Preschool teachers and daycare providers can help children learn to recognize and write the letter V through fun activities that support clear learning objectives.

Learning Objectives

• The students will identify the letter V.
• The students make and recognize the V sound.
• The students will learn to trace and write upper and lower case V’s.
• The students will identify objects that begin with the letter V.
• The students will make a Valentine’s Day wreath.
• The students will make a letter V vase.
• The students will learn about volcanoes and create an erupting volcano.
• The students will listen to books that feature the letter V.

Handwriting and Alphabet Recognition

Introduce the children to the letter V along with simple objects that begin with the letter V. Create a colorful letter V poster board or bulletin board that presents both the upper and lower case V. Include pictures of objects cut from magazines that begin with the letter V. For example: valentine, violin, vulture, volcano, vegetables, van, vase, vine, vacuum, vest, volleyball, and vampire.

Write both the upper and lowercase V on a whiteboard or chalkboard. Demonstrate the V sound and ask the children to make (repeat) the V sound. Next ask the children to think of words (names, objects, or places) that might begin with the letter V.

Allow the children to practice tracing the letter V in both upper and lower case using a letter V worksheet. A good example of such a worksheet is available on the Kid’s Learning Station website. Children can also practice writing and tracing the letter V on blank sheets of paper using pencils, colored pencils, or crayon. (more…)

When developing curriculum, daycare providers must include age-appropriate activities for young children that develop fine motor skills. This Valentine’s Day Caterpillar 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 Valentine’s Day craft 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.

Valentine’s Day caterpillar Materials (more…)

Early learning goals for preschool age children involve creative development.

Creativity, according to Joan Bouza Koster’s Growing Artists: Teaching Art to Young Children [Cengage Delmar Learning, 2004], is ”being able to see a problem, form ideas about it, and then communicate the results.  When children manipulate and experiment with art materials, they are creating something new and unique and in doing so, are being creative”. Art, therefore, nurtures creativity.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to promote creative development by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

Winter Wonderland is an excellent example of an activity that provides the opportunity to for expression, to encourage spontaneity in material usage, and to introduce children to textured materials.

This lesson plan includes a materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity to make childcare jobs easier, but also the age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.
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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…)

Early learning goals for preschool age children involve creative development objectives. According to Mary Mayesky*, “People who work with young children need to understand creativity and have the skills to help and encourage children to express their creative natures. They should realize the importance of creativity for both children and teachers. They should be able to identify creativity in children and be able to help them develop a willingness to express this creativity”.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to promote creative development by providing art activities that explore an array of media and materials. Creative art activities should also encourage imagination.

This Halloween Cookie Cutter Art lesson plan includes the materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity. Also included are age appropriate learning objectives and an example of the simple supporting verbal cues required to encourage participation and support learning in a child day care center. (more…)

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November to commemorate a feast in 1621 that the Pilgrims shared with Native Americans. Thanksgiving is also celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October in order to give thanks for a bountiful harvest.

Celebrate Thanksgiving in your daycare center by reading age appropriate stories that focus on the symbols of Thanksgiving and by implementing Thanksgiving themed activities.

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

Reading List

Thanksgiving Board and Picture Books Baby-Age 3

Happy Thanksgiving, Emily by Claire Mauserel and Susan Calitri [Puffin, 2004]

Turkeys Never Gobble by Joan Holub and Jennifer Beck Harris [HarperFestival, 2002]

Happy Thanksgiving (Wee Board Book) by Wendy Cheyette Lewison [Grosset & Dunlap, 1993]

My First Thanksgiving Tomie dePaola [Grosset & Dunlap, 2008] (more…)

Fall is in full swing! The leaves are changing colors and falling and the air is nice and brisk.  As many child daycare centers begin to implement fall themed activities, consider this pumpkin sorting activity. Pumpkin sorting is a fun autumn-themed activity that supports cognitive development.

Cognitive Development in Preschoolers

Cognitive development focuses on developing functions of the brain such as thinking, learning, awareness, judgment, and processing information. According to developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, children go through several stages of cognitive development and learning activities for toddlers and children should correspond to the appropriate developmental stage.

Pumpkin sorting is a cognitive activity for preschoolers that helps them learn and practice the skills of classification, relationships, and counting. This lesson plan includes preparation instructions, procedures, and materials list for this activity. The lesson plan also includes age-appropriate learning objectives and examples of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning in child care centers.

Activity Materials (more…)

When teaching  young, preschool aged children about Halloween, keep lesson plans simple.  It is not necessary to discuss the historical background of Halloween at this time. Instead, young children in daycare centers can celebrate Halloween by having costume parties and playing special games like bobbing for apples.  Halloween can be fun and educational when you incorporate the following activities:
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As your daycare center grows, coming up with fresh and exciting lesson plans and activities to keep children interested and motivated to learn can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many websites that offer free lesson plans, activity ideas, craft project ideas, printable worksheets, Ebooks, materials lists, and resources for early childhood education. Below is website listing for free preschool lesson plans and activities:

First School Preschool Lesson Plans: First-School provides free, fun preschool lesson plans, and activities for early childhood education. Here you will find printable crafts, a wealth of worksheets, and a host of other free preschool-related resources for preschool age children. There are also preschool materials lists and lesson plans categorized by theme.  All activities can be modified to so that they are developmentally appropriate for the age group. [First-school.ws] (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…)