New this year I am adding a bear preschool theme, because it is something my daughter is really into right now. I’ve picked some of our favorite books (below) and we are ready to learn! This plan is for my 3 turning 4 year old who is working on mastering her letter sounds. I have also added some options for my 2 year old in case she joins us for learning instead of nap.
Books: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear & Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See – Bill Martin Jr; Bear Says Thank You – Michael Dahl; Bear Snores On – Karma Wilson; Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Robert Southly; Teddy Bears Picnic – Jimmy Kennedy; Blueberries for Sal – Robert McCloskey; Where’s My Teddy? – Jez Alborough; We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen
Religion focus: Pick a saint to read about each day
Goldilocks questions – Use the story of Goldilocks to talk about different Q words. What questions were the bears asking? What was on the bears’ bed to keep them warm? Quilt. When Goldilocks fell asleep what sounds were in the house? It was quiet. How did Goldilocks leave the house? Quickly.
Where is the bear? – Get 4 dixie cups and write a letter on each one. I will do B, Qu, K & one of my child’s weakest letters. Place a counting bear underneath one, and have your child say the letter sounds until they find the bear. Repeat as many times as you can before your child bores.
Bear bounce – Place a small blanket on the floor with a teddy bear in the middle. With your child, grab a side of the blanket and toss it up in the air and catch it with the blanket.
We’re adding a forest theme this fall, because it is the perfect weather to get out on a hike in the forest and learn about nature and animals that are gearing up for the winter. This lesson plan was created for my newly turned 4 year old who is working on mastering all of her letter sounds.
Some books we love for the forest preschool theme are: The Busy Tree – Jennifer Word; Baby Animals in the Forest – Editors of Kingfisher; Little Owl’s Night – Divya Srinivasan; We Walk Through the Forest – Lisa Farland
Forest Layers – This link is to a rainforest, but the basics of the layers are the same. Ignore the animals listed. You can talk about squirrels, foxes, deer, racoons, rabbits, porcupines, owls, birds & bears.
I love fall learning because there is a such a visual representation for the kids to see in what we are learning about. It’s a great time to get your kids outside and in nature. This lesson plan is for my just turned 4 year old, who is working on mastering her letter sounds. I also have a 2 year old, who USUALLY naps when we do our learning, but sometimes that is not the case, so I’ve added a couple of ideas of things to do with her as well in case she is learning with us.
Check out these 5 fall ideas too for some more fall fun that we have done.
Fall theme book ideas: The Mouse’s Apples – Frances Stickley; The Pumpkin Book – Gail Gibbons; There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves – Lucille Colandro; How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin – Margaret McNamara; Too Many Pumpkins – Linda White; Patty’s Pumpkin Patch – Teri Sloat
Tree 10 Frame – Laminate the printable, then use play-do to create apples or fall-colored leaves that you can add to the tree. Then give your child a number and have them write it to the right of the tree, above the 10-frame. You can make dotted lines for them to trace if they cannot write on their own yet. (Alternatively, you could have them pick the number out of a basket of number magnets or something). Then have them add the number of ‘apples’ or ‘leaves’ to the tree. Finally, use a fall counter, or more play-do to fill in the 10-frame.
Pumpkin Seed Counting – Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers and write numbers 0-8 on them in random order (do 4x #8 since it is the focus number this week). Then give your child a bowl of pumpkin seeds and have them count the correct number of seeds into each spot.
This year I wanted to do a special theme for my daughters birthday, and right now her favorite thing is unicorns (or wunicorns as she calls them)!! So we’re doing a birthday/unicorn theme this week! She is 3 turning 4, so this lesson plan is geared toward that age.
