Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme Lesson Ideas

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Making early learning activities fun, creative, and interesting for children gives my teacher's heart such joy!

This post is full of phonemic awareness as well some math and science connections to give you at least 1 day focus about Humpty Dumpty.

Rhyming sets include:

humpty

dumpty

wall

fall

all

men

again

Letter sounds to emphasize are:

H for Humpty and horses

hard C/K for king, couldn't

Words separated into letter 'tiles' for building word practice=

H

U

M

P

T

Y

D

U

M

P

T

Y

W

A

L

L

F

A

L

L

M

E

N

A

G

A

I

N

Math and Science connections that I am focusing attention on Humpty being an egg--

Eggs are oval-shaped.

Some animals reproduce by laying eggs.

Ask children if eggs are circles or ovals.

Animals that lay eggs include:

Chicken

Turtle

Fish

**************************Social Studies connection would be cultural traditions related to dying and decorating eggs.

****************

Additional topics to expand upon with this rhyme would be:

horses, communities, countries, types of rulers and leaders of countries, safety warnings about falling,

horses

The End! --from Mrs. S

ECE Level Word Work Activity Sheets Part 2

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Make sure to read the previous posting to help this one make better sense because I'm going to be brief.

Differentiation is a key assessment and evaluation approach in today's classrooms. Over 20 years ago, effective outstanding teachers were doing this practice without using the specific term "differentiation". Effective teachers knew if they wanted every child to succeed and learn concepts and skills, often activities would need to be tweaked in order to accomplish the goal of learning.

Yesterday I revealed my version of a word work activity that had written clues with the intent that the teacher would read those clues to the children at the start of the day, week, or before the ELA station/center activity time started. Decoding skills are extremely helpful in learning spelling rules and with so many variations in the English language, our youngest school learners need different ways to practice decoding. Scrambled order and rearranging of letters is 1 approach to try.

For the 4 letter words that I picked for the word/letters in WATER, I was able to find clip-art images. I still have some partial typed clues but now there are image clues for each word puzzle:

My blogging and sharing classroom ideas are for inspiration. I'm not a TpT or have a company website where I sell my resources. At this point, I just want to share and inspire aspects in my own teaching journey with readers in blog-land.

As I mentioned in the previous posting, the very first word work activity took the most time to construct; however I had brainstormed a bit in thinking how I would format my version of "JUMBLED WORDS". For this pictured activity sheet with answer key, I already had the full written clues made so it was a matter of using the 'make a copy' and then deleting a few clue words to make room for the pictures. I also had to adjust font size in order for it to still fit on a half sheet.

REVIEW:
1. "tear" off the gift wrap
2. to "wear" an uniform
3. a "wart" on my hand
4. a 5 letter word suggestion is the title word "WATER"

Kids love puzzles and they will feel very empowered when they successfully complete each word work activity sheet. So far I've made activities for "WATER", "FORUM", "FLOWER", "HEART", and "PARTLY".

Have creative learning fun making your own word work activities for primary level students.

Key words:
a. word work
b. ECE
c. decoding
d. differentiation

Loving learning and teaching,
Becca S/Mrs. S

M. Ed. in Elem Ed. w/ ECE emphasis
Illinois certification in Birth to Grade 3/ECE self-contained classrooms

ECE level Word Work Activity Sheets Idea Spark

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Oh, my creativity learning heart has loved what I've created this week! And the idea was sparked by my new cell phone games of "Cross Word Jam" and "Word Trip" along with seeing lots of word work activities by a dozen or so teacher/author/bloggers during the past year or so.

I think I've made about 7 sets using either 5 or 6 letter words that have three puzzle words with 4 letters and three puzzle words with 3 letters! I formatted this on landscape view so the activity is just a half sheet and the answer key is the other half. After making the first one, the rest have been easier using "make a copy" and deleting the parts that need to be switched out.

Here's what I did for the letters in "FLOWER"--

What's fabulous with this activity is that it can easily be differentiated! The clues can be left off. The reason why I added was I plan on sharing these when the station or activity is introduced. That I would read the clues to the kids and have them repeat back to me at least twice and hopefully they'd remember the order or could figure out a word or two within the clue words to get things figured out.

A picture clue can be used instead of the typed ones.

Children who are struggling could attempt the 3 letter ones and can come back in a month or so when they've made some progress and try the 4 letter then.

