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Children can learn to rhyme before entering kindergarten. As you teach children in your daycare center to learn to rhyme you also help them build their vocabulary and improve their phonics skills. Children will be more inclined to learn how to rhyme when they are engaged in stimulating and memorable activities. Play rhyming games with preschool children to help them learn groups of words that sound similar. When starting a daycare, add these games to your curriculum activities.

Thumbs Up

Play a game of “thumbs up” with preschoolers.  Say a list of three words. Tell the children that if the three words rhyme, they may approve by giving the “thumbs up” sign with their hands. If the three words do not rhyme, the children may disapprove by making the “thumbs down” sign. For example, say three words such as “jump,” “pump” and ear”. When the children realize the three words do not rhyme, they should give the list a “thumbs down.”

Rhyming Basket

Place familiar objects in a basket. Ask the preschoolers to form a circle. Pass the basket to the first child. When the child receive the basket, say a word that rhymes with one of the objects in the basket and then encourage the child to select an item from the basket that rhymes with the chosen word. For example, if you say the word “star”, the child should remove a toy car from the basket. The child then passes the basket to the next child and the process continues until all of the children have taken a turn.

Body Name Game

Play a game that helps children learn to rhyme words using body parts and visual cues. Point to a part of your body and then say a word that rhymes with that body part. Encourage the child to say the name of the rhyming body part. For example, if you point to your ear and say “deer,” the child should say “ear.”  If you point to your toe and say “hoe,” the child should say “toe.”

Rhyme Matching Game

Play a picture matching game with pre-kindergarten children. Create a rhyming mat by drawing a table of eight boxes on a piece of art paper. Cut out pictures of eight recognizable objects. Paste one picture inside each of the eight squares. Create rhyming cards by cutting out eight pictures of objects that rhyme with each of the original objects. Paste the pictures on small pieces construction paper. For example, cut out a picture of a hat and create rhyming card with a picture of a bat. Provide the preschooler with a rhyming mat and rhyming cards. Encourage the children to draw cards one by one and to match the cards to the rhyming objects on the rhyming mat.

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

Implementing activities that support clear learning objectives, preschool teachers can create brilliant lesson plans that help young children learn the letter J.

Learning Objectives

• The students will identify the letter J.
• The students make and recognize the J sound.
• The students will learn to trace and write upper and lower case Js.
• The students will identify objects that begin with the letter J.
• The students will match items that begin with the letter J
• The students will learn the Jack-In-The Box rhyme.
• The students will listen to books that feature the letter J.

Handwriting and Phonetics

Introduce the children to the letter J along with simple objects that begin with the letter J. Create a colorful letter J poster board that presents both the upper and lower case J. Include pictures of objects cut from magazines that begin with the letter J. For example: Jam, juice, jar, jet, jack, jelly, jeep, janitor, jeans, jello, jungle, jellyfish, jewelry, jack-o-lantern, jaguar, and jug.

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

Allow the children to practice tracing the letter J in both upper and lower case using a letter J worksheet. A good example of such a worksheet is available on the Boggles World website. Children can also practice writing and tracing the letter J on blank sheets of paper using pencils, colored pencils, or crayon.

Letter J Cognitive Activity

Jet Match: On heavy construction paper in a wide variety of colors, trace then cut out pairs of jets in various sizes. Lay the jets out on a table and let the children take turns matching pairs of mittens.

Music and Movement Activity

Jack-In-The Box rhyme by Jean Warren

JACK-IN-THE-BOX
“Jack-in-the-box, jumped out of his box,
To see what he could see.
He saw some juicy jelly beans
And jam for biscuits and tea.

He saw some super sonic jets.
He saw some jazzy jeeps.
He saw a jolly jester
With jingles on his feet.

He saw a jet black jaguar
At the Jackson Zoo.
He saw jellyfish
And jumping kangaroos”.

Preschool Books about the Letter J
Jellyfish by Lloyd G. Douglas [Child’s Press, 2005]
The Bug in the Jug Wants a Hug by Brian P. Cleary and Jason Miskimins [Milbrook Press, 2008]
Jeffrey the Jeep by Bill N. Dingus and Carol Bates Murray[Overmountain Press, 1997]
Arthur’s Jellybeans by Marc Brown [LB Kids, 2004]
I Like Juice by Jennifer Julius [Children’s Press, 2000]

Alphabet recognition activities will greatly enhance preschoolers’ language learning. The key is to have fun with lesson planning and make each moment of learning fun and creative.

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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.

Letter V Crafts

Valentine’s Day Wreath

Materials: Red and pink construction paper, sturdy paper plates, glue, scissors.

Cut heart shapes from red and pink construction paper. Cut a large whole out of a paper plate to create a ring. Next, glue red and pink hearts to the paper plate to create a Valentine’s Day wreath.