Some books that I rented from the library for this theme are: Rabbits Pajama Party – Stuart Murphy; Happy Birthday, Hamster – Cynthia Lord; Mr. Cookie Baker – Monica Wellington; The Secret Birthday Message – Eric Carle; The Night Before My Birthday – Natasha Wing; A Birthday for Frances – Russell Hoban
Our religion focus will be to start learning the Our Father, and in case my 2 yr old decides to join us for some learning, I have these activities set aside for her: 2-part cupcake puzzle, matching cards,4-part puzzle,
Language
Review last name letters and trace in sprinkle tray
Write last name on cardboard. Have child trace with glue and add glitter
Write last name on board. Have child use pom poms to erase while saying letter sounds
Thanksgiving is here! A great time to be reminded of all the things in our lives that we have to be thankful for. As for as schooling, it can be a controversial subject, so as with everything in my preschool themes, take what works for you and leave the rest. This is what I will be choosing to do this week along with many themed books from the library. These are some of our favorites: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey – Lucille Colandro; Give Thanks to the Lord – Karma Wilson; Thankful – Eilleen Spinelli
I also have 3 videos with fun ideas for Thanksgiving!! Here are some crafts, here are some activities, and here are some ideas for fine motor skills and sensory play. We will be working on making an American Indian headdress from the activity video throughout this week. I will also have a ‘thankful pumpkin’ on which everyone can write what they are thankful for throughout the week.
Tell about a time that you were jealous of someone else because they had something that you wanted.
Did Daniel stop praying when he learned that he would be put in the den of lions for praying to God?
Daniel & the Lions Den Painting – Crumble a ball of aluminum foil and dip it in paint to paint the worksheet
Lion Puppet Cut out Lion Head worksheet and glue to a paper plate. Color the head and add brown yarn for the mane. Glue a large craft stick to the back of the head. Cut out the eyes to make a mask for the child.
Indian Sign Language – Look at the chart of signs and talk about the Native Americans language. Since it’s a review week for my 2-year-old, I will just emphasize beginning word sounds with her. And since we’re working on rhymes this week, I will have my daughter try to tell me a rhyme of each word.
Dot sticker feather sort – print feathers in the color of dot stickers you have, then have child place the dot stickers on the corresponding colored feather
2023 Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
This is designed for a 3 turning 4 year old 🙂
Religion focus: Learn the prayer before meals
2 Yr Options: Pumpkin pie filling & whipped cream sensory bin, turkey play-do – brown playdough, google eyes, feathers, pipe cleaners, orange triangle cutouts, turkey dot sheets, glue feathers to paper, paint a pumpkin
Feathers on a turkey – Cut a large circle from cardboard and make a slit in the center. Cut out a neck and head shape for a turkey, insert it into the slit and tape it on from the back. Divide the circle into 8 pie shapes. Put number words and dots in each section (2-9). Write corresponding numbers on clothespins (you can use colored clothespins to make them look more like feathers). Have your child clip the clothespin feather on the correct number dot space on the turkey.
Pie math – Cut 2 large circles out of a brown and orange piece of construction paper. Divide each circle into 8 pie shapes with a marker. On the brown paper, put dots of different numbers that you choose (make sure they are between 0-9). On the orange paper, write the corresponding numeral and number word in each pie space, then cut the orange paper into individual pie pieces. Have the child place the pumpkin pie slice on the correct number dot ‘pie pan’ space.
Turkey handprint – Paint child’s palm and 4 fingers brown, and their thumb red. Stamp their hand on a piece of paper and when it tries, decorate with a googly eye, beak, legs, and feet with marker.
Halloween fun!! My kids are sooo excited for dressing up and trick or treating, but of course we’ve gotta throw some learning fun in there too. Here are some books we like for Halloween: Little Boo – Stephen Wunderli; We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt – Susan Pearson; Pumpkin Jack – Will Hubbell; The I’m Not Scared Book – Todd Parr; Dem Bones – Bob Barner; Where’s My Mummy – Carolyn Crimi; Spooky Pookie – Sandra Boynton
In addition to this lesson plan, here are some things that you can do with your Halloween candy. I also have several craft and activity ideas, here, here, here, and here.
