Activities

Read This Is the House that Jack Built by Simms Taback. Have the children think about what is needed to build a house, and chart their answers. Ask them to think about how much of each material they would need.

Sit with the infant and sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” while making the hand motions with the infant.

Read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. At the beginning of the year, the children may be hesitant to leave their families. Encourage each family to draw a heart on their child's hand and kiss it before they leave each day.

Explain to the children where trash goes. Ask children what they think happens when they put their trash cans on the street and the truck picks up the trash. Write down some responses. Tell children that trash is taken to a place called the landfill.

Tune: The Wheels on the Bus"
The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown

Orange and brown

Orange and brown. 

The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown,

All through the town.

Read the book The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. After the lion lets the mouse go, the mouse ends up coming to the lion's rescue.

Read The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. Encourage the children to all join in when the engine says, “I think I can. I think I can.” After the story, have the children use small chairs to construct a train and retell the story.

Read The Little Engiine That Could  by Watty Piper.  Discuss problems in the story and what happens at the end.  Ask the children why it is important not to give up.

Read The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. Give the children the props to re-enact the story. They will want to do this over and over.

Read The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. Ask the children if they would or would not help the little red hen, and explain why. Talk about how the hen's job would have been different if the others had helped.

Read The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. Ask the children if they would or would not help the little red hen and why. Talk about how the hen's job would have been different if the others had helped. This could be done in large group.

Read The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philomen Sturges.  Start with a picture walk and ask the children what the story is about.

Collect a group of objects from the classroom. Include items such as a spoon, a toy truck, a seashell, a block and a plastic flower. Take a photo of each object or place it on the copy machine and print the image.

After reading Jan Brett's The Mitten, provide the children with an oven mitt and an assortment of plastic animals.

Read The Mitten by Jan Brett. Give the children animal headbands and a large sheet to represent the mitten. Have them retell the story.  This can be done in small group.

Read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood.

Create story picture blocks by attaching photos of characters from a book to unit blocks with clear contact paper. Encourage the children to build a story such as The Napping House by Audrey Wood using the blocks in the block center.

Make paper doll characters from the story The Napping House by Audrey Wood, out of magazine pictures or drawings. Attach these to heavy

paper or cardboard, and tell the story using these characters.

During large group retell a familiar story with a new ending such as the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” At the end of the story, instead of Goldilocks running away, she stays and has dinner with the bears.

Choose one child to be the cat and “sleep” in a part of the room away from the group. The remaining children will be mice.