Weekly Activity Plans -

[kcnjason]

This is more of a question for home childcare providers who do NOT purchase a curriculum. I have a group of kids ages 2-3 and one 4 year old. I do not purchase a curriculum as I don't feel the need to spend a large amt of money for a curriculum for such yound kids. I think they need more hands on, crafts, etc....My question???
How do you plan what you are doing for the week?
What are you doing this week, the week of Feb 27-March 2??

[meganlavonnesmommy]

I used to purchase a program, but for the last few years I just do my own. I am strict about planning ahead, and plan my lessons at least 2-3 weeks ahead so I can gather the materials to have on hand. I found there are so many great free websites out there, that it was more cost effective for me to do my own planning.

This week we are doing a theme on Dr. Seuss, since his birthday is friday. I sometimes do the same theme several times a year, I change it depending on the kids I have in care, what their interests are at the time, and the season/holidays. For instance if little Johnny starts showing an interest in dinosaurs, I might add in a dino theme for that week.

Some themes in the past have been

America (for the week of july 4th)
School age fun (in the summer I have 4-5 schoolagers)
Summer Fun
Giving Thanks (thanksgiving)
Monsters
Fire and Safety week (first week in Oct)
Dinosarus
Ghosts and Goblins( halloween)
Fall festivities
spring
Winter
Trees
Trains
Christmas
Bugs
Teddy Bears
Shapes
Ice and snow
Numbers
Healthy Bodies
Ocean fun

I usually pick a theme, then use several websites to gather the ideas. I try to have a good mix of books, songs, crafts, gross motor activities, fine motor activities and outdoor.

My most used websites are

www.theperpetualpreschool.com
www.dltk-kids.com
www.first-school.ws
www.preschoolexpress.com
www.notimeforflashcards.com

[AnythingsPossible]

I honestly plan things by the day usually. I use first-school.ws a lot for ideas. A lot of the time I just google whatever we are interested in and do the activities that work best for our group. Wed and Thurs we will do dr Seuss activities but I won't plan exactly till probably tues. I plan best under pressure.

[Countrygal]

I usually have a general plan for the week with specific plans falling together as the week progresses and as my time allows.

I use this curriculum as a basis: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory_Outline.html

It's free and gives me a good base for my pre-school kids. As special days come up we add them in, as the curriculum above is very basic and allows a lot of extra time.

This week for the 1 of Mar we are doing "Inside, Outside, Upside Down" day and on Friday we'll be doing some Dr. Seuss things, mostly reading books. On Wed, I've added in one or two little things for Leap Day.

Each day this week we are having a Lenten reading and reading a Bible story for the Lenten season. We are also going to decorate a "giving" box for the food pantry and/or thrift shop.

Every day in circle time we work on our colors, numbers, alphabet and shapes. Adding them according to the curriculum above. I'm looking for some Character Building activities and ideas. Especially ones for teaching good character traits to those kids to whom it does not come "naturally".

I have already begun gathering lots of things for St. Patty's Day and Easter.

Hope this answers your question a little. This is just what works for me. You'll settle into what works for you as time goes on!

[melskids]

I use an emergent curriculum, so all of my "themes" are based on what the children are interested in at the moment.

Right now, they are really into garbage men, so I have been planning around that. Sometimes our themes last a week, sometimes for a month.

Now, I love Dr. Suess, and since its his birthday this week, we are doing that as well.

[karen]

I have my own curriculum. I plan out my themes for the whole year and go from that. Once I have my theme I refer to my books or the different websites for ideas. I also do a letter of the week as well.
This weeks theme is St. Patricks Day.
Art Projects would be:
Glue green squares on shamrocks
Shamrock wreaths
glue yellow coins on a pot to make a pot of gold
cut out squares the color of the rainbow cut a paper plate in half and glue squares on-A Rainbow
Just to name a few.
Some science activities make green playdoh or slime, Make green eggs and ham, put green food coloring in water for the water table.
Gross Motor-Find the shamrocks, Hide shamrocks around the room and the kids have to find them.
Fine Motor-Provide shamrocks for the kids to cut out. If your children haven't started on scissors yet you can get toddler scissors at Discount School Supply.
Hope this gives you ideas.

[kcnjason]

Originally Posted by karen

I have my own curriculum. I plan out my themes for the whole year and go from that. Once I have my theme I refer to my books or the different websites for ideas. I also do a letter of the week as well.
This weeks theme is St. Patricks Day.
Art Projects would be:
Glue green squares on shamrocks
Shamrock wreaths
glue yellow coins on a pot to make a pot of gold
cut out squares the color of the rainbow cut a paper plate in half and glue squares on-A Rainbow
Just to name a few.
Some science activities make green playdoh or slime, Make green eggs and ham, put green food coloring in water for the water table.
Gross Motor-Find the shamrocks, Hide shamrocks around the room and the kids have to find them.
Fine Motor-Provide shamrocks for the kids to cut out. If your children haven't started on scissors yet you can get toddler scissors at Discount School Supply.
Hope this gives you ideas.

