Christmas in Bethlehem

Learning goal: Jesus was born in Bethlehem long, long ago.

• Reading= Little Porcupine’s Christmas by Joseph Slate, God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa T. Bergren and This Is the Season: Beloved of the Year by Simon Dewey. Letter of the day= J is for Jesus.
• Science= Look at pictures from the day you were born. Talk about the care a baby needs as you discuss a collection of baby items. (Place items in a bag and use your hands to guess what they are.) Wrap a baby Jesus in swaddling clothes and prepare a soft manger for him to sleep in.
• Art= Create a model of the city of Bethlehem by decorating 2-D gingerbread houses. For inspiration, locate Bethlehem on a map and describe how Bethlehem might have looked on the night Jesus was born. Show a variety of fine art depicting the holy family (e.g., Raphael’s Madonna and Child).
• Play= Remove pieces from a nativity one-by-one and allow children to guess which item is missing. Or, dress up like wise men or shepherds and search for a hidden baby Jesus. Sing "Away in a Manger" softly then louder as the seeker gets closer to the hiding place.
  

Santa’s Five Senses

Learning Goal: We have five senses to help us learn and play.

• Reading= Santa’s Suit by Kate Lee, I Smell Christmas by Mercer Mayer and Santa Claus: The World’s Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee. Number of the day= 5
  
• Science= Set up stations representing the five senses in different rooms of the house (see ideas below). Introduce the senses as you make dice having pictures of a nose, ear, hand, eye, tongue and a heart (to represent intangibles like love and generosity). Roll die to determine which station you go to first and so on. When you roll a heart, hug someone you love and wish them a merry Christmas.
  
• Art= Decorate your own wrapping paper. Put paper in the bottom of a box. Add textured balls dipped in paint. Tilt the box to roll the balls across the paper and make a pattern. Or, cut out a gingerbread man from sandpaper. Dress him up like Santa Claus using a variety of textured materials (velvet, felt, cotton, pom-poms, foil, leather or plastic-wrapped black paper). Try rubbing a cinnamon stick over the sandpaper to add scent.
  
• Play= Visit the five senses stations. 1) Hands guess objects hidden in a long sock or stocking. 2) Eyes go on a “reflection” walk (e.g., mirrors, silver spoons, water, a pizza cutter, a bell, ornaments, the stove). 3) Ears play hide-and-seek. The hidden person rings a bell to help seekers locate her. 4) Nose guesses Christmas smells while blindfolded. 5) Tongue tastes ingredients as you bake Christmas fudge (e.g. salt, sugar, lemon juice, unsweetened chocolate).

Reindeer Games

Learning goal: The world has many different environments. The south and north pole are very cold all year long.

• Reading= Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Eileen Daly, How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky and The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Letter of the day= R is for reindeer.
• Science= Show where the north and south poles are on a globe. Explain that these places are very cold; they have snow and ice all year long. What kind of animals can live here? Use photographs to talk about the adaptations of arctic animals (e.g., reindeer, penguin, polar bear and seal).
• Art= Make reindeer hats, jingle bell bracelets or thumbprint reindeer. Thumbprint reindeer can be done on a slice of wood from your Christmas tree trunk and hung as a keepsake ornament.
• Music= Listen to your favorite version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and sing along!
• Play= Pretend to be different arctic animals using simple props and play hide-and-seek. Or, pull children on a blanket around the house and pretend to go on a sleigh ride.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Learning Goal: Evergreen trees have pinecones and never lose their leaves.

• Reading= If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff, Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect by Richard H. Schneider and Dream Snow by Eric Carle. Letter of the day= C is for Christmas.
• Science= Bring a tree branch, pine needles and pinecones to touch and smell. Show the circles on a sliced off tree trunk; count the rings to determine how old your Christmas tree is.
  
• Art= Paint a pinecone green and decorate it like a Christmas tree with glitter and sequins. Or, make a handprint Christmas tree from 6-10 upside down green handprints. Add a brown trunk and yellow star on top. Adhere popcorn with glue to decorate.
  
• Music= Listen to George Frideric Handel's Messiah. Sing other favorite Christmas songs.
  
• Play= Find things made of wood and play with them: furniture, toothpicks, paper, wooden spoons, toys, musical instruments, etc. Or, take a trip to the woods and cut down your own Christmas tree! (Don't forget to bring Dad.)

Pilgrims & Indians

Learning Goal: A good friend helps others.

• Reading= Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes, The Story of Thanksgiving by Nancy J. Skarmeas and The Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkney. Letter of the day= I is for Indian.
  
