Reptile Preschool Theme

 

A preschool lesson plan on reptiles is a fun theme that has lots of choices for program planning. It can be incorporated into a pet theme, or be extended with a dinosaur theme.

Fun Facts about Reptiles

Introduce the reptile theme at circle time. Collect some pictures of reptiles to show the children as well as providing these facts:

• reptiles are cold blooded
• they have scales
• they are among the longest living species on this planet
• they lay eggs
• reptiles come in all sizes and are found around the world
• types of reptiles are: alligators, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles

Crafts for a Reptile Preschool Lesson Plan

A snake craft: this craft has two steps if paint is being used. The following material is required:

• paper plate
• brown paint, or brown felts
• scissors
• hole puncher
• string
• googly eyes
• black felt pen

Each child will paint or color his paper plate brown. If the paint is being used, then the plate has to dry before the next steps occur. If needed, the teacher can draw a spiral figure onto the plate for a visual cue. The plate will be cut in a spiral figure from outer to the middle, leaving a space for the head. The children can finish off their snake mobile with eyes and a smile and then string will be attached to the top.

Preschool Crafts for Kids

Lizard Craft: Cut out a lizard shape from thick white or light brown paper, and provide children with brown and green tissue squares to clue onto the lizard to create the scales. This craft can also occur with the children tearing brown and green construction paper which is good for fine motor skill development.

 

 

The Mixed Up Chameleon: Story for Reptile Theme and Many Activities to Extend...

 

Preschool Reptile Song

The following song can be sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Reptiles they have many scales

Some reptiles have long long tails.

They lay eggs and like the sun.

Some have legs, and some have none.

Reptiles they have many scales

Some reptiles have long, long tails.

Another well known song that could be included into a reptile preschool lesson plan is

 "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree" 

Preschool Activities for a Reptile Theme

The following list suggests that other activities that can be included into a reptile preschool lesson plan:


Try playing the game, Duck, Duck, Goose but change the words to Snake, Snake, Lizard.

Fill the sensory table with sand, wood and plastic snakes, lizards and turtles.

Visit a pet store or invite any families that have reptiles as pets into the classroom for a visit.

Go for a Reptile Hunt...hide plastic lizards and snakes in the outdoor playground.

Online Workshops in Early Childhood Education

Baby Preschool Lesson Plan

A preschool lesson plan all about babies is a fun topic for three and four year olds and allows them to feel proud of all the skills they have developed since they were babies themselves. The following outline provides some ideas to include in a Baby Preschool Lesson Plan. A baby theme can be extended or combined with other preschool themes, such as Multiculturalism or All About Me.

  

Circle TIme Activities:

1. Make a chart of what a baby does versus what a child does, with the preschool children providing the answers.

2. Play a memory game with baby items on a tray. Cover the tray with a baby blanket, while taking one item away. Items to consider: rattle, baby jar, baby spoon, bib, diaper, rubber duckie, baby doll.

3. Make an obstacle course for the children to crawl through like a baby.


4. Teach the children basic baby signs.

5.Ask each child to bring in a baby photo and have the group try and guess which classmate is pictured in the photo.

6.Have a show and tell day with a baby theme: baby sister or brother, baby keepsake album, etc.

Songs:

1. Miss Polly Had a Dolly
2. Rock a Bye Baby
3. Wheels on the Bus
4. Hush Little Baby

Books:

I'll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Are You My Mother? by Dr. Suess

The New Baby by Mercer Mayer
I'm a Big Brother (I'm a Big Sister) by Joanna Cole

Crafts:

1. Create baby feet by using the fist of a hand, and five toes created with fingerpaint
2. Collect baby photos from magazines and let the children make a baby collage
3. Make a book titled, "When I Was a Baby..." Have each child draw a picture and answer the question. Put the pages together to make a classroom book.
4. Make a baby blanket (quilt) with material or paper squares.

Other additions....

Place dolls and baby items into the water table and drama area.

Take a field trip to a local Baby Store

 Online Workshops in Early Childhood Education 

Train Preschool Theme

Trains have been a steadfast theme in preschool settings for years. Even though, many young children today will not even set foot onto a real train, there is something that remains magical and endearing for them about them. So many theme and amusement parks have the miniature train rides, and young children can be found sitting there excitedly anticipating the train engine to start up. In addition, Thomas the Tank Engine has cemented the love for trains with many toddlers and preschool children. The following article provides various ideas to include into a train theme within a preschool or daycare curriculum.

