Tt IDEAS TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT *TORN PAPER ART Have the children tear paper shapes to create a picture or design. They can add to their picture by coloring with crayons or by cutting out other things and gluing on. *TREE Have the children make a tree by gluing toothpicks on a piece of paper. Use a sponge and green tempera paint to add leaves to the top of the tree. *TYING Using old shoes, ropes, string, have the children practice tying. *TOAST Help each child toast a slice of bread. Supply a choice of toppings, such as, peanut butter, cinnamon and sugar, jelly. Have them top their bread and cut the toast into Triangles. *TELEPHONE GAME You need 2 play telephones for this: Sit in a circle with the children. One child is given a phone, & you keep the other. When the phone "rings", the child picks it up & says "Hello, this is Sally" (They usually forget this part... just respond with "Who's speaking?" after they say hello.) Tell child that you have a question to ask them. This can be a "trivia" question (Who climbed up the hill with Jack?) but it's also a great review technique (What dinosaur has 3 horns? ) The older children enjoy asking ME the questions. *TEAPOT Construction paper, scissors, crayons, glue: The children cut out a 5 or 6 inch Circle and glue it to the center of another sheet of construction or drawing paper. They then use crayons to add the handle, spout, lid and to decorate it. I always try to bring in a teapot or two so that the children can get a good look at one. Not many people use them anymore. *SING I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT *TOOTHPICK Tt Glue toothpicks on the letter t. *PAINT Paint with toothbrushes. *COLLAGE Triangle tissue paper collage. *TIME Telling truth time is very difficult for young children. Relative time however, is a concept that can be fun to explore. Look through magazines and flyers with your child and cut out pictures of things that we do at different times of the day. Examples are eating different meals, going to bed, getting dressed in the morning, watching TV, going to work, or going to school. On a long sheet or roll of paper draw a morning sun on the left and the night moon on the right. Work together with your child to arrange the pictures from morning to night. There is no absolute right or wrong. Talk about and reason what might be next. When your child is happy with the order of things, one at a time, glue the pictures on the paper. Display the paper on a wall or door where everyone can see the hard work that was done. *********************************************************************** Uu IDEAS UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU *UNDER COVER Work on the concept of "under" by using several old sheets. Have the children hang on to the edge of the sheet. When you holler "Under", the children all get under the sheet and pull it around them. *I UNPACKED UNCLES SUITCASE Take a trunk or suitcase and put objects in that start with letters you've already talked about (i.e. socks, watch, hat, ball). The more funny the stuff the better the children like it. Then the children take turns pulling things out and they have to say what the object is and what letter it starts with. It's great fun! *********************************************************************** Vv IDEAS VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV *VEGETABLE PRINTS Have the children cut up several different types of vegetables. Use different colors of paint and have the children dip the vegetables in the paint and print on the paper. *VOLLEYBALL Play a game of Volleyball by throwing a ball back and forth, trying not to let it touch the floor. *MIXED VEGGIES Serve a dish of mixed vegetables and dip. The children can try different vegetables they have maybe never had a chance to taste before. *BODY Vv'S Body v's- Show the kids how they might use their bodies to make a letter v. Invite them to spread apart their fingers, put their arms together at the elbows and spread their legs apart. *VEGETARIAN V For the letter V, you could cut out pictures of vegetables and let the kids glue them on a large V. *VELCRO V Give each child a little piece of sticky-back Velcro. let them put this on a piece of tagboard or poster board. do the same to a little cutout of the letter "V" mounted on board as well. show them how they Velcro the V! (decorate the boards!) *Vv VASE Have the kids paste the "V" cutout on some pretty paper. if your kids use scissors, encourage them to cut around the letter, to make an inverted triangle- this is the Vase. glue the vase onto pretty paper, and use either real flowers collected from outdoors or real flowers your local florist gave you to use. (I promised my florist a finished project to display, with a hand written thank you note from my kids- they traced it). *VELCRO ADVENTURE Have children try to find places or objects that Velcro will stick to (I think one side is stickier than another so let them try both and make some conclusions on their own) make a chart...stick and no stick classify the objects where they belong. *VOLCANO A classic activity that teaches kids what happens inside the most dramatic places on Earth! What causes a volcano to erupt? Try this activity to find out. How is it like a real Volcano? In a real volcano, the pressure comes from heat. Thick, melted rock called magma builds up under a volcano. The magma traps hot gases from deep inside the Earth. The pressure of the hot gases builds up until it pushes the magma out of the volcano. *GRAPHING What's your favorite vegetable? *VEST Vest out of paper bags, the kids decorated it by painting designs on the front *********************************************************************** Ww IDEAS WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW *WATER PAINT Go outside on a warm summer day with a bucket of water and paint brushes. Let the children paint on the sidewalk with the clear water. The picture will stay for a while, but slowly dry away so they can start all over with another creation. *WALLPAPER PICTURES Let the children cut out shapes and pictures from wall paper books. Have them glue their designs to construction paper. *WORMS Have the children