Activities

Give children in the reading center flannel board pieces for The Mitten by Jan Brett to use when retelling.

Fill a bowl or tub with water and add a few drops of child-safe liquid soap. Give the children a variety of objects such as a wooden spoon, a whisk or a rotary beater (the old-fashioned kind with a handle you turn to make the beaters spin).

Provide two colors of paint. Show the children how to use the brush to mix the paints on the paper. Comment on what is happening. Say, “Look, the paints are mixing together on your paper. They are making different colors.

Take two jigsaw puzzles that are familiar to children and dump the pieces from both in a gallon size bag together.  Encourage children to try to pull out the pieces and match them to the appropriate puzzle.

Write a sentence from a big book on a sentence strip and then cut it apart into individual words. Pass out the words to the children.

Place a number of mixed manipulatives on a table. (Various styles of transportation in various colors, various animals of various types[zoo, farm], various colors and sizes of buttons.

Make copies of a few pictures from a book that you plan to read to the class. Before you read the book, encourage the children to predict the order in which the pictures will appear in the story. This could be done in large group.

On fingerpaint paper, use large marshmallows, light corn syrup and food coloring to create a pastel painting. Invite the children to try the marshmallows. Talk to the children about the smell and taste.   This can be done in small group.

For a child who has difficulty manipulating a toothbrush, place a piece of soft foam on the handle. Use hand-over-hand modeling to provide additional support. Be sure to also provide opportunities for the child to practice this independently.

Make homemade moon sand that is safe for young children. Mix 9 cups flour with 11/4 cups vegetable oil. Place the moon sand in a container and give the children sand toys for scooping and molding.

You will need a small bowl of sand for each child and spray bottles of water. Have the children explore and observe the dry sand in the bowl. Use the water bottle to spray the sand and have the children continue to explore.

Discuss ways to earn money and how their family members earn money through their jobs. Then discuss what they would like to do to earn money when they grow up. This could be done in large group.

Read Moo Baa La La La board book by Sandra Boynton to the children and encourage them to name the animals, as well as say the animal sounds. Respond to their efforts with a sentence. “Yes, the cow goes moooo.

Read Moo-Baa-Laa-Laa-Laa by Sandra Boynton to the infant. Exaggerate the animal sounds and encourage him/her to make the sounds with you.

Read “Old MacDonald” with the children. Encourage them to point to the animals and make the corresponding sounds. Talk about which animals are their favorites.

Have the children use newspaper or aluminum foil rolled into balls that resemble rocks. Use a large mixing bowl and describe it as a moon crater. Have the children toss their "moon rock" into the crater.

After reading Moonbear's Shadow by Frank Asch, choose vocabulary words from the story such as shadow, huffing and puffing, annoyed, bury and noon. Relate these words to experiences children have had.

Create homemade Moon sand to be used in the sensory center by mixing nine cups of extra fine play sand, three cups of cornstarch and 2¼ to 2½ cups of water.

As an extension later in the year, create a second All About Me book. Ask the children to draw another self-portrait and share how much they have grown. Take dictation as they describe themselves.

At snack time, teach the children to nod "yes" or "no" in response to wanting more food. Ask them, "Would you like more cheese?" Wait for a response and model by shaking your own head and responding, "Naomi says 'no more cheese'.