Activities

Collect brochures from car dealerships, menus from restaurants, furniture assembly instructions, electronic device user guides and books that come with toys. Include these in the classroom library and dramatic play prop boxes.

Encourage the children to toss and catch the ball together during outdoor time. This promotes cooperation.

(Child's name, child's name) sitting straight and tall Can you catch my koosh koosh ball?

(Child's name, child's name) sitting straight and tall

Can you catch my koosh koosh ball?

Read Rain by Robert Kalan. On a warm day when it's drizzling rain, provide raincoats, hats, rain boots and small umbrellas, and go outside to catch raindrops.

You will need paper cups, string or yarn, markers and large pom-poms for this activity. Carefully cut a hole in the bottom of the cup and have the children put the string through the hole. Tie a knot in the end so the yarn doesn't pull through.

Read “The Gingerbread Man.” In advance, prepare a letter from the gingerbread man giving clues to people, locations and objects around the school. Read the story and pull out the note from the gingerbread man when finished.

While outdoors, run with the children, making it a game to see if they can catch you. Keep the game light and fun, laughing with the children.

Take bubble-blowing supplies outside for some fun cause and effect experiences, during outdoor time. Experiment with wands of different sizes and shapes or wave your hand back and forth to form bubbles instead of blowing them.

Create 20 fish cut-outs with numerals written in permanent marker. Attach a paper clip to the front of each fish – only put it in halfway to leave room for hooking, and place them in the water table.

You will need The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, as well as a caterpillar and the foods that the caterpillar eats in the story. Retell the story having the children count out the pieces of food.

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, encourage the children to use Unifix® cubes to help retell the story. Start with one red cube to represent “one red apple.

During outdoor time, ask five or six children to hook on to each other's backs to form a caterpillar. The child in the front is the head but the child second in line gets to steer his/her shoulders around the playground. Play music if possible.

Have one child at the head of the line and others behind in a line with hands on each other's shoulders.

Create cause and effect puzzles by obtaining pictures relating to a sequential story such as There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly. Have the children put the pictures in order. Talk about how one event caused another.

Add books that illustrate cause and effect into the reading center such as Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh; Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema; The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble;

Include some cultural holidays and celebrations on your classroom calendar. Discuss these as they come up and explain to the children what these traditions or holidays mean to that particular culture. This could be done in large group.

Have the children be census takers using clipboards and pencils during outdoor time. They can move from area to area polling their friends about how many people live in their homes.

Give the children a clipboard with pictures of a variety of items in the classroom, such as pens, hole punchers and stamps in the writing area.

Ask the family to bring in the front of the child's favorite cereal box. Bind the box fronts in a book to share with the children.