• Science= Demonstrate the steps of bread making. Handle the wheat, grind it to flour, smell the yeast, watch it rise, knead the dough, and eat the bread!
• Art= String beads on a necklace and decorate Indian headbands with feathers. Or, decorate placemats or tee-pees by dipping corn on the cob in paint and rolling it across a large piece of paper.
• Music= Dance to Native American music donning your beads and head dresses.
• Play= Act out the story of the first Thanksgiving: sail on the Mayflower ship (the couch), build a new home (with blocks or couch pillows), teach hungry pilgrims to plant corn (with shovel and kernels of corn), share a friendship feast (set the table) and thank God for your many blessings.

Fun fact: The first Thanksgiving feast was held in the fall of 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Turkeys & Feathers

Learning goal: Turkeys (and other birds) have feathers.

• Reading: Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr, Setting the Turkeys Free by W. Nikola-Lisa and Animals Should Definitely NOT Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett. Letter of the day= T is for turkey.
  
• Science: Play with feathers (i.e., describe how they feel, drop them to the ground). Who has feathers and who doesn’t? Feathers keep birds warm, help them fly and look very beautiful. Similarly, mammals have hair to keep them warm. Use a magnifying glass to find hair on your arms and legs. We humans are mammals, but we also wear clothes to keep us warm.
• Art: Make handprint turkeys. Or, use a salad spinner, paint and a paper plate to do spin art. Use the painted plate as "feathers" for a Thanksgiving turkey. Add a brown paper body and eyes. Use pipe cleaners to make a beak, wattle, and legs. Show Claude Monet’s The Turkeys. Help children glue feathers onto their turkey projects for a final touch.
  
• Play: Give each child a paper feather cut-out when they name something they’re thankful for. While blind-folded, try to pin the feather on a turkey. Or, play a high-flying game of football!

Fun fact: Birds are feathered reptiles with adaptations for flight.

My Family Tree

Learning goal: Humans (and animals) closely resemble their parents. The characteristics of an organism can be inherited (such as hair color) or learned (such as riding a bicycle).

• Reading= Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino, I Wish My Brother Was a Dog by Carol Diggory Shields and What Grandmas (Grandpas) Do Best by Laura Numeroff. Letter of the day= G is for grandparent.
• Science= Look at pictures of your family. Using a mirror, find traits you share in common with Mom and Dad (e.g., brown eyes and dimples like Mom, blonde hair and a tongue that curls like Dad). Then try this fun, hands-on activity that demonstrates how traits (represented by colored pom-poms) are passed from parents to offspring in a gingerbread family. See instructions and printable gingerbread pedigree.
  
• Art= Make a handprint family tree (shaped like an evergreen). Start with a parent's large handprints at the bottom and work your way up to the top ending with the smallest handprints in the family. Alternatively, make a pedigree mobile using pictures of your family. Start with a large picture of your child at the top. Hang smaller pictures of Mom and Dad from the bottom corners. Finally, hang pictures of the grandparents. Tie Mother’s parents to her picture and Father’s parents to his picture. Tip: Tie the mobile together in advance so children can just cut and glue pictures in the appropriate places.
  
• Music= Work at stations below as you listen to the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini.
• Play= Set up stations where kids can pretend to be Mom and Dad. 1) Shave like Dad with whip cream and popsicle sticks, or dress up like Mom (make-up and all). 2) Match socks and toss them into a laundry basket. 3) Sweep the kitchen floor and wash plastic dishes with a sponge. 4) Clean windows using a water-filled spray bottle. You could even try washing the car!

Fun fact: Thanksgiving day has also been declared National family history day.

Witches, Ghosts & Mummies

Learning Goal: I have feelings. I can talk about them with my family and friends.

• Reading= Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Letter of the day= W is for witch.
  
• Art= Make 4 handprint ghosts using white finger paint on black paper. Complete by adhering googley eyes to upside down handprints, and adding mouths expressing different emotions. Fine art: The Scream by Edward Munch. Demonstrate how to draw different feelings on a face (sad, happy, mad and scared). For inspiration look at the simple illustrations in The Feelings Book by Todd Park.
• Music= Sing "If you’re happy (scared, mad, sad, tired) and you know it make a face". Practice making different faces in a mirror. Talk about things that make you feel better when you're unhappy or frightened. See how easy it is to change a frown into a smile!
• Science= Experiment with dry ice (CO₂) for some witchy magic. 1) Melt dry ice and an ice cube on two different plates. One leaves a puddle and the other turns into an invisible gas! 2) Put dry ice and a little warm water in a Halloween balloon. Watch the balloon quickly expand! 3) Taste some apple juice before and after adding dry ice. The dry ice turns the juice into sparkling cider! 4) Add dry ice to soapy water for instant bubble mania. Pop the bubbles to release the fog!
• Play= Wrap candies in a roll of toilet tissue and you're ready to play the mummy wrap. Wrap tissue around a body part until a prize is found. Tear the paper and pass the roll to the next player. Continue until all the prizes have been unrolled and you have a group of mini mummies. Make mummy face pizzas out of English muffins, string cheese and olive slices for eyes.

