Activities

Prepare five paper or felt spiders. Sing “Five Little Spiders” to the tune of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Place the five spiders on a felt or magnet board. Remove them one at a time to the song.

Cut out five stars and a moon to use with the flannel board as you recite this rhyme during large group.
Five little stars shine and shine some more,

One fell to the earth and then there were four.

Sing to the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?”: Five senses, five senses. We have them. We have them. Seeing, hearing, touching, Tasting and smelling. There are five. There are five. (Point to body parts as you sing.) This could be done in large group.

Sing this chant with the children: Five yummy gingerbreads, sitting on a plate. The first one said, “Boy, we smell great.” The second one said, “There's a chill in the air.” The third one said, “I see hungry children everywhere.

Cut old calendar pictures or place mats into puzzles. During small group, encourage the children to verbalize their reasoning when they are putting the pieces together.

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.

Provide a variety of flannel board stories so the children can retell stories in their own way.

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.