Here’s how I like to teach the four seasons to preschoolers. Using chart paper, draw a circle, divide it into fourths, and label it with the title and the seasons as you see in the picture above. Then, using the cards on this PDF download-
Ten Little Apples Song
Here’s a quick and easy little ditty about apples. It goes to the tune of Ten Little Indians.
Shape Scoop
Kids love to scoop! It’s great for their hand-eye coordination and both large and small motor skills. Cut shapes from craft foam (or find pre-cut ones, non adhesive of course) and set them floating in your sensory table or bathtub. Give the kiddos fish nets to scoop with (you can find them very inexpensively in almost any pet store or pet supply aisle of a grocery store or Wal-Mart). As a bonus, when the foam is wet, it will stick to smooth surfaces, so your children can create pictures as well! Talk to them about the shapes and colors they’re using to increase their awareness of shape and color names and characteristics. (“Wow! You made that house by putting the red triangle on top of the yellow square!) Happy scooping!
For more Welcome Weeks activities, click here!
Easy Fruit Dip for Those Who Like to Eat, Eat, Eat, Apples and Bananas
I love simple recipes that children can help with at snack time. Here’s another favorite to add to that stash: Fruit Dip!
Here are the players:
Story-Acting with the Sneetches
It’s no secret, I love Dr.Seuss. From a young age, I became enamoured with his silliness and his rollicking rhymes. As I studied education and child development, I fell in love again as I realized how beneficial his playful prose were for building young readers (learn more about phonological awareness here). I would say Dr. Seuss is the Shakespeare of childhood. Any well-read (or well-read-to) child should be familiar with him!
Clean It Up!
While we’re on the topic of clean up time, I thought I’d mention that I use Laurie Berkner’s song, “Clean It Up” as my clean up music. (You can find it at iTunes for just a dollar. Though if you can get out of iTunes having only spent one dollar, my hat’s off to you!) I give kiddos a five minute reminder before clean up time, then after five minutes I turn this sing on repeat until the task is done. The trumpets at the beginning are great for getting everyone’s attention, and the song is fun and child-friendly without being hokey. (That’s a trademark quality of Laurie Berkner’s music. It’s kid appropriate, active, fun, and full of awesome musical elements and different genres-not watered down monotony. I’m obviously a big fan.) Sometimes, as we’re getting close to finished, I challenge the children to see if we can be done before the song is over. They’re usually up for the race. Music is great for signalling routine transition times such as this. If the ‘Everybody Everywhere’ version of a clean up song is working for you, stick with it. If you’re ready for a change, and maybe a little more musical styling, check this one out!
Photo courtesy frecuencia.
Willoughby Wallaby Woo
I’m sure you can find other versions of this song, but does anyone really do it better than Raffi? Willoughby Wallaby Woo, is a great song for practicing new names in a class. As an added benefit, it is also great for getting kiddos to laugh! As you can hear in this YouTube clip, it’s a simple silly song, using consonant substitution (a great pre-reading skill) to fit each name into the song. This is particularly fun if you have an elephant puppet to set above each child as you sing that child’s name. (If the elephant reference doesn’t make sense, you need to listen to the clip!)
You can download the song from Raffi’s Singable Songs for the Very Young album, available at iTunes. You might as well pick up a few more Raffi classics while you’re there. The man is a genius!
Pouring Preschoolers
Here’s a little secret: Preschoolers can pour their own drinks. It’s true! The children gain so much independence and self-confidence by learning this self-help skill. Autonomy is something children crave at this age, and this is certainly an activity they can do on their own when appropriate parameters are set.
First of all, I use a small pitcher that they can easily lift and control. I use these little, plastic, liquid measuring cups that I picked up at the Wally Mart, and have my little ones pour their own water at snack time. I love that these are see-through so the children can watch as they and others pour (and the fact that they are extremely cheap and readily available is nice too).
Make Your Own Rhythm Sticks
Rhythm sticks are a must-have for a preschool program! As long as you have enough dexterity to get your two hands to come together in the same general area (a fantastic feat for very young ones) you can play this instrument! Use them as part of a percussion band, or for specific rhythm stick activities. They magically turn any chant or song into a fun phonological awareness building activity! You can have children tap and count, or tap parts of the body. Switch up old favorites, like, “If You’re Happy and You Know It” by adding the sticks (“If you’re happy….tap your toes”). Use them with tempo songs like Hap Palmer’s Slow and Fast, or practice beating rhythm patterns (floor, floor, together…) to incorporate both music and math concepts. Or simply explore the sounds you can make by tapping the floor, your shoes, a bell, or your other stick. Try to sound like the rain, builders, or anything else they bring to mind! They really are so simple, but their uses are essentially limitless. Every time I bring them out for music time, I have a room full of excited children with eyes beaming! In addition to their great musical and creative qualities, rhythm sticks are great for redirecting those children that just need to hit things together, or simply work out some energy.
You can buy rhythm sticks for a lot or a little, but if you’re pinching every penny (and who isn’t these days), or if you are susceptible to sudden flashes of inspiration, requiring that you must have these fantastic instruments for tomorrow’s activity and can’t possibly wait for shipping, you can make them yourself, quickly and inexpensively.
We are the Dinosaurs
I love Laurie Berkner’smusic! She is one of those artists who really knows music and really knows kids. Her music is fun and I don’t find it patronizing or grating like I do with some other children’s music. If you haven’t found her treasure trove of music yet, you should stop everything and go to iTunes now. Or at least after you finish reading this post!
One of my many favorite Laurie Berkner songs is, “We are the Dinosaurs”. It’s a great song and perfect for the kiddos to dance to. They really just naturally dance to act out the story in the song. It starts at a heavy dinosaur march, and then switches to a lighter, quicker tune as you stop to eat and then again to rest. In addition to being a fun song to sing and to dance to, it is great for exposing the children to a musical change in mood, as the music alternates between staccato and legato. This is a great activity for fostering creativity as well as developing music and movement skills. So now you can dance on over to iTunes and download this song. I guarantee your children will get more than one dollar’s worth of use out of it!
