Activities

Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Make a list of the healthy and non-healthy foods. Have the children help make their own book

of healthy foods and non-healthy foods using magazine cutouts or actual food labels/cutouts.

Bring in a variety of healthy foods for the children to taste that they may not usually eat such as carrots, radishes or edamame.  Invite them to wear animal headbands and pretend to eat like that animal.

Invite a local dentist or dental hygienist to visit your classroom. Ask him/her to show the children the proper brushing technique using a big plastic model. At circle time, sing “This is the way we brush our teeth...

Your movements and the sound of your voice can be soothing to an infant. Hold the infant in your arms and walk around the room. While walking, tell him/her what you are doing. Describe the surroundings to the infant.

Bake heart-shaped cookies with the children. Encourage them to frost and decorate a cookie to give to other children or to their families.

Teach this heart healthy song to the tune of “B-I-N-G-O”:
My body has a special pump,
It pumps the blood around - O
H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, It pumps the blood around – O.

During large group, ask the children to point out where their hearts are located. Have them place their hands over their hearts to feel the beat.

Provide sealed containers filled with various materials. Encourage the children in the math center to compare them and order them from heaviest to lightest. Provide a small postal scale for them to check their ordering.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho

It's off to play we go!

We'll have some fun

And we can run

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho

Use chalk to record each child's height on an outside wall, or mark it on butcher paper hung in the classroom. Label each line with the child's name and picture. Compare heights. "Jill is 37 inches tall.

As infants arrive, greet each one with a "Hello" and a hand clap. Encourage the older infants to do the same when peers arrive.

Provide a toy telephone for the children and another telephone for youself. Encourage the children to make a call. Role play answering the call. Say, “Hello.

Engage the infant in a soothing song in the morning:
Hello, hello, hello and how are you?

I'm fine, I'm fine and I hope that you are too.

Establish a greeting ritual with the children when unfamiliar adults enter the classroom. Teach the children to smile, wave and say, "Hello" or "Welcome.

At departure time, assist the child in greeting the family member, using simple words and phrases such as "Hi, Mommy!" or "Hi, Grandma!"

When a familiar adult enters the room to pick up an infant, greet the adult with the infant, speaking from the infant's perspective.

When a familiar adult enters the room to pick up a child, greet the adult with the child, speaking from the child's perspective.

When parents or friends arrive in the classroom or leave the classroom, encourage the infants to wave to them. Wave your hand and repeat, “Bye-bye Mommy,” several times. You could also gently hold the infant's hand and make waving motions.

Give the children paper napkins to place on their heads. While music plays, the children dance around. If the napkin falls off a child's head, he/ she freezes. Another child can unfreeze the first child by touching him/her.

In the different centers, place signs that the children can turn around when they need help from a teacher. Encourage the children as they are playing to turn the sign around if needed.