Activities

Encourage the children to use their prior knowledge to build elaborate structures. Examples include a pirate ship, an airplane, a train or a boat.

Place butcher paper on the wall in the block area, and make an outline of a large building or skyscraper.  The children can use soft blocks to match the building shape.

Encourage the children to build a lot of roads in the block center that cars and trucks can travel on to get to a variety of places in the community. Provide picture cards of places in the community.

Go into the block center and ask the children questions that encourage them to explain their process for building a structure.

Encourage the children to build block towers using table blocks as they follow verbal directions, such as, “Stack one red and one blue block together,” or “Stack a blue block on top of the yellow block.

Encourage the children to create a zoo with a variety of blocks: unit blocks, large cardboard blocks and small table blocks, for example. Help them brainstorm which blocks to use as they create spaces, fences and buildings.

Teach the children how to independently put on their jackets before going outside. One method is to lay the jacket on the floor, with the neck at the child's feet, outside.

Have the children pretend to be bunnies, hopping around the room. This can be done as frogs as well.

Read Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells. Discuss the need to have money to purchase a birthday gift for Grandmother.

Tune: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
This is the way my fingers stand,

Fingers stand, fingers stand.

This is the way my fingers stand,

So early in the morning.

Read The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri. This book has repetitive phrases so the children can join in on the reading.

During outdoor time, play “Ring Around the Rosie” with the parachute.

Plant and grow flowers that will attract butterflies. Encourage the children to watch the butterflies as they land on the leaves. Talk about the stages of a butterfly.

Show the children how to kiss like a butterfly. Position the child's eye next to someone's cheek and have him/her blink so the child's eyelashes tickle the cheek.

Read Now I'm Big by Karen Katz. Provide items to button and snap. Talk about learning to button.

Tune: “If You're Happy and You Know It”
Use attribute buttons to help create small groups or dismiss children from large group. Use color, shape, size or number of holes.  Build up to using more than one attribute.

Provide buttons for sorting. Divide the buttons into collections and place each collection in a bag or bowl. Create some groups that can be sorted by color, others by shape and others by size.

Place buttons of assorted sizes, shapes and button holes on a table.  Encourage the children to talk about the buttons and where they might be seen or used.  Encourage them to create something using the buttons.

Using letter stickers and index cards, have the children buy letters to create their names. Give each child a plastic sandwich bag with several pennies in it. Each letter will cost one penny.

Make a gumball game using colored pom-poms or cotton balls in a large plastic container. Give each child a plastic bag or wallet containing several pennies. Each player will roll a die and purchase a number of gumballs. Each gumball costs one penny.