of when they were small. Watch the movies with your group.

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES
Magnifying glass game-The movie theatre
(Open magnifying glass game-The movie theatre) Print and laminate the cards and board game. Cut them out and store them in a Ziploc bag or a box. Children pick a card and search for the item on the board game using a magnifying glass. When they find the item, they deposit the card in the correct square on the board game.

Hunt and seek-The movie theatre
(Open hunt and seek-The movie theatre) Print and laminate. Children pick a card and search for the item in the scene.

Movie production
Collect coloring pages or pages which are falling out of old storybooks. Remove all text. With your group, place the illustrations in a certain order and invent an original movie storyline.

Popcorn game
(Open game-popcorn) Print and laminate the popcorn bags. Place the bags face down on the floor. Invite one child to pick a bag and have him count the popcorn kernels. If the child succeeds, have him pick another bag. The child continues until he makes a mistake.

MORAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Movie Day
(Open perpetual calendar-Movie Day) Give each child a movie ticket. (Open movie tickets) You can ask children to bring movies from home. Drop them in a bag and randomly pick one at a time. Serve Corn Pops cereal (instead of popcorn since it is dangerous for younger children), juice, and treats. You can even serve lunch while children are watching a movie.

Pyjama Day
(Open perpetual calendar - Pyjama Day) Ask children to come to daycare wearing their pyjamas. Invite them to bring their favourite movie too. Greet them in your pyjamas and serve breakfast for your group. During circle time, ask children to present their favourite movie to the group. Play movies all day long and parade around in your pyjamas and slippers.

Comedy
Children sit with a partner and imitate one another's facial expressions. The object of the game is to make their partner laugh.

Light shows
Play with flashlights in the dark to create spectacular light shows.

Movie star
Organize a "movie star" day. Children can select a movie star they want to be and take turns walking and talking like him or her.

Standing ovation
Select one child per day. Throughout the day, the child can request a standing ovation whenever he wishes simply by saying, "I would like a standing ovation please." The other children will love clapping as hard as they can for their friend.

Makeup
Each child finds a partner and they take turn applying makeup on their friend's face.

Silence, we're filming!
When you give the signal, children must be completely silent. The game ends when all the children have spoken. Ask children to look into their friends' eyes. This game can be used throughout the theme whenever you need children to be quiet.

CULINARY ACTIVITIES

Creative recipe-Fun pretzels

Creative recipe
Fun Pretzels (like at the movie theatre!)

Ingredients:
1 envelope of yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 ½ cups of lukewarm water
4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 egg, beaten

The steps
1. Combine water and yeast in a large bowl and stir until yeast is completely dissolved.
2. Add salt, sugar, and flour.
3. Mix and knead dough until it resembles bread dough.
4. Roll and twist dough to give it a traditional pretzel shape or any other fun shape.
5. Spread pretzels on a greased cookie sheet.
6. With a brush, spread egg on top of pretzels to brown.
7. Bake at 425⁰F for 12 to 15 minutes.

ARTS & CRAFTS

Camera
Use an empty box of tissues and make a hole in it so that you can see right through the box. Wrap the box with aluminum foil. Children will have fun pretending to film one another throughout the day.

Popcorn bag
Give each child a brown paper lunch bag. Provide popcorn they can glue on the bag to decorate it. Write the name of each child on his or her bag. During naptime, fill the bag with treats (not with popcorn since it can be dangerous for small children).

Drive-in
(Open craft-car) Print, cut out, color, and glue the pieces on a cardboard box. Each child makes his or her own car. Let children decorate their car as they wish. They can use their car for the special Drive-in Day.

Home theatre
Use cardboard to make a large screen which can be hung on a wall. Next, set up chairs, just like in a movie theatre. Add empty popcorn containers, a few drinking glasses, and crafted movie tickets. Glue movie posters on your large screen.

CREATIVE COLORING

(Open creative coloring-The movie theatre) Print for each child. Encourage children to draw a scene from their favourite movie on the movie screen.

COLORING PAGES

(Open coloring pages theme-The movie theatre) Print for each child.

SONGS & RHYMES

To the theatre we will go

by: Patricia Morrison

sung to: A hunting we will go

To the theatre we will go
To the theatre we will go
We'll watch a movie, yeah!
To the theatre we will go
It will be dark, the screen will be huge
Enjoy the movie, yeah!

Have fun!

The Educatall team