Properties of a Pumpkin

Learning Goal: Pumpkins have properties that we can describe or measure, including size, weight, shape and color.

• Reading= Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman, It’s a Fruit, It’s a Vegetable, It’s a Pumpkin by Allan Fowler and Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach. Letter of the day= P is for pumpkin.
  
• Science= Experiment with different ways of measuring things. Gather pumpkins and squashes of different sizes. Line them up in order from biggest to smallest. Measure their width with a measuring tape. Weigh them on a scale. Try using a homemade scale (a broomstick with a bucket taped to each end). Finally, trace your feet on a piece of paper and cut them out. Use the paper feet to measure how many “feet” tall you are.
• Art= Paint faces on mini pumpkins. Or, bake a favorite pumpkin food (e.g., pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup). Point out the measuring instruments used to follow the recipe.
  
• Music= Move to music with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor. Pretend you're ghosts, witches or bats flying through the air. Boo, Boo, Boo!
  
• Play= Roll large pumpkins from one side of a room to the other. Or, roll like pumpkins yourself as you sing “Five Little Pumpkins”.

Fun fact: Pumpkins can grow to weigh more than 1,200 pounds!

Rocks & Volcanoes

Learning goal: Land is made of rocks and soils. The surface of the earth changes due to slow processes (erosion) and rapid processes (volcanic eruptions).

• Reading= A Gift from the Sea by Kate Banks, Stone Soup retold by Heather Forrest and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. Letter of the day: V is for volcano.
  
• Science= Many rocks come from volcanoes that erupted a long time ago (called igneous rocks). Make your own volcano erupt using baking soda and vinegar (see instructions below). Explain that land is made of rocks and soils and the shape of the land changes over time. Begin an erosion experiment by building a large "mountain" made of soil (2-3 feet tall) in your backyard. Take measurements of the mountain's height and width once per week for a few months. What factors caused erosion?
  
• Art= Melt crayon wax on warm rocks to make a colorful design. Heat smooth rocks in the oven for 30 min. at 250 degrees. Remove paper from old Crayola crayons and press crayons to the rock. Melt and swirl orange and red colors together for a rock that looks like hot lava. Alternatively, do sand art using colored sand from a craft supply store. Simply use a funnel to fill a clear bottle with layers of sand in a variety of colors. (This activity can also be used to discuss sedimentary rock formation.)
• Play= Make stone soup for lunch, start a rock collection, or visit a natural history museum to discover a variety of rocks and minerals.
  

Fun facts: Rocks are classified into three categories based on how they were formed: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. View photos of rocks at an online gallery.

Instructions= Build a model of a volcano from play dough. (This is a great way to use up old play dough that is discolored and a little dry.) Insert a small container at the top of the volcano; drip a small amount of dishwashing soap into the bottom of it. Next, give your child two small cups. In the first cup, dissolve 1T baking soda into 2T water and add yellow food coloring. In the second cup, mix 2T vinegar with red food coloring. Combine the two solutions by pouring them into your volcano. A rapid explosion of bubbly orange lava will result. Kids will want to do this again and again, so be prepared!

Leaves Fall Down

Learning Goal: Leaves change color and fall down from the trees in autumn time.

• Reading= A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, Fall Leaves Fall! by Zoe Hall and Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro. Letter of the day= L is for leaf.
• Science= Go for a nature walk and gather a variety of leaves. Compare them to a group of leaves previously gathered by a parent. Allow children to match up the leaves. Examine the leaves closely with a magnifying glass to make some comparisons. Make leaf rubbings to show the different shapes and vein patterns of the leaves.
• Art= Glue leaves on paper and decorate to create a variety of creatures (butterflies, bugs, birds, fish, turkeys, etc.). Or, die-cut coffee filters in the shape of large leaves. Use medicine droppers to drop colored water (made with food coloring) onto the filter to make a beautiful design. Hang the leaves in a window as a sun catcher.
• Music= Move to music with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G. Pretend to be leaves hanging in the trees, floating in the breeze, falling to the ground. (We jumped off the couch onto the floor!)
  
• Play= Rake leaves and jump into the piles! Or, use socks as “leaves”. Stand under a laundry basket as your mom drops the pile of socks onto your head. Pretend to be trees and drop your sock leaves. Gather the socks into a pile and jump!