Advance students can try to come up with additional 3-letter, 4-letter, and/or 5 letter words if it's possible.

Note: Separate the answer keys and place them in a special reference binder that you can decide whether or not the children can access if they are stumped in the midst of center rotation time. You will need to decide if not being interrupted with your small group is more important than giving them a bit of assistance when they're struggling.

Fine motor and literacy skills can be expanded by having the children draw pictures of the words on the reverse side. They may not be able to draw a wolf but they can sketch a simple dress and a simple owl.

Word work in a variety of formats is very important for primary age students to develop the decoding skills and learn all the spelling deviations in the English language.

This post's key topics would be:
*letters
*word formations
*decoding

With a love for learning and teaching about ECE and with ECE-aged children:
Mrs. S/Becca S

M. Ed. Elem Ed w/ ECE emphasis; UMSL; 2003

Using Trading Card 9 Pocket Page for Primary Word Work

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! My artsy-crafty heart got inspired from an item used now for scrapbooking! Using a baseball/trading card pocket sheet protector page has been a variation for scrapping for a couple of years now. About the same time, artists and crafters came up with the mixed media or paper-crafting version of a baseball card called Artist Trading Card or ATC for short. The pocket openings are about 2.5" wide and 3.5" deep/long.

Last night I got busy sorting through some environmental print and photos repurposed from magazines and managed to get the total of 6 phrases made with the combination of cut-out text and photos.

Word Work for short phrases and/or sight words SIDE A=

Above: row 1= made with love
row 2= stand by me
row 3= save the plant

I penciled the words in lowercase letters unless it was a command sentence like "Save the plant." For now I'm going to leave that in pencil as if it is a subtle suggestion for the children. At some point in the future, I might go over that in marker.

Target age group: Kindergarten to Grade 2
Target subject: English Language Arts/ELA
Target concept areas within ELA: word work, sight words, starting grammar usage of nouns, verbs, prepositions, or article/adjectives

Target ELA focus: environmental print, picture identification to help prompt word choice

SIDE B=

Above: row 1= bake a batch
row 2= right at home
row 3= the new lamp

The trading card pocket pages are usually sold in sets of 10 or 25 and can be found in the office supply and/or scrapbooking craft supply sections of stores. I know teachers are using the full page sheet protector pages but may not have thought about how to use these 'bubble gum' cards-size 9 pockets for classroom use. (There is a slightly smaller version in the size area of the pockets known as the business card holder sheet protector pages. Take a look at those and see which size fits your class needs best.)

The sheet can be added easily to a 3-ring notebook binder or for a 3-prong center pocket folder.

Easy-peasy for adding to or taking away as students' needs change and need to be challenged!

Hope you like this activity idea and let it spark more re-purposing to think smarter and not work harder for your teaching needs.

From the USA heartland,
Becca S

B.S. Secondary-Home Economics
M. Ed. Elementary Ed w/ ECE emphasis

certification endorsements in IL for FACS grades 6-12 and Birth to Grade 3 (ECE); and approval for general science grades 5-8

Compare and Contrast National Symbols with Other Symbols Simplified for Grades K to 2

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! My heart's desire is connecting my creativity with making learning playful for students of all ages but especially the littles! A day or two ago I shared an activity sheet that included both Illinois state symbols (the state I live in) and national USA symbols. Just a few minutes ago I finished making a simplified version that focuses only on national symbols. And it is not 1 to 1 correspondence matching in each row but recognizing that there is a 2nd national symbol in each row after they focus on the first USA pictured icon at the start of each row.

So here's a snapshot of what that looks like:

Keeping Social Studies simple for early learners:

Row 1: The U.S. Presidential Seal and National Flag
Row 2: The U. S. Capitol Building and Statue of Liberty
Row 3: The Liberty Bell and Mount Rushmore
Row 4: The Lincoln Memorial and a Bald Eagle, national bird

My ideas that I share are for inspiration. Give credit where credit is due, please, if you refer to my activities.

Sharing my passion of creating interesting activities for ECE students,
Becca S

Illinois certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3/ECE
FACS Grades 6-12

and approval:
General Science Grades 5-8

Grade 1 or 2 ELA words ending in letters lf that change to plural ending of letters lves

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I want to share a quick post this afternoon for an ELA activity sheet that I've made this past week. It's really crazy how a person's creativity gets sparked from reading words from someone else! What's more amazing is that I actually followed up on that spark to create this activity sheet that leads off with 1 elf and 2 elves!

