Activities

Give the children a cookie sheet with a small amount of sand in the bottom. Encourage them to write the first letters of their names. You can also do this activity with a sealed plastic bag of hair gel.

Encourage the children to work together to build several towers in the block center using a variety of blocks.

Provide the children with various recyclables like empty bottles, cardboard tubes, scrap paper and masking tape. Have the children use the materials to create a tower as tall as possible.  This can be done in small group.

Read Toys Galore by Peter Stein. This rhyming picture book describes an amazing toy chest that contains a seemingly endless supply of toys. After reading, ask the children to draw a picture of a toy box that can hold one toy.

Provide toys that have moving parts such as wheels or doors, or that move in some way. Give children magnifying glasses and toy tools. Place the items on a table and encourage the children to explore how they move, open or make sounds.

Provide recyclable materials such as plastic bottles, paper plates, boxes, cardboard tubes or straws. Encourage the children to make their own toys with these materials. Help them think through the steps.

Have the children trace tools from familiar occupations. You can use things such as a screwdriver, a paintbrush, a key, a credit card ora toothbrush. As the children trace the different items, discuss who uses each of the tools.

Provide each child with his/her own copy of a book. While the teacher reads the book encourage the children to use a finger to follow along from left to right and top to bottom.

Read the book Sharing Time by Elizabeth Verdick. Provide small toys for the children and have them practice trading with a friend. Comment often on what they are doing. "Thank you, Carlson, for trading with Meredith. You are taking turns.

Put fingerpaint into small containers. Have the children trade and take turns using each color. Say, "Do you want a different color? Let's trade with Beatrice. She can have red and you can have blue." You may need to model this.

Encourage the children to make street signs to use outside with riding toys such as tricycles.

Encourage the children to use gestures when engaging in pretend play on the playground. Set up a roadway for tricycles. Include a stop sign, as well as designated place for the traffic officer to stand.

Using recipe picture cards, have the children follow directions for making a traffic light snack with strawberries, bananas and kiwi on a graham cracker. This can be done in small group.

Using recipe picture cards, have the children follow directions for making a traffic light snack with strawberries, bananas and kiwi on a graham cracker. This can be done during large group or as a small group activity.

Tune: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" 
Walk, walk walk your feet

Slowly to your seat

Quietly, quietly, quietly, quietly

Please don't make a peep

Tune: "The Wheels on the Bus" The train on the track goes chug, chug, chug, 
chug, chug, chug,
chug, chug, chug,  The train on the track goes chug, chug, chug all through the day Other verses:

During outdoor time, encourage the children to walk around the playground and place objects they find into either the trash bin or the recycle bin.

Read The Great Trash Bash by Loreen Leedy. Have the children come up with a class trash committee for the classroom and school.

During outdoor time, have the children wear gloves and pick up trash around the playground or other outside areas.  Discuss how important it is to work together and help others. This is part of growing up and becoming responsible.

Discuss the importance of cleaning up, both inside and outside. Take a walk with the children, either inside or outside the building and pick up trash.