Kindergarten Activities

Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, homeschooling your children or just a parent of a kindergarten child, you will understand the importance of play. Children learn through play so giving them the opportunity to discover thing for themselves through playing is very important.
My two children were very lucky to have great kindergarten teachers. The kindergarten room was set up with different activites to suit the ability and interest of the children.

Here is a list of some of activities for kindergarten I have seen used successfully:

science activities - dinosaur table, insects
singing and dancing stage area with microphone
sand pit play
outdoor obstacle course for balance and co-ordination
quiet reading corner
kitchen area complete with sink dishes oven, pretend food, plates, cups and table
dress up area - not just the bought dress ups but donated clothes like dad's old suit, grandma's hat
painting area
cut and paste of paper
building blocks
toys animals

Kindergarten themes are fun and there are plenty to use throughout the year.

Special Events:
Olympics
mother's day
father day
Halloween
Christmas
Easter
Seasons

Favourites:
colors
characters
food
special person's day
grandparents day
pets
weather
zoo
fairy tales
alphabet
numbers

Here are some great books on Kindergarten themes

From bears to weather to Valentine's day, these thematic units provide young students with rich opportunities to write, speak, listen, and read across the curriculum. Includes classroom models and literature suggestions.
Thematic Units for Kindergarten (Grades K-1)

From August planning to July reflection, "Welcome to Kindergarten" is a comprehensive resource that will give kindergarten teachers new insights. Teachers and presenters Bonnie Brown Walmsley and Debra Redlo Wing demonstrate how best practices and a student-centered focus can make the first year of school rewarding for kinder children, parents, and teachers.

The authors are experienced teachers, presenting you, in clear and direct language, with developmentally appropriate teaching themes throughout the school year as well as specific project topics that get kids interested and excited about learning. This book addresses topics important to your classroom, including:

* assessing literacy progress
* meeting educational standards in a student-centered curriculum
* building students' content-area knowledge
* communicating meaningfully with parents
* keeping useful records
* making time for professional development.

From ideas about setting up your classroom, structuring play, and integrating art and music into lesson planning to invaluable resources. "Welcome to Kindergarten" gives you everything you need for effective organizing, communication, planning, and professional development.
Welcome to Kindergarten: A Month-by-Month Guide to Teaching and Learning

Kindergarten kids take an interest in learning through curiosity and encouragement. They begin to learn basic literacy and numeracy skills and develop some simple technical and coordination skills.
Some characteristics of children at this level include:
*building a sense of belonging
*understanding classroom rules and procedures
*making connections between school and home
*building positive behaviors
*engaging with others their behavior, their emotions and cognitively
*developing curiosity and finding out what they like and don't like.
*expressing ideas and feelings through a variety of artistic forms
*mastering technical skills
*developing physical capacities and an awareness of their own health needs.

Now finding resources to help you cater the the needs of children at this age can be difficult. Here is a few good ones I have found.

The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood: Over 1200 Easy Activities to Support Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

Here is a review of this book:
There's more than one way to be smart! This innovative book for three-to six-year-olds offers a complete plan for every learning style. Organized by theme, The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood includes a morning circle and end-of-day reflection, and different activities for each learning center. With more than 1,200 activities and ideas to engage multiple in-telligences, assessment tools, and a comprehensive appendix of songs, stories, games and dances, props, recipes, patterns, chants, rhymes, and arts and crafts, you'll find everything you need to captivate and challenge every child in your classroom.

Organized by month, Easy Daily Plans supplies teachers with everything they need for a complete year's worth of daily plans. Each lesson plan is complete with:

* An opening group time activity
* Story time book suggestions
* Center activities for a variety of centers, including art, blocks, dramatic play, music, fine motor skills, science, and math
* Extension activities, such as small group activities, games, outdoor activities, snack suggestions, and additional center activities

About the Author
Sue Fleishmann has been teaching for over 15 years. She taught for a Birth to Three Program and was a Child and Family Specialist in a National Center of Excellence Head Start. She holds a B.S in Education from The University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.
Click Here for more details Easy Daily Plans: Over 250 Plans for Preschool Teachers

This wonderful book sets out a simple, easy to follow preschool and kindergarten curriculum. It has step by step kindergarten lessons, kindergarten printables, and kindergarten worksheets.

Are you looking for kindergarten themes to help your child learn? Children learn from the world around them. "Children who are read to and encouraged to explore their world, will want to learn to read and write in their own time, and will also require much less 'teaching', if they are not pressured to do so before they are ready." Shirley Erwee author of ABC Fun & 1-2-3

Perhaps you are looking for kindergarten books to read, kindergarten songs to sing or games to play. This book has it all.
With this kindergarten program your children will learn about the alphabet and numbers in a relaxed and fun manner, using whole books and real life experience and by doing activities that are appropriate for kindergarten children.
ABC Fun & 1-2-3

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