I just kept picturing having columns with the numbers and word endings changing! I've got a few ideas for altering and providing more practice so hopefully time will open up in the next couple of days to make those into extra activities. Our English language has many different rules and exceptions to rules, so teachers at the primary level need to help children make sense of spelling and grammar rules through a variety of word work activities.

Elves, Calves, Shelves, Wolves, and Selves:

For student use I print everything in black and white, so this would appear differently to them. And since I was using clipart images, locating a single shelf image was very difficult and felt best using the mirror with an attached shelf photo for the singular. Then a 3-shelf bookcase clipart image is used for the plural.

I hope this inspires you to create something similar for your students!

With a passion for helping little ones,
Becca S

Illinois certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General Science grades 5-8

Compare and Contrast USA and State Symbols for Social Studies Grades K to 2

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! This posting shares my love and patriotism for the USA. I live in Illinois so the photos show symbols that are part of our state history.

Last year I created this worksheet because I have so many ECE resources for science, ELA, and math but have very little for social studies. So I snapped photos of the document to share. Directions were simple for children to identify national symbols with a designated color and to use a different one for Illinois symbols.

I've added non-related symbols because I believe that cognitively children need to challenged to reason through why one item is acceptable but another one isn't. Some of those non-related symbols are the clover (which is used for 4-H clubs but those aren't a national or state symbol), birthday cake, and rabbit.

Here's the activity sheet I made shown by snapshots:

Above: USA President's Seal = yes for USA; also the flag in the top row; mark those with a blue crayon
Top row: has a map with IL shown in red = yes for IL; mark it with a red crayon

Some others to highlight:
Bottom row 4th image from the left= Illinois State Seal = yes for IL
Bottom row 3rd image from the left = Bald Eagle = yes for USA
Bottom row 2nd image from the left = Cardinal = yes for IL state bird

Could this be used as a pre-assessment before any brainstorming or wall décor pictures go up about state and/or national symbols? Sure.

Depending on the age group, the comparing and contrasting could be simpler. There are several on this sheet that are debatable:

Abraham Lincoln and his memorial might cause some arguments. He's a national figure since he was President from 1860-1864 however his youth and adult years were spent in Illinois. I'll let you decide whether or not you include him for symbol or not or just the memorial since that is in honor for him.

Cubs are based in Chicago but is that a state symbol?

Donkey is the symbol for the Democratic Party but is that a national symbol?

In the US, Presidents Day is celebrated in February because both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have birthdays. This would make the perfect time for discussing and learning to recognize national and state symbols. Before or after this, learn the US Presidents' names in order to a catchy tune or focus on just a few. It could be a short study about 4 or 5 of the most recent Presidents. Illinois claims Lincoln and Reagan. It could also be Presidents whose images appear on coins or bills which would be a great 2-fer deal covering money for math and Presidents for social studies.

Look at your state or local scope and sequence for your primary level classroom and decide when it the most advantageous to teach about national and state symbols for social studies. It's always beneficial for the teacher and for the student if dual needs can be accomplished from one unit!

With a love for early learners,
Becca S

Illinois certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Insect Picture Strips Are Multipurpose for Science and Math and Fine Motor Growth

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Insects are one of my favorite science concepts to teach with preschool and primary age children. Did you know that 75% of all animals are arthropods? Arthropods include 4 kinds: centipedes and millipedes, crustaceans (crabs), arachnids (spiders), and insects.

Insects are the largest group amongst the arthropods. Here are just some to get you brainstorming before you challenge your little ones about how many they know:
*grasshoppers
*fleas
*lice
*mosquitos
*flies
*bees
*butterflies
*moths
*praying mantis
*dragonflies
*mayflies
*beetles
*fireflies (lightning bugs)
*wasps
*hornets

Insects' bodies have 3 parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. On the head it is usually one pair of antennae and two compound eyes. They have multiple parts to their mouths which include a pair of mandibles. The thorax has 3 sections or segments and each has 1 pair of legs. If an insect has wings those are attached in the 2nd and/or 3rd segments but there are many insects without wings. Metamorphosis varies among insects with some having incomplete (larvae stage like grasshoppers) and others have complete (transformation from caterpillar to pupa to adult like butterflies).

