Clothing Study

 Bananas in Pajamas...and Shirts, and Dresses, and...


For our first study of 2024, we decided to focus on clothes and use the Teaching Strategies Gold Clothes Study! Winter brings all kinds of changes in weather and I thought it would be a good idea to take the opportunity to learn more about all the different kinds of clothes we wear, the features of clothes, how we take care of our clothes, how clothes are made, and who wears certain clothes for their jobs. While it may seem like a simple study, the students loved digging deeper into this topic. 

Before the students even came back, I put out a variety of dress-up clothes in our dramatic play center. These were given to us as part of a grant from SmartStart and gave our students the opportunity to see kimonos from Japan, try on textiles from Africa, and accessorize with scarves, mittens, hats, and more.

Josephine loved showing off her new outfit

When we explore a topic, we try to incorporate it into our daily learning, including small groups and art. Throughout the study, students created a whole outfit using different techniques. They cut and glued tissue paper to make pants, they used Q-Tips to paint a hat, learned about symmetry while smoosh painting mittens, and used watercolors to make pants/shoes. These different techniques allow our students to experiment with different materials and learn different strategies for working with them. 


In math, we focused on concepts of more/less/same, measuring different items of clothing, sorting clothes by colors/patterns, and creating patterns with buttons. These are simple concepts that you can do at home with items around the house as well, such as making patterns with blocks, seeing who has more/less vegetables on their plates, and using feet or hands to measure furniture. 

Alhassan practices an ABC pattern with buttons and dotter markers

In the literacy, we made a collage of people in their 'work' clothes, such as doctors, performers, and chefs. We played memory to learn some of our unit vocabulary and helped strengthen our cognitive skills. We also worked on rhyming words (which can be very tricky!) and matched a shirt with a picture to the correct word family (putting the shirt with the dog on it in the 'og' basket). 

Cole and Campbell play the rhyming laundry sorting game
Ava is searching magazines for pictures of people in their work clothes or uniforms

put 

Julius is doing a great job matching different kinds of clothes


In science, we did different experiments with laundry soap. On one day we put powdered soap and liquid soap in water to see which one made more bubbles. We made sure to make predictions and then see which one was correct. Sometimes our students get nervous when they make hypotheses as they are concerned that they will get it 'wrong', but we try to encourage them that all scientists have to make guesses first to learn more about the world! The next day we used those results to help us experiment with what soap would clean better. Students colored white washcloths with washable markers and then washed them by hand in buckets with powdered soap or liquid soap. They were then encouraged to draw what they found out. We also explored different textiles and why we use them. We talked about why jeans are thick and not very stretchy and why that might be important. We used magnifying glasses to explore different fabrics to see the individual threads and colors. And speaking of colors, we practiced mixing primary colors to make secondary colors and used it to write our letter of the week. 

Bellamy and Major wash their cloths to see which detergent works best. 

In our afternoon meeting, we practiced mixing colors and explore how our clothes get their colors


In morning meeting, Ciana uses magnifying glasses to explore the colors, patterns, and threads in different kinds of fabrics. 


In our shared reading experiences we were able to read classic books such as A Pocket for Corduroy and The Mitten, while also learning about clothes in other countries with new books such as Uncle Nacho's Hat and The Girl Who Wore Too Much. 

I was so proud of all our kids learned in this study! It is so much fun to watch them discover new things, hear their questions, and watch their understanding deepen. Next up: PETS! 

We have also been learning new letters in Letterland! Below are the links to the stories, songs, and chants we used to learn each letter. 







As always, thank you so much for your support-we couldn't do any of this without you! 





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