Exploring Pumpkins

From: PreKinders




We had several pumpkins of different sizes and colors for the children to observe, touch, and make observational drawings. After several weeks, these were cut in half for the children to observe the inside. Tweezers were placed in the science center with the pumpkins for children to pick out the seeds.

Pumpkin Letter Activities

From: Pre-K Pages

Halloween Letter Matching

Setting: Small Group, ABC/Literacy Centers

Objective: Visually discriminate letter shapes, matching

Materials: laminating film, scissors, orange construction paper, pen, magnetic letters

Directions: Fold each sheet of construction paper in half and cut it in the shape of a pumpkin. Use a pen to trace magnetic letters onto each pumpkin mat. Laminate the pumpkin mats and give one to each child in your small group. Have students match magnetic letters to the correct outlines.

Pumpkin Beginning Sounds

Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers

Objective: Letter Sounds

Materials: Orange construction paper, scissors, laminating film, Sharpie marker, alphabet items from Lakeshore Letter Sound Teaching Tubs, pumpkin container

Directions: Select certain sounds your students need to work on and place the items from the Lakeshore Letter Sound tubs in your pumpkin container. Cut large pumpkin shapes from the construction paper, write your letter sounds on each pumpkin with the Sharpie marker and laminate the pumpkins for durability. Seat students around the table, place the pumpkin container in the middle. Students will take turns selecting items from the container, identifying the beginning sound, and placing the item on the mat with the corresponding beginning sound.

Leaf Letter Fishing

From PreKinders:

Leaf Letter Fishing

Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers
 
Objective: Alphabet Recognition
 
Materials: leaf cut-outs, ABC stickers OR Sharpie marker, paper clips, recording sheet, Do-A-Dot markers- one per child, fishing poles
 
Directions: Laminate your leaf cut-outs and write one letter on each leaf using the Sharpie marker or place one letter sticker on each leaf. Place paper clips on each leaf and put leaves in a tub or container of some sort in the middle of the table. Students use their fishing poles to “catch” the leaves and stamp the matching letters on the recording sheet with their Do-A-Dot markers. The recording sheet has a large leaf outline on it with all the letters of the alphabet written inside. Students use Do-A-Dot markers to mark the letters they have caught.

Fishing poles: 12 inch dowels, string, hot glue gun, round magnets

Tie the string to the end of the dowel and use the hot glue gun to secure it to the dowel. Next, hot glue the round magnet to the end of the string.

Leaf Counting

From PreKinders:

Leaf Counting

[Math]
I used leaf craft punchers to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Print out the numeral sheets. Have children count out the correct amount of paper cutouts to glue onto the numeral.

• Numeral Sheets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Toothpick Punch - Fall Edition

From PreKinders:

Toothpick Punch with Pumpkin

Toothpick Punch with Leaf

To do this activity, cut squares of construction paper (I cut mine 6×6 inches). Draw a simple pumpkin or leaf shape with a Sharpie.

I placed a stack of these papers in the fine motor center, along with toothpicks and a carpet square. Children place the paper on the carpet square and use the toothpick to punch holes all along the black lines. When they are done, they can hold their paper up to the light and see the light shining through the holes.

Kids enjoy it and it’s great fine motor practice!

Paper Towel Art - Fall Edition

From PreKinders:

Paper Towel Art

To do this activity, draw a pumpkin or leaf shape on a plain white paper towel using a permanent black marker, like a Sharpie. It must be permanent ink, not a regular black marker. I just free-handed the shapes when I drew them. Use liquid watercolor (mine is Colorations from Discount School Supply), or food color. Pour the watercolor into a paint palette or small dish. Children will use medicine droppers to squeeze drops of watercolor onto the paper towel.

The watercolor will spread outside of the outline, but that’s okay. The point is to have fun while exercising the fine motor muscles.

Tip: place paper underneath the paper towel to soak up the extra watercolor because it will bleed through onto the table.

Magic Mixture - Apple Dunking

From National Geographic:

YOU WILL NEED

• An apple
• Half of a lemon
• Shallow bowl
• Water
• Knife (ask a parent for help)

HERE'S HOW
Peel and slice an apple. Cover one slice with water in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle a second slice with the juice of half a lemon. Leave another slice exposed to the air. Wait about an hour, then compare. The slice with nothing on it turns brown.

WHY?
When an apple is cut open, chemicals inside the apple combine with oxygen from the air to form a brown coating. The coating keeps oxygen from getting deeper into the apple. Water protects the first slice from oxygen in the air so it stays white. Vitamin C in the lemon juice binds with oxygen, keeping oxygen away from the second slice, so it stays white the longest.

Text by Julie Vosburgh Agnone
Illustration by David Bamundo

Worm Farm

From Teach Preschool:

Egg Hunt

Following Directions

From Playing With Words 365:

Simon Says

Someone is “Simon” and he tells everyone what to do by saying “Simon says….” However if he tells you what to do without saying “Simon says” prior to the directions but you do it anyway…you’re out!  There are a few recommendations I have to make this game fun and motivating for your child:

• Rather than “Simon says” I recommend you change it up to a more motivating character. Does your child love superheroes? Play “Spiderman Says!” Does your child love princesses? Play “Cinderella Says!” If it around the holidays, you can do “The Scarecrow Says,” “The Mummy Says,” “The Turkey Says,” “The Snowman Says,” “Santa Says” etc. Be creative! You could even have the person who is “it” dress up like the character! This will not only give your child the opportunity to listen and follow directions but this will also give him the opportunity to give directions to others!
• Only give directions your child can understand. Start simple. Jump. Turn around. Blink your eyes. Once he can follow simple one step directives, start to make them a little harder with two items of information like jump two times or turn around three times. You can then add three part directives like Jump three times then turn around. And so on. If your child is struggling, step back a step.
• When starting out you may want to give the directions and then show him what you want him to do. For example, tell him “Jump” and then physically jump. This will give him a visual. This is helpful as you start in crease the complexity of the directions.

