Activities

On the playground, encourage the children to kick the ball back and forth to each other or to a teacher. You can also encourage them to kick the ball toward a net or fence.

Collect a variety of colored socks ensuring that you have more than two or three sets of the same color. Place the socks all around the room. Call out a color and have the children look for the matching-colored sock.

Roll a pair of adult tube socks into a ball. Toss the “sock ball” to a child. Encourage him/her to toss it back to you. Encourage the children to come up with other uses for the tube socks.

Using white tube socks and a variety of collage materials (wiggle eyes, crinkle paper, pom-poms, glue and markers), have the children create a puppet and name it, during small group.

Make sock balls out of adult socks or use beanbags for this activity. Toss the balls into a laundry basket, clean waste basket or box. When the children need more of a challenge, move the target farther away.

About 1/3 of the way up the side of a two-liter soda bottle, cut a quarter-size hole. Fill the bottle with water to just below the hole and place it in a dish tub. Put a funnel in the top of the soda bottle.

Sit on the floor with two or three infants and read Peek-a-Boo, I Love You! This is a padded cloth lift- the-flaps book by Sandra Magsamen. Encourage the infants to interact with the book and other infants.

Give each child a small cup of water and one Alka-SelzerR tablet. Point out the physical properties of each item. Ask each child to drop the tablet into their water.

Toss a large, bright ball back and forth to the children during outdoor time. When one catches the ball, the child calls out something he/she saw happen in the class and gives a solution.

Create a solution kit for the children to use. Cards have solutions on them with pictures for the children to look through, such as take turns, share, trade, wait and play with something else. Place cards in a small plastic case.

During large group, have discussions regarding how to solve conflict. Repeat the child's words: “So what I hear you saying is that...

Read Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail. As you introduce the book and title, ask the children what they think it means to feel “bombaloo.

Make cards and put cut outs of different foods on them in the science center. Have the children discuss the cards, sort them and arrange them in various patterns.

Place a variety of cups near the infant. Encourage the infant to touch, stack and explore the cups.

Create a sorting game in the math center with pictures of living and nonliving items. Provide a sorting chart and encourage the children to work together to sort the pictures.

Provide a utensil tray and an assortment of silverware. Make sure the silverware is all the same size and pattern. The children will put the silverware into the tray, sorting by type: fork, spoon, table knives.

Provide an opportunity for the children to listen to prerecorded, easily identifiable sounds such as animals and vehicles. Give them a card with pictures of items that make the sounds and play “Sound Bingo.

Provide pictures for the children to make a “sound” collage in the art center. You can say, “all of these things start with the /m/ sound.

Encourage the children to use sounds and facial expressions to convey their needs and preferences.

Play various simple instruments as you sit with the infant, and talk about how they sound. Play a bell, shaker, rhythm sticks or tambourine.