Activities

Set out old machines in the science center for the children to take apart and put back together in a fix-it shop.

Provide orange, yellow and red fingerpaint in the art center. The children can put some of each color on fingerpaint paper, cover it with plastic wrap and paint with their fingers. The paint will look like flames.

Create flannel board pieces for The Freight Train by Donald Crews, and encourage the children in the reading center to retell the story.

Make simple felt pieces and use to tell stories. Some good examples are Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas; If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff and The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Pam Adams.

Many authors, such as Jan Brett, have printable cutouts on their website. After reading a story such as The Mitten to the class, encourage the children to retell the story using felt board pieces.

Add flannel faces, eyes, ears, noses, mouths, and hair into the reading center so the children can create representations of themselves or their friends on the flannel board.

While in the reading center create flannel stories that tell of kind things one friend did for another. Consider using pictures of the children in the class and adding VELCRO® to the back.

Provide flashlights and various materials such as clear plastic wrap, aluminum foil, tissue paper, cardboard, construction paper, cloth, transparency sheets and wax paper. Ask the children which materials the light will pass through.

Have the children sit in a circle and sing “Star Light, Star Bright.” While singing, point the flashlight at a child. Encourage the child to stand up and tell the class a few things about himself/herself.

Read the story Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, and give the children a “Flat Stanley” character to send out to friends and family. When the “Flat Stanley” returns to school, during large group use a map to show all the places they went.

Play Rimsky-Korsakov's “Flight of the Bumblebee” for the children. Talk about how the music might make them think of a bumblebee flying or how the music makes them feel.

One important skill the children can develop is the ability to turn shapes or objects in a variety of ways and notice how they change; these are called “transformations.” Start with simple objects from the classroom such as small vehicles or animals.

Use a picture schedule, and cover up all but the current segment. Talk with the children about what segment of the day you are in and what comes next. Show them by flipping up the next section.

Do this simple experiment to encourage the children to talk about what they are thinking.

Hollow out half of a grapefruit or an orange and place it in a bowl of water.  Ask the children to guess how many counters, such as beans or paper clips, the fruit boat might hold before it sinks.

Encourage the children in the math center to put together a more difficult floor puzzle. Ask others to join in if needed to accomplish this task.

Set up a clear space on the floor for the children to engage with each other using floor puzzles.

Sit with the children on the floor and give them a floor puzzle. Talk about the different pieces as they pick them up. Say, "That piece has a lot of yellow on it. What do you think that is?" Encourage the children if they look puzzled or unsure.

Read Zinnia's Flower Garden by Monica Wellington. Provide several types of flower seeds for planting in flower pots. Provide magnifying glasses so the children can see different flower parts up close.

Place a piece of fruit, such as an orange, inside a large mason jar and do not seal. Place the jar outdoors in the middle of a table. During outdoor time, have the children observe and draw what they see.