Bottle Caps Focusing on fine motor skills and Cause and Effect
Materials:
2-liter plastic soda bottles
32oz plastic ketchup bottles
20oz plastic soda bottles
1 gallon plastic canola oil bottle
(variety of different sized caps)
Beginning: Sing “Open Shut Them””
Middle: Under close supervision, give the children several different bottle caps and a plastic bottle in attempt to put the bottle caps on the bottle. Hold the bottle for the children, and give them a top encouraging them to make the decision on what to do with it.
Earlier: Give the child only one cap and one bottle. Later: Give the children a variety of screw and snap on lids and time them putting the tops on, encouraging them to go faster each time they use it.
End: The activity comes to an end when the children no longer express interest and walk away.
Follow-Up Ideas: The children can fill the bottles with different amounts of water and observe the different sounds each bottle makes.
KDI: Exploring Objects, Cause and Effect
Hidden Toys Engaging the children’s memory
Materials:
Variety of small classroom toys
Blanket/Sheet
Beginning: Play “Peek-a-Boo”
Middle: Get the child(ren) interested in a toy then cover it with a blanket and ask, "uh oh where did it go?" Encourage the child(ren) to find the toy. If they do not seem to find it start by only partially covering the toy until they seem interested enough in the game.
Earlier: The caregiver can place the toy behind their back or behind the child. Later: The game can be expanded around the classroom like a scavenger hunt.
End: The activity comes to an end when the children no longer express interest and do not continue looking for the items.
Follow-Up Ideas: An outside scavenger hunt can be created as a fun day, using larger toys or objects like hoola-hoops and balls.
KDI: Locating Objects
Water Table Constructing thought process and problem solving.
Materials:
Basin full of water
Measuring cups
Variety of containers
Plastic funnel
Beginning: Read “Watch Out Near Water” by Claire Llwellyn
Middle: After the caregiver puts water in the sensory table or bin, the children are given cups/containers to experience dumping and pouring water into different size cups and containers. They can also pour water into each other’s container.
Earlier: The children can use dry noodles or rice instead of water. Later: Students can build the translucent marble run pieces together, pouring water down, observing how many different ways it can go.
End: The activity comes to an end when the children no longer express interest and walk away from the water table.
Follow-Up Ideas: The water is the sensory table can be exchanged for sand.