Have the children sit in a circle and place a box of blocks
to one side. Have one child begin by choosing a block from
the box and placing it in the middle of the circle. Then let
the children take turns choosing blocks and adding them to
the first one to create a block sculpture. When all the
blocks have been used, put them back in the box and start all
over again.
Materials: 1 large construction paper circle and 4 small
circles, 2 6-in. strips of paper and 2 4-in. strips, markers,
popsicle stick, glue, pair of scissors.
Procedure: fold strips like an accordian and glue on for arms
and legs. Glue on small circles for arms and feet, draw on a
face and glue on a stick for a handle.
(Try triangles, hearts and squares)
Circle Puppet, circle puppet, jump up high.
Circle Puppet, circle puppet, fly, fly, fly.
.....bend down low, there you go./.....twirl around. touch
the ground.....hop, hop, hop, now you stop.
Round circles, Round circles, Round circles to make,
Oh what fun it is to draw round circles to shake.
Oh, Round circles, Round circles, Round circles to make,
Oh what fun it is to draw round circles to shake.
Read Block City to the children. As a follow up activity
give each child a sheet of construction paper and several
different coloured paper crectangles. Let the children glue
the rectangles onto the construction paper to form a
cityscape. Using crayons they may add windows, doors, or
turn the picture into a daytime or nightime scene.
Cut cardboard tubes into 2 inch lengths. Set out the tubes
and a box of clothespins. Have the children use the
clothespins to clip the tubes together anyway they wish. Or
encourage them to try making simple shapes such as worms or
flowers.
Variation: Ask the children to clip specific numbers of
tubes together.
Cut out a large circle for each child. Cut out several small
circles, triangles, rectangles and diamonds from various
colours of construction paper. Let the children paste them
to the white paper to make a clown face.
Give the children an assortment of shapes cut from coloured
construction paper. Ask them to create an animal using the
cut out shapes by gluing them onto construction paper.
Find a block that's square over there,
Find a block that's square over there,
Find a block that's square and hold it in the air,
Now put away your block over there.
Find a block that's round, without a sound,
Find a block that's round, without a sound.
Find a block that's round and touch it to the ground,
Now put away your block, without a sound.
Arrange chairs in a circle and put a box of blocks in the
center. Invite each child to select a block from the box and
find a chair to sit on. Then give the children directions to
follow, such as 'Put your block on top of your head; Put your
block under your chair; Put your block beside your chair.'
Materials: Oaktag, colored construction paper, glue,
crayons
Preparation: For each child, cut a gum ball machine shape
out of oaktag along with a number of small paper circles to
use as gum balls. Have the children colour their gum ball
machine shapes with crayons. Let them choose the circles
they want for the gum balls and glue them on their shapes.
Hint: If you are working on a particular colour make all the
circles that colour.
Or you stickers.
Here's a heart. (bend index fingers to touch, thumbs touch,
pointed down)
Here's a heart. (draw small heart in the air)
A great big heart I see. (arms high over head, hands touch,
pointed down)
Please give one heart to me! (point to self)
One blue square
One blue square
See how it's shaped
See how it's shaped
Four big corners it does have
Four big corners it does have
One blue square
One blue square.
Cut circles, squares and trianges that are all the same
color.
Allow children to create patterns with the geometric shapes
on adding machine tape or other horizontal strips of
paper.
After exploring vari8ous patterning possibilities, the
children may glue their favorite pattern on the paper.
Holiday Adaptations: Provide children with holiday patterns,
such as pumpkins, ghosts and witches for Halloween or trees,
stars and balls for Christmas. Follow the paper patterning
process described above.
Place the wooden blocks on the floor and create a simple
pattern with them. Have the children complete the pattern.
Let the children have a turn creating a pattern and having a
friend complete it.
Pick up the blocks and put them on the shelf,
Pick up the blocks and put them on the shelf,
Pick up the blocks and put them on the shelf,
Picking up blocks today.
Five _____polka dots lay on the floor,
One sat up and then there were four.
Four_____polks dots got on their knees,
One tipped over and then there were three.
