Combine counting and singing in the following game. Put a long piece of tape on the floor to make a line. Choose one of your children to stand on the line, and sing the following song as a group. At the end of each verse, let the last child choose another child to join him or her on the line. Continue adding children, then count backward as one child at a time leaves the line.
Sung to: "The Farmer in the Dell"
Additional verses: Two children on the line; three children; etc.
2. Matching
Save decorated cups and napkins from birthday and holiday parties throughout the year. Bring others from fast food restaurants. Place all of these in a box for a matching game.
Set out pictures of cars, minivans, trucks and buses. Discuss their differences and similarities. Challenge your children to make vehicles for the block center, using egg cartons that have been precut crosswise into two-seaters, four-seaters, and eight-seaters. Provide markers, twist ties, and other items for the children to use in their creations.
2. Games
Have your children help you make up games about finding things that are the same in one way, but not all ways. For example, find things that are the same shape, but not the same size: teacher's hand and child's hand, a marble and a beach ball, a crayon box and a table top. Find things that are the same thing, but not the same color: two crayons, two markers, two coats. Find things that are the same color, but not the same thing: yellow towel and yellow truck, red ball and red crayon. What other variations can the children discover?
Children enjoy using real appliances that are usually hands-off to them. Collect discarded appliances, and cut off the electric cords right where they come out of the appliance. Include toasters, electric frying pans, steamers, hand mixers, alarm clocks, and electric razors. A discarded real microwave oven is more fun (and less expensive) than a wooden pretend one.
2. Music and Movement Center
Children appreciate music that is sung just for them. Tape record yourself or another teacher singing a few of your children's favorite songs. Make the tape a permanent part of you music and movement center. You might become you children's favorite recording star!
To make quick, inexpensive puppets, you can use precut paper shapes (available from parent-teacher stores.) Staple a shape to a tongue depressor or craft stick and you have an instant stick puppet.
2. Encouraging Oral Expression
Children like to imitate adult behavior, including the endless hours we spend on the telephone. Check garage sales for old telephones that your children can use for dramatic play. Include "cordless" models so children can converse indoors and out.
When your children are learning to kick, start with large, lightweight balls or other light objects like plastic bottles. Let the children kick in any safe direction.
2. Outdoor Play
Children like to draw on pavement with chalk, and they're strengthening both large and small muscles while they bend to draw. Have them draw a path of stepping stones to hop on or a roadway to ride through on tricycles.
1. Decorate your room with several bales of hay. You can get these at a feed store. Put work gloves, overalls, boots, straw hats, and plastic fruits and vegetables in the dramatic play center. To extend the mood, try wearing overalls and a straw hat!
2. Make a farm scene on the wall. Discuss what is found on the farm. Then set out precut shapes of these items for your children to decorate. (Older children can draw and cut out their own.) Have your children glue their creations to the mural. Increase interest by adding other textures to the scene. Craft sticks make good fences, and holograph gift-wrap works well as a pond with sunshine reflecting from it. Label the mural: "Old MacDonald's Farm," or any name the children choose. Label parts of the scene as you wish.
 |