Nana's House

03/06/2025

Dr.Seuss week!!!
We have played What’s in the Cat’s Hat?
Dr. Seuss silly sock day
One Fish ,Two fish art

11/30/2020

For the month of December we will have a Christmas theme. Each week we will have a new letter. The letters will be C, G , S and P
Number will be 12
Some of the activities we will do will be:

Make and/or Decorate a Gingerbread House

Find the True Meaning of Christmas

Make Christmas Cards

Make and Decorate Christmas Ornaments

Bake Christmas Cookies

For a sensory activity we will make an Light-Up Fort
Take an extra pair of Christmas lights and create an entertaining area for your Children to play in.

Music will be learning jingle bells using handbells.

Books:

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas in the Manger

Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?

It’s Christmas, David!

There was a Cold Lady who Swallowed Some Snow

11/03/2020

For the month of November we will use Thanksgiving theme.
These will be a few things we will work on: Shift the focus to gratefulness. ...
Talk about the meal. ...
Teach about respecting differences. ...
Keep it simple but honest. ...
Native Americans. ...

Letters will be H, G and T
Number 10

Books: Bear Says Thanks, by Karma Wilson

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks, by Margaret Sutherland

Ten Fat Turkeys, by Tony Johnston

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, by Dav Pilkey

Turkey Trouble, by Wendi Silvano

Thanksgiving Meal
{Fine Motor}
Have children cut out pictures of their favorite foods and glue them on a paper plate. Grocery store sale papers from the newspaper can be used for pictures (or print out clipart).

Coffee Filter Turkeys
{Art}
Cut a coffee filter in half and have children paint it with watercolors. Cut out a turkey’s body from brown paper (a sort of gourd shape) and let the children glue it on. Have them draw eyes and a beak.

Sensory Table: Pie Crust Dough
{Centers}
At large group time, mix different consistencies of flour and water mixtures (similar to pie crust dough). Make 3-4 bowls using varying amounts of flour and water. Place the bowls in the sensory table, and allow children to explore and feel the difference of the consistencies. Another idea is to place a cup of flour, cup of water, bowl, and spoon in the sensory table, and let the children choose how much of each substance to add to their bowl and stir. You can read more about this sensory table here (see Flour & Water Mixture).

Pumpkin Pies
{Cooking}
Ingredients for one serving:
Mini graham cracker crust
3 spoonfuls of vanilla pudding
1 spoonful of canned pumpkin
1 spoonful of whipped topping
Directions: Stir the vanilla pudding and canned pumpkin together. Spoon the mixture into the mini pie crust. Top with whipped topping.

House Center
{Centers}
In the House Center, add a Thanksgiving tablecloth, Thanksgiving placemats, and a vase of autumn flowers .
Songs/ Rhymes

Native American Thanksgiving Rhyme
(If you are in a non-religious school, you can eliminate the first and last lines.)
Thank you, God the Father (Fold hands in prayer)
Thank you, for the sunshine (Stretch arms overhead in circle)
Thank you, for the rain (Move fingers down)
Thank you, for things that grow (Move hands up)
Thank you, for good food to eat (Make circle around tummy)
Thank you, for families that love us. (Cross arms over chest)
Thank you, God the Father. (Same as first)

Five little pumpkins sitting on the ground
The first one said, "I'm big, orange and round!"
The second one said, "I'm fresh off the vine!"
The third one said, "I taste divine!"
The fourth one said, "I'm ready to be tasted!"
The fifth one said, "Bake my seeds so they're not wasted!"
Someone from the kitchen picked them up and we know why...
The five little pumpkins all became PUMPKIN PIE!

10/17/2020

Halloween theme 10/19- 10/31

GHOST HALLOWEEN CRAFT

Halloween Bingo

Sort gourds by color

Letter H, G,B and P

Halloween Matching Game for Toddlers!
It’s a great way to work on seasonal Halloween vocabulary (colors, matching, visual discrimination, 1:1 correspondence, and more! I added the color words for some extra environmental print and for older kids to work with.

