Preschoolers and young children in child care centers can successfully learn to write the letter T as well as recognize objects beginning with the letter T through simple, fun activities. This activity ties in well with a Thanksgiving lesson plan.

Learning Objectives

• The students will identify the letter T
• The students make and recognize the T sound
• The students will learn to trace and write upper and lower case Ts
• The students will identify objects that begin with the letter T
• The students will learn that T is for Thanksgiving
• The students will participate in Thanksgiving dramatic play
• The students will participate in Hot Turkey

Handwriting and Phonetics

Create a letter T poster board which shows both the upper and lower case T. On this poster board, glue pictures of objects cut from magazines or draw objects that begin with the letter T. Display this poster board up for the duration of the Letter T unit. (more…)

Creating a thanksgiving turkey place card is a fun fine motor activity which allows preschoolers to practice bilateral and visual motor coordination and hand strength.

When developing curriculum, daycare providers must include age-appropriate activities for young children that develop fine motor skills. This Thanksgiving Turkey Place card craft is an activity that will support a Thanksgiving unit as well as promote visual motor coordination, bilateral coordination, and hand strength.

Fine motor skills are actions that involve the small movement of hands, wrists, feet, fingers, toes, tongue, and lips. In contrast with gross motor skills which involve larger muscles of the arms, legs and feet, fine motor skills focus on small muscle movements in coordination with the eye. Some important fine motor concepts and skills that preschool age children learn to master are bilateral coordination, visual motor coordination, grasp, hand use, manipulation skills, pincer grasp, wrist rotation, pre-writing grasp, hand strength, and tactile awareness.

Children learn fine motor skills through practice. Activities which involve writing, drawing, cutting, stringing, and buttoning are great examples of activities that promote the development of fine motor skills.

This Thanksgiving Turkey Place Card lesson plan includes the preparation instructions, procedure, and materials list for this activity. It also provides age-appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning. (more…)

Creative activities for the children in your child care center should foster creative development. Creative activities should promote expression, encourage spontaneity in material usage, and introduce children to textured materials.

A leaf mural is a creative activity that supports creative development and teaches children in child day care centers about seasons. Begin by introducing the children to the concepts of autumn/fall. Read age appropriate board books and picture books that feature the season fall. Take the children on a nature walk. Discuss the signs and symbols of autumn. Let the children collect fall items like leaves, acorns and pine cones. Discuss the colors, textures, smells.  Bring them back to the class and sort all of the items. You may save these items for other fall crafts. (more…)

While most art supplies for children are tested for safety, many products still include toxins like lead, silica, dioxins, and arsenic that are potential health hazards. Today many companies produce green (or environmentally friendly) art supplies for children.

For example, their crayons may be made from soy instead of petroleum and colored pencils may be made from made from recycled wood instead of destroying new living, growing trees. If you decide to make the investment in environmentally friendly or green art supplies for use in your childcare center, consider purchasing them from the following companies:

Stubby Pencil Studio:  Stubby Pencil Studio offers non-toxic, recycled, fair trade, educational, sustainable or environmentally responsible products. Here you can purchase aprons and tools, crayons, chalk, colored pencils, office supplies, molding clay, graphite pencils, paints and paint brushes, and sketch books. Stubby Pencil Studio also offers environmentally friendly craft kits. Order online or by phone. (more…)

Inspire children’s love of reading by providing a well rounded library of fascination, age appropriate books in your daycare center. Classic books make a great foundation for lifelong reading.  This article will focus on helping licensed daycare providers set up a daycare library for preschool aged children.

Children’s books are usually categorized by genre and reading level. First books are divided into three categories: Fiction, folklore or poetry, nonfiction. Nonfiction books are books of information.  Folklore and poetry include folktales, mythology, tall tales, nursery rhymes, verse and epic literature.

Fiction books for children are then divided further into categories by reading level: Board books, picture books, easy readers, transitional books, and chapter books.  Infants and toddlers and preschoolers in child care centers are interested in board books, picture books, and easy readers. (more…)

If your child care center cares for infants and toddlers, your number one priority must be to keep them safe by maintaining a secure and healthy environment.  High chairs and strollers can be extremely dangerous for young children if they are not built correctly. Infants and toddlers may be at risk of falling and choking hazards if these childcare products prove to be faulty. Take note of the following recent  high chairs and stroller recalls:

2009 High Chair Recalls:

April 2009: Evenflo Recalls Envision High Chairs Due to Fall and Choking Hazards manufactured by Evenflo Company Inc., of Miamisburg, Ohio, 643,000 units. “Recline fasteners and metal screws on both sides of the high chair can loosen and fall out, allowing the seatback to detach or recline unexpectedly. Children can fall backwards or fall out of the high chair and suffer bumps and bruises to the head, abrasions, cuts and bruises. Detached hardware also poses a choking hazard to children”. (more…)

Summer is officially over, but the fun doesn’t end when preschool begins. Your licensed daycare center can utilize this handy, creative and free lesson plan to teach preschool aged children about the season fall.

Autumn Art Activity: Handprint Wreath

For this activity you will need: 1 handprint pattern; 1 acorn pattern; brown, yellow, orange, red, and green craft foam, poster board, ribbon, and glue. Cut handprints and acorns from foam in assorted colors. Cut a wreath ring from the poster board. Glue the hands randomly around the ring. Glue acorns randomly amongst the foam hands. Then attach the ribbon for hanging. (more…)

Toddlers and children of preschool age love activities that include water, animals, and the opportunity to get messy. Fish sorting is a fun and activity that can be used in daycare centers and preschools to support cognitive development.

Cognitive development focuses on developing functions of the brain such as thinking, learning, awareness, judgment, and processing information.  Cognitive development centers around how children learn and process information. It is the development of brain in functions such as language, thinking, mental imagery, reasoning, problem solving, and memory development.

Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget contends that children go through several stages of cognitive development.  From birth through the age of 2, children are in the Sensory-Motor Stage. In this stage, children learn through sensation and movement. From ages of 2-7, children are in the Pre-Operational Stage. (more…)

Children are naturally curious about nature and their environment. Daycare centers should take advantage of this by planning environmentally friendly activities. You will find that young children in your child day care center love playing in the dirt, planting seeds, watching the seeds they have planted grow, and then harvesting and tasting or displaying what they have planted. Container gardening is a simple way to introduce children to nature and gardening.

Container gardens can be created in just about any container that can hold soil and as long as the container has holes for proper drainage (about one half inch). Great containers for kid’s gardens include: (more…)

Every 6th day of December, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas was once a priest who later on became a bishop. He had always loved children and the poor. Saint Nicholas Day is a great opportunity to teach the child about Santa Claus’ origin. Surely, with these preschool activities, children will enjoy the celebration of Saint Nicholas Day.
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