Ideas for pre-K through grade 4.9

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 1994 by Brown, Virginia S, Robinson, Marion, Strietelmeier, Cynthia, Chadd, Laura, et al

PRE-K THROUGH GRADE 1.6

JANUARY IS

1 SOCIAL STUDIES Introduce the name of the month. Have the children repeat it. Say, "January is play in the snow month, stay inside and keep warm month, and wear mittens month." Guide the children as they give other examples. Make a January calendar on the bottom half of a piece of chart paper. Each day, on the top half, post a drawing or magazine picture of an activity, scene, or idea associated with the month. Help the children say, "January is --" and tell the kind of month suggested by the visual.

SKY LIGHT

2 SCIENCE Display pictures of the moon. Help the group discuss the pictures. Elicit what they know or think about the moon. Discuss a few facts about it and follow up with questions. Read "Come, Bright Moon," Poetry 5. Ask if they have ever ridden in a car at night and noticed that the moon seemed to follow them. Explain why it seemed to do this.

AN OPPOSITE ACT

3 PERCEPTION Say this rhyme to the children: Big, little/Large, small/Huge, tiny/Short, tall. Invite the children to help you repeat the rhyme. Ask four pairs of children to stand. Assign a pair of words to each pair of children and have them act out their words. Each child acts out one of the words in the pair that has been assigned to them. With the rest of the class, chant the words slowly as the pairs perform. Help the children think of different ways to interpret the actions. Have them discuss the new interpretations.

SHOW OF KINDNESS

4 READING Prior to reading the story, Three Bags Full by Ragnhild Seamell (Orchard, 1993), help the child find apparel that he or she wears when it is cold. Guide the child in identifying and describing each item. Next, read this story about three animals who are the recipients of a little girl's kindness. After reading, ask why Millie gave her coat to the animals. Invite the child to tell which of his or her items he or she might have given to the animals. Discuss with the child his or her reasons for giving a particular item.

HEALTH HELPER

5 SOCIAL STUDIES Celebrate National School Nurse Day, January 26. Guide the class in describing the services of the school nurse. If any individuals have been to the nurse, guide them in telling how the nurse helped them. Invite the nurse to visit the class to explain his or her job and why he or she enjoys it. Help the children express their thanks to the visitor.

SNOW CHILD

6 ART In Step B, put dabs of glue on the paper. Adhere the cotton. In Step C, adhere the cloth details in the same way.

PUZZLE PROBLEMS

7 MATH A child assembles a puzzle, identifies the number of items, removes a piece of the puzzle, tells the number of items taken away, and tell how many are left on the other puzzle piece.

PART FIND

8 PERCEPTION On each paper panel, a child places cards containing letters that have any part that matches the part in the center of the panel.

READING START

9 LANGUAGE ARTS Spread a variety of mounted pictures on a table. Invite each child to choose a picture to talk about. Assist the child in phrasing the response in a sentence. Help him or her write it. Help the child "read" it to the class. Display the picture and sentence. Throughout the month, individuals "read" their sentences aloud. Invite volunteers to "read" other children's sentences. Note: Save the pictures and sentences for use in Activity 13.

SHAPE A SNOWBALL

10 MOTOR COORDINATION Ask the children to describe how they might make a snowball. Assemble the children in small groups. Each group crumples and shapes newspaper pages into a big snowball. Model how to keep adding pages to the shape to make it bigger. Have transparent tape available to secure any loose paper edges to the shape. The snowballs may be painted and displayed in corners of the room.

THERE'S MORE

11 MATH In a small, transparent, self-sealing lunch bag, place 10 pegs. In another bag, put three pegs. Seal the bags. Continue making pairs of bags containing other items. Make sure that one bag in each pair has more items than the other bag. Show a pair of bags to the group. Have them examine the bags and name the items. Ask which bag has more items than the other. Guide the group in explaining how they know which bag has more.

ASK AND ANSWER

12 LANGUAGE ARTS Ask the child, "What is your name?" After his or her response, guide the child in saying the answer in a sentence, e.g., "My name is Ted." Repeat the question and have the child answer again using a sentence. Invite the child to ask you a different question. Respond with a sentence. Each day, you and the child take turns asking each other questions about any activity or subject. Remind the child to respond with a sentence. Compliment him or her on the questions and answers.

LISTENING CLUES

13 LANGUAGE ARTS Display the children's selected pictures and sentences from Activity 9. Read a child's sentence strip aloud. Invite the children to find the picture that the sentence tells about. After the correct picture is identified, display the sentence strip with it. Guide the class in "reading" the sentence. Continue the activity.