Christmas or Christmas Day is a yearly holiday, celebrated on December 25, which commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Celebrate Christmas in your daycare center by reading age appropriate stories that focus on the symbols of Christmas and by implementing Christmas-themed activities.

Consider the following reading lists and resources for free Christmas worksheets, coloring pages, and handwriting practice sheets for your child care center:

Reading List

Christmas Board and Picture Books Baby-Age 3

Christmas in a Manger: A Pat and Peek Book by Nola Buck and Felicia Bond [HarperFestival, 1995]

The Christmas Baby by Marione Bauer  and Richard Cowdrey [Simon & Schuster Children’s, 2009]

I Spy Little Christmas by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick [Cartwheel, 1999]

Fisher Price: Baby’s First Christmas: Learning about Colors by Lauren Gaede and Lyn Fletcher [HarperFestival, 2008]

Merry Christmas, Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter [Warne, 2003] (more…)

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…)

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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Daycare centre providers should involve the parents and consider their points and suggestions. You as the caregiver can tell the parents your observation about the kid when he or she is at the center and how the child interacts with others. The parents can give you information that would lighten or make the caring of the child lighter. Make sure that you always have regular conversations with the parents of the children under your care. Take note of the reminders that these parents give you since they are important even to the slightest and most simple details.
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Children need to have their nap time for them to rest and develop. As a daycare owner, you can schedule a nap time for the children in your care. The nap time can start at 12 noon everyday. Since the children get exhausted from the activities that you do in the morning like playing and the like, they need enough rest to gain more energy.
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