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THE FOUR SEASONS
Help children learn the names of the four seasons, and their order: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall/Autumn. Ask children to tell you their favorite activities for each season.
WINTER: Pretend it is a winter day. It's snowing. Let's make 10 snowballs, and take turns throwing the 10 snowballs and counting them. Use white paper to pretend to draw shapes in the snow (Shapes).
SPRING (PLANTING): Pretend to dig 10 holes in the ground. Plant a “vegetable seed” in each hole, counting each seed aloud. Ask children to say the color and first letter of each vegetable they planted – “C” for carrots, “P” for peas (use Letters).
SUMMER: Pretend it is a summer day, and we are going to the beach. Build a sand castle. Walk into the water and run near to the water or far away from the water as the waves roll up to the beach. Find seashells, and count them - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
FALL/AUTUMN: Pretend it is a windy autumn day and leaves are falling. Ask children to rake the leaves into a big pile and name the colors of the leaves (use Colors Chart). Draw pumpkins with happy, sad, and angry faces, and talk about these Feelings.
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TRAVEL GAMES
SUBMARINE: Tell children we have a
submarine, a ship that starts on top of the water and then travels under the water. Let's pretend to take a submarine trip. Take turns “driving” the submarine, down, down, down into the ocean. Look through the submarine's special windows. Pretend to see animals that live in the ocean (fish, octopus, whale, crab, lobster). Ask children to tell what animals they see, and to name the animals’ colors. Then drive the submarine home up, up, up out of the ocean. Ask children to draw pictures of the ocean animals they saw.
SPACESHIP: Pretend we are riding a spaceship on a trip to the moon. Use the Numbers to help children countdown to blast-off: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Pretend to feel the spaceship shake as it pushes us up into the sky, far away from earth. We land on the moon. Pretend to put on your special moon boots and walk on the moon in slow motion, as we bounce slowly up and down each time we take a step. Time to go home! Countdown to blast-off to return home: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Feel the spaceship shake as it comes near to earth and we land. |
- POLICE PERSON GAME
Practicing personal safety skills.
Make a “badge." Ask children to take turns pretending to be the Police Person.
Ask another child to practice what to do if he or she is lost. Ask the child to find the Police Person. The Police Person asks the “lost” child to say his/her parent’s name, address and phone number. Help children know their parent’s name, address and phone number. Also, help children know to whom they should or should not tell this information.
Then the Police Person helps children cross the street by practicing red, yellow, and green traffic lights. Add any special “Walk” signs used in your community.
Then help children practice other personal safety skills that are important in your community.
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SCIENCE GAMES
FLOATING: Fill a bowl with water. Give children different items (pebble, feather, cork), and ask them to guess if each item will float or sink. Then place each item in the water to see what happens.
MEASURING: Cut a ribbon or strip of paper into different lengths (shorter and longer). Ask children to place the ribbons alongside different items (crayons, pencils) and say if each item is “long” or “short.” Then ask children to stretch out the ribbons on a table or floor and count how many items (pencils or blocks) fit alongside the long ribbon and short ribbon.
FREEZING: Help children pour water into a paper cup or ice cube tray, and put it in the freezer for a few hours. Then open the freezer to show children that the water has turned to ice. Ask children to use words to tell you what happened to the water.
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