Fall Colors Lesson Plan

Art:
Fall Color collage
Use construction paper or card stock as the background where the kids can glue different colored materials. For fall colors, use orange, green, red and yellow. The materials can be anything you can find around the house.
Paper,
Felt,
Other fabric,
Pictures of things like pumpkins, apples, leaves etc,
Pompoms,
Leaves
And whatever else you can think of for fall.

Coloring Pages:
Here are some fall theme coloring pages that I found.
Basket of apples,

fall leaves,
or
acorns.


Literacy:
Make a fall colors book.
Fall Colors Book

Sensory Play:
Fill a tub with fall colored pompoms, plastic apples, plastic pumpkins, acorns, leaves etc along with some cups and scoops.
There are a lot of good ideas for sensory tubs out there.
Autumn Sensory Tub
from School Time Adventures.
Autumn Sensory Bin
from 1Plus1Plus1.

Play-dough:
Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Play-dough Recipe
Add apple spices and food coloring.

Movement:
Take a nature walk.
Talk about the colors you see.
The leaves changing,
Fallen leaves and acorns,
Dark clouds,
Talk about other things you see, smell, hear and feel.

Math:
Take a platter or tray with dividers.
Cut pieces of red, green, yellow and brown construction paper and tape them inside the tray.
Have the children sort objects by color such as leaves, acorns, pumpkins, apples, etc. Basically, you can use any objects that are the colors you want them to recognize.

Matching:
Fall Colors Matching

Fall Colored Snacks or additions to Meals:
Red: Apple, strawberries or anything with tomato sauce.
Orange: orange slices, pumpkin, carrots.
Yellow: Corn, pineapple, bananas, cheese.
Green: Grapes, apple, Broccoli, celery.
Blue: Blueberries.
Brown: Wheat bread, whole wheat oat meal, brown rice, chocolate.
Idea inspired by the following post from: Counting Coconuts.

Families Theme Lesson Plan

Art:
Make family portraits.
Have the children draw with crayons or markers on paper or a paper plate.
If the portrait is on a paper plate, you can attach a piece of yarn to it to hang it on the wall.

Make a family collage:
Have the children cut out pictures of people and pets from magazines. Then glue them on to paper. Let the children tell you about their picture. They can tell you why they picked the pictures and who they resemble in their family. This would work better with children who are at least preschool age.

What I like about my family book:
Have the children bring in pictures of each member of their family. Make a book for each child or have the children make them by stapling pieces of construction paper together. Glue a picture on each page. Then you can ask the children what they like about each member of the family and write it for them.

Dramatic Play:
You can use doll houses with the different people figures. I’ve seen the figures that are made to look like grandparents, babies, bigger children, people of different races etc.

Have a corner set up like the home. You can use a kitchen play set or turn a sensory table into a dish washing center. The kids I work with loved that one. One boy said, “we’re being like grown-ups.” We put water, a tiny bit of dish soap, plastic dishes, sponges, dish rags and a scrub brush.

Last year, I also turned the sensory table into a baby washing center with babies, soap, brushes and wash cloths. The kids always love anything to do with water so there’s always a waiting line.
You could do cooking, cleaning, taking care of babies or get other ideas from the children. Ask them what sorts of things they help out with in the home or what they do with their families.

For some extra sensory play, let the children use baby powder, baby shampoo, baby oil, lotion and wipes to wash babies. It’s probably a better idea to only use one or two of those things at a time since it’d make a huge mess.

To include some science and sorting in your family theme, play a file folder matching game. I don’t have one made up so I can’t take a picture of it, but cut out pictures of mother and baby animals. Tape one picture to the folder and laminate the corresponding picture. Have the children match the mothers and babies. You could also have pictures of animal families and match it with pictures of the same single animal. That way it would be asking the children which family does this animal belong to.

To learn about social studies, you could also have families bring in photos of each member and have the children glue them to paper trees. You can compare families and discuss different types of families. Some families only have one parent, some have two parents, some families are living with grandparents, some families are big while others are small etc.

Literacy:

Are You My Mother?

I Like It When...


Just Like Mommy
They have a version for dads as well and you can find it through the link above.

Fall Theme Lesson Plan

Literacy:
The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle
A counting book, The Case of the Disappearing Acorns
Math: Sorting leaves, pinecones and acorns by color or type of object.
Sensory: Grab bag.
Contains fake apples, pumpkins, gourds, acorns and other fall related objects.
Children are to guess what’s in the bag before looking at it.

