Activities

Use a variety of toys that make sounds such as rattles, shakers, bells or drums. Place the toys in different locations in the room. Use a toy to make a sound. Notice the infants who turn their heads to observe where the sound is coming from.

Play recordings of different sounds or create your own. Have the children draw pictures of what they hear or match the sound to clip art pictures. Make a chart with the drawings titled “Sounds We Hear.

Add water to sand and encourage the children to explore the new texture. Talk about what happened when you added water. Say, “The sand feels different, doesn't it? The water made the sand feel soupy.

Read There's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System by Tish Rabe. Plan a space trip to visit the planets. Play “space” music and encourage the children to walk around like they are on the moon. This could be done in large group.

Inside the dramatic play are create a florist prop box.

Provide books, in the reading center, on various forms of communication, such as books about hearing-impaired and visually impaired children and how they communicate.

Provide materials for children to make thank you cards and send to a special visitor.

Create a prop box, inside the dramatic play area, to introduce a special visitor and some materials that might go with that person. For example, if the firefighter is coming to school, create a fire fighter prop box with hats, coats and hoses.

Create a prop box, add it into the dramatic play area, to introduce a special visitor and some materials that might go with that person. For example, if the firefighter is coming to school, create a fire fighter prop box with hats, coats and hoses.

One of the typical rules for the classroom is walking feet. Print up cute speeding tickets and give them to the children when you observe that they are not using walking feet inside the classroom.

During outdoor time, draw a circle about 10 feet in diameter with chalk. Player A piles four marbles into a pyramid formation in the center of the circle. Player B attempts to hit the formation with one of his marbles.

Provide the children with labeled pictures and letter tiles. Encourage the children to use the tiles to spell the words.This can be done in small group.

Provide the children with labeled pictures and letter tiles. Encourage the children to use the tiles to spell the words.

Sing Raffi's “There's a Spider on the Floor” with the children. Give each child a plastic spider ring so he/she can follow along with the song: “There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.

Provide a bucket of water, large paintbrushes and bright or dark butcher paper. Give the children the paintbrushes and have them shake water onto the butcher paper. Point out that when the water hits the paper it makes a splash print.

Place a few tablespoons of water on a highchair tray or small plastic tray. Encourage the infant to pat the water or rub it back and forth. Talk about what the infant is doing. Say, “You are splashing in the water. It's going up in the air.

Provide an opportunity for children to create Jackson Pollack-inspired splatter paintings.

Read the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. Make spilt milk clouds using paper and white paint by folding the paper in half and pressing the paint around it. When the children open it, they can decide what cloud shape they made.

Add building-shaped sponges to the easel in the art center. The children can use the sponges to paint a picture representing their home, center or school or other buildings in the community.

Encourage the infant to use a small sponge or washcloth to soak up water on a tray. Encourage him/her to squeeze the cloth and watch the water. Say, “You're squeezing the sponge! Look at the water dripping out.