Movement Moment

Zoo Animal Parade

Prep:

• Clear a large area for running and moving

Time to Play:

• Gather your children together and explain that you are going to pretend to be different zoo animals.
• Say, “Let’s all pretend to be kangaroos. Can you jump like a kangaroo?”
• Lead by example and encourage your children to copy you or find their own ways to pretend to be these animals.
• Animal actions ideas:
  • Jump like a kangaroo
  • Stomp like an elephant
  • Swing like a monkey
  • Waddle like a penguin
  • Take big steps like a giraffe
  • Take tiny steps like a mouse
  • Tip-toe like a flamingo
  • Fly like a parrot
  • Go slow like a sloth
  • Race like a cheetah
  • Slither like a fish
  • Swim like a dolphin
  • Crawl like a bear
  • Pounce like a leopard
  • Gallop like a zebra
  • Walk like a crab

Art Activity

Binoculars

Supplies:

• Empty toilet paper rolls (2 per child)
• Tape (or hot glue)
• Markers or crayons
• Optional: Stickers
• Optional: Yarn or other string

Prep:

• Tape two toilet paper rolls together side by side to form binoculars.
• Optional: Attach a string to both sides of the binoculars so the children can hang them around their neck.

Time to Create:

• Show your children the binoculars and how to look through them to search for animals.
• Invite your children to decorate their binoculars using markers, crayons, and stickers. Remind them to press lightly so as not to squish the rolls (a tricky skill to practice for some 3 year olds).
• Have fun pretending to go on an going on an adventure to spot animals.

Five-Minute Focus

Let’s Learn the ABCs

Letters of the Unit

• GHI

Letter Activity

• Supplies: 1-3 pipe cleaners / chenille stems per child

Time to Learn:

• Hand each child 1-3 pipe cleaners or chenille stems.
• Encourage them to bend the pipe cleaners into the shape of each letter.

• For other letter teaching techniques, visit: https://sjlittle.ca/preschool/teaching-the-abcs-at-circle-time/

Bonus!

Animal Skin Matching Game Free Printable

I created this Zoo Animal Skin Matching Game. It is available for free download along with suggestions for how to use them here: https://sjlittle.ca/preschool/zoo-animal-skin-matching-game/

Movement Moment

Be A Giraffe

Time to Play:

• Gather your children in a fairly open area. Explain that you are going to pretend to be giraffes.
• Take a moment to brainstorm together about a characteristic of giraffes, then model how to act out that characteristic. Encourage your children to join in.
  • Do giraffes have long legs or short legs? Long legs. Let’s take long steps like a giraffe.
  • Are giraffes’ necks long or short? Long. I’m going to reach my arms over my head like a long giraffe neck. See? My hands are the giraffe’s head.
  • What do giraffes like to eat? Leaves. Let’s look for something green we can pretend to eat.
  • How do giraffes drink water? They spread out their legs and bend way down to reach the water on the ground.
• Tip: Pretending to be a giraffe is a great way to engage your preschoolers in large gross motor movements. These movements help strengthen important muscles that may not get regular exercise. For example, raising arms above the head strengthens core muscles needed to help stabilize the arms when holding a pencil.

Art Activity

Giraffe Spots

Supplies:

• Colouring sheet (free download – click on the image below)
• Brown construction paper or tissue paper
• White glue (recommended but not required if using orange paint)
• Orange food coloring (or orange children’s paint)
• Paintbrushes or popsicle sticks
• Small containers for paint
• Optional: dish soap (one drop)
• Optional: paint shirts and table covering

Prep:

• Print one colouring sheet per child
• Rip the brown paper into about one quarter of a sheet of paper per child
• Pour a small layer of white glue into the container. Add 1 drop of orange food colouring and stir (you are aiming for a giraffe skin colour). Ideally have one small container of glue for every one or two children.
• Tip: Adding 1 drop of dish soap to the glue mixture can make clean up easier.

Time to Create:

• Invite your child(ren) to the table and place the giraffe colouring sheet in front of them. Ask them what is missing. The spots!
• Give your child a piece of brown paper. Encourage them to rip it into spots to put on the giraffe.
• Once your child is satisfied with how much they have ripped the brown paper, give them the glue and paintbrush. Encourage them to paint the glue on the giraffe and then put the brown paper spots on top.

Five-Minute Focus

Let’s Learn the ABCs

Letters of the Unit

JKL

Letter Activity: Letter Box

Prep:

• Place 6-9 items beginning with the letters of the unit in a small box.
• For younger children, include items beginning with just one letter.

Time to Learn:

• Show your children the box. Pull one item out of the box at a time. Let them guess what it is. Emphasize the beginning sound of each item and state what letter it starts with.
• For more advanced children ask them to help you determine which of the three letters each item starts with.