Karen, do you have a facebook page? This is exactly what I am looking for but I am TERRIBLE about creating my own ideas because I end up with so many that it seems that I don't get anywhere. If you are on facebook, would you mind sharing your page?

[Blackcat31]

Originally Posted by melskids

I use an emergent curriculum, so all of my "themes" are based on what the children are interested in at the moment.

Right now, they are really into garbage men, so I have been planning around that. Sometimes our themes last a week, sometimes for a month.

Now, I love Dr. Suess, and since its his birthday this week, we are doing that as well.

This is how I do things too. The kids tell me what we are going to "study". Some times one thing just leads to another and sometimes we stay on a topic fo half the day and other times it can be a whole month or more...depends on their interests and their attention spans.

Too funny Mel that yours are into gabage men.... we just had that topic for almost all of December.

Now we have moved on to ice/snow and where it comes from.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

If you like hand's on type preschool actvities, these websites have cut down on a lot of my frustration of not being able to find what I want for a theme. I do almost all hand's on, learn through play lesson plans, which can make it hard to find enough activities. Here's my current favorites right now: www.preschool-plan-it.com, www.prekinders.com, www.pre-kpages.com (look for the themes list to find specific activities, songs, and books for themed activities), and www.123child.com (you'll have to look for their lesson plans link and it will then bring you to a list of themes). www.preschoolexpress.com is also good sometimes. And you might be able to find a few ideas on www.makinglearningfun.com, but they're mostly printable stuff rather than learn through play.
Hope this helps!

[melskids]

Originally Posted by Blackcat31

This is how I do things too. The kids tell me what we are going to "study". Some times one thing just leads to another and sometimes we stay on a topic fo half the day and other times it can be a whole month or more...depends on their interests and their attention spans.

Too funny Mel that yours are into gabage men.... we just had that topic for almost all of December.

Now we have moved on to ice/snow and where it comes from.

Well, its the funniest thing. They are SO into "playing" garbage man. They take all the toys and load them up and then go dump them in a spot somewhere. Its all they do. They've been doing this for a while, so I figured I'd just play off of that. I'm sure we can go in many directions, from sanitation workers to recycling. We'll see where it leads us!

That's why I love emergent curriculum so much more than traditional planning. It's about what interesets the kids, and they always lead us on such fun adventures. I love to watch it as it unfolds.

[karen]

KcnJason, Sorry I do not have a facebook page but will be happy to share my themes with you. I personally love teaching the kids as it is the greatest reward....When a mom comes in crying because at the age of 3 and a half her son was able to take a book home off of my shelf and read it to his family yep that's a feel good moment, When Kindergarten teachers thank me for making sure the children I have sent them are in the advanced group another feel good moment, When one of my 3 year olds can tell me what month I am going to put up today another feel good moment so many feel good moments. My children love every thing I do with them every art project every flashcard and yep every ditto sheet. They do 1 a day. They are never forced or made to do any of these activities but somehow the children can't wait to be a part of my planned activities. They love doing their jobs such as paper passer, marker passer spoon passer and so on they look forward to having responsibilities.
I have been theme teahing for years it is what I am used to and what I will always do. It works best for me. My son speaks for me he is in a liberal arts college on an academic scholarship he has two majors right now Math and Economics So I will stick to what I know works.
My themes have come from the numerous preschool curriculum books I have so they have been a big help.
January themes:
Winter-I do two weeks of winter
Arctic Animals
Nursery Rhymes
Winter Sports
February Themes
Valentines Day
Dinosaurs
Reptiles
Pets
March Themes
St. Patricks Day
Space
Spring-2 weeks
Easter
April Themes-
Birds
Insects
5 Senses
In the Garden
Mothers Day
May Themes
Butterflies
At the zoo
Summer-2 weeks
June Themes:
Fathers Day
Ocean Animals
July 4th
Picnics
July Themes:
Camping
Construction Workers/Vehicles
Teddy Bears
Beach
August Themes:
Balloons
Pizza-This is fun we make different types of pizza every day of the week for this one.
Circus
Back to school
September Themes
Apples
Trees
All about me
Friends
where I live
Fall-2 weeks
October
Fire Safety
Halloween
On the farm
Dr. Seuss
Turkeys/Thanksgiving
November Themes:
Community Helpers
Transportation
Eric Carle
Christmas-2 weeks
December
Make presents for parents- sometimes 2 weeks depending on what presents I have planned for my parents.
Santa

If you would like to know what books I have I will be happy to share that list as well.

[Country Kids]

Yes, I would love to hear what books you use!

[karen]

I ended up taking pics of my books instead as you can see it would take me to long to write everything down.