Activities

In front of the child, place a container with an opening in it, such as a cup with a lid that has a hole in it. Provide a variety of objects to put in the container.

Willaby, Wallaby, Woo

An elephant sat on you

Willaby Wallaby Wes

An elephant sat on Les
(Or Willaby WalIaby Wyelashes

An Elephant sat on my eyelashes)

Sing “Willaby, Wallaby, Woo” with the children. Pause before saying a child's name to give the other children a chance to guess.
Willaby, Wallaby, Woo.

An elephant sat on you.

On a windy day, have the children spray water into the air to see the direction and speed that the wind is blowing. Assist the children by having them stand in different places on the playground.

Have the children decorate recycled materials such as cans, plastic bottles, yogurt containers, old CDs or metal lids. Tie them together with yarn to create wind chimes to hang up around the playground.  This could be done in small group.

Take the infant outside and place him/her on a blanket. Use yarn to securely tie wind chimes to a structure so the chimes are suspended about 6 inches from the ground. Encourage the infant to stretch to reach the wind chimes.

Give each child ten straws. Lay tape on the table sticky side up and encourage the children to place straws next to each other evenly. Pull tape around all straws securely but allowing straws to lay flat on table.

Give each child a piece of colored construction paper to decorate with crayons, colored pencils or markers. Have the children roll the paper up and tape to secure. Attach crepe paper as streamers to the bottom.

Take wind socks outside on a breezy day and have the children run, move or dance with the wind sock during outdoor time. You can suggest how you want the children to move, such as move like you are happy or move like you are angry.

Take wind socks outside on a breezy day and have the children run, move or dance with the wind sock, during outdoor time. You can suggest how you want the children to move, such as move like you are happy or move like you are angry.

Place wind-up water toys in a tub of water for the children to explore. Show them how to turn the knob or key on the toy to wind it up. Place it in the water and watch it move. Encourage comments about speed. “The duck is going fast.

Take the infant to a window and discuss what he/she sees in the sky. Point out the clouds, for example. Say, "It's daytime. The sun is shining." Another time say, "It's starting to get dark. The sky is dark blue.

Provide the infant with wooden or plastic salad spoons to explore and bang. Demonstrate how the spoons can be used. For example, use the spoon to hit blocks or empty containers for the infants to hear the sounds.

Play musical selections from Tchaikovsky's “The Nutcracker Suite” or Vivaldi's “The Four Seasons.” Provide the children with feather boas, wands, scarves or ribbons. Play music and have them dance like woodland fairies, sparrows or other creatures.

Provide the children pages from a magazine or newspaper and highlighters. Show them a familiar word from a repetitive book, such as “walking” from Sue Williams's I Went Walking.

Make cards, some with words and some with letters. Spread out the cards in a defined area during outdoor time. Ask the children to indentify which cards have words and which cards only have letters.

Begin large group by introducing a word of the day, such as investigate or opposite. Use the word in context to see if the children can figure out what the word means.

Pick a word of the week. It may be related to your current unit of study or it can be a vocabulary word from a story you are reading. Introduce the word to the children early in the week. Use this word to get their attention during the day.

Give the children a big book with large pictures and simple words, such as A Monster Sandwich by Joy Cowley. Give the children a fun pointer, such as a spatula, to point to the text as you read, "Put some lettuce on it.

Provide the children with the opportunity to point out individual words in a big book, using a pointer. This could be done in large group.