Apple Trees & Seeds

Learning Goal: Apple trees have a life cycle. Commemorate Johnny Appleseed’s birthday (Sept. 26) with these activities.

• Reading= Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington, Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss, Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg and What’s So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed by Harriet Lerner. Letter of the day= A is for apple.
• Science= Cut an apple in half to reveal the seeds inside. Help children visualize how a seed grows into a tree, a tree makes fruit, the fruit has seeds, and the seeds can be planted to grow another tree. Mix up visuals that represent different stages of the plant’s life cycle. Help children put them in the right sequence around a hula hoop to emphasize the cyclical nature of life.
• Art= Show Paul Cezanne’s Still Life with Basket of Apples. Notice the artist painted red, green and yellow apples. Stamp with apple halves using red, green and yellow paint. Try using a tall piece of paper to stamp apples one on top of the other. Count as you stamp!
• Play= Make applesauce or another favorite apple recipe. (How about an applesauce cake in honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday!) Balance an apple (or apple-shaped bean bag) on your head while you walk across the room. Or, instruct children where to place an apple using positional words (e.g., inside, outside, above, below, on, in, behind, in front, top, bottom, between, etc.). Children will have fun moving their apple to a variety of locations around the room.

Fun fact: Johnny Appleseed's real name was John Chapman.

Farms & Food

Learning Goal: Plants and animals provide the foods we eat.

• Reading= Young MacDonald by David Milgrim, Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff and Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen. Letter of the day: F is for farm.
• Science= Talk about a variety of foods that come from plants and animals. Play a matching game in which children match the food to the plant or animal that produces it. Talk about how farmers plant seeds and care for plants and animals. Show them how to milk a cow using a latex glove filled with milk (or water). Punch small holes in the finger tips so the liquid will squirt out when the glove is squeezed.
• Art= On a large piece of green construction paper, glue several types of inexpensive dried seeds (popcorn, pinto beans, peas, apple seeds, pumpkin seeds, oats, etc.). Squeeze out a long stripe of glue along the length of the paper. Sprinkle one type of seed along the glue stripe. Make more stripes of glue, adding different types of seeds to each. The finished collage will look like rows of seeds planted in a garden.
• Music= Sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm. Move to music with Study Op. 25 No. 1 In A Flat Major by Chopin. Pretend to be a variety of farm animals (roll in the mud like pigs, walk like a chicken, gallop like a horse, etc.)
• Play= Play a game of horse shoes, have an egg hunt or take a field trip to your local farm.

Moon & Stars

Learning Goal: The observable shape of the moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month.

• Reading= Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, Shhhhh! Everybody’s Sleeping by Julie Markes and I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis. Letter of the day= M is for moon.
• Science= Show pictures of the moon in different phases. Observe the moon in the sky then match its shape to the correct picture. Encourage observation of the moon over time. For example, draw the shape of the moon on a calendar every day for one month. Introduce constellations. Make pictures on the floor by connecting large paper stars with yarn (e.g., the big dipper).
• Art= Make your own constellation by adhering shiny star stickers to dark paper. Connect the stars with glue. Apply glitter to complete the picture. Or, show Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Use yellow paint to create a crescent moon and stars in a night sky.
• Music= Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.
• Play= Blow up an inflatable mattress and let kids pretend to be monkeys jumping on the bed. Include simple props: a play phone, stethoscope, stuffed monkeys, bedding.
  
  Fun fact: The moon is closer to Earth during September than at any other time of year.

Sun & Shadow

Learning Goal: The sun gives us heat and light. Celebrate the last days of summer with these activities.

• Reading= What Can You Do in the Sun? by Anna Grossnickle Hines, Red, Red, Red by Valeri Gorbachev and On Earth by G. Brian Karas. Letter of the day: S is for sun.
• Science= Look at the sun with sunglasses. Observe shadows made by the sunlight. Trace the children’s shadows with sidewalk chalk. In a dark room, shine a flashlight onto a globe. Show how the sun casts a shadow on the spinning Earth to make day and night. Throughout the rest of the day, observe how the sun moves across the sky. Use chalk to trace the shadow made by a stationary object (a stick) over time (every hour).
• Art= Make a paper plate sunshine. Use yellow paint or crayons to color plate. Cut out orange triangles and staple them around the plate. Hang with string.
• Music= Move to music with Fur Elise by Beethoven. For example, pretend you’re swimming, riding a bike, etc. Or, sing You Are My Sunshine.
• Play= Put on a puppet show using shadows on a hanging sheet. Or, enjoy your favorite summer activity (wade in the pool, melt popsicles, play hopscotch, picnic at the park, build sandcastles, etc.).
  
  Fun fact: The last day of summer is Sept. 22.