#LoveInclusion2019

Classroom Activities

Infants and Toddlers:

Family Picture Cubes: Ask families to bring in small photos of the infant’s close family members. Consider taking pictures of families at drop off and pick up as another way to get photos of families. Laminate the pictures and place them on the sides of a small tissue box. Secure the pictures with clear tape. Give to the infant and encourage the infant to look at pictures of his/her family. Point out and name who he/she sees. CD-SC3.0a

Preschool and Pre-K:

Happy or Unhappy: Begin large group with this poem: When I am sad, I want to cry. When I am proud, I want to fly. When I am curious, I want to know. When I am impatient, I want to go. When I am bored, I want to play. When I am happy, I smile all day. When I am shy, I want to hide. When I am depressed, I stay inside. When I am puzzled, I want to shrug. When I am loving, I kiss and hug. On paper strips, write example actions such as helping a friend clean up a puzzle and grabbing a book away from a friend. Select one, read it to the group and have the children give a thumbs-up for actions that make them happy and a thumbs-down for actions that make them sad. SED2.4d

Program and Staff Activity

Strength Finders: Identify your strengths and uncover your talents by using tools that can empower you in your work. Help coworkers by identifying how those qualities can help them become a "mentor" to new staff members.

Family Engagement Activity

Feeling Faces: Encourage families to have children look through family photos or magazines to find various feeling faces. Another option could be to provide magazines or photos taken of their children. They can cut faces out of magazines to make a feeling face collage. Families can help the children label the different feeling faces. CLL3.4b

#LoveInclusion2019

Classroom Activities

Infants and Toddlers:

Scoop and Swap: Place several small/medium toys, such as rubber ducks or small plastic hollow balls, in a medium-sized bin. Check carefully to avoid toys that pose a choking hazard. Provide a large or small strainer for each child to scoop up the toys. After a few minutes, encourage them to trade strainers with a friend by prompting them using phrases like “it’s Layla’s turn with the circle strainer.” Another option could be to have children take turns holding materials while you count the number of toys they pick up with different-sized strainers. One child may hold the scoop while another child holds the basket or bowl to catch the water toy.CD-SS4.1a

Preschool and Pre-K:

Teamwork: Encourage children to talk about how they can work together during class activities. They can draw pictures and use them to make a class book. This activity could be done in small group or by charting responses during large group. SED5.2c

Program and Staff Activity

Program Timeline: This is a great way to visually see the history of your program. Create a large timeline with your program’s “history” and then add in when different milestones were reached (ex: QR rating, accreditation, milestone enrollment), staff members arrived, some significant moments in the school’s history (this is great for new staff to see) and even fun things like when staff were born, graduated high school/college, and when staff started their careers in early learning!

Family Engagement Activity

Making Choices: Create a set of cards that represent various choices children can make throughout the day. Examples of choices could include helping with the dishes, taking out the trash, talking while a caregiver is on the phone, washing hands before lunch, and dumping toys throughout the hallway. Throughout the day, encourage children to discuss whether each choice is helpful or hurtful, safe or unsafe. Be sure to use common examples from various family environments and experiences. SED1.4d

#LoveInclusion2019

Classroom Activities

Infants and Toddlers:

Hug a Friend: If an infant sees another infant in distress, encourage the first infant to blow a kiss or give a hug or gentle touch to the infant in distress. Model language by saying, "Andrew is sad. Let’s ask if he wants a hug to feel better." SED5.0d

Preschool and Pre-K:

Friendship Cake: Take one white cake mix and follow the directions on the package. Give each child a Dixie cup with batter and have them add food coloring to create the color batter of his/her choice. Each child then pours their batter into a greased Bundt pan (or sheet pan/cupcake pan). As they pour it in, encourage them to add their own special ingredients such as kindness, hugs, and helping hands. This is a great way to talk about building friendships. Once all the colors are in the pan, take a knife and swirl it around a couple of times. Bake and serve the cake to eat with friends. This can be done in small group or during centers with a few children at a time. SED5.4a

Fingerprints Experiment: Invite the children to make fingerprints. Explore the prints with magnifying glasses and encourage the children to compare similarities and differences with their friends.APL1.4a

Program and Staff Activity

Staff Match Interactive Game Board: Take photos of all staff members. Invite staff to provide facts about themselves. Glue photos on cardstock squares and facts (without names) on separate squares. Line the staff photos up on the board and place fact cards in a basket near board. Throughout the week, allow staff to match facts to staff members. Reveal the answers at the end of the week. This activity encourages staff to learn fun facts about each other.

