Activities

Sing "Here is the Beehive" with the children, encouraging everyone to use his/her fingers to act out the song.
Here is the beehive. (Hold out one hand.)
Where are the bees? (Make a fist.

Use sidewalk chalk to draw a grid of your own design on the playground. If inside the classroom, you could use colored masking tape to create the grid. Model counting to 10 while hopping through the grid.

Read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss with the children. Talk about how much care it takes to make a small seed grow.

During large group, play music and teach the children to do “The Chicken Dance” by imitating your motions. Later you can invite the children to lead the song.

Clean up, clean up everyone

We have had a lot of fun

When we put our things away

We will have a happy day

Clean up, clean up everyone

Let me see what you have done

Tune: "The Wheels on the Bus"
The clouds in the sky go 

Boom, boom boom, 

Boom, boom, boom, 

Boom, boom, boom. 

(clap hands on "boom") 

The clouds in the sky go 

Boom, boom, boom. 

All night and day.

Create 12 cookies to use as manipulatives to retell the story. Read The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins and use the cookies to model what is happening in the story.

Read the story The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. After reading the story have the children act it out. Provide props such as a bell for the doorbell, cookies and a plate.

After reading The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, encourage the children to create an illustration using dots and straight lines. Hang these in your art gallery. This could be done in large group.

During large group, read The Enormous Potato by Aubrey Davis. Talk to the children about the farmer's problem – the potato is so big that the farmer can't pull it up. Ask the children for some ways that they may solve the problem.

Encourage the children to arrange all the books in the class reading center library with the cover facing forward. “Make sure we can see the title or ‘face' of the book.” Teach them that the face of the book is where the name is found.

Read The Family Book by Todd Parr. Ask the children simple questions about the book. Talk about the differences between families portrayed in the book. Let the children touch and explore the pictures in the book.

Tune: "Do You Know the Muffin Man"
We're going on a trip today,

trip today, a trip today

We're going on a trip today

We're going with our friends
What do you think we'll see today,

see today, see today

What

Tune: "Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush"
The finger band has come to town 

Come to town, come to town, 

The finger band has come to town, 

So early in the morning.

Read The Fire Station by Robert Munsch. Have the children tell what Shelia and Michael do first, next, then, and last. Let them discuss what they think will happen in the future at the fire station with Shelia and Michael.

Play “The Freeze Song,” encouraging the children to dance, then stop when they hear “freeze.

Tune: "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
The little fuzzy caterpiller, 

Curled up on a leaf. 

Spun her little chrysalis, 

and then she fell fast asleep. 

While she was sleeping, 

She dreamed that she could fly.

Most classics are great stories for children to dramatize. Provide headbands for the children to retell this favorite, along with a real gingerbread cookie or a puppet. This could be done in large group.

Hello, hello, hello and how are you?

I'm fine, I'm fine

And I hope that you are, too

Encourage parents to share with you the history of their child's name. Share the stories with the children and provide an opportunity for them to ask questions of each other.