Bumble Bee Small World Play

Engaging in small world play is so important for young children.

Not only does it nurture their imagination, it also enables them to explore new materials, act out scenarios from real life, build language, practice social skills and gain an understanding of the world around them.

For this activity, students participated in this kind of play within the scope of our bee theme!

Using several different materials, your little ones enjoyed creating their own environments for their bees.

Many developed stories for their creatures, using their imaginations to concoct various scenarios.

Butterfly Roll and Count

For this activity, students learned how to use a dice!

To do this, they lined up a number of flowers, 1-10.

They were then given a butterfly figurine. Following this, they were given two dice.

They were instructed to roll their dice to call out the number that was face up. After this, they moved their butterfly (starting at 1) to this number, counting as they did so.

Butterfly Magnets

Preschool students are some of the most curious beings on the planet.

The problem, however, is that they don’t understand complex answers if you only use words.

“Magnetic fields” and “positive/negative terminals” mean little a preschoolers. It is for this reason that we are constantly having our students experiment with different kinds of magnets.

By exposing them to items, they are able to understand complex concepts through concrete knowledge.

To align this with our butterfly week, we decided to play with these fun butterfly magnets! In addition to manipulating the magnets, students also created patterns out of them.

Beetle Letter Roll

For this activity, many of our students got to manipulate a dice for the first time!

With the aid of colorful illustrations, students learned how to spin a dice, recognize a letter, and then match that letter with an item! To tie this in with Beetle Week, we used a beetle-themed dice.

Firstly, students learned about four kinds of beetles.

Secondly, they learned about the letter that each beetle starts with.

Thirdly, they rolled the dice. Following this, the matched the letter with the correct beetle.

They completed this until each letter was rolled. Lastly, they traced each letter in the glitter.

Beetles in a Jar

Beetles are a type of insect characterized by front wings that serve as protective covers for their membranous hind wings.

These protective sheaths are often brightly colored, making them a fun subject for preschool counting! At our school, we are always engaging in play-based math activities.

This includes counting, sorting, measuring, and having fun!

We try to use an many three-dimensional items as possible so that our activities are as concrete as possible.

For this activity, students counted a variety of beetles of different quantities.

Following this, they sorted their bugs according to number.

Beetle Sensory Bin

Beetles, or Coleoptera, are the largest group of insects.

There are around 400,000 species of beetles that are known to scientists.

They can be found in all regions, from mountaintops to wetlands to scorching deserts.

For this activity, we decided to create our very own beetle habitats.

Using colored rice, plants, tweezers, and toy beetles, students created the perfect homes for their critters!

This activity targeted multiple developmental domains, including fine motor skills, science, and social science!

Fish Manipulatives

For this fun activity, we tied in two developmental domains with our fish theme!

These include language and literacy and fine motor skills!

Using a few materials students of all ages learned how to write the letter F!

They were each provided with toy fish and a cut-out of the letter F.

Finally, they were directed to place each fish onto the letter!

Sorting Fish by Number

Sorting activities often appeal to children and many will naturally sort according to qualities and characteristics they visually notice without every being taught.

This fundamental pre-requisite to further mathematical understanding can often be disregarded or ignored as a purely play-based activity that children instinctively engage with.

However, it is important and essential part of beginning mathematical skills and an important part of every child’s developmental journey.

For this activity, we sorted fish according to number.

Students were given six different paper bowls in order to accomplish this.

They were then directed to count different quantities of fish and place them into the match fish bowl.

Collaborative Reef

Group projects can help young children develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in their future endeavors.

Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to contribute to student learning, retention, and overall student success.

For this activity, students created fish to be a part of a larger art installation.

This project was set up into stages and then hung up for all to enjoy! Each student participated in each stage of the process!

Cheerio Tentacles

Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes, and eight long arms.

These cool critters live in all the world’s oceans, but they’re especially abundant in warm, tropical waters.

Like their cousin the squid, octopuses are often considered ‘monsters of the deep’, lurking in the depths of the seas.

However, there are some kinds of octopuses that live in relatively shallow water.

To help tie in our octopus theme with our math domain, your little ones participated in a fun cheerio counting activity.

Using cheerios and octopus illustrations, the practiced counting and placing cheerios onto tentacles!