Comprehension Questions: What were the names of the boy and the man in this story? Who did Samuel think was calling him? What did Eli tell Samuel to do? Who was calling Samuel?
Listening Walk – A few weeks ago when we did the 5 Senses unit, we did a listening walk. You could do that again or what I’m going to do is put the kids in the stroller and blindfold them (or just put the shade up and put a blanket over so that they can’t see) and have them tell me what they hear. We’ll probably do that walking up the street and then let them see again on the way back. I definitely don’t want to block their sight for too long. If it’s not nice out you could always just have them put their heads down at the table and you can make sounds or play sounds and have them guess what sound it is.
Secret Message – I wrote out a phrase (I can hear God too) and then wrote a random letter in between each letter of the phrase. Then I put blanks (like hangman) to represent the letters and words in my phrase. Then I will have my daughter cross out every other letter and put the remaining letters on the line to reveal a message. For example, IGCEAJNLHWESATRHGPOFDUTIOQO would be – I can hear God too.
Act out H words – Have your child act out Halloween things that start with H sound like: howl like a wolf, act scared from a haunted house, pu on a witch hat, go on a hayride, make a hocus pocus spell etc..
Ghost Knock Down – draw ghost faces on clear plastic cups and have child stack in a 4,3,2,1 pyramid. Talk about how many pyramids you would need to make 100. Then you could use a ball or small decorative pumpkin to go bowling and knock it down. They can do it as many times as they would like. For the younger child I will just have her count the cups.
Save the spiders – add play spiders to a muffin tin then put masking tape over top of the tin opening. Have your child practice their cutting skills to cut the tape then use tweezers to free the spiders. You can see my daughter demonstrating this activity with bears at the end of this video
Halloween Graphing – Put Halloween erasers (or other Halloween items like spider rings) into a sensory bin and have the child pull them out and graph them on a sheet of paper
Halloween roll & cover – Even though our number of the week is 8, I am going to do the 1-6 sheet with my 2 year old because she is still a very new 2.. if you have a more advanced child you could do the up to 12 roll and cover instead.
Playdough spiders and monsters – Get out your playdough and use a sectioned tray (like this one) to hold things to make spiders and monsters (like googly eyes, pipe cleaners, pretzel sticks, spider rings , Halloween erasers, etc..)
Monster potions – in small clear plastic cups, add some eyes and pipe cleaner mouths to make monster cups. Add a few drops of different colored food coloring in each followed by some baking soda. Get a separate cup filled with vinegar and let the child use a dropper to add it to the cups. Can talk about the reaction of baking soda and vinegar then let them play!
Water density – Experiment with water density using Halloween colored liquids (vegetable oil, syrup, dye water) and talk about what’s happening. Then you can add Halloween trinkets (spider, eye ball etc..) do see which liquid they go to. To finish off the experiment, drop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet and watch the show!
Use candy corn or candy pumpkins and toothpicks to build structures
Ghost Knock Down – draw ghost faces on 10 clear plastic cups and write #’s 0-9 on the top. Have child sequence and stack them in a pyramid. Use a small pumpkin or ball to go bowling and knock it down. Repeat as many times as they want.
Save the Spiders – add play spiders to a muffin tin then put masking tape over the opening. Have your child cut the tape and use tweezers to free the spiders. You can see this activity in action with bears at the end of this video
Halloween Facts – Halloween is on October 31st (find it on the calendar). The colors of Halloween are orange and black. It originated in the Celtic lands – Ireland & Scotland (find them on the map). The Halloween celebration goes back over 2,000 years. Originally, jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips and potatoes. Illinois has the most pumpkins of all the states (find it on a map).
OTHER ACTIVITY IDEAS
Cotton Ball Ghost – Hang a large piece of butchers paper on the wall and draw the outline of a big ghost with eyes and a mouth. Have child use glue and cotton balls to fill in the ghost. You can also use a cut out ghost like we did in this video.