Three____polka dots stood on one shoe,
One fell down and then there were two.
Two_____ polka dots started to run,
One stopped quickly and then there was one.
One_____polka dot rolled toward the door,
When it disappeared there were no more.
Pour small amounts of tempera paint colours into jar lids
that have paper towels in them. Dip the end of the stamps
lightly into the paint and press stamp onto paper.
Circle Stamps: carrot pieces, thread spool, pencil eraser
Triangle Stamps: art gum eraser, square sponge cut
diagonally.
Square Stamps: sponge cut into any size, art gum eraser
Rectangle Stamps: sponge cut into any size, art gum eraser
Use andpaper to smooth the rough edges of several different
sizes and shapes of blocks of wood. Make paint pads by
folding paper towels, placing them in shallow containers and
pouring on small amounts of tempera paint. Give the children
the blocks and pieces of construction paper. Let them dip
the blocks into the paint and then press them on their papers
to make prints.
Here's a rectangle, straight and tall:
(arms straight up, over head, fingers touch)
Two long sides, and that's not all.
Two short sides that face each other.
Draw one rectangle, now another. (draw in the air)
Give the children pieces of yarn or string to dip into bowls
of glue. Have them wrap the glue-covered yarn around short
cardboard tubes any way they wish. Allow the glue to dry.
Make paint pads by placing folded paper towels in shallow
containers and pouring on small amounts of tempera paint.
Let the children roll their tubes across the paint pads, then
all over pieces of construction paper.
Draw large shapes on construction paper. Have the children
fill in the shapes using pictures cut from magazines. Fill a
circle with circular shapes etc.
Give each child a large construction paper circle, smaller
shapes cut from construction paper and pipe cleaners. Let
their imaginations run wild to create shape people.
Make a set of four cards (5X8 inches). On each card draw of
paste one of the four basic shapes (circle, square,
rectangle, triangle). Collect objects that conform to each
shape, such as circular toy dishes, bottle caps, square
blocks, rectangular dominoes, books and triangular hangers
(plastic) and musical instruments. Ask children to sort
through the various objects and place them on the card with
the appropriate shape.
Tape a series of geometric shapes to the floor using masking
tape a rectangle, square, circle and triangle on the floor
(large enough for a few children to stand in). Give the
children directions to follow ie: Stand in the circle. Sit
in the triangle. Hop in the square. etc...
Place the wooden blocks (found in the kit) on the floor and
ask the children to sort them. Think of as many ways to sort
them as possible, by colour, shape and size.
Sung to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Put your square shapes in the air,
Hold it high and keep it there.
Put your square shape on your back,
Now please lay it on your lap.
Put your square shape on your toes,
Now please hold it by your nose.
Hold your square shape in your hand,
Now will everyone please stand.
Wave your square shape at the door,
Now please lay it on the floor.
Hold your square shape and jump, jump, jump,
Now throw your square shape way, way up.
Materials: Yellow selfstick paper, yellow yarn, felt-tip
markers, popsicle stick, pair of scissors
Procedure: Cut two 4 inch circles out of yellow self-stick
paper. Remove the backing from one of the circles. Cut
yellow yarn into short pieces and place them around the edges
of the sticky side of the circle to make sun rays. Remove
the backing from the second cirlce and place it on top of the
first circle, sticky sides together, with a popsicle stick
handle in between. Use felt-tip markers to add facial
features.
Sung to Row Row Row Your Boat
Bright sun shining down, Shining on the ground,
What a lovely face you have, Yellow, big and round.
A circle, a circle,
Draw it round and fat. (use index finger to draw circle in
the air)
A circle, a circle, (repeat action)
Draw it for a hat. (draw a circle in the air overhead)
A circle, a circle, (repeat action)
Draw it just for me. (draw in the air)
A circle, a circle, (draw in the air)
Now jump and count the three: One! Two! Three!
Prepare a covered shoe box with a cutout on two sides--large
enough for a child's hands to enter and manipulate
objects.
Place three to six wooden or plastic numerals in the box.
