Activities

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.

Create pretend fire extinguishers to add to the dramatic play area. Cover spray bottles with red paper and masking tape to represent a fire extinguisher.

During outdoor time, have children wear firefighter jackets and hats on the playground and encourage them to put out fires. Give each child a squirt bottle as they run around to hose down the fire.

Using the first-aid bag, teach the children in small group how to care for one another during an injury. One gets a wet paper towel, one gets the Band-Aid® ready and one offers tissues. This can be done in small group.

Read Ten Little Fish by Audrey and Bruce Wood. Use felt fish or manipulative fish. Have the children take the fish away and interact with the story.

You will need a magnetic fishing rod, a small inflatable pool of water and magnetic bobble fish. The children will roll a number cube and reel in that number of fish. Ask the children how their fishing rods work.

Read 10 Little Fish by Audrey Wood. Place a small fish, such as a goldfish, in a clear bowl and invite the children to observe it. Talk about what they see. "Look at the fish. It's swimming back and forth.

Spend time with the children as they watch the classroom fish.

Cut out pictures of the children and attach a paper clip to each picture. Give the children a wooden fishing rod with a magnet attached to the end. Have them fish for a friend and tell how they are alike and how they are different.

Create a shape box out of a shoe box by cutting two geometrical holes in the lid. Provide an object to fit into each hole (such as a ball for the round hole and a block for the square hole).