Activities

Sit with the children at the beginning of naptime. Help them calm down by gently rubbing or patting their backs. Later, give them the opportunity to act this out with baby dolls.

Lay the infant on a blanket or mat. Gain the infant's attention by using the motions to the chant.

Sing “Pat-a-Cake” and watch the infant's response to your words. For younger infants, hold hands gently and use softer tones while making eye contact. For older infants, look for an attempt to imitate your actions.

Recite the rhyme “Pat-a-Cake” with the infants, using gestures:
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

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Arrange colored craft sticks in unusual patterns and take pictures. Print these cards. Give the children in the math center cards and sticks to see if they can recreate what they see on the card.

As the children line up to leave the playground or play a game, place the first children to arrive in a pattern, such as jacket/jacket/sweater. Ask the other children to figure out the pattern and line up to extend it, during outdoor time.

Provide large pattern blocks and pictures of things created with pattern blocks. Encourage them to reproduce the pictures using the pattern blocks. Engage them in conversation about how they fit the pieces together. This can be done in small group.

Begin a pattern with two colors of counting bears. Give the children additional counting bears of the same two colors and ask them to extend the pattern. Ask them to explain how they extended the pattern.

Provide the children with snow pea pods or other legumes during outdoor time. Have them explore the closed pods. Then have the children open the pods to see what's inside. Have the children taste the peas.

You will need some clean, empty egg cartons, cut in half lengthwise, and some green play dough. Write a numeral zero to five in each section of the egg carton. Show the children how to roll the play dough to make “peas.

Read Peek-a Who? by Nina Laden. This lift-the-flap book uses word cues and rhyming to help children make predictions about the animal that is hiding. For example, “peek-a-moo” gives children the hint that a cow is under the flap.

Sit facing the children. Talk to them so they are looking at your face. Use your hands or a small blanket to place between you and the children.

Read Peek-a-Boo! Baby Faces Board Book by Roberta Grobel Intrater. This up-close book of baby faces is ideal for reading to infants. Encourage the infant to point to eyes, ears, nose and mouth, as well as to expressions, tears and smiles.

Read Peek-a-Boo Morning by Rachel Isadora. Infants will love this story about a young toddler who plays peek-a-boo with a variety of family members. After reading, play Peek-a-Boo with the infants.

Laminate pictures of the teachers and infants in the class. Glue the pictures to each side of a cube and place a piece of opaque fabric over each picture. Have the infant hold the cube and play Peek-a-Boo with the pictures on each side.

Place an unbreakable mirror on the ground or low enough on a wall that the infant can see it. Using a small cloth, hide the infant's face and play Peek- a-Boo in the mirror.

Provide ears of corn with the husks on. During small group, have the children peel off the husks and strip off the silk. Model this activity for the children. Encourage them to ask questions about the parts of the ear of corn.

Give the children pegboards and encourage them to fill the entire board full of pegs.

As a class, create and send pen pal letters to other Pre-K classes within the county or state. Include photos, drawings and stories of life experiences, in the writing center.