Winter Activities

Spring Book Activity Recommendation with The Hungry Caterpillar 
By Eric Carle
Follow up activities:

 

  • Try Yoga Poses - You can practice with your child pretending to be a caterpillar, a cocoon, and a butterfly in the appropriate sequence.
  • Art Activity - Make a butterfly out of a toilet paper roll and colored paper wings. Then, decorate the wings using color markers, crayons, glue, and glitter.
  • Language Activity - Ask your child to name the foods the caterpillar ate giving hints and clues as needed. Ask your child to sequence the steps and forms the caterpillar took to become a beautiful butterfly. (The process is chrysalis.)

    • WISHING WELL ACTIVITY 
    Fill a bucket of water or make a picture of a wishing well. Collect ten pennies. Ask your child to describe or name a wish, and then throw the penny into the 'wishing well'. Model and encourge your child to use the phrase: I wish for a...
  • If they have trouble coming up with an answer, then please model the idea for them. For example, I wish for a puppy. I wish for a birthday party. I wish to have a playdate with my friend. This activity works on:

  • Sentence development
  • Producing longer phrases
  • Building vocabulary
  • Answering open ended questions
  • Answering "wh" questions
  • Articulation of "sh" sound

 

Spring Time Walk  
Go for a walk with your child and see if they can identify the signs of spring while going for a walk outside.  Point out the trees blooming, the grass turning green, and the flowers blossoming.  Then, see if they can name some spring activities.  For example, catching a ball, flying a kite, and planting flowers. You can also talk about the animals who have woke up after a long winter's nap (i.e., birds back from the south, bears awake from their caves.) 

Expressive Language Activity
Fill a bucket with spring items. You can find items around your home or at the dollar store. These items can include: plastic eggs, flowers (fake or real), baby animal pictures (figures), baggie with grass, baggie with soil, and picture of butterfly/insects. Then you can have the child pull something out of the bucket (while your back is turned) and make them explain what the item is.

April is Earth Month 
Spring is a great time to teach children about how to take care of and appreciate our planet in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd:

  • Sort household items to recycle -- papers, plastics, etc
  • Make a collage/picture from nature (leaves, sticks, etc) or recycling materials
  • Go outside -- identify the sky, grass, sun, clouds, and the signs of spring
  • Count trees that are around the house or on the block
  • Use cotton balls and make pictures of clouds; and paint a white piece of paper blue with finger paint.


Here are some OT activities for the spring season:

Gardening with your kids is a great way to learn responsibility of taking care of a plant and getting their hands in the earth for sensory play.

Mother Goose Day - May 1st
Read stories and rhymes to your children. Play rhyme games!

Cinco de Mayo - May 5th 
Celebrate Mexican/ Hispanic culture through dance, music and food. Practice dancing with your kids!

Nation Teacher Appreciation - 1st Week of May
Make your teachers a card or letter to say thanks!

Clean Up Your Room Day - May 10th
Clean Up Your Room Day is a day parents eagerly await...and kids dread!
If you've got kids, it is very possible that their rooms are a vast wasteland, completely filled with "good stuff". "Messy" is too kind of an adjective to describe the conditions. Its impossible to walk through the room. Every dresser and shelf (and under the bed), is packed with everything imaginable. Dust has been piling up as long as your child has been around. Comfy, cozy, and quite livable to the child, its an everyday source of frustration for the "folks".

To mom and dad's delight, and every child's chagrin, Clean Up Your Room Day arrives every May 10th. Get out the shovels. Call in an industrial sized dumpster. Its time for everyone to clean your rooms!

Note to Kids: Clean Up Your Room Day also applies to your parents. You may want to inspect to assure that mom and dad practice what they preach!

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/May/cleanuproomday.htm

Wear Purple for Peace Day - May 16th
It's Wear Purple for Peace Day. You'd think that this day originated in protest of a particular war or conflict. Or, perhaps it should have been conceived by the UN, or another peacemaking or peace keeping group. Our extensive research found no evidence supporting the origin of this holiday stemming from these sources.

Rather, we found this day to be a stellar event. It seems some of you out there fear that aliens from outer space consider earthlings to be too hostile (you've got that right). As a result, they have yet to visit or make contact with us. So, some of you (originators unknown) decided to promote world peace by establishing Wear Purple for Peace Day.

The goal of Wear Purple for Peace Day is to make the world a peaceful place and, of course, encourage alien species to make contact with earth.   

Do you want to meet aliens for another planet? Me, too! So, lets all wear purple for peace day.

SPRING APPS TO EXPLORE

  • Max & Ruby: Hop into Spring
  • Abby Monkey: Spring Math-Math Games
  • Rainy Days: A Stella and Sam Adventure

SPRING BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

  • It’s Spring! by Samantha Berger
  • Finding Spring by Carin Berger
  • Up, Down, and Around  by Katherine Ayres
  • A Perfect Day for Digging  by Cari Best
  • On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole
  • Spring is Here! (Bear & Mole Story)  By Will Hillenbrand
  • Mouse’s First Spring  by Lauren Thompson
  • Bear Wants More  by Karma Wilson
  • Zinnia's Flower Garden by Monica Wellington