Activities

Add brightly colored fabric, bubble wrap and paper towel rolls in the block area.  Encourage the children to use these items as they build and construct with blocks.

During outdoor time, take a book outside, such as The Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta. Show children the pictures and talk about what the various machines do.

The book Construction Zone by Tana Hoban contains full-color photographs of machines found at a construction site. Encourage the children to put on hard hats and to point out and talk about the various things they see.

Add new blocks and accessories to the block area. Ask the family to bring in empty cereal boxes. Stuff the boxes with newspaper and tape them securely shut. Encourage the children to build structures using the new blocks.

Bring in old tires or old plastic containers to create an outside vegetable or herb garden, during outdoor time. Fill the tires or containers with soil and let the children plant vegetable or herb seeds.

Infants are attracted to contrasting colors, black, white and red. On a sheet of white paper, draw a face with black hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose and a red mouth. Tape your “masterpiece” to a wall.

Have the children find a partner. Explain that you will give them a word and they will see who can talk about that word the longest. Use interesting, complex words such as “bulldozer” or “manatee.” Add in some nonsense words such as “kalleewompus.

Provide old landline telephones or cellphones in the dramatic play area for the children to use during pretend play conversations.

Create cards with new vocabulary words and corresponding pictures related to the current theme. Place them in the writing center for the children to use in stories or conversations.

Provide magnetic letters and a cookie sheet in the writing center area.

Provide a simple cooking activity such as making “Dirt Cups.” Guide children in following the steps to create their own treat: chocolate pudding, crumbled cookies and gummy worms. Have children then recap the steps of the recipe.

Add a timer to the cooking area of dramatic play. Model for the children how to set the timer to “time” their recipes.

Bring in a variety of safe cooking utensils for exploration. Big spoons, whisks, rubber spatulas and basters are good examples of different tools the children might find interesting.

Make a set of cool down cubes. Use a plastic jar and reusable ice cubes. Write a safe “cool down” strategy on each one. For example: walk away, count to ten, take a deep breath or talk to a friend.

Scatter hula-hoops or rings throughout the large group play area. Use music or a signal to cue movement. Children move about stepping anywhere except inside a hoop. When the music stops, everyone finds a hoop and steps inside as quickly as possible.

Sit with a few children and make different facial expressions. Encourage the children to guess which emotion you are expressing. Next, encourage the children to make the same face. You can be silly with this activity.

Read Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden. Encourage the infant to make the different sounds that the animals make in the story. Add soft puppets to illustrate the animals as well. Pretend to make the animal sounds.

Add a basket of corks and cards numbered one through ten. Have the children place the number of corks on the card matching the set to the numeral.

Pop popcorn using an air popcorn popper. Begin by having the children pretend to be popcorn and “pop” or jump around the rug. After the children are seated, create a language experience chart asking the children questions using their five senses.

Give the children multi-colored corn and tweezers in the science center. Have the children pull the kernels out of the corn cob.