Apple Match
Cut out apples of green, yellow, and red. Put corresponding apples on a manilla folder.
Have your children match the apples.
You could also do this with pictures of food made from apples or make another matching game using pictures of different types of leaves.

Fine Motor:
Have two baskets.
Fill one with nuts and a set of tongs.
Have the children transfer the nuts from one basket to another using the tongs.
If some of the children are allergic to nuts, use fall colored pompoms or acorns.

For dramatic play, you could turn an area into a farmers market since they are selling fruits and vegetables through the fall.
You could include:
Cash register,
Fake money,
Fake fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, pomegranates,
Fake vegetables such as corn, gourds, pumpkins etc.
You could include boxes and or jars of foods that can be made with those fruits and vegetables.
For an extension of that area, you could set up a small tub of water where the children could pretend to wash the fruits and veggies.
I thought of this idea on the spot so if you can think of anything to add, feel free.

Movement:
Take a nature walk to collect leaves and other fall objects.

Art:
CRUSHED LEAF MOSAIC
Materials:
Dried leaves,
Construction paper,
Glue.


Steps:
1. Gather a small bag of fallen leaves.
2. Dry them out completely.
3. Crush the leaves.
4. Cut a piece of paper into a leaf shape and give it to the child
5. Cover the leaf shape with glue and sprinkle on the crushed leaves.

Discussions: Different types of leaves and the trees they come from. Also, discuss when seasons change and the cycle of how leaves fall off trees and new leaves grow next spring.


Leaf Wreath
What You Need:
Leaves (various colors preferred)
Paper Plate
Paste
What You Do:
Have your children collect interesting leaves.
Next, cut the center of the plate out and let your children attach their leaves.
Painting with Apples
Cut an apple in half and let the children stamp or paint with it.

Recipes:
Frozen Pumpkin Treats
For each child, mix 1 tsp. pumpkin-pie filling with 3
Tablespoons whipped topping. Spread on one graham cracker and top with another
Graham cracker
. Freeze.

Individual Pumpkin Pies
For each child: Measure 1/4 cup of vanilla pudding, 1
Tsp canned pumpkin and dash of pumpkin spice; mix together. Put mixture in single bowl. –serve with graham cracker crust and top with one candy pumpkin.

Fall Sensory Grab Bag

For last year’s fall theme, I made a sensory grab bag. I put in two plastic apples, one pomegranate, one larger pumpkin, two little pumpkins, a couple of gourds, corn, and to add some natural materials, I used some acorns, pinecones and leaves. I stapled the top of the bag shut, but left an opening big enough for a hand. I wanted the kids to reach inside, feel the object and guess what it was before showing the rest of the class. For the most part, it didn’t work out that way. Most of the kids didn’t want to reach their hand in the bag at first. Then when they decided it was okay, they were rushing to pull all the objects out. After all the objects were out, we talked about fall and how things change color. We talked about the color and size differences between the apples and pumpkins. Most of the kids hadn’t seen a pomegranate so we talked about that, but I should’ve brought one in for them to taste. We did a taste test for three different colored apples. The kids learned that some apples are sweet and some are sour. They enjoyed looking at the new objects and tasting apples. Below, I have a picture of some of the things I put in the bag. I found all these things at the Dollar Tree. You can also find these fruits at Walmart and a lot of other department stores.

Reading, Math and Science Activities for an About Me Theme

Here are some more ideas for an about me theme.

For infants, have plenty of mirrors around so the children can study their faces and facial expressions. Infants and toddlers can try mimicking facial expressions while looking in the mirror. Mirrors are good for older children too. For preschoolers, they can try to draw what they see in the mirror.

For infants and toddlers, look at photos of the child and family members. See if they can pick out who’s who and talk about what they see in the picture. It can be a good labeling activity for infants and toddlers.
Preschoolers enjoy looking at photos too. You can take photos of them throughout the day doing normal things like playing, eating, getting ready to go outside etc. Make a picture schedule that you can add to and change. This can also be good for toddlers or any child getting used to a new routine.


For preschoolers, make a photo matching game.
Have two photos of each child in the class and have the kids try to match them up. To make it more challenging, you can do a memory game with it were all the photos are face down on the table and the kids have to remember where the photos are in order to match them up.

Look at fingerprints.
Fingerprint each child. Have the children look through magnifying glasses so that they can see the differences between fingerprints. You can talk about how everyone’s fingerprint is unique.

You can do a measuring activity. Have the children measure how tall they are against a piece of string. Cut the string to their height and then tape them to a large piece of paper. The children can see how tall they are and will be able to compare it to their friends.