Letter V Vase

Materials: construction paper in the color of your choice, crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors, and glue. Cut a large letter V, flowers shapes (flowers with stems) from construction paper. Then, glue the letter V on a large piece of construction paper. This is the flower vase. Next, glue flowers to appear as if they are coming out of the vase. Decorate the vase with crayons, colored pencils, or markers.

Letter V Science Activity

Erupting Volcano Activity
Materials: Paper plates, clear plastic cups, baking soda, vinegar, red food coloring.

Before implementing this science activity, explain the basics of volcanoes and volcano activity. Create lava by mixing vinegar with red food coloring. Give each child a paper plate and place a cup on each paper plate. Place one teaspoon of baking soda in each child’s cup. Next go around and pour the vinegar into each cup. The mixture will fizz in the cup and overflow onto the paper plate, creating a “volcano eruption”.

Letter V Story Time

• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Mass and Marjorie Priceman [Aladdin, 2000]
• The Magic Violin by Mayra Calvani and K.C. Snider [Guardian Angel, 2007]
• What is a Volcano by Chris Avertis [Checkerboard PR, 1983]
• The Best Book of Volcanoes by Simon Adams [Kingfisher, 2007]
• The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll and Jeni Bassett [Cartwheel, 2006]
• Where is Baby’s Valentine by Karen Katz [Little Simon, 2006]

Including these simple activities into the curriculum of child care centers will greatly enhance preschoolers’ language learning. Lesson plans should contain clear learning objectives but also remember to seize spontaneous moments of opportunity to teach.

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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

For each child you will need:

• Pink Construction paper
• Red construction paper
• Glue
• Googley eyes
• Pipe cleaners

Valentine’s Day Caterpillar Activity Procedures

Cover a table with butcher paper. Place all materials on the table. Invite the children over to craft area. Explain to them that you are going to create a Valentine’s Day caterpillar. Let the children cut the construction paper into heart shapes. Show children how line the hearts up on the paper to create the body of the caterpillar. Let them glue eyes and antennas to the caterpillar.

Fine Motor Learning Objectives

Objective 1: To provide the opportunity for increased visual-motor coordination by using scissors to cut curvy lines.

• Verbal Cue A: Can you cut the heart from the paper?
• Verbal Cue B: I like how you are cutting curved lines.

Objective 2: To provide the opportunity for increased visual-motor coordination, bilateral coordination, hand strength, and pincher grasp through bending and positioning the caterpillar’s antennas.

• Verbal Cue A: Can you bend the pipe cleaner to make antennas?
• Verbal Cue B: Where would you like to place the antenna on the caterpillar?

Objective 3: To provide the opportunity to Increase bilateral coordination, hand strength and visual-motor coordination by squeezing glue containers

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s glue the hearts onto the paper to make the body of the caterpillar.
• Verbal Cue B: Can you squeeze a little glue the back of the antennas?

Children in your child day care center will create a cute Valentine’s Day caterpillar while enhancing their fine motor skills. This activity was adapted from The Everything Preschool website.

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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.

Winter Wonderland Materials List

• Old Christmas cards with outdoor scenes
• White glue
• Water
• Paint brushes
• Iridescent white glitter

Winter Wonderland Activity Preparation

• Cover a table with butcher paper
• Gather materials
• Create a glue and water mixture. Place in a shallow pan.
• Place all materials on the table

Activity Procedures

1. Invite the children over and tell them that you are going to be making a winter scene on construction paper.
2. Let the children select one or more winter scene or scenes from old Christmas cards
3. Let the children brush on the water and glue mixture with a paint brush
4. Allow the children to sprinkle glitter on the winter scene and shake off the excess glitter
5. Allow to dry

Winter Wonderland Lesson Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities by allowing children to create unique winter wonderland scenes.

• Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to do create a winter wonderland!
• Verbal Cue B: I have lots of Christmas cards for you to use to make your winter scene.

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to select from a variety of scenes.

• Verbal Cue A: Which winter scene would you like to use first?
• Verbal Cue B: I like the scenes you have selected for your winter wonderland

Objective 3

To introduce textured materials by adding glitter or sand to the winter scene

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s sprinkle glitter on your winter scene.
• Verbal Cue B: Let’s see what it looks/feels like after we add glitter to the paint.

Winter Wonderland is a fun, creative activity that children ages 2 and older will certainly enjoy. This Winter Wonderland activity adapted from an activity submitted by Sharon C. on the PreschoolRainbow website.

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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.

