Activities

Provide an opportunity for the children to work with you to create a variation of hopscotch. During outdoor time, decide what shapes to draw the spaces, and how to lay them out. Create rules about turn-taking and points and play together.

During outdoor time, use sidewalk chalk to create a hopscotch board but in place of numbers draw shapes. As the children jump throughout the hopscotch board have them identify the shape they land on.

In small group, read the book, What Is A Scientist by Barbara Lehn. Explain to the children that they are going to be scientists and will find out what actions can produce heat. Give the children a small wooden block and sand paper.

To play Hot Potato, ask the children to sit in a circle. Give one child a potato or other prop. When the music starts, have the children pass the potato around the circle.

Have the children use their feet instead of hands to work together to pass the "hot potato.

Say the words to a simple song such as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Give the children a prop to pass, such as a potato or a star, to go along with the song.

Heat applesauce in a slow cooker. Read the book, Melting Matter by Amy Hansen.

Read the book How a House is Built by Byron Barton. Create a First, Next, Then, Last chart and have the children recall what you do first, next, then and last when building a house. This could be done in large group.

Read How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan. This book goes into great detail about how a little seed grows into a plant or tree. Invite the children to ask questions about how plants grow.

Read the book series See How They Grow by DK Publishing that features a variety of different animals. Create sequencing pictures from the books of how animals grow, and have the children put the pictures in order.

Read How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers to the group and discuss the faces in the pictures. To extend this activity, show photos of children's faces to compare to those in the book.

Place an object slightly out of reach, such as in a tunnel or in a box. Encourage the children to figure out how to get the item.

While in the sensory center give the children a wide variety of containers from very small to large. Ask them questions to see if they can determine how many small containers of water it will take to fi ll up the large container.

Ask the children to recall the sequence of events for an activity just completed, such as a dance, an art activity or order of washing hands.

Read the book How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe? by Jane Yolen. Discuss the situations presented in the book with the children and have them relate how they can stay safe.

Print and laminate a series of pictures of the children planting and caring for a plant. Have the children put the pictures in sequence to access prior knowledge.

Show and paraphrase the book, Learn About The Way Things Move by Robert K. Ullman. Take the children outdoors to compare how living and nonliving things move. For example, compare people to cars and buses.

Share photographs and pictures that reflect all the important ways we use water: for drinking, washing clothes, bathing, flushing a toilet or cleaning a house. People and animals use it for swimming too.

During large group, play a “How Do You Feel?” game. Sing this song to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”:
How do you feel today,
How do you feel today.

Create a chart titled, “How Do You Feel Today?” Make columns with different emotions such as sad, mad, happy, tired, excited, worried. Use picture cues with the words. The children can place their name cards under each column.