For literacy, you can find or make picture books that have different people and faces for infants to look at. You can read books that go along with the theme to children of any age. There are a lot of books to choose from. I like It's Not Easy Being a Bunny. It’s a cute book and it’s about how Bunny tries being something he’s not, but in the end, he finds out that he likes being himself after all.

For preschoolers, you can have them draw pictures and decorate pages with things about themselves. They can use handprints, family photos, pictures of their favorite foods and things to do, pieces of paper or stickers that show their favorite colors etc. If they can write, they can write a sentence or two about each page or they can tell you what to write for them. You can keep these books on hand so the children can look at them later to learn about each other and enjoy their creations.

Art Activities for An About Me Theme

Reflection Paintings

Materials:

Plastic Spoons
Aluminum foil
Food Coloring
Corn Syrup

Instructions:

Allow the children to paint on aluminum foil with a mixture of food coloring and corn syrup. When they are done, they’ll have shiny paintings and will be able to see a reflection of themselves.

My Placemat

Materials:

Construction Paper
Paint
Picture of Child
Glue

Instructions:

Give each child a piece of paper. Let the children either paint or trace their handprint on the paper.
They can also decorate the paper any way that they want. Finally put their picture
And name somewhere on the page and laminate it. Use the placemats during meals or let the child use it how they’d like.

Photo Collage


Materials:

Construction paper,
Photos of the child and his or her family,
Glue,
And anything else the child would like to decorate their picture with.

Materials:

Let the child glue pictures onto the paper. They can also decorate the empty parts of the paper how they wish. While working on the project, you can talk about when the photos were taken, family members in the photos etc.

Listening Activity for Jobs Theme

Here’s a listening activity for a jobs theme. If you have anymore job ideas for me to add that I can find sounds for, let me know.


The track list:

1. Farm
2. Police
3. Construction
4. Grocery store
5. Fishing boat
6. Mechanic
7. Office
8. Salon
9. Restaurant
10. Hospital

Click here to download the files.

Guessing Smells Activity

I did a fun activity with the kids where they had to guess what smell was in each bucket. I bought these small buckets that close from the dollar store. The night before we did the activity, I soaked cotton balls in whatever I wanted them to smell like. It was a little hard to find at least twelve different smells that they could actually guess, but I found enough things. To make it easier and less messy, I had muffin tins that I’d put the cotton balls and the liquids or powders in so they could absorb the smell. With the powders, I added a tiny bit of water to the cotton balls so the powders would stick. After a few minutes of soaking, I put the cotton balls in their buckets and closed them up.







For the smells, I used vanilla extract, obviously for vanilla. I used coco powder for chocolate. I wanted a strawberry scent, but I didn’t have strawberries to squeeze the juice out of so I used Strawberries and Cream Vo5 shampoo. This worked well and that scent was the favorite for most of the kids. I used cinnamon. I had a spice that has a barbecue scent so I tried that. That one was a little harder for the kids to guess, but they got it. I wanted other fruit smells, but didn’t have any fresh fruit so I used several sprays. One was orange scented and the other smelled liked freshly baked cookies. They are grooming sprays that we use for our pets so they are safe, but these kids are old enough to know not to put these things in their mouths. I used apple scented body wash, bubblegum hand soap, maple syrup, mango iced tea mix and coffee. If there were more smells, I can’t remember them.

The kids really liked this activity. They had fun guessing and smelling the buckets over and over. Another thing you could add to this is to have cards with pictures that match with the smells in the buckets. They’d be using sight and smell which would be good for a five senses theme. I’d like to try this activity again with different smells so if anyone has any good suggestions, that’d be great.

Matching Fun with Egg Cartons

This is a little game I came up with around Easter, but this can be good all year round. You can use it for Easter, food, farming or any other theme you can relate to eggs. Even if you aren’t doing anything with eggs, it’s useful for color recognition for toddlers and even some preschoolers who aren’t sure of their colors. I only had one package of the plastic Easter eggs for this activity, but you can buy other packages that may have more colors. I took the eggs apart, put one set of halves in the carton and left the rest out so the kids could put the same colored halves together. This of course makes the whole dozen eggs. For a better color variety, you could buy different colored large marbles or balls and color or paint the cups of the carton. That way you wouldn’t have to use the same color twice.