pretend to be wiggly, crawly worms. Have them slide across the floor. *WATER Ww W is for water...spray water on W after they have been sprinkled with powdered tempera or chalk dust. *WET Ww W- use white cutouts of the letter for this project. place as many little jars of colored water (use food coloring) as you can out for the children. provide cotton swabs or cotton balls and tell the children to make their letter "w" all Wet (and beautiful!) *WOODEN Ww Use wooden popcicle sticks to make the letter w and glue on paper *********************************************************************** Xx IDEAS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX *XYLOPHONE Takes six identical glass tumblers and fill with various levels of water, from empty to full. Tap on the glasses with a wooden spoon to make music. *MUSICAL Xx Hide a small ball with Xs taped to it, somewhere in the room. Have a child look for the ball and direct the rest of the children to clap loudly when the person is getting closer to the ball and softly as the person gets farther away from the ball. *Xx ON A CRACKER Give each child a cracker. Have the children slice cheese into strips, then cross two strips on the crackers in the shape of the letter X. *CROSS STITCH Make up sewing cards with big X's on then and have the kids thread the needle ( Plastic) and sew X's!! *EAT AN Xx Make soft pretzels and form the letter X *X MARKS THE SPOT Arrange a "treasure hunt". Leave clues in three to six different places. For example start with a clue that reads "go to the closet that has a mop, broom and vacuum cleaner: the children then decide where to go. They would go there for the next clue. Prearrange for a big red X to mark the correct spot - "X marks the spot". *********************************************************************** Yy IDEAS YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY *YARDS Give each of the children a large piece of paper and have them draw their house and yard. Have them tell out their map of their yard. *YO-YO FUN Let each of the children take turns to try an make a yo-yo go up and down. Let them try numerous times. With lots of practice, they will get it. *YARN Make yellow yarn mobiles. Put white glue in an open bowl and invite the children to dip the yellow yarn in the glue using a popsicle stick to saturate the yarn completely except for the end the child is holding. Then have the children arrange the yarn on waxed paper in interesting designs. Ask children to bend the end of the yarn to use as a hanger and cut off the end they were holding since it has no glue on it. When the glue is dry....remove the mobiles from the waxed paper and hang them in a window or from the ceiling. *YARN Yy Make a Y pattern from heavy cardboard. Help the kids trace around the pattern on yellow construction paper. Invite the children to cut out their own Y's. Give each child several pieces of yarn in different colors to cut into small pieces. Give them a small cup of glue and have them brush glue on the yellow paper Y. Drop pieces of yarn on the glue. *YEAR AND YESTERDAY Ask the children how long a year is. Explain that some events only happen once a year. For example, the children have one birthday each year, Thanksgiving and other holidays only occur once a year. Encourage the children to name other events that happen once a year as well. Point out that New Year's Eve marks the end of a year. Teach the children to say and write the current year. Each day as you discuss the calendar, repeat "today is__________" and "Yesterday was_________" *YELL, YAWN, YODEL Have a yelling contest. Take the children outside and invite them to yell "Yippee!" "Yeah!" "Yes!" "Yoo-hoo!" Yesire!" and "Yahoo"! Award a simple prize to the child who yells the loudest Have each child pretend to yawn. Ask the kids when they usually yawn. Point out that yawning may mean they are tired or bored. Encourage the kids to keep track of times when they yawn. *********************************************************************** Zz IDEAS ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ *ZOOM Have the children zoom around the room like airplanes. *ZIGZAG ART Make zigzag art. You will need paper, marbles, different colors of paint, and a box the size of a sheet of paper. Tape your paper into the bottom of the box. Dip two or three marbles in paint. Drop the marbles onto the paper in the box and move the box around so the marbles roll. Dip the marbles in the paint as often as you want. Enjoy the zigzag patterns. No two will be alike. *ZERO Make Z patterns from heavy cardboard. Help the kids trace around the Z on sheets of colored construction paper. Have them cut out their Z's. Let them arrange hole reinforces all over the Z. *MORE ZERO Explain that zero comes before the number one. Let them practice making 0's. *ZERO ZERO Have them make a large zero on a sheet of construction paper. give each a handful of Cheerios. arrange them on the drawn zero until the circle is complete. *ZIGGITY ZAGS Purchase different colors and sizes of rickrack. Point out how rickrack makes a zigzag pattern. Let them practice walking in a zigzag line. Let them take turns being the leader. Give each child a piece of rickrack to cut into smaller pieces. Have them make a large letter Z and arrange the zigzag pieces and glue them on the Z. *PINKING SHEARS Use pinking shears. Show the children how they cut a zigzag pattern. *ZINGER Make a zinger. Give each child a piece of string about 10" long, two 6" squares of tin foil and a cotton ball. Let them use their imaginations to create something. Invite them to tell about their zingers *ZIPLOCK BAGS Give each child a ziplock bag. In each bag put large dabs of red and blue, red and yellow, red and white, blue and yellow, black and white, or black and orange fingerpaint that may be mixed together to make a new color. Put one color in one corner of the bag and the other in the opposite corner. Invite the children to zip the bags together (you may want to make sure its closed) mash the two colors to make a new color. Use the new color to paint Z's *ZIP CODES Explain zip codes to the children. Save some letters - let the children point out the zip codes......find out what their zip at home is