Activities

Create a class book of familiar places in the community. Find logos and pictures in magazines or on the computer. Include restaurants the children like to eat at, such as McDonald's or Pizza Hut.

Each day in the science center, designate a child as the class pet observer. Provide a class pet observation chart for the child to record the pet's actions. Divide the chart into rows and columns.

Take a series of pictures of caring for the class pet, such as putting food in the bowl, adding water to the feeder, changing the bedding or giving a treat.

Using your digital camera, encourage children to take pictures of each other both indoors and outdoors. Use the pictures to create a slide show for your classroom computer or to show on a screen.

Do taste tests with the children using various food items. Check for food allergies prior to this activity. Be sure to include sweet, salty and bitter foods to give them a variety of tastes.

When visitors come to the classroom, encourage the children to take them on a tour of the room identifying the different spaces and materials.

Retell “The Gingerbread Man.” The children can be the different characters in the story. The gingerbread man can run, run, run away. Retell the story The Enormous Turnip.

Provide each child with a scarf. Play soft classical music and invite the children to move their scarf to the sound of the music. This can be done in small group.

Whisper a familiar action to a child, and have them act it out with movement and expression for the others to guess. Easy ideas include brushing teeth, reading a book, combing hair, shooting a basketball and frosting a cupcake. Try animals also.

Collect a variety of items from the classroom. Include some of the children's personal items such as coats, bags and hats. Have the children identify the objects and place the objects in their correct locations in the classroom.

Show the children a simple map of the classroom. Point out major features. “Here is our block shelf and here is the rug where we sit for large group. Have the children identify the rest of the items on the map.

Take a small group on a walk around the school. Have the children name different classrooms and people. Prompt them with questions. Say, “Here's an office.

Encourage the children to create their own set of classroom rules. Ask the children to explain appropriate behaviors for obeying each rule. Vote on the most important three to five rules and list those rules on chart paper.

Have the children help create three to four classroom rules. Be sure the rules tell the children what to do, stated in the positive. For example, “Use gentle touches.” Discuss why the rules are important and post the rules in the classroom.

Using pictures of objects in the classroom, have the children identify the objects and tell where they find the objects in the classroom.

Turn your class into a nighttime sky for naptime. Hang glow-in-the-dark stars, planets and other celestial images on the ceiling and walls of the classroom. As the children fall asleep, encourage them to look up at the recreated night sky.

After creating a class map with the children, use it to lead them on a treasure hunt. Have the children cover their eyes while you hide a few objects, such as marbles or small plastic animals, in different locations in the classroom.

After creating a class map with the children, use it to lead them on a treasure hunt. Have the children cover their eyes while you hide a few objects, such as marbles or small plastic animals, in different locations in the classroom.

Give the children clay, and encourage them to create animals, flowers or people and then share their creations. Ask questions such as, “How did you make that? What could you do differently? Show me what to do.

Encourage the children to design and create something out of clay: a bowl, an animal or a person. Give them tools such as toothpicks, forks and popsicle sticks to make patterns in the clay. Discuss the similarities and differences in their creations.