Your green pages: 76 Specific skill-building activities you can use right now!

Teaching Pre K-8, May 2001

Ideas for Pre-K through Grade 8

PreK Through 1.6

VACATION TIME

1 SOCIAL STUDIES: Display several pictures or photos of people in vacation places ( beach, river, park, camp. etc.). Guide the children in identifying and describing the places and telling the kind of vacation fun that is had at each site. Then help them consider which vacation places they would like to visit. Probe for reasons why.

STAND UP!

2 MOTOR COORDINATION: The children sit on mats with their legs crossed. On signal, they uncross their legs and try to stand up straight by pushing on the floor with their feet. When a child succeeds, he or she calls out, "Stand up!" Assist children as needed. With the class, applaud individuals for succeeding as well as for trying.

CLOWN CLOTHING

3 PERCEPTION: Make and display a paper clown. Have available paper clown pants, shoes, shirts, hats, etc., of different colors. Say, "Clippie Clown wants to wear his new hat." A child chooses one of the paper hats. Ask, "What color hat did you choose for Clippie Clown?" The child names the color as you place the hat on the clown. Continue the activity in like manner with the other pieces of clothing.

TELEPHONE TALK

4 LANGUAGE ARTS: Have two small phones available. Demonstrate how to dial a phone. Assist a child in dialing a make-believe number and calling a friend. Help another child with the other phone in responding. Guide the two children in having a brief conversation about a surprise, or a birthday, or a visit to the zoo, etc. During the week, continue the activity with other partners.

IMPORTANT PARENT

5 SOCIAL STUDIES: On the classroom calendar, circle and identify Mother's Day, May 13. Help the children describe what special things that they might do on this occasion. Probe for reasons why. Help each child make a Mother's Day card. Place it inside an envelope. Address and seal the envelope, and put on a postage stamp. Take the children to mail their cards. Remind them to keep the activity a secret so that when the cards arrive in the mail, the mothers will be surprised.

ART BY NUMBERS

M WORDS

7 LANGUAGE ARTS: On displayed chart paper, write the word May. Read it to the children. Explain that is is the name of the month. Point to the name on the classroom calendar. On the chart paper, point to the first letter of May. With the children, identify that letter. Then, write the word me below May. Help the children read it. Demonstrate that both words begin with the same sound that is spelled with the big M or the little m. Help the children think of other words that begin with the sound.

FUNNY FOLKS

A NEW FRIEND

9 Read this bedtime tale The Tickly Monster (which comes with a hand puppet that giggles) by Andrea Doering (Barron's, 2000). Then, invite your child to help you read the story and turn the pages. With your child, describe the monster. Brainstorm why the story monster could be a friend.

TRACE AND NAME

10 MATH: On large cards, write large numbers from 1 to 10. Show the number 1, and trace it with your finger as you identify it. Each child traces and names the number. In like manner, continue with 2, 3, 4 and 5. On another day, do the activity for the other numbers. Then place all of the cards on a table, and the children do the activity independently.

THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH

11 SCIENCE: Guide the children in describing the eyes. Show pictures of the eyes. Describe the parts. Invite a doctor to visit and discuss protection of the eyes and how and why people want to protect their eyes. Invite parents to visit for the discussion. Encourage the children and parents to ask question.

OUR YARD

WHERE DOES IT GO?

13 THINKING: Have these and other items available: cap, wet face cloth, saucer, shoestring, sock, apple slices, etc. Show the cap. The children feel and identify it. Ask where would they put a cap. Volunteers respond. Probe for a variety of answers and encourage reasons for the responses. In like manner, continue the activity.

THE POST OFFICE

14 SOCIAL STUDIES: Plan a visit to a Post Office. Arrange for a postal employee to conduct the visit, explain and show the services, and answer the children's questions. Help them brainstorm what they might see and learn. Record their responses on displayed chart paper. With the class, write a letter to the principal and to the mayor about why they like school. At the Post Office, the children choose two classmates to assist in mailing the two letters.

FOR SPELLING

15 LANGUAGE ARTs: Help the children think of a color that begins with the letter r. A child writes the letter on displayed chart paper. With the class, slowly give the other letters, e and d. The child writes each letter to spell red. The class repeats the word and names the letters in sequence. Continue the activity for something that is worn on the head (hat), is read (book), waved at someone (hand), etc.

CIRCLE TO CIRCLE

LIGHT AS A FEATHER 17 MOTOR COORDINATION: Read this poem to the children:

A Feather

I watched a tiny feather, As it floated in the air. Wherever gentle breezes blew, They took the feather there. It did many somersaults, As it rocked from side to side. What fun to be a feather, And on gentle breezes ride.