Marble paint mummy – cut out a mummy body on black paper, tape it inside a box and drop on a few globs of white paint. Have the child drop in some marbles and shake the box from side to side to create white lines all over the mummy. After the paint dries add 2 yellow dot stickers for eyes and draw a black dot in the center. If you haven’t seen marble painting before, we did it at Easter here
Trick or Treat Graph – after trick or treating separate and graph the candy you got
Colored Pasta Sensory Bin – color noodles and bake for 20 min so that the color doesn’t transfer then use it as the base of a Halloween sensory bin. You can see ours from last year here
Jello Excavation – Make 2 packets of orang jello and dump on a tray or in a bin. Add the Halloween stuff then put in the fridge until ready. Use tweezers, scoops etc.. to get all the items out.
SpiderWeb Obstacle Course – Using streamers or twine, make a ‘web’ all over a room and have the child try to climb through without getting stuck
After just having fire week last week, I thought that it would be a good time to talk about other disasters that can happen too. This time, focusing on natural disasters like tornados, hurricanes & volcanos. And with those air, land & water fits right in. My kids love talking about different disasters.. I don’t know why, they are just mesmerized by them and can ask a zillion questions about them. This unit is also a great way to talk about the idea of geography, maps & globes.
As with every lesson, we of course pair the materials listed with tons of books from the library, but I also have the Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth which I love. To note, you’ll see LHL next to a couple of items without a link. That’s because some of this lesson comes from a Little Hands Learn free unit study. I cannot share the printables here, but you can get them free if you enroll if you are interested.
I spy Game – Looking around the room say I spy something that starts with the letter ‘mmmm’ and have the child guess items that start with m. Do this for review letters.
Nature walk – Bring 3 small jars and go for a walk to collect air, water & land. You can just have them wave the jar around to collect air. Then you can match each jar to the 3 part cards that they go with
Gemstones & Minerals – I got this to be able to look at the different gemstones and minerals and we will also look up where they come from on a map. This is another good resource to use with this activity.
Tornado Game – I will use letter flashcards and sight word cards for this and some tape the tornados to the back of some so that they don’t know which are which. My 2 girls will be 1 man teams and the 2 year old will have the single letters and a mama helper, while the 4 year old will have the sight words. We will draw a basic house that I will help them with.
Natural Disaster Café – I am going to make a little menu for myself and put numbers next to each one (1-7 for my 2 year old, any number up to 100 for my 4 year old). I will then read them the menu and they can pick something they want to make. But, before they do, they have to do the number activity. For my 2 year old it will be counting or picking the correct number flashcard from a pile, and for my 4 year old, she will have to write the number on the board, or build the number with math beads. Once they do the math activity they can make the item in the play kitchen and deliver it to the customer aka me or sister or dad. The menu will be something like… disaster soup – 2/14 (so my 2 year old would count 2 objects with me and my 4 year old will write or build the number 14). Other menu ideas: Lava lasagna, Tornado Pasta, Earthquake Chicken Tenders etc…
Find #7 – I will put a 7 magnet in a bin with several letter magnets. I will have my daughter search through the bin to find the 7. Repeat until child looses interest.
Graph natural disasters – I will have my daughter make a graph based on these numbers that I found in an online search – average numbers per year (I don’t really care if these are 100% accurate, you can do more research if you do)– tsunamis: 2, hurricanes: 12, volcanos: 60, tornados: 1000. The graph doesn’t have to be completely accurate, but I just want her to see the comparison in quantities.
Other Natural Disaster Preschool Activity Ideas
Monopoly Earthquake – Get to large cloths (or paper) and overlap them a little bit. Cover them lightly with soil, and top with monopoly houses to make a town. Then pull apart the cloths and watch the houses fall in the fault line.
Graham Cracker Quake – Lay 2 halves of graham cracker on a pile of red frosting. Push them back and forth to show what happens – fault line & mountains.
