Play Date: The Letter "F"

Theme: Letter "F"

Imaginative Play

We played peek-a-boo with the puppet stage and jungle animals. The children who came were under 2, so we did not sing or act out (except making animal noises). The boys enjoyed hiding behind the stage and peeking out at their mothers.

Logical Thinking

Put your hard hat on to play at the construction site. I put out the construction set I purchased for the library from Discount School Supply, cones and Duplos. The cones became hats for one child, which gives a new meaning to "put your thinking cap on."

Matching

I put four sets of felt pumpkins for "Fall" matching. You could also practice patterns with older children, counting, adding and subtracting. B, age 1, liked putting them on the flannel board because he only gets one turn during storytime. Our play group lasts for two hours, so you can have lots of turns in that time!

Art
"F" is for Fish. Discount School Supply has some cute, moveable fish for a reasonable price for small groups. Depending on the age of the artist, you can use tempera, water colors, markers or crayons to decorate them. Some children will paint each stripe a different color, while others will make them all one color. They all love the wiggle!

Music
What do you need for music class with preschoolers? Easy: lots of percussion instruments and Whaddaya think of that? by Laurie Berkner. Lead a parade or simply play along to the music. Dancing is REQUIRED.

Sorting and Counting

Did I mention I LOVE Discount School Supply? I found this wonderful hopscotch carpet with bean bags for indoor play. Today, we practiced sorting and counting by using ladybug bean bags with spots and numbers on them. You can match by color or number. The boys had fun throwing the bean bags, too.

Educational Toys

The favorite toy this week was the sensory puzzle from, you guessed it, Discount School Supply. Instead of setting out the tub of toys as usual, I only set out a few toys on each mat. I did allow a couple of noise makers this time, because the children love them. One was a See and Say for farm animals, and the other was a light and sound station taken from a table toy (Goodwill find).