Activities

Have the children sit on the rug in a circle. Read a sentence from a familiar book. Read it again and when the first word is read, have the first child jump. Go around the circle and have each child jump when a word is read.

Let the children create collages using magazines. Cut out pictures of people doing various jobs and glue them onto construction paper. Challenge the children to identify some of the jobs they cut out and label these on their collage.

Read Talk and Work it Out by Cheryl Meiners. This book teaches children how to learn to calm themselves: state the problem, listen, think of solutions, try one, evaluate results and even agree to disagree when a solution isn't possible.

Read Cool Down and Work Through Anger by Cheri J. Meiners. Tell the children that everyone gets angry. Teach them it's okay to feel angry, but not okay to hurt anyone with actions or words.

This is fun to do outside. You will need a large box with low sides or a small plastic baby pool. Line the bottom with butcher paper. Have the children squirt different colors of paint onto the paper. Place one or two small balls in the box.

Have a three-legged race or a wheelbarrow race in a grassy area during outdoor time.

During outdoor time have a three-legged race or a wheelbarrow race in a grassy area.

Place a variety of books about solving problems in the reading center area for the children to choose.

Take a drum outside and have the children dance to a variety of drumbeats during outdoor time.

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.

Encourage the children in the writing center to write a letter to someone. Record it using a voice recording app.

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.