 Fuson Note: Use Simon Says idea for practicing and assessing two-step, non-related directions.  Also, either give the direction orally or visually (pictures or modelling), but not both.

Red Light, Green Light

Another classic game, this is a great game to work on following directions. Here are some tips for using this game to work on your child’s listening skills:

• Once your child gets the hang of the concepts of green-means-go and red-means-stop, add in another color “light” to the mix! They did this in a class my nephew took…I think it was Purple Light means you jump like a bunny! How fun is that!? just some ideas off the top of my head: Yellow Light for crawling, Orange light for turning around, Blue light for clapping…you get the idea.
• A tip to help him understand the directions at first: Make signs with the colors you will use in the game with pictures of the motor movements on them. So if you did purple-is-hop-like-a-bunny you can make a round purple “light” and put a picture of a bunny on it as a visual reminder. Then slowly take the signs away and have your child play JUST by listening.

I Spy

I would not recommend this with young children or any child that has difficulties with listening comprehension. Here are my tips for using I Spy with your child:

• Start SIMPLE. To teach the  game, you may want to take three items and place them in front of you and your child to play the first few times, to help your child grasp the game and give him a smaller playing field, if you will. In fact you may need to play this way for a while depending on your child’s age and ability level. Eventually you can play in a small room, outside, in the car, etc.
• To help your little one stay organized and remember the information he is being given, write down each attribute after you say it (even when it is HIS turn, write it down also). Then go back and review the attributes each time with him (do the same when it is your turn to guess so he is continually hearing the attributes over and over).

Fuson Note:  Use the first idea to practice use descriptions.  Model a couple of times for the students and then allow them to choose an object to describe.

Obstacle Courses

I’ve written about obstacle courses before. Children usually LOVE them and they combine gross motor learning with language learning (providing a multi-sensory learning experience). Though I have a ton of info on my obstacle course post (be sure to check it out) here are a few recommendations on using them to target listening skills:

• Again, start SIMPLE. Set up maybe only a 3-5 part course at first and then increase it as your child’s skills develop.
• To target listening, you can two things. First, you can give him directions on exactly how to go through the obstacle course. This works best if at least a couple different steps can be manipulated differently. For example, one step could be a small table. But does he go under, over, or around the table? He will have to listen to find out! You could set up a station with blocks and tell him he needs to build a 5 block tower. Maybe a step with a hoola hoop that he could either jump in or actually try to hoola. Make sense?
• Another way to incorporate listening is to have one step of the course be just that: following directions before he can go on. It can be like a “simon says” step where he has to follow whatever directions you give, and then he can keep going.

Fuson Note: End the obstacle course with a hula hoop.  Before the student begins, give a direction of what the student is to do upon reaching the hula hoop.  For example, "When you reach the hula hoop, jump three times."  Give the next student a different directive to avoid copying.  Another variation, would be to place a picture next to the hoop, or hold one up once the student arrives.  Really make the student stop and wait for a moment to practice self-control.  Again, only give verbal or visual models, but not both.  As the student improves, give two directives, then three etc. 

Location Word Dice

From Luvin' My Bug:



Words include: on, in, under, beside, behind, in front of

Ten Apples Up On Top

From Tot School:

Even more task boxes...

From Playing House:



For this one, I want the students to write the number on the card after placing the animals on the dots.



The kids love opening and closing things...even in preschool.  I'm going to put in things whose names have their target speech sounds.

Dinoland Sensory

From Play Create Explore:

Scented Rice

From Play Create Explore:

More Task Box Ideas...

From TEACCH:









I hate the box, but love, love, love the idea. 


From Autism Teaching Tools:

I want to use faces that are depicting different feelings so that I can ask the student how the person is feeling.



 

From Considerate Classroom:

Straws

First, students will cut the straws into small pieces, at least an inch in length.

Then they can lace them with string or pipe cleaners or stick them into play dough to make pictures or write words.

Button Ideas

From Child Care Land:

Popcorn and Buttons:
   Fill a tub with popcorn seeds and add buttons.  Using fingers or tweezers, students pick the buttons
   out and sort them into cups.

Button Counting:
   Using a picture of a snowman found here, students count out the appropriate number of buttons.

Buttoning Practice:
    Make these cute little squares with a button sewn in the middle.  Student buttons on or unbuttons
    off the circle.

Button Play Dough:
   Make play dough.  Fold buttons in.  Students take out as many as they can.

From Motherhood On a Dime:

Chicka Chicka magnet letters

From Child Care Land:

For this activity, you need the monkey found here, a paint stick, a large paper clip, letters with magnets on the back or magnetic letters.

Glue the monkey to the stick.  Be sure to put the large paper clip behind the white square.

Lay out the letters, face down, on the table.  You could also hold them with you.

In turn, say something like, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, what letter do you see?" while picking up a letter.

Show the students the letter, allow them time to name the letter before going on to the next one.

This would be a fun way of assessing letter knowledge and sound associations.

Clothespin Color Matching Strips

Found from Child Care Land: