Welcome to Week #8 – In the Pond!
Download and print the activity calendar for Week #8 from the pink button below. Hanging the calendar outline on the refrigerator or in a plastic page protector makes it easy to know what’s on the schedule each day!
Day 1
Lily Pad Leap: Create pretend lily pads with paper plates. Write one letter or word on each lily pad depending on what skill level your preschooler is currently working on. Consider writing on letter in your preschooler’s name on each plate as a fun way to build a word while playing. Have your preschooler pretend to be a frog and leap from lily pad to lily pad identifying and naming letters or words on the way. Mix the paper plate lily pads or add new letters and play again!
Fish & Count: Print the pond and little fish cards or easily create your own set. Cut the fish cards apart. On small pieces of paper, write numbers or even addition and subtraction problems. Put the number papers in a pile or a small bowl. Pick a number, add that many fish to the pond while counting one at a time. After the first set of fish are added to the pond, consider adding a challenge to the game. Pick another number and add that many more fish to the pond OR take away that many fish. Count to see how many fish are now left in the pond and play again.
Play Dough Flowers: There are some neat looking flowers and plants all around a pond. Use play dough to make fun flowers. Roll the play dough out into “snakes” to create petals, stems, and leaves. Roll play dough into balls for flower parts too. Use different colors (if you are ok with colors possibly mixing!) and let your preschooler create a set of fun flowers!
Day 2
Paint the Pond: On a piece of white cardstock (or other white paper) use a Sharpie to draw all of the things found at and in a pond. If you have any good books where the setting is at a pond, read it before this activity. Draw the pond, and then all of the frogs, fish, flowers and grasses, lily pads, dragonflies, as well as the sun and the clouds in the sky. Draw with the Sharpie, but don’t color the drawings in with the Sharpie. After the drawing is completed, use watercolor paints to add color to the picture. The black lines drawn with the Sharpie will stay and the paint will fill in and add detail.
Frog Flip & Color: Print the frog number page or create your own page with numbers. Find a deck of playing cards and take out all of the number cards 2-10. Add the cards to a pile. Choose one card at a time and identify the number on it. If the number cannot be identified, practice counting the number of symbols on the card. Find that same number on the frog number page and color the frog. Pick another card, identify the number, and color in a frog with the matching number.
Duck Walk: Walking like a duck takes a lot of work! Create a line to follow out of tape on the floor or with chalk outside. Squat down and walk and waddle like a duck down the line. To make this more challenging, each time your preschooler gets to the end of the line, announce an exercise to do (10 jumping jacks, 5 frog hops, 8 marches, etc.) before walking like a duck back down the line!
Day 3
Fishing Matches: Print the fish page or draw your own. This is a version of the game memory. Print or create enough fish to play the game. Cut the fish cards apart and write letters or words in each fish. Make sure to write the same letter on 2 fish, so that each fish has a match. Consider writing an uppercase letter on one fish and the same letter bu in lowercase on its match for an added challenge. Mix the cards up and place them face down on the table. Choose 2 fish at a time and identify the letters on them. If they make a match, keep it in your pile. Continue to take turns and make matches until all of the fish cards are matched up!
Catching Flies: Help the frog catch the flies! Cut black circles out of paper to be the pretend flies. Use a long piece of painters tape or masking tape as a frog’s sticky tongue for this math activity. Hold it in your hand or attach it to a stick or ruler. Put all of the black paper flies in a pile on the floor. Using the tape as your frog tongue, try to catch as many flies as you can by getting the black paper circles to stick to the tape. Count the flies and go back for more trying to see how many you can catch during one try!
Sink or Float: Fill a clear plastic bin with water to act as the pretend pond. Gather a bunch of different toys and items around the house that are able to get wet. Have your child guess which items will sink to the bottom and which ones will float. Sort the items into the 2 piles – sink and float. Drop each item into the water to see if your guess was correct!
Day 4
Pond Splash: The frogs make a lot of splashes when leaping into and out of the pond! Draw water splashes on the driveway with chalk or cut splash puddles out of blue paper and spread them out on the floor. Write a letter on each splash puddle with chalk. Using a hose or watering can, go from splash puddle to splash puddle watering the letters. Identify the letter, letter sound, or think of a word that starts with that letter!
Frog Leap & Measure: Print the frog ruler, cut it apart, and attach the ends. You can also use a tape measure. Set a starting mark on the floor with chalk or tape. Have your preschooler stand behind the mark. Bend your knees and jump forward as far as possible. Mark the spot jumped to with tape and then use the frog ruler to measure to see how many frogs your preschooler jumped!
Paper Plate Fish: Paint or color a paper plate. When the paint is dry, cut a triangular piece out from the edge of the plate. The empty triangle spot is now the fish’s mouth. The piece that was cut out will be come the fish’s tail fin. Glue or staple the tail fin on. Add details to the fish and hang to display for everyone to see!
Day 5
Shaving Cream Pond: Spread shaving cream all over a table or tray. Shaving cream may not be save for all surfaces. With your finger draw a big pond shape on the table in the shaving cream. Make the pond on the bigger side towards the edge of the shaving cream all around. Inside the area of the shaving cream pond, have your preschooler write letters or words. Give your child letters to write. Each time a letter is written is given, write it inside the pond. Keep writing letters until the pond is full. Rub the shaving cream to erase and then play again!
Tip Toe Turtles: Print the turtle page or draw your own. Cut the turtles out. Tape the turtles to the wall or around the floor. Play some fun music and dance around the room while tip toeing from turtle to turtle. Consider changing the movement from turtle to turtle and counting to see how many tip toes or other kinds of movements it takes to get to each turtle!
Froggy May I?: This game is similar to Mother May I? and can be played inside or outside. Line your preschooler up at a certain spot and stand across the room or yard. Your preschooler will ask movement questions to you in order to be able to move from the starting spot. For example, “Froggy may I jump 3 time?” “Froggy may I take 10 big steps?” Each time a question is asked, your preschool must say, “Froggy may I…” As the froggy, you can give permission for the movement OR adjust the movement. If 6 jumps are asked for, you can say no and then give permission for only 4 jumps. Your preschooler will move across the floor moving in certain ways. When your preschooler reaches you, the game is over!
The activities for Week #8 will have your preschooler leaping for more!
Hopefully you are loving the Preschool on the Go activities and that you are feeling more confident about setting up learning fun for your preschooler. Don’t forget, if you are ever looking for more in-depth printable options, you can check out these products:
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Grab the printable outline for Week #8 from the pink button!
Hang it on your refrigerator so you can glance up at it to see what is planned each day. Keep the digital copy available to quickly click to access this page at any point for details about the activities.
You can access all of the Preschool on the Go activities from the main page!
Email me at nicole@modernpreschool.com if you need to!