• Balls Study & Earth Day

    Week of April 20 - April 24, 2020

    Click Here for a letter to famillies from Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum featuring the Balls Study.

    Focus Question: What do we know about balls? What do we want to find out?

    Question of the Day: Monday: Which is your favorite ball to play with? 

    Tuesday: Is your ball bigger or smaller than a baseball?

    Wednesday: EARTH DAY! Talk with a big person about what it means to litter. Why shouldnt we litter?

    Thursday: Is your ball bigger or smaller than a soccer ball?

    Friday: How many times can you bounce your ball?

  • Read-Alouds

    Starting on Monday, watch and read along with one title each day.

    Monday: The Little Red Hen - Click the title to listen to and watch a read aloud of The Little Red Hen.

    Tuesday: Have a Ball - Click the title to listen to and watch a read aloud of Have a Ball.

    Wednesday: The Earth Book - Click on the title to listen to and watch a read aloud of The Earth Book, read to you by the author Todd Parr.  Listen for his fun and easy ways you can participate in Earth Day, at the end!

    Thursday: Curious George Plays Baseball - Click on the title to listen to and watch a read aloud of Curious George Plays Baseball.

    Friday: Froggy Plays Soccer - Click the title to listen to and watch a read aloud of Froggy Plays Soccer.

  • Make Time for...

    Outdoor Experiences

    Variety of Balls

    • Bring a variety of balls outdoors for children to play with and explore. 
    • On Day 5, play WITH the children.
    • To celebrate Earth Day which is on Wednesday April 22nd, lets do some things to make our earth better - plant a flower or tree, pick up litter, recycle bottles or cans or paper.

    Wow! Experiences

    • Day 5: Ask a sibling or person who lives in your house to play ball withthe children outdoors.

     

    *cited from Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, featuring the Balls Study.

  • Interest Area Activities

    This is where you can find some fun activities to do with your child.  These activities can be done with materials you already have at home, or items similar to what you have at home.  Choose one activity each day starting Monday.

    1.  Using any larger-sized ball, sit on the floor across from your child, legs open.  Roll the ball back and forth, slowly at first, increasing speed as your child become comfortable with catching the ball and rolling it back.  Once comfortable, try counting out loud how many times you can get the ball back and forth.  Can you get to 20 passes?

    2.  Do you have a box leftover from last week during our Buildings Study?  Let's use that box to make some art!  Tape down a piece of paper to the bottom inside of the box.  Then let's drop some paint blobs of any color/colors on the paper.  Next find any small ball (marbles, ping pong balls, toy golf balls, etc.) and put them in the box.  Have your child hold the box with two hands and gently roll the balls back and forth until they are happy with the creation!

    3.  Outdoor Scavenger Hunt Click on the Outdoor Scavenger Hunt to print a list of some different kinds of things on our earth.  If you dont have a printer, dont worry!  Just pull up the list and make a mental note when you and your child find each one!  Alternatively, you can also create your own list of items to search for in your neighborhood. Think of what is readily available and would be of interest to your children.

    4.  Recycle and reuse a large box to create a game called "Box Bowling". Grab a box and a ball smaller than the box, and cut out a half circle hole large enough that the ball will easily fit through.  Now challenge your child to roll the ball into the half circle.  Keep score and count who gets the most balls into the hole!    

    5.  Do you have a recycle bin at home?  If not, you can make one together by recycling and reusing one of our boxes from the Buildings Study last week!  Just use some paper and glue or tape to wrap around the outside of the box, and let your child decorate the recycle box with pictures of things that go inside, like paper, cans, plastic bottles, etc.  Your child can draw these things on or cut from a magazine or newspaper.  

  •