The worksheet or activity sheet can be used many different ways. The main way that I wanted the children to use this was for their worksheet copy to be cut into the strips/rows. Then each student needs to use the single-hole puncher to punch holes in the first one shown and then any others that match it.

Gripping the hole-puncher helps develop strength in their dominant hand that they use to hold a pencil, crayon, and paintbrush. This is so vital for littles when they are between 3-7 years old. ECE teachers can have children color the insects first before doing the hole-punch matches.

It also might help them cognitively to have them only color the first one of each row and the subsequent ones that match instead of coloring all that are pictured.

This activity sheet took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to create in Google Docs. Maybe less time but definitely use a copy and paste method of placing the clipart images in order to save lots of typing time! There are so many different kinds of insects that you could put a different stack out for the kids every day of your insect unit!

Below is a photo from a recent post I did about setting up a sensory explore station with jumbo tweezers and little containers along with some nature items to give kids a simulated outdoor scene for more insect matching practice that can strengthen their pinching fine motor skills. A copy of the worksheet was cut into the individual boxed insect pics for the children to do the sorting.

Another variation for using the worksheet is a pencil (or colored pencil or crayon or marker) task to review by x-ing out each insect within a row that doesn't match the very first one shown. What doesn't belong is important cognitively. Children need to puzzle or reason out why one image is  correct while a different one isn't.

Good luck helping little ones figure out the world we live in! Also stop and think about other worksheets/activity sheets that you find at the store or online that can be altered and used in a way that builds other concepts or skills in your students. For the insect picture strips recognizing the differences in the 6 insects shown throughout these strips is important for science. One-to-one correspondence (matching) is a math numbering concept. And using a single-hole puncher to grip and punch small dots out of matching insects is a vital writing tool fine motor skill developer.

Having a passion for ECE children and curriculum:
Becca S

Illinois teacher certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Primary Sensory Station About Insects For Fine Motor Skills and Science

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! This posting shares my heart's desires for ECE and Science. My main focus is setting up a sensory station for children to explore, learn about identifying and matching different insects with different ways to strengthen their fine motor skills.

Set up a garden or outdoor scene to create a context where children will find insects in nature, their natural setting. Small containers with jumbo tweezers aid for young children to pick up small clipart pics of various insects and to sort, all while developing their cognitive skills essential in math and science and their writing tool gripping.

Small river rocks, flower arranging dried grasses, and butterflies and dragonflies meant for wreaths and floral bouquets are additions to simulate the outdoors. Placemats and/or hand towels with nature designs can anchor the sensory explore station to a set spot on a table or low bookcase.

The worksheet copies will be the focus of their own post. It took about 30-45 minutes to create this worksheet and I formatted it to be multi-purpose to get the most for science, math, and fine motor growth. The primary strategy I thought of was cutting the worksheet apart into the strips/rows and asking children to grip and squeeze the single-hole puncher on the insect(s) that match the very first one in the row. Before they do that you might ask them to color only the ones that are exactly the same as that first pictured insect.

Maybe they need to follow a designated color code? Like purple for a butterfly. Yellow for a bee. Other insects I used include fly, water beetle/bug, and horned beetle.

Add a vase of real flowers if possible or maybe a small silk cluster. A small potted plant would be great addition to the explore station, too.

Depending on the number of children allowed at the sensory station, another pair of jumbo tweezers might be needed. On the worksheet I had 6 insects to identify but for the station and your usable space that may need to be limited to 3 or 4. Timing allowed to be at the station would be another consideration. Little ones don't like to be frustrated so the explore station shouldn't be too big or have too much to do. Be willing to make adjustments if you find out that they need fewer things to do for the time they have to share the space.

A big passion of mine in ECE is giving science equitable time and space within the classroom space and weekly schedule. Choosing a science theme book for your read out loud time is one way. Lots of science books about inventors, environments, space exploration, and reference in your classroom library are an important way to give science equity in your room. Picking a decorating theme that's about animals, plants, rockets, gears and wheels would be another addition to keep science in your environment.

I've used a general outdoors with a bit of camping broad theme in recent years, but I'm thinking my next classroom space will have a four season combined with birds décor theme to help organize the room. But I'll save those thoughts for a future posting.