Family Engagement Activity

Family Photo Booth: Use a variety of props and dress-up accessories (hats, scarves, glasses) to create your own photo booth in the classroom or entrance of your program for families and children during arrival and departure times. Provide funny props such as mustaches, glasses and hats. Have the children decorate a creative backdrop and take pictures using a digital camera or cell phone to post and share with families. SED1.4b

#LoveInclusion2019

Classroom Activities

Infants and Toddlers:

Sing My Name: Sing familiar songs to the infant while rocking. Add his/her name and familiar words to the song whenever possible: “Rock-a-bye, Victoria, in the treetop...” or, “Jackson had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb...” or, “Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, little friend, little friend?” CD-CR1.0a

Preschool and Pre-K:

Painting Class: Set up a “painting class” table in the art center/area. After you have looked at various paintings by different artists with the children, place a vase of flowers in the middle of a table with paper and paint the same colors as the flowers. Encourage the children to paint the vase and flowers as they see them and display their work in an art gallery. Talk about how each painting is alike and different. CD-CR2.4b

Preschool Idol: Create a song “dice” cube out of a square tissue box. Place song titles and picture cues on each side of the box. Ask a child to roll the dice and lead the group in singing the song that results. Encourage the other children to join in. Add a toy microphone for more fun. You might continue using this in large group to choose songs each day. If you attach the song/picture cue with Velcro, they can be changed over time! CD-CR3.2a

Program and Staff Activity

Staff Talent Show: Share your talents with the children in your program by dancing, singing or telling a story. Use props with your performance which may include costumes, microphones, or stuffed animals. Create a stage area in the dramatic play area or large space of your program or on the playground with chairs for the audience.

Family Engagement Activity

Family Sharing: Invite families of the children to visit the class/program or send in photos or items that represent the family. Encourage each child to tell why his/her family is special. CD-SS2.2b

#LoveInclusion2019

Classroom Activities

Infants and Toddlers:

Musical Friends: Play lively music and encourage the children to dance freely. Pause the music and have each child find a partner. Direct the children to greet their partners with a wave, hug, high five, low five, fist bump or other appropriate greeting. PDM3.3a

Preschool and Pre-K:

Puppet Problems: Identify a conflict that keeps coming up in the classroom, such as hitting. Use a stuffed animal or puppet to talk to the children about that scenario. For example, the stuffed dog could say, “Simon was playing with this really cool bone and I wanted it. He had it for a loooong time. The more I thought about it, the madder I got. I finally walked up to him and said, ‘I want to use that bone,’ and he said, ‘No,’ so I hit him.” Then ask the children “Was that okay?” Get responses from the children. Ask them what the puppet should have done instead. You can chart their ideas on a large paper to use for reference when this scenario happens in the classroom. SED5.2c

Program and Staff Activity

Bucket-filler Friday: Throughout the week encourage staff to write positive notes to one another. This could be via written notes placed in a decorative bucket or posted on a bulletin board. On Friday, give each staff member the notes that were written for him/her. An alternative to this activity could be to write down something that you feel good about each day on index cards. Post these cards in plain sight to remind yourself of what motivates you to support children and families every day.

Family Engagement Activity

Supporting Sharing Among Children: Encourage families to notice and let their child know when they see them sharing or practicing other friendship skills. “Thank you for sharing your crayons with me. I feel happy when you share.” Or “When I came to pick you up from school, I noticed that you were sharing the toys with Sophie. What a good friend!” Encourage families to talk with children about what it means to be a good friend. Click on the hyperlinks in this activity for resources to support families with this activity. SED5.4a