Activities

Draw several large shapes on poster board, or cut them from construction paper and glue them onto poster board. Give the children matching shapes cut from fun foam. Encourage them to match the shapes.

Read a farm animal book. Favorites such as Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Child's Play; My Big Farm Book by Roger Priddy; and Animals on the Farm by Christopher Hernandez.

Sit with a small group of children. Provide a variety of number cards, zero through 10. Have several examples of each number, enough for each child in the group.

Tune: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
Find your circle (color, shape, number, etc) and sit down

and sit down and sit down

Find your circle and sit down

It's time to start our day

Tune: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
Find, find, find your smock

Help and do your part

Button, button, button up

Now it's time for art

This game is similar to “Hide and Seek.” The child who is “it” hides first. Everyone else then tries to find “it.” When someone finds “it,” they hide with “it” in the same spot during outdoor time.

Make a worm puppet by filling a colorful tube sock with stuffing, stitching it closed and adding some wiggly eyes.

Fill a zip-top bag with colored hair gel. Tape the top shut for safety. Place the bag on a flat surface. Show children how to draw designs with one finger in the gel.

During mealtime, provide finger foods and encourage older infants to use a pincer grasp to pick up the food. Model the action, saying, “Eat Cheerios.

When the infant is ready, provide finger foods to practice picking up small items and to encourage self-feeding. Encourage the infant to help hold the cup or spoon as you feed him/her. Say, “Look at you, Tim! You are picking up your cereal.

As infants are ready for finger food, place a couple of different ones on the tray of the highchair or on a plate at the table. As he/she picks and chooses, talk to the infant about what he/she is eating. Say, "I see you picked up a strawberry.

Place paper on the table with fingerpaints. Have the children use their fingers to spread the paint around on the paper.

Use hand motions when reciting familiar finger plays and poems such as “Little Bunny Foo Foo.” Once the children know the words and motions, act out the song without singing, just do the motions.

Read Froggy Plays Soccer by Jonathan London. Ask the children if this story is real or fantasy, and why.

Invite the children to participate in a fingerplay of “One, Two, Tie My Shoe”:
One, two, tie my shoe.

Three, four, shut the door.

Five, six, pick up sticks.

Seven, eight, lay them straight.

Using stamp pads and blank cards, have the children make fingerprints. Give each child a magnifying glass to observe and compare his/her prints with others.

Invite the children to make fingerprints.  Explore the prints with magnifying glasses and encourage the children to compare similarities and differences with their friends.

During routine care and play, recite the rhyme, “Here are your fingers, here are your toes. Here is your chin and here is your nose.” As you say the rhyme point to each of the body parts.

During one-on-one time with an infant, gently touch each finger and toe, counting as you go.

Prepare the chlldren for a fire drill by practicing in the classroom with them. You can go through the process of lining up and walking to the door. The same activity will work for a tornado drill as well.