Lesson plan: Sea life

                                                                         

Our plan for today!

Sea life

Key words: sea, beach, sand, fish, whale, shark, dolphin, turtle, octopus, urchin, jellyfish, eal, starfish, crab, lobster, shrimp, shell, stone

Learning objectives: tactile experiences with food that simulate the sea life, name sea animals and learn new, distiguish the animals that are similar like lobster-crab, match by shape, practise the scissors cutting skill, etc.

Materials/preparation: box/tray, spaghetti, blue food coloring, scissors, plastic animals/sea figurines, flashcards about fishes and sea, egg carton case, fingerpaints & acrylics, sea animals stickers

🌊Spaghetti sensory box

For this activity you need to hard-boil half package of spaghetti and let it cool. Put them in a zip bag and add at least five drops of blue food coloring and start shaking and lightly squeezing to spread the color. I also used a few shell pasta with brownish orange to be seashells-follow the same proccedure. Leave the pasta in open air to dry for two hours and they are ready. Decorate your sensory bow/tray with plastic animals or figurines you have related to the theme. Supply your children also with tods, chopsticks, etc. to grab and transfer the pasta into plates. Another great tool is scissors and this way they can practise their cutting skill with a different from paper object.

🌊Sensory play with water and semolina

Another idea for sensory play is to prepare two boxes, one with blue colored water for the sea and one with semolina you have in the kitchen to be the sand. Place the animal figurines on the enviroment they mostly live and let your children enjoy the fun and the mess to move from one box to the other.

🌊Flashcards/matching game

If it's easy for you to print, you can easily find online flashcards about sea life. There are too many creatures in the ocean that your children can learn about, so I suggest to talk about 3-5 per day according to their age in order to remember them. I also have a memory game so we used it for a matching activity with the flashcards and a blue cloth to be the sea. It is a super exersise for visual discrimination. Moreover, you can double print the flashcards to make your own memory game.

🌊Sea box craft

This craft takes a couple of day to finish but it worths it. Use a carton egg case to make the sea box and some blue acrylic color and a brush for your children to paint. Let it dry and the next day you can print their hand on the top of the case to make a fish. Use a bright color and decorate the fish. You can also stick some semolina on a small part of the case to have the feel of the sand or real sand if you can. This treasure box can be used to put in all the goodies you can collect from the beach and the sea like stones, shells, dried algae, etc. and examine them at home.

🌊 Match by shape

Here is an easy and funny activity to do on a piece of paper using either the animal figurines or sea animals stickers if you have, like I did above but it's harder to sketch. Place the animals on the sheet and sketch around them to reflect their shape. Then your children has to recognize the animal and match it with its shape.

''Enjoy your summer!''

SM

Lesson_Plan: Colors_2

Our plan for today!

Subject: RAINBOW COLORS

Key terms: rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink

Materials and preparation: computer or tablet, scissors, glue, colored paper (blue, red,
yellow, orange, green, purple, pink, white), markers, fingerpaints
You might need (look below): flour, water, salt, food color, paper plates.

Learning objectives: Learn the rainbow colors, identify and distinguish orange, purple, pink and green.

➤ Introduction
In order to test the knowledge and memory of your children, show some flashcards with
the colors and ask if they know each of them. Use any color flashcards you can find online. You
can also draw your color splash and ask from your child to paint it for each color.


➤ SongIn the link below you can find the rainbow song where colors are introduced in order one
by one. Help the children to sing and repeat the colors. It is necessary to watch the video so
the children can match the name of the color with the picture of it. If you don’t have access to a screen, you can sing the song and show each time the right flashcard with the called color.
➜https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRNy2i75tCc
RED
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
BLUE
PURPLE
PINK

➤E-book
This online book with no description pictures is very interesting and small. It is about color
orange and how it is made. The challenge is your children to see the pictures and try to
describe what is happening in the story using their imagination. Support their thoughts
and encourage their attempt to develop their speech.
➜https://freekidsbooks.org/bow-meow-wow-wordless-picture-book/


➤Arts & Crafts
1. All of us are so happy when we see a rainbow! What about creating one? The materials you
need are scissors, glue, a white A4 or paper plate cutted in half, markers and colored papers
(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink - if you want) or tissue paper can work as well.
You and your children can practise cutting the papers with scissors or you can tear them apart in small pieces. Do not forget to draw curved lines with colored markers to make a rainbow so as
the kids can see and follow where they have to place the right color and stick the paper.

2. Another idea is to create colored water using your recycled bottles. Fill them till the middle and
throw some pieces of crepe paper in and wait a few mintutes for it. Shake bottles and ready to play.
You can also try to mix some colors.


3. Another way, more sensory, to create a rainbow is to paint it with the hands! Activities like this
is children’s most favorite! All you need is a white piece of paper and finger paints. Again you can
help by drawing the colored lines in order for the kids to use them as a driver to paint with finger
dots. Moreover, if you have a very large paper you can even use handprints and make a family craft all together! Get ready for the mess, it’s ok!😃😅

Alternative
In case you don’t have finger paint, there is a solution. Make your own!
↪INGREDIENTS:

-½ cup of flour

-½ cup of water
-¼ cup of salt

-food coloring
👉Mix the flour with the salt and the color with the water separately.
Add the liquids in the solids and stir very well. Ready!


