Activities

Sing a song daily with the children when it is time to wash hands for lunch or snack.

Tune: "Do You Know the Muffin Man?"
Oh, let's come to the circle now

the circle now

the circle now

Oh, let's come to the circle now

it's almost story time.

Ask the children to name a place they visit in the community. As a child shares a place, ask the other children if they also go there. Make a graph of all the places the children visit in the community.

Oh, when the leaves fall off the trees 

Oh, when the leaves fall off the trees 

Oh, we all know it must be autumn 

When the leaves fall off the trees
Oh, when the snow falls on the ground

Oh, when the snow falls on the

Freeze colored water in an ice cube tray. Fill a pie pan with vegetable oil. Have the children observe how bubbles are formed when the ice cubes melt and mix with the oil. Encourage the children to draw a picture of their observations.

Provide activities where the children have to respond with an OK sign or by putting a hand up to indicate “no way.” For example, read scenarios with examples of classroom behavior.

Make simple animal puppets using paper plates or pictures glued to paint sticks. Give each child an animal puppet. Encourage the children to show their puppets as you sing the familiar song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

While singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” have the children imitate the action and sound of the named animal.

Sing to the tune of the original “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” and give each child an instrument to play and sing along with. Such as, “...on his farm he had a tambourine. With a shake, shake here and a shake, shake there...,” or “...

Sing “Old MacDonald” but replace the word “farm” with “body” and the word “animal” with the name of a body part. Have the children create a funny movement and/or sound to go with the body part.

Young children LOVE repetition and hearingthe same books over and over. It is important to continue to read those same books. This creates familiarity and a love for reading.

Tune: “Old MacDonald”
Old MacDonald has a friend 

And (child's name) is her name.

This is how she dances, 

This is how she dances, 

This is how she dances, 

and she moves like this.

Prior to this activity, talk about rain. Have the children dress in boots and rain jackets. Take umbrellas outside to watch and feel the rain during outdoor time.

Create mats from clip art or notepads and gather manipulatives that correspond, such as footballs and a field or cow erasers and a barn. The children will shake a handful of manipulatives and drop them onto a mat.

Punch four holes on each open side of a flat tissue box.  Provide the children with long laces.  With your help, the children learn to lace the "shoe."  An extension of this activity is for them to tie the lace in the shoe.

Have one ball available for each child. Say, "We have three children on the carpet and three balls. Everyone gets one ball." Give each child a ball and say, "One ball for Susan. One ball for Jordan. One ball for Demetrius. One, two, three balls.

Place four items on a tray in front of the children and say, “One of these things is not like the others. Can you find it and tell me in what way it is different?” Repeat several times with different groups of items.

Gather several sets of objects where one object is different from the other three: Three square blocks, for example, and one triangle block. Be sure that the items are different in only one attribute.

Cut potatoes from brown paper, number each one one-10 and pass out to the children in the group. Have the children stand and step forward when their number is called as you recite the following chant: One potato, two potato, three potato, four.

With a small group of children, count and compare socks. Gather several pairs of colorful socks. Show them to the children and talk about the colors and other features, such as stripes or characters. Have the children help you match the socks.