Thanksgiving Turkey Place Card Activity

Per Child you will need:

• Styrofoam ball
• Brown tempera paint
• Feathers with stiff quills in various colors.
• Wooden “spoon” (the type sold with ice cream)
• Two plastic eyes
• Red Cardstock
• Office brad
• Paint brush
• Scissors for children
• Glue

Thanksgiving Turkey Place Card Craft Procedures

Cover a table with butcher paper. Place all materials on the table. Invite the children over to craft area. Explain to them that you are going to create a Thanksgiving turkey place card. Talk about all of the delicious things that are traditionally eaten during Thanksgiving. Help the children perform the following steps:

1. Paint turkey with brown tempera paint.  Allow to dry completely.

2. Glue eyes to top of spoon.

3. Cut out the turkey’s wattle from red cardstock (a heart shape is an easy way to create a waddle) and glue below eyes.

4. Poke spoon (which is the head)  into ball about one-third of the way

5. Poke feathers into styrofoam to create the turkey’s feathers.

6. Using the office brad, attach the Styrofoam ball to a piece of cardstock.

7.  Write a guest’s name on the cardstock.

Fine Motor Learning Objectives

Objective 1: To provide the opportunity to Increase bilateral coordination, hand strength, and visual-motor coordination by squeezing glue containers

Verbal Cue A: Let’s glue eyes onto the spoon.

Verbal Cue B: Can you squeeze a little glue on the back each eye?

Objective 2: To provide the opportunity for increased visual-motor coordination by using scissors to cut wavy lines

Verbal Cue A: Can you cut the waddle for the turkey?

Verbal Cue B: I like how you are cutting the heart shape out of the red paper.

Objective 3: To provide the opportunity for increased wrist rotation and prewriting grasp by using a paint brush to paint.

Verbal Cue A: Can you brush the brown paint on the Styrofoam ball?

Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are painting the ball.

Children in your daycare center will have a fun time creating a cute and colorful turkey place card holder while enhancing their fine motor skills. This activity was adapted from The Freepreschoolcrafts.com website.

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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.

Halloween Cookie Cutter Art Materials List

• Cookie cutters in a variety of Halloween shapes
• Construction paper (one for each child)
• Tempura Paint (in a variety of colors)
• Shallow containers (i.e. pie tins)
• Glitter
• Butcher Paper

Activity Preparation

• Cover a craft table with butcher paper
• Gather all the materials
• Pour tempura paint into pie tins
• Place all materials on the table

Procedure for Activity

1. Invite the children over and tell them that you will be making Halloween pictures on construction paper using cookie cutters dipped in paint.
2. Show the children how to dip cookie cutters into the paint.
3. Press the cookie cutter on the construction paper to create a design.
4. Encourage children to make their own designs on their construction paper.
5. Add glitter to the paints.
6. Continue stamping until the design is complete.

Halloween Cookie Cutter Design Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities through cookie cutter art by having the children create designs using cookie cutters.

• Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to create Halloween designs using cookie cutters!
• Verbal Cue B: I have lots of colors for you to use to make a design.

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose their desired colors and to mix the colors they choose

• Verbal Cue A: Which color would you like choose first?
• Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are mixing your colors!

Objective 3

To introduce textured materials by adding glitter to the paint in which the children will dip their cookie cutters.

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s add glitter to the paint.
• Verbal Cue B: Let’s see what it feels like after we add glitter to the paint and the paint dries.

Halloween Cookie Cutter activity adapted from “Cookie Cutter Prints” on the Preschooleducation.com website.
*Reference: Creative Activities for Young Children by Mary Mayesky [Delmar Cenage Learning, 2001]

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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]

Turkey Time! by Kelly Asbury [Price Stern Sloan, 2000]

Corduroy’s Thanksgiving by Lisa McCue [Viking Juvenile, 2006]

Spot’s Thanksgiving by Eric Hill [Putnam Juvenile, 2003]

Hello Kitty: A Day of Thanks by Higashi Glaser [Abraham Brooks for Very Young Readers, 2005]

This is the Turkey by Abby Levine and Paige Billin-Frye [Albert Whitman & Company, 2000]

Thanksgiving Parade by Jodi Heulin and Kelly Asbury [Price Stern Sloan, 2000]

Five Silly Turkeys by Salina Yoon [Price Stern Sloan, 2005]

Thanksgiving Early Readers Ages 4-8

Turkey Trouble by Wendy Silvano and Lee Harper [Marshall Cavendish, 2009]

1, 2, 3 Thanksgiving by W. Nikola-Lisa and Robin Kramer [Albert Whitman, 1991]

Albert’s Thanksgiving by Leslie Tryon [Aladdin, 1998]

Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Ellen Sasaski [Albert Whitman, 2008]

One is a Feast for a Mouse: a Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox and Jeffery Ebbeler [Holiday, 2008]

Run, Turkey, Run! By Diane Mayr and Laura Raider [Walker, 2007]

Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim [Clarion, 2003]

The Night before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing and Tammie Lyon [Grosset & Dunlap, 2001]

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland and Sonja Lamut [Grosset & Dunlap, 2000]

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston and Richard F. Deas [Cartwheel, 2004]

Thanksgiving Parade Surprise by Cecile Schoberle and Kristina Stephenson [Little Simon, 2000]

Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern and Elroy Freem [Scholastic Paperbacks, 2003]

The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli and JoAnn Adinolfi [Square Fish, 2007]

The Story of the Pilgrims by H.L. Ross [Random House for Young Readers, 1995]

Free Thanksgiving Preschool Worksheets and Printables

There are many worksheets for fall that you can print out and use for your lesson plans and activities. Worksheets should include coloring pages like those on ABCTeach’s website, handwriting worksheets, and printable craft patterns.