Reaching in through the sides of the box, he feels the shape
of numerals, and tries to arrange them in numerical order,
left to right.
Upon completion, he verifies his arrangement by lifting the
lid of the box. If in error, he feels each shape by
'running' his hands around numeral shapes, and tries the
process again.
This activity can also be done using larger numerals by
putting numerals on a table and draping with a tablecloth
Here's a triangle. (spread index and middle fingers apart;
right index finger forms base)
Here's a triangle. (draw a small triangle in the air)
Now draw one more with me. (draw in the air)
Can you count them?
Are you ready? One! (repeat the first action)
Two! (repeat the second action)
Three! (repeat the third action)
Cut out two four inch by two inch rectangles for each
child--one white, one colored.
Cut the colored rectangle into four triangles of equal
size.
Give each child a white rectangle and four triangles.
Ask them to fit the triangles into the rectangle and paste.
Let the children use felt-tip markers to decorate short
cardboard tubes. When they have finished, flatten the tubes
and cut slits in them as shown. Have the children stretch
out their tubes by pulling on the ends. Then show them how
to fold down the areas between the rings to create chains.
Cut cardboard tubes into 4-inch sections. Turn the tubes
into simple characters by drawing on factal features with
felt-tip markers and adding yarn hair. Give a Popsicle stick
handle to each tube. Let the children use the puppets while
singing songs or telling stories.
Fold an 8 1/2 x 11 in. sheet of paper in thirds the short
way so that only 1/3 shows at a time. All children start out
with one sheet of paper. First have everyone draw the head
of a monster or alien. When they are one the top 1/3 is
folded behind their paper and passed to the person on their
right. Next everybody draws a body in the middle 1/3 of the
paper. It is folded again and passed and the final 1/3
everybody draws legs and feet. The papers are unfolded to
reveal their group creations.
Materials: Toilet tissue tubes, Aluminum foil, 1/2 circle
taped or stapled into cone shape, Glue, Brushes, Crepe paper
strips (red), Tape.
Procedure:
1. Keep circle halves cut and ready to use. (A coffee can
lid makes the perfect size nozzle if cut in half.)
2. give each child a toilet tissue roll and a sheet of
aluminum foil to wrap around the roll. Staple together the
half circle to make a cone shape.
3. Child should glue the cone onto the roll.
4. Now tape on crepe paper 'flames' from the bottom of the
roll.
I believe the name of the tune I use for this song is 'There
ain't nothing like a dame' from South Pacific
I am a turkey I walk sort of jerky (put hands in armpits for
wings and strut)
Around the old barnyard I hobble. Hobble. (strut) This is my
head (point to
head) And this is my tail (point to tail) I shake them (shake
head and tail)
And say gobble, gobble. GOBBLE
Staple six baggies together at the bottom of the bags and put
a strip of masking tape or colored tape over the staples to
form the spine of the book.
Cut pieces of tagboard or construction paper an appropriate
size for fitting into each baggie.
Let children dictate and illustrate a story to go on the
pages and then place them in proper sequence inside the
baggies.
Stories can be changed easily by removing current pages and
replacing with a new story.
Popular stories can be used as models for children to
imitate, for example, Brown Bear by Bill Mortin can be Black
Cat
Tell me a story, tell me a story, tell me a story,
Remember what you said,
Tell me about the birds and bees,
And why do chickens have no knees,
Tell me a story and then I'll have my lunch...
go to sleep...
Be 'Mrs.Conductor'all out 'All Aboard!'The circletime express
is about to leave the station! Alllll Aboooard! Get your
ticket here!' As the children arrive give ticket (tickets
from party store).Continue until all are sitting and then do
song.
This is a choo choo train (bend elbows)
Puffing down the track (rotate arms in rhythm)
Now it's going forward (go forward, continue rotating
motion)
Now it's going back (go back, continue rotating motion)
Now the bell is ringing (pull cord)
Now the whistle blows (hold fist near mouth and toot)
What a lot of noise it makes (cover ears) Everywhere it
goes.(stretch out arms) Barbie
Materials needed: Carpet squares or a towels on a clean
floor.