Sensory stations like what I've pictured focuses primarily on the tactile, touch. Pinching the jumbo tweezers to pick up the small pictures would be one task for touch. Maybe one of the containers could be for holding the river rocks. That would give the children more pinching or gripping practice.

Using the hole-puncher to identify and match insects could be in a station right next to this one. The hole-puncher involves eye-hand coordination and gripping strength.

Get little ones during their primary years of early learning involved in hands-on approaches like a sensory explore station that develops their small motor skills and cognitive intelligence.

With a passion for ECE,
Becca S

Illinois certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Fine Motor Skill Development through Land vs Ocean Sensory Bin

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I'm Becca S. This posting will be to share a great science sensory bin idea that can be used for Earth Day or at any time throughout the year when you want your littles to distinguish that the Earth has 2 basic 'parts' to its surface--land and ocean.

The colors blue and green are going to be color codes for this sensory bin:

Above: this photo shows the supplies I'm going to use: purple plastic bin to hold everything; sorting cups for each color/Earth part; and small items to sort out into either bowl; crimped gift bag filler to help fill the bin; blue and green glass beads that are found in the flower arranging/crafting supplies at different stores; and some glitter painted foam 'berries' that are used as well for sorting or not sorting.

I always like to give young children a push or should we call it a puzzler to their young cognitive skills and purposely ask or point or include something that doesn't belong. In this case, it is the lavender/grape colored foam 'berries'. The children shouldn't be putting these into either bowl. Take time for teacher talk and ask the children about 'blue' water. If they haven't been to an ocean, ask about a river that is near where you all live. Maybe your area has a lake that is popular. Same for the 'green' land. Ask if they know the name of their town, street, state, etc. Do they know the name of their country? Do they know that there are other countries?

A globe would be a great asset to have in your science explore station space. If you don't have a globe, maybe you can display a world map image that will show kids the different continents and oceans. Make sure to let them know where their country is and their location within the country on that image. Help them make connections. Earth Day can be about the very basics especially for young children's minds. Keep it simple.

Make sure children have several opportunities throughout a week to use this sensory bin. Older kids could have clip art images to sort of items that represent different waters and land features: pond, lake, river, mountain, hill, meadow, etc.

The children will be strengthening their fine motor skills by pinching the glass beads and blue 'berries' to pick up and place into the appropriate bowl. For the science skill development other than they are getting sensory/tactile/touching development, make sure there is an exchange of dialogue about land and water.

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

Illinois teaching certifications:
FACS grades 6-12
Birth to grade 3/ECE

approval:
general science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Motor Development Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I'm Becca S. Go to my previous post to learn more about some of my degrees and experiences in teaching. I love being creative and love learning and teaching! This activity involves one of my favorite cognitive areas-science!

In the USA, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. So I have an animal themed activity that is designed to check whether your little ones understand that animals can live in different environments. Within those environments, their habitats can vary. Birds have nests in trees and bushes. Bears have caves. Bees have hives.

In the previous post I showed a small-ish tarp and this activity also uses a tarp. If you are using a large indoor space, a plastic tablecloth or shower curtain could also serve as your base.

Here's the 5.5' x 7.5' tarp bought for about $2.50 plus tax.

The other 2 major supplies for early science are foam puzzle pieces I found at Dollar Tree recently. And because they have a variety of topics I latched onto 2 sets that had land mammals and the other had ocean creatures. What great resources to help little ones build their cognitive knowledge about classes of animals! And the 2 major supplies that are mainly to be used as eye-hand coordination targets are the frisbee discs. 

The cool thing is that these flying discs are going to be your two-fer in this activity. Besides being the targets, their colors are going to serve as codes for green grass/land and blue water/ocean categories.

Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity=

Close-up photos of the puzzle pieces:

Before doing this gross motor underhanded tossing activity please take time to have circle group or table meeting and discuss each animal featured. The land mammals show just the faces but there are distinguishing body parts that you can emphasize: whiskers, snouts, snout, tusks, mane, and more to point out and ask children questions on.

The ocean animals have tentacles, claws, tails, arms, and other characteristics to draw focus about. The gull can be set aside and used as a challenger puzzler mystery identifying question to the preschoolers. It's always good to stoke their curiosity and sense of mystery and wonder!

