Have a Terrific Tuesday!
Please note it is important to keep in mind your child's IEP goals. These skills may be addressed through the provided activities as well as the very natural everyday interactions such as daily routines and play. Play with your child as play is a child's work. All areas of development - cognitive, social/emotional, motor, and speech/language skills are achieved through everyday activities including play. It is through play that your child learns, grows, and will retain new skills and information.
These are all suggestions for you to have in one location; if you find, that you need additional resources for your child. Our key word is Flexible and that is very important when working with young children. If you are in need of other resources, please just contact me. I will continue to send a morning email each school day with links to this page, Ms. Cosgrove's morning message, and the attendance form.
Please continue to email me your pictures. I love seeing your faces!
Theme: Butterflies/Flowers
Suggested Activities
Read Aloud - The Digger and the Flower
Mrs. McAuliffe's Jefferson Media Site Read Alouds
Calendar Activities
Month of May Song
Days of the Week Song
Counting Song
StarFall Calendar
Water Bottle Hyacinth Craft
Draw out the leaves and stems on green paper and have your student cut them. Glue them on paper. Have your child dip a water bottle cap in paint and gently push down on the paper to make a flower. You may want to do a few circles hand over hand so your child understands how much pressure to use and to show them that they need to go slow so it doesn't splatter. Encourage your child to narrate activity of what they are doing, shapes, colors, number of stems and leaves, etc to use language.
Drinking Flowers
To start you will want to trim down the stems of the flower so they fit your cups or glasses. Add water to each cup. Then put about 10-15 drops of food coloring in the water and stir around a bit. Add at least one carnation - can be done with celery, too - to each glass of colored water. Check in on the flowers/celery every couple of hours and observe any changes.
Plants drink water from the ground up through their roots. The water travels up the stem and into the petals of the flower. Although, our flowers didn’t have roots anymore they were still able to pull water up from the cup into the stem and up through the flower to the petals. Plants are able to defy gravity and pull water up and into their leaves and flowers to grow. This can be done with only 1 or 2 flowers/celery and still have the ability to see the results!
Planting Flowers Sensory Bin
Set up beans or rice as the soil, small pots, plastic flowers, and gardening tools in a large container. Have your child plant flowers over and over again. This simple sensory bin is a HUGE hit! As the weather has turned nicer, you may have your child engage in planting real flowers outside!
Water The Flowers - Number Recognition and Counting
Play this game outside! Draw chalk flowers with numbers in the middle of them all over the sidewalk or driveway. Or simply draw chalk numbers. Using a watering can have your child travel like a butterfly from flower to flower while identifying the numbers, and water each one! For more of challenge, tell your preschooler a number to find to make it more like a number hunt. Have your child perform an action the number of times that corresponds with the number to add in more movement, 5 - jump 5 times!
Letter Review Weekly Activities
We have completed our weekly letters. The remaining weeks of the year will focus on reviewing and reinforcing letter recognition as well as initial sounds. The suggested activities are designed to be practiced throughout the week.
Letter Activities and Alphabet Songs
Alphabet Name Letter Hunt / ABC Hunt
Have your child write their name on a piece of paper or index card. You may need to assist your child. Have your child look through books, magazines, and or newsprint to hunt for letters from their name. Let them check off each letter of their name on the paper or card. Extend the activity - find pictures or objects of items that begin with the sounds from the letters of their name. Find upper and lowercase letters. Write family members' names and repeat activity. Extend activity to have your child find all letters of the alphabet. You may need to write letters to have your child match the letter. Have your child name letter and say initial sound of letter.
Rainbow Name
Have your child write their name in pencil. You may need to assist your child. Have your child trace each letter using 1 color of the rainbow for each letter. Repeat with a 2nd, 3rd, etc colors.
Letter - Mystery Box
Find and place 5-7 items/pictures that begin with the a single letter. Have your child label each item/picture - talk about the item/picture - place items/pictures in box. Have your child recall the items that have been placed into the box. Repeat this activity daily with your child. Some items/pictures will be recalled easily - others may require a clue. Make this into a game with your child. This is an activity that we do during our circle time and was enjoyed by all.
Sensory Writing/Play dough/Object Letters
Write your name as well as other letters and numbers in shaving cream, rice, sand, or flour. Any substance will work to give your child that sensory input when writing letters.
Use play dough to form letters. You may write a letter on a piece of paper and have your child roll out play dough to cover the letter. Cover the letter with small objects such as buttons, beads, cereal, or macaroni.
Letter Scavenger Hunt
Have your child search for items that begin with letter any single letter. Have your child name/label each item emphasizing the beginning sound of the letter
Music/Movement
Nature Walk
Take a walk or hike to soak in the great outdoors. Explore your neighborhood or local trail to see all the flowers in bloom. Point out the different blooms that are all around in nature. If you are lucky, maybe you will see some butterflies or insects, too!
Butterfly / Spring Songs