What to do:
1. Have the children put the carpet on the floor with the
carpet side down (slides better.)
2. Have them sit on the carpet piece with their feet
extended out in front and their knees bent.
3. Explain how they can pull themselves forward with their
feet. Have them work their arms as if they are rowing a
boat.
4. Sing 'Row, row, row your boat.'
More to do: Have the children kneel on the carpet and pull
themselves forward (scooter style), or have them put their
hands on the carpet and run pushing carpet on the floor.
In a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mine,
Delt a miner, forty-niner, and his daughter,
Clementine.
Oh, my darling, oh, my darling, oh, my darling
Clementine,
You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorrow, Clementine.
Down by the station
Early in the morning,
See the little pufferbillies
All in a row.
See the station master
Pull a little handle.
Chug, chug, Toot, toot.
Off we go!
Here is the engine on the track. (Hold up thumb)
Here is the coal car, just in back. (Pointer)
Here is the box car to carry freight. (Middle)
Here is the mail car. Don't be late. (Ring)
Way back here at the end of the train. (Little)
Rides the caboose through the sun and rain.
Materials needed: puppet, large bag, toy vehicles
(helicopter, train, airplane, car, truck, motorcycle, boat,
rocketship or horse)
1. Put all the toys in the bag.
2. Introduce the puppet: 'My friend has a problem. He needs
to go to ----. How can he get there?' Let children name
different ways the puppet can travel. Ask if they will be
good ways to travel. Why or why not?
3. Show the bag. Explain that inside the bag are ways that
we can travel, and that the word we use is tranportation.
This is how we get from one place to another.
4. Describe a mode of transportation that you have in the
bag. Have the children make guesses. Remove toys.
I'm a little piece of tin (point at self)
Nobody knows what shape I'm in (shack finger and head no)
I got 4 wheels and a running board
(hold up 4 fingers then drive finger off in a little
'U'shape)
'No' I'm not a Chevy, I'm not a ford
(shack finger and head no)
honk, honk,(pinch nose with fingers)
rattle, rattle,(shack head back and forth)
crash,(hit chin with bottom of palm of hand)
beep beep(pick forehead withfinger tips)
honk, honk,(pinch nose with fingers)
rattle, rattle,(shack head back and forth)
crash,(hit chin with bottom of palm of hand)
beep beep(pick forehead withfinger tips)
honk,honk,(pinch nose with fingers)
Little red caboose, Little red caboose,
Little red caboose behind the train, train,
Smoke-stack on his back, Going down the track,
Little red caboose behind the train, train.
Have the childen sit down and wait in a line at an imaginary
train station. Chug around the room as everyone recites the
poem below. Each time you stop at the station have the child
at the head of the line hook onto the back of your train.
Continue until everyone is hooded on and has had a turn
chugging around the room.
Little Red Train chugging down the track,
First it goes down, then it comes back.
Hooking on cars at it goes,
Little Red Train just grows and grows.
Each child choose to be specific type of car - boxcar, circus
car, caboose.Change the third line of the poem to match the
type of car chosen. Ex. Hooking on a tank car as it goes.
Display pictures of the following means of transportation:
truck, bus, car, train, plane, ship, rocket. Ask the
following questions and let the children decide which vehicle
answers the questions.
1. Which one is used for going to the moon?
2. Which one travels on tracks?
3. Which one carries vegetables from farm to city?
4. Which one goes through the air?
5. Which one do we park in our garage?
6. Which one stops in many cities and carries many
people?
7. Whihc one travels on the ocean?
Materials: cardboard, tape, paper, thinned paint, brushes,
crayons.
Procedure: Cut transportation shapes from thin cardboard
such as potato chip boxes. Attach loops of tape, sticky side
out, to the backs of the shapes and stick them on sheets of
paper. Let the children brush thinned paint around the edges
of their shapes, extending out about an inch. It's not
necessary for them to paint their shapes, but they probably
will. Remove the cardboard shapes, leaving unpainted shapes
in the middle of the papers. When the papers are dry, let
the children decorate their shapes with crayons, if desired.