Pumpkin Seed Counting

Books: The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Book by Linda Williams

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat
Book by Doreen Cronin

10/12/2020

Pumpkins

Books: THE LEGEND OF SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN
Activity: How can you design and build a square pumpkin-like Spookley? Using different types of materials. Play doh, felt, legos and any other that the kids can use safely.

HOW MANY SEEDS IN A PUMPKIN?
Activity: Clean out two different size pumpkins and see if they have more or fewer seeds. Do different pumpkin varieties have different amounts of seeds?

HOW BIG COULD YOUR PUMPKIN GROW?

Activity:Measure pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Bring a soft tape measure or a piece of string and a regular tape measure to measure the diameter of different size pumpkins. Learn a little bit about diameter and radius too!

Letter P

Hand Pumpkins

Materials Needed: Brown construction paper, orange and green paint.

The children make a fist shape with their hand. Dip their knuckles into the orange paint and then print knuckles onto paper (it makes a pumpkin).

The children use their thumb to make a thumbprint on top of their pumpkin (it makes the leaf).

5 Little Pumpkins Fingerplay

5 Little pumpkins sitting on a gate (hold up 5 fingers). The 1st one said "Oh my! It's getting late!" (Hold up 1 finger. Then pretend to look at their watches)

The 2nd one said "It's very windy out here!" (Hold up 2 fingers. Then move hands in air like the wind)

The 3rd one said "But we don't care!" (Hold up 3 fingers. Then hold hands up as you do when saying I don't know)

The 4th one said "Let's run and run and run." (Hold up 4 fingers. Then place fingers on floor and have them move as if they are running).

The 5th one said "Let's have some fun." (Hold up 5 fingers. Then wave hands and arms in air as though dancing!)

WOOOOOSH went the wind. (Make a loud woosh sound with the kids!)

OUT went the lights. (Clap hand very loudly when you say OUT loudly---if your children can handle it, have someone shut out the lights!)

5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight. (Make a rolling motion with your hands).

Pass the Pumpkin

Bring a pumpkin to circle time. Pass it from child to child. Ask each child to say one word that describes the pumpkin and write them all down! (orange, heavy, dirty, smelly, etc.!)

10/05/2020

Spider Theme
Letter S
Number 8
Shape circle

These are just some of the concepts kids can learn about during a spider theme:

arthropods
spider webs
predators vs. prey

5 Little spiders
One day, Itsy Bitsy spider wanted to lay her new eggs. So she climbed to the top of a tall tree and made her nest. She waited and waited, until one day the baby spiders started to hatch. When they felt the wind breeze past them they jumped off the branch and started to fly!

Five little spiders
Went flying one day
High in the sky and far away
Mother spider said
"It's time to go back"
1, 2, 3, 4
But only four little spiders came back

Four little spiders
Were spinning a web
“This is super fun”, one of them said
Mother spider said
"It's time to fly back"
1, 2, 3
But only three little spiders came back

Three little spiders were jumping one day
Over the flowers and far away
Mother spider said
“It's time to jump back
1, 2
But only two little spiders came back

Two little spiders were swinging one day
Up in the trees and far away
Mother spider said
“It's time to come back”
1
But only one little spider came back

One little spider, sitting in his web
“Where are my friends?” little spider said
He looked and looked
And just like that
The four little spiders came back

Spider craft

We have the best versions of Itsy Bitsy Spider songs! Come check them out! **LYRICS** One day, Itsy Bitsy spider wanted to lay her new eggs. So she climbed t...

09/28/2020

Autumn

Letter L for leaves
Number 6
Books: We're Going on a Leaf Hunt
Book by Steve Metzger

Red leaf, yellow leaf
Book by Lois Ehlert

Sorting leaves according to color, size or shape.