Train Crafts for Preschoolers

The shape of a train transfers well to open ended craft projects,  as the engine and cars require simple shapes to make them: rectangles, circles, squares and triangles. The train can be formed with paper shapes and glue, but another suggestion is to use stamps or sponges:

1) Sponge/Stamp Painting: A demonstration would work best with this painting project to illustrate to the preschool children how the shapes will create a train. The spools make wonderful wheels for a train car.

Suggested Material Required:

•Rectangle shaped sponge

•Spools, or circle shaped stamps

•Liquid Paint

•Shallow containers, such as styrofoam trays from the grocery store

•Paper

From Learning and Teaching Preschoolers

2) Train Craft Using Boxes and/or Egg Cartons

Depending on the size of boxes, this craft idea can be an individual activity or a group activity. The boxes, such as shoe boxes, can be decorated with crayons, felt pens or paint. Other collage items can be made available for children to add detail, like paper squares, paper towel tubes, egg cartons, glitter and so forth. This open ended art project provides young children an opportunity to be imaginative and creative in their art process.

From Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi

3) Match Shapes

Create a template of an engine with places for paper shapes to be glued

Train Songs for Preschoolers

Down by the Station is a classic preschool song about trains. Another one which can be altered to a specific location or name is Engine Number Nine and is great to sing while leading a children train, marching around the room:

Engine Engine Number Nine

Engine engine number nine

Chugging down Chicago Line

If the train goes off the track

Do you want your money back?

Maybe yes, and maybe no

Choo, choo, choo choo

Train Felt Board Activity

See the trains chugging chugging down the track

Engine in the front, caboose in the back

All the colors streaming past

This train’s going very fast!

Snack Idea!

Online Workshops in Early Childhood Education 

10 Preschool Activities for Matching Easter Eggs

  

The Felt Board: Matching Design and Colors.

As Easter is around the corner, creating activities for young children whether for home or an early childhood setting does not have to be complicated. These matching felt eggs can be used on a flannel board or any piece of felt for children to enjoy. Matching allows young children to recognize colors and design. An option for this activity is to make different sizes and then provide opportunities for children to label or find the egg according to the request, for instance, "find me the biggest blue egg or find me the smallest green egg".

Matching sizes

Make Easter eggs, with felt or paper, of different sizes and then provide opportunities for children to match the sizes. In addition, the educator can help label by asking each child a question, such as  "find me the biggest blue egg or find me the smallest green egg".

Matching Plastic Easter Eggs: Color Recognition



From Make andTakes Blog



From Teach Preschool



 Developing Math Skills

                                

Letter Recognition

Matching Sounds

Matching Game



From Parents.com



        Thank you to all the amazing bloggers and pinners who provided ideas!

Online Workshops in Early Childhood Education

Ladybug Preschool Theme

Spring and summer are a great time to include a preschool lesson plan on bugs. A fun insect to focus on is the ladybug with its bright red back and black spots. Whether for a day or longer, children enjoy themes when the entire curriculum revolves around one topic. More importantly, this focused attention on one topic within each area of a preschool curriculum provides learning opportunities for every child. The following article provides some ideas for preschool activities to include into a ladybug theme for any early childhood setting.


Fun Facts about Ladybugs

Circle time is a perfect place to provide some simple facts about the preschool program's theme with or without a book. Sometimes a teacher may ask the children what they know about the theme and record their answers down. The early childhood provider can then fill in the information that may have not been mentioned. This process of group learning honours the children for their input, ideas and knowledge. Some fun ladybug facts to share with the children are:

• ladybugs are beetles
• ladybugs can also be orange and yellow and some have no spots
• there are many different species
• they live all around the world
• the spots fade as they get older
• ladybugs can lay up to 1000 eggs in a lifetime
• the hard cover protects the delicate wings
• the bright color of the ladybug warns birds to not eat them
• ladybugs are popular with gardeners for they eats aphids, pests in the garden.

Ladybug Preschool Craft Ideas


By clicking on each suggestion, you will directed to the blog for more information



From No Time for Flash Cards



From Projects for Preschoolers




Special Note:

The great thing about a ladybug theme for an arts and crafts project, is that the children can be left to create through their own process. With the colors red, and black and dots, all versions of ladybugs will be formed. I love this one I found online...



From Our Crafts N Things


Math Activity for a Ladybug Theme


From the Measured Mom



The following song can be sung with ladybug and numbers correlating to the amount of dots on the ladybug:


To the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?"

This ladybug has three black spots, three black spots, three black spots.

This ladybug has three black spots, what a lovely sight!