Car, Bus, Airplane shapes.
Trucks carry vegetables, chieckens, and hogs;
Trucks carry furniture, cement, and logs.
Trucks can carry most anything;
What would you like this truck to bring?
Materials: 1/2 pint milk carton, six black construction paper
circles, toilet paper tubes, two 1-in. slits in bottom
directlyh across from one another, cotton balls, red and
black tempera paint glue.
1. Have the children paint the sides of the milk carton red
and the toilet paper tube black. Add some white glue to the
red paint to help it adhere to the milk carton.
2. Before the paint dries, the children can add black
circles to the sides of the boat, three to a side. They will
stick without gluing when glue is already in paint.
3. Push the tube onto the boat centre. Pull and stretch the
cotton ball glue to the top of the tube.
After boats dry attach and string and use in water.
You can watch a jet flying all over the sky, no matter where
you are. You'll need a cardboard tube, a piece of plastic
wrap and tape. Trace around the end of the tube on the
plastic wrap with a ball point pen. Draw a small jet plane
on the middle of the circle. Then tape the plastic wrap to
the tube, keeping the jet in the middle of the tube opening.
To see the jet fly, just look up at the sky or ceiling
through the open end of your telescope. Move your head
around slowly while looking through it and the jet will seem
to be flying across the sky.
In the morning, the kids go outside with a frozen treat (i.e.
popsicle) and bury it in the snow. They have to pay
attention to where it is buried: five feet from the tree;
even with the house, etc. They may want to make a map to
help them remember where it is. Later in the afternoon they
go out and dig up their snack and eat it! (be sure to have
extras in case someone can't find theirs; this is harder than
it sounds!) Variation: hide ice cubes colored with food
coloring the kids can dig up. Sorry all you warm-weather
people, I don't have a variation for you!!!! :-)
(This is for school-age children)
Contributed by Mary in MN (FunSis@aol.com)
Fill a big sturdy balloon with helium. (You can get helium
in small cans at some hardware stores.) Tie a postcard and a
note (covered with plastic) to the balloon. The postcard
should be addressed to yourself, and the note should ask
whomever finds the balloon to mail you the postcard and tell
where they found it! (Worked Great-next time use index cards
that the children draw on themselves. 1 out of 12
returned)
One of Cindy's Daycare kids have launched this balloon on
August 28, 1995 to satisfy his/her curiosity on how far it
would go! Could you please fill-out the attached card and
mail it back? Thank-you very much! Cindy's Daycare Kids
If all the rain drops,
were jelly beans and gum drops,
Oh what a rain that would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide.
Ah, ah ah ah, ah ah ah, ah ah ah,
Oh what a rain that would be.
If all the snowflakes - - candy bars and milk shakes
If all the sunbeams - - bubble gum and ice cream
Give the children lunch-size paper sacks to blow up.
Have the children feel the sack and observe its fullness.
After several blow-ups, let the children pop the sacks to let
the air escape.
Ask the children if they can think of another way to let the
air escape.
There was a man in our town.
He went for a walk one day.
The wind it blew so very hard.
It blew him the other way.
Children hold hands and move around in a circle. If children
cannot reverse them say It blew him all over the place and
have the children all fall down.
Take a walk with the children to discover all the indicators
that the wind is moving.
Sample Questions: Is the flag waving?
Is trash blowing around? Are people leaning into the wind as
they walk? Do you see people's hair blowing? Are the trees
and bushes bending? Is tall grass moving? Do you feel the
wind on your face?
Place a variety of objects on a table for children to
discover how to move air and how to move objects with air:
paper fans, straws, paper towel rolls, ping-pong balls in a
long shallow box, empty plastic squirt bottles.
Cut a large circle out of a plastic lid so that only a rim
remains.
Tape strips of newspaper, crepe paper, ribbon or cloth onto
one side of the rim.
When outside, the children will be able to clutch the rim
easily and run to make the streamers 'fly.'