➤Educational online games
It is time for your children to experience the numerous potentials there are on the Internet using
a computer or tablet. Here are two options of an educational software I can suggest, very easy
to use with your help of course.

⧫http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/colors/colorgame.htm
In this game you have 5 colored frames and many pictures on top classified by color, which you have to drag and drop in the right frame. Be a model for your child and show how to do it. You can ask to name the color of the item that is dragged everytime.


⧫http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/ngames/colors.htm
This game is about sorting items by color blue, red, yellow, orange, purple and green. You
are helping a colored monster to tidy up so it’s going to be funny for the children.

➤Action game

You can play a simple and energetic game using the flashcards that you have already.What you have to do is to spread around the house the colored flash cards.After that explain to your children that they have to go and find the color you call and do an action you prospose.You can use a little song to make it funnier like: “Where is red? Where is red?Go to the red, go to the red”. Like this they can match what they hear with what thesee working on the visual and hearing perception. Every time they find a colored card, suggesta different movement for the color. For example 'Jump on the red, clap on thegreen, sit on the pink, tap your knees on the blue, hop on the orange, spin on the purple'

Lesson_Plan: Colors_1

Our plan for today! 

👉All our occupation plans include crafts and activities for which you are going to use simple materials that you already have in the house. Sometimes you might have to print or you can create what you need on your own. Feel free to use an alternative way and adjust the activity to your preference and availability. After all, it's only about fun!😀

Materials and preparation: Toys, computer or projector to play songs and videos, crayons or markers, art paper(red, blue, yellow, white), printer, scissors, glue, flour, water, food color, cream of tartar (optional) 

Key terms:  red   yellow  blue

Learning objectives: Revising the primary colors so the children will be able to name, identify and separate the three basic colors - red, blue and yellow.

 ➤ Introduction

Select  any three toys from the kids’ room - one red, one blue, one yellow. Cut 3 circles of red, blue and yellow paper and place them on the floor. In case you don’t have colored paper, you can draw 3 circles on white paper and color it with your children. Then ask ‘What color is the toy?’. They might answer correct, if not it’s ok. Repeat the question for each of the toys and name the colors. Ask them to put the toy on the right circle according to the color. 

 ➤Song

The next step is to click on the following link where you are going to watch a small video  with the three colors being introduced. You can repeat also the colors and motivate your child to name loud and clear the colors. ➢https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iev1wgRVdwo  

*If you don’t / can’t watch it, you can only listen to it and raise up each time the right color circle. After this, the three colors will be more clear in the child’s mind. 

➤ Independent  practice

It’s time to play and and have fun! Count till 20 and ask the kids to go and find one red toy, one blue and one yellow and place them again on the right circle. If they need more time, you can count again. Alternatively, you can count till 10 for each color - toy separately. Repeat the game till you run out of toys!

Something that children adore to do is using the play dough, especially when they make it! With your help we are going to make easy homemade play dough that you can preserve in the fridge for a week at least in a plastic bag! The best part is that we are going to color it with food colors and make it even funnier. The ingredients are simple, you have them in your kitchen more or less, and the procedure very easy, so please follow up.

Ingredients

*1 cup of plain flour

*½  cup of salt

*1 tablespoon of cream tartar (optional)

*½  cup of water

*1 tablespoon vegetable oil

*4 drops of food color {If you don’t have food color you can use liquid paint like tempera}

Instructions

*Mix together the flour, salt and cream of tartar. 

*Mix together ½ cup of water with a few drops of food coloring and the oil with a spoon. 

*Slowly pour the water into the flour mixture, stirring as you pour. Stir until combined, then knead with your hands until the flour is completely absorbed. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour until it doesn’t stick at all.

 *Repeat process for other colors you want to make. 

* Notes *Mixing the food coloring with the water before combining with the dry ingredients allows you to blend them by stirring, without staining your hands.

➽ You have so many ways to play with the dough. You can make shapes, sculptures and freestyle creations, you can use your cookie cutters, you can provide your children with materials like buttons, straws, etc. by color and dip them in the right dough or let them play on their own free way as long as they want. I’m sure it will take long! BE SURE TO ALWAYS KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR CHILDREN AND CHECK THEY PLAY SAFELY.

➤E-book

Here is a free online illustrated book based on the colors we are working on today. 

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-little-yellow-monster-short-stories-for-kids/

This story is about a little furry yellow monster that lives inside a sock and all the fun he has with his friends. It discusses a nice message about friendship.

➤Arts & Crafts

All you need for this activity is to find some pictures of items that naturally have the colors red, blur, yellow and print them. However, if you don’t possess a printer, you can sketch them handmade on a A4 white paper. Give to your children red, yellow and blue craft paper and ask to tear them apart in small pieces. Give them some glue to use and stick the right color pieces inside the lines. Your collage is ready.

(*RED APPLE *YELLOW SUN *BLUE DOLPHIN)

‘Hope you liked it. Stay tuned for the next lesson plans about colors!’

SM