Sensory Table Activity

There are many ways to include ladybugs into a preschool curriculum. For instance, turn a sensory table into an area for plastic ladybugs to roam. The children will enjoy dramatically playing with the ladybugs while having a sensory experience. The table can be filled with sand, plastic leaves, real wood and sticks and small rocks. Then, plastic ladybugs can be placed inside this setting. If plastic ladybugs are difficult to find at local stores, try using permanent felt pens or paint and decorating small rocks as ladybugs.

Some Final Ideas for a Ladybug Theme

• Play pin the dots on the ladybug and other ladybug games
• Hunt for real ladybugs
• Face paint ladybugs onto cheeks
• Read the Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
• Decorate cookies with red icing and chocolate chips
• Felt Story: Five Little Ladybugs

Further Reading Suggestions:

Spring Felt Board Activities

Early Childhood Online Workshops

Healthy Easter Basket Treats

Healthy Alternatives to Filling the Easter Basket

Filling plastic eggs with items, such us puzzle pieces, letters to create a message, or clues for a tresure hunt are all great ideas for turning the Easter Egg into a fun, and sugar-free, event. The following list provides some more ideas and many of these can be found by birthday locations in dollar stores:

• mini bubbles
• stickers
• mini play dough
• pencils, erasers, rulers, mini pads of paper
• small toys
• collectible cards, like baseball, Pokemon, etc.
• Club Penguins points and other popular online sites
• movie coupons
• dried fruit
• temporary tattoos
• yogurt covered raisins
• baby carrots
• cheddar bunnies
• hair bows
• popcorn
• money
• hot wheel cars
• small boxes of lego
• rice krispie treats
• character bandaids
• books

The following Bloggers have some other wonderful ideas!!



From Creative Green Living





From Desserted Planet

Preschool Classic Song: The Hokey Pokey

The Hokey Pokey is an action song for young children that has been popular since the 1950s with some questionable beginnings. The copyrighted song, since 1950, is held by Larry La Prese (1940-1996) . Today, the song is known around the world, and is a staple for preschool, daycare, school and home settings with young children. The following article provides some alternative ways to sing the Hokey Pokey to correlate with the theme of the classroom, or for instance a birthday party.

 

The Hokey Pokey Lyrics

First, the description and lyrics of the classic song should be provided before discussing alternative ways to sing it. The participating singers of the Hokey Pokey will stand in a circle and act out the words with their body parts:

You put your right hand in
You put your right hand out,
You put your right hand in, and you shake it all about,
You do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around
That what it's all about!

The song continues with different body parts that the teacher or leader can choose. In addition, the children can provide ideas. Some fun and different ones are your bottom, your teeth, your hair and of course, your whole self.

Hokey Pokey for Animal Themes

Depending on the theme, the Hokey Pokey can be sung with an animal in mind. For instance, at Easter, the children can pretend they are bunnies. Thus, the lyrics would follow with the different parts of the animal, such as:


You put your long ears in, you put your long ears out
You put your long ears in, and you hop all about
You do the Bunny Pokey and you hop yourself around
That's what it's all about!


This idea can be extended to include any animal. If a preschool has a lesson plan on bees, then the Hokey Pokey can have the following lyrics:


You put your antennae in, you put your antennae out
You put your antennae in, and you buzz all about
You do the honeybee pokey, and you buzz yourself around
That's what it's all about!

Hokey Pokey for Birthday Parties or Themes

Often birthday party themes follow television or movie characters. One alternative way to sing hokey pokey is to make character sticks, for instance print off pictures of Dora the Explorer to equal the amount of children participating at the birthday party or make dinosaurs. Tape or glue the picture onto a large popsicle stick then give one to each child. In a circle, sing the following lyrics and allow the children to have their dino move to the lyrics:


You put your dino up, you put your dino down
You put your dino up, and you shake it all around
You do the Dino Pokey, and you turn yourself around
Two stomps on the ground!

You put your dino to your head, you put your dino to your toe
You put your dino to your head, And you wobble to and fro
You do the Dino Pokey and you turn yourself around
Two stomps on the ground!



The characters can simply be used to sing and act the regular lyrics to Hokey Pokey as well.

 

The Hokey Pokey at Halloween

Another way to sing the Hokey Pokey is to sing about costumes that are being worn, such as a Halloween theme Party. Some ideas are:

• mask
• cape
• wand
• wig
• costume
• crown

 

The Hokey Pokey and Musical Instruments

With a group of young children, musical instruments can become a loud event. One idea to help monitor the playing is to sing this version of the hokey pokey and whoever has the matching instrument to the lyrics being sung by the teacher will stand up and play.