For preschoolers, you can write numbers 1 through 12 on the eggs and then write the numbers 1 through 12 on the egg carton for practice with number recognition. The preschoolers I’ve worked with have had to do this several times before they could do it on their own. The first couple of times were spent just looking at the numbers and then they understood that the numbers matched on the carton. This works well with doing a variety of other sorting and matching activities so the concept of numbers and counting sink in.

Ocean Theme Lesson Plan

Ocean Theme Lesson Plan

Literacy:
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
or
By the Seashore : A Natural Trail Book (A Touch and Feel Adventure)
or
Islands of Ice: The Story of a Harp Seal
Ocean theme word wall with pictures of sea creatures labeled.

Music and movement: Ocean finger plays:
Five Little Sea Creatures


Five little sea creatures
On the ocean floor;
The lobster walked away
Now there are four.
Four little sea creatures
Living in the sea;
The octopus crept away
Now there are three.
Three little sea creatures
Wondering what to do;
"Good-bye," said the starfish
Now there are two.
Two little sea creatures
Not having much fun;
Off swam the sea horse
Now there is one.
One little hermit crab
Sad and all alone,
Back came the starfish,
Back came the sea horse,
Back came the octopus,
Back came the lobster,
Then all five went home.


Five Cranky Crabs

Five cranky crabs were digging on the shore.
One swam into a net and then there were four.
Four cranky crabs were floating in the sea.
One got tangled up in seaweed then there were three.
Three Cranky crabs were wondering what to do.
One dug a deep, deep hole. Then there were two.
Two cranky crabs were warming in the sun.
One got scooped up in a cup. Then there was one.
One cranky crab was smarter than his friends.
He hid between the jagged rocks.
That's how the story ends.


Math:
Shell sorting,
Pouring water or sand in the sensory table,
Seashell Match Up
Sensory:
Sensory tub with sand and water: have kids dig for shells.
Water and fish in the sensory table with nets to catch the fish.

Science:

Ocean Bottle
Materials:
Plastic bottle,
water,
blue food coloring,
glitter,
pebbles,
sand,
shells,
plastic fish
and some hot glue.


Steps:
1. Clean out an empty plastic pop bottle.
2. Add water, blue food coloring, glitter, and maybe a few pebbles. Also, you can add sand, shells, or plastic fish.
3. Seal the bottle closed using a little hot glue and allow to completely dry before the children can play with it.


Note: Have the children tip or role the bottle to see what happens.

Discussion: What happens when you role or tip the bottle?
What happens in the actual ocean?
What kind of creatures live in the ocean?
How do those creatures get their food?
What do we get from the ocean?

Extension:
Listen to sounds of different fish, sea birds and the ocean atmosphere.
Make a guessing game out of different sea sounds.
Take a trip to the beach.


Fine motor:
Make shell or starfish imprints in play dough.

Art:
Sea shell rubbings with crayons.

Sand art in beach buckets that cover like the ones below.
Take small cups of sand and add food coloring.
Mix well.
Have the kids scoop the sand from the cups to the buckets in layers so they can create a cute beach bucket while practicing their pouring and scooping skills.


They came in packs of three and they had bubblegum inside.

Pasta Shell Painting
Use large pasta shells and paint.
Let the kids paint them any way they want and you can discuss how no two shells are alike.

Dramatic play:
OCEAN PLAY AREA


Directions:
Turn the space under a card table into an ocean hideout for your child.
1. First, hang some blue crepe paper streamers or twisty ribbon all around the table so that it hangs down to the floor.
2. Next, place some pillow "rocks" inside for your sea creatures.
3. Provide your child with some plastic or stuffed sea animals to place in the den.
4. Decorate with pictures of the sea and place books about the sea inside.
You can add plush animals like the ones below to any ocean themed dramatic play area or put them on display.

Sounds From the Home

This listening activity uses sounds that anyone can find in or around their home. I hope everyone enjoys them and that they aren't too hard for the kids. I tried coming up with sounds for a community theme such as the grocery store, pet store, post office, bank etc. I didn't find good clear sounds and I thought the kids would have a hard time telling the difference between some of the places. maybe I'll combine some of those sounds with a jobs theme. I still have a few other ideas for sound activities. I will be posting other types of activities as well during the upcoming week.

Download the files here!

