Activities

Encourage the children to help write the playground rules. During outdoor time, discuss playground safety and decide which rules should keep them safe. For example, 1) Go down the slide on your bottom.

At the beginning of the year, model appropriate safety rules for the playground during outdoor time. Demonstrate where it is appropriate to run and walk. Model going down the slide feet first.

During outdoor time, take the children on a walk around the playground or school grounds and have them tell the things they see, such as other businesses, water tower, houses or farms.

Using two hula-hoops, label one “Living” and the other “Nonliving.” Have the children explore the playground and put items they find in the appropriate hoop during outdoor time.

Use the dramatic play area to set up a doctor's office or examination room. Encourage the children to care for the baby dolls and each other.

In the dramatic play area, encourage the children to take on the roles of family members. They can set the table or take care of a pretend baby sister or brother. They can also pretend to get ready for work as they have seen a family member do.

Make or use nontoxic play dough. Encourage the children to manipulate the play dough with their hands and with tools such as plastic utensils, cookie cutters and rollers.

Separate your sensory center table into four sections, using four wide containers. Label each section Dig, Pour, Sift or Scoop. Use diff erent tools to help the children practice each action.

During outdoor time, draw different faces on the ground using sidewalk chalk. Have the children move until their shadow lines up with one of the faces. Be sure to draw the faces where the sun will be behind where the children are standing.

Choose a piece of playground equipment and imagine it as something different, perhaps a castle with a kidnapped princess inside.

Talk about when to say please and thank you. Read The Berenstain Bears' Please and Thank You Book by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Sing this song to the tune of "Frére Jacques." Teach the signs for please and thank you to accompany the song.

Encourage the children, while in the dramatic play are, to play the “Please Pass Game.” Using pretend food, model how to ask for and pass something such as, “Please pass me the carrots.” Have the children ask their friends to pass them something.

This is a traditional game played in Great Britain. During outdoor time, have the children sit or stand on one side facing the teacher, four feet away. The teacher can play the crocodile or have a child do it.

Have a basket of feathers at the table. Give each child a pair of tweezers. Have the children pick up as many feathers as they can with their tweezers and pass the basket to the next child.

For outdoor time, gather paint, a long piece of butcher paper and new toilet plungers. Place paint on paper plates and encourage the children to paint using the plungers. See what interesting designs the children can create.

Using a pocket chart and a variety of rhyming cards, have children match picture cards that rhyme by placing them together.  This can be done in large or small group.

While reading a story to the infant, encourage the infant to point to different pictures and to turn the page in the book.

Look at a book with the children and have them point to familiar objects.

While reading a book with repeated or highlighted text, such as Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan, use a pointer to highlight words.

During small group, read Little Polar Bear by Hans de Beer. Set up small polar bear habitats by freezing individual containers of ice for children to explore. Discuss the melting of glaciers.