Articles and Advice
April Program Themes
Spring brings green leaves, blossoms, and a harvest of great experiences at our centers. Below is a sampling of activities that your child may experience in the month of April.
Sample activities include:
- Library & Language: Reading the featured Books: Animal Babies Around the House and Animal Babies in Towns and Cities by Kingfisher Publications; Singing songs; Listening to weather- and color-related vocabulary
- Motor: Scribbling with chalk; Clapping hands
- Sensory: Exploring potting soil with hands and gardening tools
- Cognitive: Exploring toys of different sizes; Using fingerpaint
For Toddlers, the theme is "The Earth." Sample activities include:
- Library & Language: Discussing photos and books featuring insects and spiders, seasons, and Earth-related images; Featured Book: When Will it be Spring? By Catherine Walters
- Creative Arts: Creating art with items found in nature
- Sensory: Exploring potting soil with hands, shovels, rakes; Using gardening tools
- Dramatic Play: Pretending to be construction workers, using construction-related props and blocks
For Discovery Preschool, the theme is "The Earth." Sample activities include:
- Library & Language Arts: Exploring puppetry; Featured Books: I Love Our Earth by Bill Martin Jr., and Michael Sampson and Spring by Gerda Muller
- Creative Arts: Painting rocks with tempera paint; Moving paint-covered rocks inside boxes lined with paper to create art
- Science & Sensory: Exploring wet and dry soil
- Dramatic Play: Role playing buying, selling, and working in a flower shop
- Math & Manipulatives: Matching containers with lids; Estimating with counters
For Preschool, the theme is "Insects and Spiders." Sample activities include:
- Library and Language Arts: Writing, drawing, and sticking stickers in booklets; Discussing photos of insects and spiders; Re-telling The Very Hungry Caterpillar with flannel pieces; Featured Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
- Creative Arts: Creating "creatures" with egg cartons, pipe cleaners, paper plates, cardboard tubes, and a variety of other art materials
- Science & Sensory: Exploring potting soil
- Dramatic Play: Pretending to go camping
- Math & Manipulatives: Measuring the lengths and heights of objects
For Prekindergarten, the theme is "Plants." Sample activities include:
- Library & Literacy: Working with stencils and word cards; Featured Book: Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
- Creative Arts: Creating flowers with tissue paper
- Science & Sensory: Observing how plants "drink" colored water; Exploring potting soil with hands and gardening tools
- Dramatic Play: Pretending to buy seeds, plants, flowers, and gardening supplies at a garden center
- Math & Manipulatives: Associating numbers and quantities with number symbols by using seeds, beans, and number stamps; Building with legos®
Take a glance behind the curriculum curtain with Three Questions with... the Director of Program Development, Megan Riede
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