November Themes Archives - Preschool Activity Ideas Child Care Information

Home » November Themes

Posted by admin on Nov 25, 2016 in Autumn, Blog, Bulletin Boards, Math & Science, November Themes, Science |

Preschool Science Activity Ideas – Fall

Nature is full of preschool science activity ideas! You just need to know where to look. One of the early science classes children are given in elementary school is called Earth Science. The science of the Earth is actually only nature. Young children can learn a lot about nature. Having a broad basic understanding of the outside world early will help them succeed when the reach that elemntary Earth Science class. So here we go.

Bringing Nature In To the Preschool Classroom

We put this tray in our science center for further exploration after everyone had a turn to look closely with the magnifying glass at circle time.

Depending on your location fall will look different than fall in other locations. What ever changes that take place outside…bring some samples into your classroom. Maybe mangos become ripe in fall near you, or oranges are being arvested now, even if it’s just a small tray of dried up leaves and some sticks! Bring one or two samples into the classroom for your children to observe. Put a child safe magnifyng glass on the tray and pass it around at circle time.

These are just a few of the things we bring samples of into the classroom in the fall.

Don’t forget to show your how the children how to use the magnifying glass to make the object appear larger. Hold the maginfying glass close to the object and look through, don’t hold it up to your eye.

Science Activities For Fall

Growing Sweet Potatoes

You’ll need a sweet potato, or a piece of one. four toothpicks, clear plastic cup, water.

Poke the toothpicks into the sides of the potato at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 so they can hold the top portion of the potato out of the water. Submerge the potato untill it’s resting on the toothpicks. Keep the cup watered enough that the botom of the potato is always wet.

Have the children make observations as the potato changes. You might want to have them draw in their journals or on clipboards like real scientists!

Posted by admin on Nov 24, 2016 in Autumn, Blog, Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Families, Holidays, November Themes, Thanks Giving |

November Themes Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)

November Themes:

I was recently asked if teachers can uphold developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) with a theme based curriculum. I quickly answerd “Of course we can! We do it every day!” So here I am a few days later double checking. On second thought, I’d say, there’s always room for improvement but it can be done. Here are the fundamentals of DAP from NAEYC: Knowing about child development and learning. So learning about the theories and findings of psychologist Jean Piaget, cognitive development theorist Lev Vygotsky, and Erik Erikson, psychosocial theorist, is an important beginning. Knowing what is individually appropriate. Forming strong relationships with children and observing their play is the only way to know what’s individually appropriate in your classroom. Knowing what is culturally important. Again, strong relationships are the answer here. Only the families you work with can tell you what’s culturally important to them.

Now probobly not all of the activities below are DAP, but all of the children, and even the teachers had fun!

Our themes for November are Farm, Healthy Food, Family, Giving Thanks.

Farm

Farm animals for sorting and classifying.

Take a cow for a walk. Or try pigs in the mud!

“Milking” the cows-

Use vinal gloves. Fill with warm water and a drop of white paint and tie closed. Use a pin to poke holes in each finger. Kids squeeze the “milk” out.

The 3 Little Pigs story goes nicely with ths theme. We tell the strory on the felt board, we watch the old classic on You Tube and we read this version of the story. The children love to act out the story with the masks pictured below.

3 Little Pigs Houses. Mask patterns are FREE at Printables!

Hay Stacks Cookies. Butterscotch chips melted over chow mein noodles.

Large Motor Games

a Gym isn’t required for these games any large open space like your circle time area will do.

In the gym we pretend to be animals running all around. So we show them at first then it becomes a crazy free for all! Chickens and horses are the favorites!

Another fun game is called “Seeping Cows”. The children lie down and pretend to sleep. While they lay there they listen carfully to the little song I sing to find out what farm animal they should be when they wake up. The song goes like this: See the sleeping cows, till it’s nearly noon. Come let us wake them with a merry tune. Oh so still, are they ill? WAKE UP Sleeping Cows! So they wake up making cow sounds. Fun stuff!

Healthy Foods

We made a chart to differentiate healthy from junk food.

Cream Cheese with a drop or two green food color. Put your animal in!

Animals in the grass

Healthy foods in the cornucopia.

Family

We have the parents send in family photos which we scrapbook onto an individual house patterens, one for each child. We hang the houses on a large bulletin board through December. Then we bind them into a book which becomes so popular the kids argue over who gets a turn with the family book! I can’t show you the book here because I won’t put the children’s pictures online.

Our Homes – dictate who kids say is in their families onto the inside folds of these homes.

We can flip this house!

Giving Thanks

The first thing we do is talk about the feeling of thankfulness. We relate it to reccieving a gift. We teach the children to say thank you with words and sign.