Giraffes – 3.3 – Add A Little

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/