• For other letter teaching techniques, visit: https://sjlittle.ca/preschool/teaching-the-abcs-at-circle-time/

Movement Moment

Animal Herding

Supplies:

• Toy farm animals or alternative. Consider:
  • Stuffed animals
  • Plastic animal toys
  • Balls
  • Balloons
  • Pompoms
• A large basket, or hula hoop, etc. (See Prep)

Prep:

• Designate an area as the “animal pen”. This could be a large box, a fenced-off area, a hula hoop, or a couch.

Time to Play:

• Gather your children and explain that on a farm, farmers build fences to keep animals safe from getting lost or getting into other mishaps. Sometimes, however, the animals escape and the farmer has to herd them back into the pen.
• Show your children the animals and the pen. Explain that their job is to herd the animals back into the pen when they escape.
• Have fun running around to gather the animals into the pen.

Art Activity

Old McDonald Farm Puppets

Supplies:

• Colouring sheet of several farm animals. I have a free two-page colouring sheet below for you to download and print. It contains eight farm animals.
• Crayons (or pencil crayons)
• Scissors
• Optional: Popsicle sticks
• Optional: Tape

Download the Old McDonald Farm Puppets Colouring Sheet – S J Little

Prep:

• Print the colouring sheet – one copy per child

Time to Create:

• Invite your children to the table and encourage them to colour the farm animals.
• Once your children are satisfied that they have completed colouring the farm animals, cut them out. This could be done by the adult or by the child with supervision. (For tips on teaching children to use scissors, click here.)
• Optional: Tape a popsicle stick to the back of each farm animal to give them handles.
• Now you have farm animal puppets.
• Sing Old McDonald Had A Farm using the farm animal puppets to indicate which animal is being sung about.

Five-Minute Focus

Let’s Learn the ABCs

Letters of the Unit

• D E F

Letter Activity

•  Air Tracing – Using your finger, reach up and write the letter in the air. Encourage your children to copy.

For other letter teaching techniques, visit: https://sjlittle.ca/preschool/teaching-the-abcs-at-circle-time/

Movement Moment

Walk or Wait

Prep:

• • Print the pedestrian crossing signal picture below (choose the image that best suits your neighborhood) or draw your own.
  • Optional: Print (or draw) additional road signs (See image below).
  • Colour and cut out the images.
  • Prepare an area for running.
              

Free Downloads

Select the image you want above to access the downloadable PDF.

Time to Play:

• Introduce your child to the images. Explain where to cross the road and which picture means wait or walk.
• Play “Red Light Green Light” with the pedestrian crossing signal pictures.
• Have all the children start at one side of your running area. You stand at the other side with the signs.
• When you hold up the walk sign, all the children can move towards you.
• When you hold up the wait sign, all the children must stop.
• Play until all the children reach the other side of the running area. Repeat as desired.
• Optional: Make the game more interesting by adding other road signs.
  • U-turn sign = spin around
  • Arrow sign = move in the direction the sign is pointing
  • Stop sign = stop
  • School zone sign = go slow
    
  • Speed Limit sign = run

Art Activity

Make a Car Map

Supplies:

• Sheet of cardboard or at least 2 sheets of thick paper
• Masking tape or painters’ tape
• Paint (2 colours)
• Paintbrushes (ideally thick paintbrushes but other methods of painting work too)
• 2 Small containers to put paint in (alternatively pour the paint directly onto the paper)

Prep:

• Decide what size of car you want to make the map for. Check to see if your tape is wide enough. You may want to use two strips of tape to make the roads wide enough.
• If using sheets of paper, tape them together to create a bigger surface.
• If you have several children, decide whether to:
  • give each child a sheet of paper that will join to create a bigger map
  • create one large one-piece map all together
  • or each make their own personal map
• Use the tape to create a network of roads and parking spots on the paper.
• Consider covering your table if you are concerned about getting paint on it.
• Consider using paint shirts.
• 

Time to Create:

• Invite your children to the table. Show them the taped map. Explain that their job is to cover the entire map with paint, especially on the edges of the tape.
• Chat with your child while they paint.
• If needed pick up your own paintbrush and help paint directly around the tape so that there will be a clear boarder when the tape is removed.
• Allow the paint to dry.
• Remove the tape from the painting. It should reveal the car map.
• Optional: Use a marker to add dotted lines to the roads or numbers to the parking spots.
• Let your child have fun playing with the car map.

Five-Minute Focus

Let’s Learn the ABCs

Letters of the Unit

• A B C

Letter Activity

• Sing the Letter Sound

• For other letter teaching techniques, visit: https://sjlittle.ca/preschool/teaching-the-abcs-at-circle-time/