The following websites provide free Thanksgiving printables:

ABCTEach: Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

First-Preschool: Free Printables for Thanksgiving

DLTK: Thanksgiving printables for preschoolers and worksheets for school aged children

Christian Preschool Printables: Thanksgiving Bible Crafts for Preschoolers

KidZone: Thanksgiving Math Activity Worksheets

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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

• Large Felt Board
• Orange Felt
• Pumpkin templates (optional)
• Scissors

Activity Preparation

Trace pumpkins in various sizes (some large and some small) on a large piece of orange felt. You may also use pumpkin templates to trace the pumpkins on the felt. Cut the pumpkins out the felt. Arrange them randomly on a large felt board.

Procedure

Invite the children over to the felt board. Explain to them that they will be sorting pumpkins and arranging them biggest to smallest. Encourage the children to place the pumpkin cut outs in graduated order from biggest to smallest. After they are arranged encourage the children to sort into two categories, placing big pumpkins on one side of the board and small pumpkins on the other. Next ask them to count the number of pumpkins in each group.

Objective 1: To develop an understanding of classification by encourage children to sort pumpkins by size

• Verbal Cue A: Can you sort the pumpkins into big and small?
• Verbal Cue B: Let’s put the big large pumpkins on this side of the board and the small pumpkins on the other side.

Objective 2: To teach about relationships using the terms small, big, and bigger

• Verbal cue A: Let’s arrange all of the pumpkins in order from big to small.
• Verbal Cue B: Which pumpkin is bigger? This pumpkin or this pumpkin?

Objective 3: To introduce the number concept of 1-10

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s count the number of small pumpkins
• Verbal Cue B: How many large pumpkins are there?

By participating in this pumpkin sorting activity, young children will learn important cognitive skills such as sorting and classification, spend time becoming familiar with the symbols of autumn, and have great fun.

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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:

Halloween Art Activity

Hanging Halloween Spiders

You will need: black tempera paint, medium Styrofoam balls, wide black pipe cleaners, plastic wiggly eyes, a needle, fishing line, and tape.

Directions: Paint Styrofoam balls with black paint. Let dry completely. Next cut the pipe cleaners in half and stick four pipe cleaners in each side of the Styrofoam balls. Then, glue two eyes on each spider. Thread needles with fishing line and spring fishing line through each spider. Then Hang spiders by the string by taping them to the ceiling.

Halloween Cognitive Activity

Bat Sorting

Bat sorting teaches young children both classification and counting. For this activity you will need to cut both large and small bats out of black construction paper. You can use a template or draw them freehand. You will also need two containers. Ask the children to sort bats the bats into large and small placing the small bats in one container and large bats in another. Next ask the children to count the total number of small bats and the total number of large bats. Ask them which number is larger.

Halloween Cooking Activity

Pumpkin Milkshakes

As a special holiday treat, try Pumpkin Milkshakes. In a blender, blend Âź pint of vanilla ice cream, Âź cup of milk, 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 4 tablespoons of fresh pumpkin pureed. Pour into frosty glasses and top with fresh whipped cream and a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon. Children will have fun pouring ingredients into the blender and scooping whipped cream. You can also make your own fresh pumpkin puree with the children.

Halloween Circle Time Activity

5 Little Pumpkins Finger Play (similar to 5 Little Monkeys)

“Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;

The first one said, ‘Oh my it’s getting late.’

The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’

The third one said, ‘But I don’t care.’

The fourth one said, ‘I’m ready for some fun!’

The fifth one said, ‘Let’s run and run and run.’

‘Wooooooo’ went the wind,

And out went the lights.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.”

Halloween Books for Preschoolers

Consider adding the following books to your child care resource center and reading them during your Halloween unit.

Halloween Treats:  A Touch-and-Feel Book by Tom Arma [Grosset and Dunlap, 2000]

Candy Corn by Kelly Asbury [Price Stern Sloan, 2001]

What is Halloween by Michelle Medlock Adams and Amy Wummer [Candy Cane Press, 2007]

Baby Strawberry’s First Halloween by SI Artists [Grosset and Dunlap, 2007]

It’s Halloween, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillard [Modern Curriculum Press, 1980]

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