Activities

During outdoor time, take the children outside for a large group experience. Use a two liter bottle of diet soda and a full pack of Mentos. Ask the children to observe what happens when the Mentos are dropped into the diet soda.

Provide a newspaper template and support the children in drawing pictures or writing headlines about the events of the day or week.  This can be done in small group.

Provide “lab books” in the science center where the children can document steps and results of a simple science experiment in pictures or words. For example, “Document what happens as ice melts.

Set up a Pre-K office with the keyboard from an old computer, a phone, an appointment book, desk calendar and a variety of pens in the writing center. Talk with the children to facilitate play.

Tune: “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around”
Pre-K, Pre-K touch your nose.

Pre-K, Pre-K touch your toes.

Pre-K, Pre-K pat your hair.

Pre-K, Pre-K find your square.

Read a book with a predictable sequence of events such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr. Read the book several times. After they hear the story a few times, have the children predict what character will appear next in the story.

Provide several containers with different amounts of money. Have the children guess how much is in each jar and what they think they could buy with the money.

Read Press Here by Herve Tullet. Discuss the movement of the dots in the interactive book, introducing diff erent positional words. This could be done in large group.

Set up items in the dramatic play area that are typically hot or cold. As the children play with the items say, “Oh! That's hot!” or “Brrr... that's cold!” Encourage the children to say “hot” and “cold” or “no touch” for the stove.

Have the children make a postcard. Write or dictate a note to someone about his/her favorite celebration or holiday. Prompt children's thinking by asking “Why is that your favorite?” or “Describe what you know about that holiday.

Read Pretend You're a Cat by Jean Marzollo. This book offers great opportunities to pause as you read to allow time for the children to guess the rhyme.

During outdoor time, play a version of “Forever Blowing Bubbles” and invite the children to blow small and large bubbles to the tune of the music.

Tune: “London Bridge”
Pretty leaves are falling down, 

Falling down, falling down. 

Pretty leaves are falling down, 

All around the town. 
Let's rake them up in a pile, 

In a pile, in a pile.

Place golf balls in several colors of paint. Provide Pringles® cans with paper cut to fit inside. Show the children how to use a spoon to scoop a golf ball out of the paint and put it in the chip can.

Facilitate the creation of a progressive story. Provide the group with a story starter, “If I had a pet giraffe, I would...” and encourage the children to take turns adding the next sentence.

Provide prop boxes in the dramatic play area that relate to specific stories to encourage the children to retell the stories.

Add prop boxes to dramatic play to encourage vocabulary development. For example, a post office prop box might include envelopes, stamps, a mailbox, a cash register and a letter carrier's hat.

During outdoor time, create a “protected space”. Designate a corner, have a moveable safe zone or draw one out of chalk. Also consider using a hula-hoop or a carpet square that may be moved anywhere outside to designate the protected space.

Make a toy from a can with a plastic lid, a pom-pom and soft elastic. Remove the metal ends of the can. Make sure you use a can opener that doesn't leave a sharp edge. Cover the can with contact paper. Fold the excess over the edges.

Make a simple pulley to add to your block center. Use an empty ribbon spool and an unsharpened pencil or dowel. Show the children how to place the dowel through the spool and drape a length of string or ribbon over the spool.