Activities

Read Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Rod Campbell. It invites children to guess which animal might be hiding behind the flap. Encourage the children to respond on each page.

Cut out pictures of animals, people or vehicles from magazines. Laminate or cover with clear contact paper for durability. Show a picture to the child and ask him/her to tell you what he/she sees.

While reading Peter Brown's The Curious Garden, pause to talk about the pictures. Encourage the children to describe what they see in the pictures.

During outdoor time, give the children binoculars made out of two toilet paper rolls taped together. Take them outside and ask the children to look around and talk about what they see.

During outdoor time, place a plastic hoop on the ground and provide children with magnifying glasses, tongs or tweezers, paper and clipboards. Encourage the children to closely observe what's inside the hoop and draw it on their clipboards.

During outdoor time, discuss the smells of the outside play area.

Encourage children to create shapes from clay, making sure that at least one shape is a ball. Next, have them create shapes that are shaped like boats. Provide an opportunity for children to test their shapes at the water table.

Gather an assortment of interesting pictures from books or magazines depicting the outcome of a specific action; for example, someone sitting at the bottom of a slide. Ask the children to dictate or draw what happened first.

Use language as a cue to help the children predict what happens next. Say, "All of my friends have finished eating.

Use a story starter and have the children recall activities they did over the weekend. Record their responses.

Plan morning activities based on what the children really enjoy playing with. For example, welcome the child as he/she arrives and say, “I've been waiting for you! Here is a basket of books about puppies and your favorite stuffed dog.

Use the book What We Wear by Maya Ajmrea as a basis for discussion of how children of various cultures dress. Have the class compare and contrast their own dress to that of the children in the book. Record their observations.

Read the book What We Wear by Maya Ajmrea. Discuss how the children of various cultures dress. Have the class compare and contrast their own dress to that of the children in the book. Record their observations.

Ask the children, “What if I threw a piece of trash on the floor. How big a deal is it? Now, what if everyone did that?” Read What if Everybody Did That? By Ellen Javernick.

During small group, provide interesting pictures for the children to describe, such as a child jumping in leaves or a person talking on a phone.  Ask them what they think is happening or might happen.

Print photos of interesting animals and place them in the science area.

Have the children look closely around the large group area. Have them close their eyes while you remove an item from the area. When the children open their eyes, see if they can identify what is missing.

Place photos of familiar objects close to the changing area for the infant to look at during diaper change. As you are changing, call the infant's attention to things in the pictures.

To encourage the children to answer questions about the weather, sing this song to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”: What's the weather like today,
like today, like today?
What's the weather like today?

Show the children unfamiliar pictures of objects or animals and encourage them to guess the name or purpose of the object. For example, shown a picture of a calf, a child might say, “It is a cow.” You would respond, “It is a baby cow.