When you are ready for them to gather around the perimeter of the tarp, randomly go around and distribute the pieces. Before they can toss to "land" or "ocean" target, they have to say out loud what the animal name is and where it lives.

The eye-hand coordination building through this activity will also benefit the children as this skill is vital for writing and reading. Encourage children to toss their puzzle piece to hit the correct target.

For Earth Day let's encourage appreciation for all animals whether they live on land or in water!

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

IL certification endorsements:
FACS grades 6-12
Birth to grade 3 ECE

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Motor Development with Bunny Inspired Activities for Indoor or Outdoor

Welcome to Becca's Heart for ECE blog! This post features a dual purposed activity to support science and motor development.

I'm Becca S, a teacher with both FACS degree/teaching experience as well as Elementary with Early Childhood degree. I have lead teacher daycare experience with 3-5+ year olds and private Christian kindergarten teaching  experience. After all those previous years, this winter and early spring, I applied and received ECE endorsement by ISBE (Illinois). Wahoo!! That's for Birth to Grade 3! I'm super excited about this. I took the professional exam and scored 278 out of 300 so I was stoked about that and then ISBE evaluated my transcripts and approved the endorsement. Yea!! Now that you know a little more about me, let's focus on the springtime idea for science and physical skills.

For the younger ECE children, providing a wide range of activities that can develop both fine and gross motor skills are very important. Fine or small motor are those finger gripping and pinching skills that help with holding a pencil, picking up tiny objects, and moving a paintbrush. Gross motor skills in this activity will mostly be arm movements like underhanded tosses. This activity can be used to let children share what they know about rabbits and bunnies OR the glass beads can be a color code for water and land features of the Earth's surface.

Earth Day option: Blue Beads are tossed at a distance after answering a question about water or oceans. A basic early content in science and particularly for Earth & Space Science is our planet Earth's surface is made of 2 parts: land and water. With older ECE children in 2nd grade and 3rd grade introducing them to the terms of continents and oceans will be cognitively more developmentally appropriate. With younger ECE children in the preschool to 1st grade range the Earth's surface should be referred to in terms of land and water. Each child can share where they've seen water: sink, bathtub/shower, garden hose, puddle, creek, pond, lake, river, and others.

Before sharing more of the educational components let's get this versatile location activity ready=

Set-up for this activity:

Have small tarp...will travel! If you have a large open indoor space you could use a tablecloth or shower curtain instead but a clean tarp could still be used inside.

This 5.5' x 7.5' was only about $2.50 with tax and coupon/sale at Harbor Freight Tools, so this was a great bargain multi-use purchase!

Below: Rabbit tray with green glass beads; read below for 2 options for usage:

Earth Day option: Green glass beads can represent land so before a child tosses a green glass bead she/he must share something found on land, a feature of the land portion of Earth. Children might suggest grass, dirt, hills, mountains, yard, and others.

Fine motor skill focus: As soon as I saw these Easter/spring rabbit deviled egg trays, I wasn't thinking food display but for the egg-shaped divots to hold marbles or glass beads or pom pons. At Dollar Tree was where I purchased these 2 trays and the flower arranging supply of decorative blue glass beads. Children can stand around the perimeter of the tarp. Remember the dimensions are small enough for this to be a good distance for this age group to get some underhanded and overhanded tossing practice (gross or large motor skills).

Bonus benefit: What is another HUGE important skill for writing and reading is the eye-hand coordination that the children will build when they are eyeing which tray to toss to and which divot might hold their glass bead!!! I LOVE a two-fer!!!

Animal focus: Science-wise, the teacher can guide questions not only about distance and range of motions but could have children take turns tossing AFTER they answer a science content question about rabbits. That would mean this would have to be a follow-up activity AFTER story time book(s) about bunnies. (Rabbits' babies are called bunnies. Rabbits can hop.)

Give each child in your group 5-10 opportunities before things get too wild or boring. When the trays and beads are collected back, have 1 final gross motor skill practice but this time for their legs by leading a bunny hop around the perimeter of the tarp!!!!

Oh what fun learning and acting like rabbits!  Be creative and resourceful. Look at household items differently and see how they can be used to help your little ones build physically and cognitively.

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

BS Secondary w/ Home Economics proficiency
M. Ed. Elementary w/ ECE emphasis
IL endorsements: FACS grades 6-12, Birth to Grade 3/ECE
IL approval: General science grades 5-8