Track Listing



1. Doorbell
2. Phone ringing
3. Pouring Drink
4. Keys Jingling
5. Toilet Flush
6. Computer
7. Clock
8. Lawn Mower
9. Page turning in a book
10. Bouncing ball
11. Filling Sink
12. Fridge
13. Fan
14. Baby's rattle,
15. Writing with pencil
16. Kids in Pool
17. Ice Cube in Glass.
18. Mailbox
19. Hair Dryer
20. Popcorn Popping in Microwave

Transportation Listening Activity

Here is the listening activity for transportation that I had a request for. I did the same thing with this project. The only differences are that there are less files and that they are all in mp3 format. I made this up today so I’ve never tried it with this theme. I hope you enjoy it.
Download the transportation activity here

Track Listing
1. Train
2. Car Horn
3. Motorcycle
4. Police
5. Truck.
6. Helicopter
7. Fire Truck
8. Bus
9. Boat
10. Traffic
11. Jet
12. Submarine


Thank you, Deborah (Teach Preschool) for the idea.

Homemade Mailbox for Post Office Theme

During our post office theme week, I made a large mailbox that we could use for dramatic play. It was big enough for the kids to mail most sizes of paper, magazines and even larger envelopes. The center where I work put it in storage for now so I can’t get a picture of it, but I’ll explain how I made it the best I can. I took a medium to large sized shipping box and taped up all the edges so none of the flaps were open. Then I cut a long slot in the front that was made for the envelopes. In the back, I cut out a square flap door that left a space large enough for the kids to put their hands in the box and pull out whatever was in there. It was big enough for adults to do this too so the opening was pretty large. When closed, the door would almost be flush with the rest of the box. I kept it closed with three strips of Velcro that I found in the craft section. I put the strips right next to each other and added extra tape to the sticky part on the back to reinforce it because I knew it’d be pulled open over and over. I added another small part of a Velcro strip to make a handle that could be pulled.

I completely covered the outside of the box with white shelf paper found in the home section. My idea was to let the kids decorate the mailbox however they wanted plus cover up all the taped areas. I thought it would be fun for the kids to decide how their mailbox looked. It didn’t work out that way because the place where I work chose to use it for the hallway display for the theme. Then they combined post office with Valentines and they taped hearts on to it.

Finally, the next time post office theme came around, the hearts were removed and it was used the way I intended. The class enjoyed pretending to send cards, letters, and magazines and of course bills back and forth.

Home Made Ocean

I used this for a display during ocean week. I can’t remember where the jar came from, but it is plastic and is mostly square as you can see in the picture. I used colored rocks that you find in the craft section for the bottom. I found plastic plants in the aquarium section to represent sea plants. I included some sea shells and different kinds of rubber fish that I found at the dollar store. Then there’s the water which I made blue with food coloring and I added some glitter. The background is a plastic poster with scenery which I also found in the aquarium section. I taped it to the inside of the jar and it stuck pretty well. The children enjoyed it and would stop to look at it every time they passed the display table. Since this was something they couldn’t touch, I also brought in those animals that you put in water and watch them grow. Each morning, we’d look to see how much the snail and starfish grew. The kids learned that things don’t grow immediately. It takes time.

Animal Sounds Listening Activity

This is a listening activity I did with the kids on animal sounds. I chose 20 random animal sounds. Some sounds that the kids would know for sure and then others that they might not know right away. The kids had fun with it and some of them knew the sounds that are less common. You can add more sounds of your own to this depending on the age and attention span of your kids. I copied the sounds to a CD and had them listen to them that way, but you can use an Ipod or another type of media player if that’s easier. The files are mp3 and wav so you’d have to convert them to audio format to use them in a regular CD player. I’ve also included the track list and a 3 second long silent wav file in case you want to add it to the beginning of any new sounds you choose to add. I added the three second silent pause to each sound so the kids could get ready before hearing each one. If you work with kids, you know how long it can take to get them back on track especially when they are doing something new. They get lost in the excitement. If you need assistance with fixing any sound files, let me know and I’ll help if I can. I used the basic sound recorder program that comes with windows. Then I used a simple mp3 encoder to save them in mp3 format. If anyone decides to use this with their own kids or kids they work with, let me know how it goes. The following is the track list.
Click here to download the files.

• 1. Chickadee
  
• 2. Dog
  
• 3. Horse
  
• 4. Cat
  
• 5. Duck
  
• 6. Rooster
  
• 7. Pig
  
• 8. Bull
  
• 9. Polar Bear
  
• 10. Tiger
  
• 11. Penguin
  
• 12. Seal
  
• 13. Baby Penguin
  
• 14. Hippo
  
• 15. Elephant
  
• 16. Frog
  
• 17. Snake
  
• 18. Guinea pig
  
• 19. Dolphin
  
• 20. Whale