Activities

Have flannel pieces that include the globe and cutouts of the seven continents. As the children place the pieces on the globe introduce simple terms like, “land,” “ocean” and “world.” Bring in a real globe if one is available.

Provide home-made or nontoxic play dough. Encourage the children to break small pieces off and roll them between their fingers to make "worms.

Purchase mealworms at a pet store; they are beetle larva used for feeding small mammals, reptiles and birds. Keep them in an open container with the bottom covered in old fashioned oatmeal.

Ask the children to choose a variety of items they want to test outside to see if it will blow away in the wind. Ideas include feathers, paper, paper balls, blocks, plastic cars, dolls, leaves, plastic grocery bags, and other items of interest.

Sit at a table with play dough in front of you. As the children come over, encourage them to ask for some play dough.

Choose a recent field trip or class experience that you have photographed. Make sure you have a wide variety of pictures. Print out the pictures and cover the top half of a page, leaving space below for the children's dictation.

Give the children a simple model for a short poem and encourage them to compose a poem of their own. Choose an animal. Think of three things that animal does using “–ing” words.

Some children may be ready to start writing letters. Write the child's name using a highlighter and encourage the child to write on top of the highlighter. Sit with the child when he/she practices this so you can talk about directionality.

Provide blank musical staff paper and music related stamps in the writing center and encourage children to include them in their writing.

Provide a variety of writing tools, in the writing center, so that the children can notice differences in line width or color intensity. Talk about what kind of marker or crayon they would choose for different tasks.

Have a template with writing tools outlined and ordered from shortest to longest. Have the children match the real tools to the ones on the template.

Provide laminated cards, in the writing center area, with word families. One card set may have “_at” and another may have “_ake.” The children can use a dry erase marker to write a letter in the blank and read the word they created.

Have the children draw what they see in the classroom, such as the bookcases, the tables and the rug. Have one child hide a stuff ed animal and then mark an X on the paper to denote where he/ she hid it.

Talk to the children about things they need help with in the classroom and make a list: opening a milk carton, the really hard fire truck puzzle or buttoning pants are good examples. Create a picture book of these things.

Create a reusable two-column chart labeled Yes and No to use with the children. Place the children's pictures on small blocks. Write a question using picture cues: “Are you wearing socks?” Add picture of socks.

Create a graph with columns labeled “yes” and “no.” Post a question for the children to answer such as “Do you have a dog?” or “Do you like broccoli?” Include picture support for the question.

On a metal cookie sheet, make two columns; label them Yes (attracts) and No (does not attract). On the cookie sheet, place various materials that magnetically attract and materials that do not attract.

Create a chart of situations related to familiar rules and expectations of the classroom. Have the children tell you if they go under “Yes, it is OK to do,” or “No, it is not OK to do.

During outdoor time, play off the children's love for animals and have them develop movements based on different animals like cat, dog or cow. Encourage them to bark like a dog or meow and moo for cat and cow.

For this activity, you will need a container of fruit yogurt, waxed paper, a cookie sheet and a pastry bag with tip. Place the waxed paper on the cookie sheet and put the yogurt in the pastry bag.