Interest Area Changes to Environment
Artificial Flowers Apron Garden Gloves Empty Seed Packet Rain Jacket Rain Boots Child Size Umbrella Tornado Bottle Weather File Folder Game Colored Blocks Cupcake Liners Cotton Balls Tissue Paper Birds Nest Top Soil Magnify Glass Easter Grass ** In home living bring out “Spring Cleaning” add child size vacuum, mop, broom, dustpan, dish towels, and add water to the sink to clean the dishes.
Teaching Concepts for Large Group
1. What are signs of Spring Weather outside? 2. How do we dress in the Spring? 3. Find the Spring Colors - Materials Needed: Different colors of construction paper or colored plastic eggs. Give one to each child. One at a time, have the child walk over to something in your classroom that matches the color and they yell “I found ____(blue)!” 4. What is thunder? 5. What is lightening? 6. What is wind? 7. What is a tornado? What to do in a tornado? Practice tornado drill to help implement the importance of the practice. 8. What makes a rainbow? What colors are in the rainbow? 9. What is The Water Cycle? Here is an age appropriate link for more information: http://www.kidzone.ws/water/index.html
Teaching Concepts for Small Group
1. Umbrella Number Matching - In advance, make umbrella tops and handles have children match the handle to the umbrella with the corresponding number of sections. VARIATION: Program the umbrellas with letters either matching capital letters or matching the capital letter to the lower case letter. 2. Make wind socks. 3. Bottled Tornado – link here: http://www.kidzone.ws/science/tornado/index.htm 4. Chart Weather each day and make weather book. 5. Will the wind blow it activity.
Teaching Concepts for Music Movement Wellness IMIL
1. Rhythm Stick Flower Power
Give each child 2 rhythm sticks
After reviewing how seeds grow, act it out with the sticks.
The seeds are quietly in the ground.
They are starting to grow.
The rain is pouring!
The sun is out, quietly!
Now the seeds are growing and growing, etc.
Add items as you see fit. Try counting flowers. “8 flowers grew!” Then they tap out by hitting the sticks together 8 times.
Teaching Concepts for Fingerplays
1. Five Little Clouds Five little clouds floating in the sky. One saw a bird and wanted to fly. Four little clouds floating in the sky. One saw a friend and went to say “Hi.”. Three little clouds…….One was sad and started to cry. Two little clouds…….One saw the bright sun and say, “Oh My!” One Little cloud alone in the sky. Went to find the others and said, “Bye bye!”. EXTENSION: Give each child a piece of white paper to act this out with you!
Teaching Concepts for Outdoor Experiences
1. Be a Cloud - Materials needed: Provide white fabric, blankets,etc. and let the children use them as capes as they pretend to be clouds! You can do this inside or out! EXTENSION: Lay on the blankets outside and check out the clouds after reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk 2. Parachute Spring Activities - Talk to the children about spring things while using the parachute and move the chute to go with the discussion: There was a LOT of snow, it was this high! Then it began to melt, and melt and melt (chute slowly lowers). It rains in the spring, sometimes lightly (up and down slowly with the chute)…and sometimes HARD (shake chute a lot!) Continue on about seeds that grow, flowers that get bigger and bigger, etc.! 3. Mud Puddle Jumping – have fake mud puddles with brown construction paper and jump the puddles. 4. Nature Walk
CLASS Concepts
Use a graph to track the weather. The children count the sunny, cloudy and rainy days. Ask questions that promote higher-order thinking skills: “What have we had more of?” This gives the children the opportunity to compare the rows on the graph. Reinforce the process of comparison by explaining that the children know that there have been more sunny days because “it is the biggest row.” Connect their discussion about today’s weather with the weather earlier in the week. By using the weather graph as a platform for making comparisons, the teacher is using concepts and ideas that are a part of the children’s everyday experiences. This is an activity that can be done every day during morning circle time as a way to get away from a more rote style of teaching.
Teaching Concepts for Distance Learning
1. Spring Scavenger Hunt
Find a yellow flower. Find 3 different shaped leaves. Find something that is red. Find a spider web. Find something that flies. Name 2 things you see in the sky. Find something that is long. Find something that grows that is green. Find 2 birds. Find some water. Find something purple. Find something that crawls.
2. I Spy
Pick an item that can be easily be seen by all the children and share a clue.
3. Pretend to be a seed that is planted in the ground and then grows into a big, strong tree.
4. Spring is Here Walk
Take a "Spring is here" walk. Swing your arms as you walk quickly. Notice all the signs of spring!
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