Leaf wreath

Make prints by rolling paint directly onto leaves with a small roller and then turning them over to print onto paper.

Music
Autumn leaves are changing colors, changing colors, changing colors. Autumn leaves are changing colors all over town. (Hold up both hands and turn them back and forth)
Autumn leaves are changing colors, changing colors, changing colors. Autumn leaves are changing colors all over town.
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down. Autumn leaves are falling down, down to the ground. (Hold both hands up high, as you wiggle your fingers and bring them down towards the ground) Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down. Autumn leaves are falling down, down to the ground.
Take a rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up. Take a rake and rake them up, on the ground. (Pretend to rake leaves)
Take a rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up. Take a rake and rake them up, on the ground.
Make a pile and jump in, and jump in, and jump in. Make a pile and jump in, on the ground. (Pretend to make a pile of leaves, then jump in)
Make a pile and jump in, and jump in, and jump in. Make a pile and jump in, on the ground.
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, are on the ground. (Hold your hands up high and sway them back and forth to the end of the song)
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, autumn leaves, are on the ground, are on the ground.

09/23/2020

Owls

Sponsored
Martin Waddell
Owl Babies

Gloria Okafor
Hoot Hoot Said the Owl

Letter O o

ENVELOPE OWL CRAFT PUPPET

Foam owl craft

Counting with Owls

Song

One Little Owl

In this FUN educational song for toddlers, preschoolers and big kids can learn color names with some friendly owls in the woods. Put on Closed Caption and Si...

09/14/2020

Family
Letter F
Number 4
Family Tree activity

Family mural

Books:
Eric Carle
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?

Me and My Family Tree
Book by Joan Sweeney

The Family Book
by Todd Parr

Music: We Are A Family | Jack Hartmann

Some Families



Some families are large (spread arms out wide)

Some families are small (bring arms close together)

But I love my family (cross arms over chest) best of all!

09/08/2020

Community Helpers
Letter H

“Play and learn about the people in our neighborhoods and the jobs they do to improve our society.”

Dramatic play area

Firefighter, mail carrier, doctor, and police officer

Books: • Whose Hat is This? by Sharon Katz Cooper
• Biscuit Visits the Doctor by Alyssa Capucilli
• Career Day by Anne Rockwell
• Curious George and the Firefighters by H.A. Rey
• Delivering your Mail by Ann Owen

Envelope and Stamp Letter Match

Bandaid Math

COMMUNITY HELPER PUZZLE

08/31/2020

Apples

Apple Tree Number Sense Activity

While doing this apple tree number sense activity, children will learn numbers and their different representations. This is a good way for young children to visualize numbers and make sense of what numbers mean.

Books:
Anne Rockwell
Apples and Pumpkins

Monica Wellington
Apple Farmer Annie

Gail Tuchman and 1 more
Eat 'em Ups™ Apples

Letter A

Apple Pie Play Dough Activity that Smells so Good

We will make a apple pie for snack time. In this fun activity, your child will learn math, fine motor skills, and to follow directions.

From rolling out the dough to measuring and mixing ingredients and shaping the pies, all the kids take on full ownership of making the apple pies and are so proud of the finished product. Of course, the best part is adding a small dollop of homemade whipped cream and munching down the sweet, seasonal goodness.

Science:Exploring the Inside of an Apple

08/24/2020

Days of the Week

This first song is sung to the tune of "The Addams Family" theme song, so it's both catchy and interactive fun.

Days of the Week! (snap, snap)
Days of the Week! (snap, snap)
Days of the Week! Days of the Week! Days of the Week! Days of the Week! (snap, snap)
There's Sunday and there's Monday,
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday,
There's Thursday and there's Friday,
And then there's Saturday!
Days of the Week! (snap, snap)
Days of the Week! (snap, snap)
Days of the Week! Days of the Week! Days of the Week! Days of the Week! (snap, snap)

Days of the week caterpillar

Letter W
Number 7

Hungry Caterpillar days of the week book