Activities

Creating alternate endings for stories is a great example of problem solving and using prior knowledge. Recite a familiar nursery rhyme, but pause before the end to let them come up with something different.

Build a maze in the block center using various size blocks. Using toy cars, have the students move their cars from one end of the maze to the other. Use a timer to see who can navigate the quickest.

After reading Ryuichi Kuwahara and Satoshi Kuribayashi's In Front of the Ant:  Walking With Beetle's and Other Insects, invite children to crawl on the ground to observe and describe their world from the bottom up.

Characters from familiar nursery rhymes and stories can provide a springboard for conversation. Begin by reciting the rhyme or reviewing the story. For example:
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.

In small group, show the children pictures of the daily schedule and let them help you put them in order. Place the first picture on the table and say, "First we sing our good morning song. And then...

Discuss different words for the same feeling such as mad/angry or scared/afraid. Encourage each child to act out feelings while allowing the other children to guess what feeling they are portraying.

Play the song “Animal Action” by Greg & Steve. Encourage the children to participate by following along with the movements in the song as you model possible movements.

Play the “Animal Action Song” by Greg & Steve. Invite the children to act out the animal movements. CR1.

Bring music (by Greg & Steve, for example) outside for the children to dance and move like different animals during outdoor time.

Play Greg & Steve's "Animal Action" and encourage the children to participate in following the directions of animal sounds and movements.

Read a short, simple story about animal movements such as Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood. Ask the children to imitate the movements of the animals in the story. Pause and have the children imitate the sound.

Read the Bright Baby Animals board book by Roger Priddy. Point out the sounds or movements of each featured animal. Have the children mimic your animal actions.

Have the children put on masks of different animals. Encourage them to create the sounds and expressions the animals might make. This can be done in small group.

Glue pictures of familiar animals taken from magazines, books or brochures onto card stock or hard material for sturdiness.

Read a book of your choice on animals and their babies. Have a chart with pictures of adult animals and have the children match pictures of the baby animals.

Give the children a cup along with six animal crackers. Have them count one animal cracker and put it in the cup. Then have them count two crackers, one at a time, and put those in the cup.

Provide a box of animal costumes, and help the children create different voices and sounds for the animals. Read books related to animals. The children may provide sounds for the animals while the book is read.

I'm a little kitty, 

I love to tippy toe. 

Won't you do it with me? 

Ready now, let's go. 
I'm a little rabbit, 

I love to hop, hop, hop. 

Come on and do it with me. 

It's fun; we'll never stop.

Have the children help create an animal habitat. For example, help them mix soil and water and discuss animals that live in mud. Provide plastic animals, such as worms, frogs or crabs, to place in the mud to encourage habitat play.

Here is a nest for blue bird 

(cup hands together to make a nest)

Here is a hive for bees 

(interlock fingers to make a hive)

Here is a hole for the bunny 

(make a circle with index finger and thumb to make a hole)