You play your bell up high
You play your bell down low
You play your bell up high
And now very slow
You do the Music Pokey
And you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about!

The Hokey Pokey for Learning Concepts

Finally, the hokey pokey can be sung to help toddlers and preschool children learn concepts, such as colors and shapes by placing stickers on children's shoes, hands, knees and so on.

 

Do You Have Any Other Ideas?

The Hokey Pokey is a children's action song that is enjoyed by all ages and can easily be altered to include a variety of themes. Feel free to add any other ideas for extending this classic song.

Ideas and Tips for Painting Activities with Young Children

Young children love paint and there are so many different ways they can explore the process of painting. The traditional way, of course, is to use a paintbrush, but it does not have to stop or begin there. Aside from using their own fingers and hands, this article is filled with various other ways for young children to experience painting and provides inexpensive alternatives to finding the material needed.

Painting Preparation

Before the painting begins, an area needs to be chosen where some mess can occur. If an easel is not being used, then a table should be covered with a tablecloth or newspapers. For toddlers, try using a highchair selected for art activities. Washable liquid tempera paint, found in most craft stores or big outlets, such as Staples, works best for painting with young children. Trays for holding the paint should be chosen and a cheap solution for this is to use clean Styrofoam grocery trays.


Prepare more than one piece of paper per child for quick replacing


Prepare more than one piece of paper per child for quick replacing and set up the clean up area before painting occurs. Children can wear smocks or a bigger sized old shirt worn backwards to keep paint off of their clothes. When all the set up is done, then painting catastrophes with the young children involved are less likely to occur.

Painting with Sponge Stamps

Sponges dipped into paint leave a fun bubbly texture on paper. Young children can use sponges in the store bought sizes, usually rectangle, or the sponges can be cut up into other shapes. It is a good idea to demonstrate to preschool and toddler ages how to stamp the paper with the sponge to produce the shape. One idea is to tell the children to kiss the paper or to jump like a frog. Many children will still want to create their own art pieces and experience the painting with their own process, which is just fine. This style of painting does not require a lot of paint in the tray. The sponge will absorb the paint quickly, but can be used many times over producing paint work on the paper.

Stamp Painting

Cookie Cutters, Kitchen Utensils, Wooden Blocks, Spools....


Other suggestions for stamp painting are cookie cutters, old kitchen utensils, such as potato masher or spatula, wooden blocks, and old thread spools. Next time you are walking through a dollar store, look at the items and imagine if it will make a fun shape or design with paint and whether it can be easily gripped by preschool or toddler hands. The key is to think outside the box and try out other items to create a fun process for young children experiencing paint.

Painting with Miniature Rollers

Miniature rollers can be found in paint stores or dollar shops and is a great way for young children to paint. This rolling style works well with stencils taped onto the paper. After the entire page has been covered in paint, and the paper is dry, the stencil can be lifted off to reveal the shape or design. Stencils can be made with thick paper or thin cardboard paper, such as a cereal box. Another suggestion for a stencil is to use a paper doily taped on paper which creates a snowflake style design.

Painting with Marbles

This painting activity requires a large tray that will hold paint while the marble rolls back and forth. The paper is taped to the bottom of the tray and a few tablespoons of paint placed in the middle. Then a large marble or even a golf ball, can be moved around the paper by the young children who are grasping both sides of the tray. Another version of this is to use a shoe box and have the young children shake the box back and forth which is a wonderful activity for outside.

Painting with Cars or Trucks

Boys will love this painting adventure. Find old toy cars and trucks with wheels that have tread marks on them. Place a large piece of paper on a flat surface with some paint deposits. Then the young children can drive their vehicles all throughout the paint leaving tire marks. This painting activity is very suitable for toddlers.

 

Painting with Balloons

Balloons that are not blown all the way have a nice handle on the end, are bright and appealing. Young children find delight in simply being allowed to place balloons in paint. This painting activity works well on a flat surface with the paint sitting in aluminum foil pie tins.

Potato and Apple Paint Art

Potatoes and apples can be used for painting as well. If the apple is cut sideways, it will display a star in the middle. Potatoes cut in half can then have a design carved into it with a paring knife. If choosing food to use for painting, it is important to explain to the young children that it is an exception to the rule that food is for eating.



The Focus Should be on the Fun Process and not the Product



There are so many ways for young children to create art work using paint and this article is a start. Many preschool and craft websites offer ideas. Regardless of what is chosen, the focus should be on the fun process and not the product. With that emphasize, the creativity in children can freely flow.