August Preschool Activities

August preschool activities will help children learn about this special month.

Theme: A Day at the Beach
Letter: J, O
Number: 8
Color: Purple
Shape: Cone
Activities:

1. Holidays:
   National Night Out
   National Friendship Week (3rd Week of August)
   
   
2. August Preschool Activities: Science:
   The oceans are full of salt water. Let’s see what happens when we place an egg in fresh water, then in salt water. Will the egg float or sink in fresh water? How about in salt water? Fill a glass with water and place a fresh egg (be careful) or hard-boiled egg in the fresh water. What happened? Did it sink or float? Then begin to add 2 heaping teaspoons of salt at a time to the fresh water with the egg. Continue adding salt and mixing it in until the egg floats on top of the water. Why does the egg float in salt water? The salt water is more dense and the egg, which then weighs less, begins to float on top of the salt water.
   
   Talk about the parts of a fish and the differences that allow them to live under the water. For example, fish have gills to help them breathe and fins to swim around. People do not have these because we use our arms and legs to move around and lungs to breathe. See what other differences you can discover with the children.
   
   
3. Social Studies:
   For National Night Out, talk about how policemen and firemen can help us in many different situations. Go over stranger danger, fire safety, and street safety with the children.
   
   
4. Imagination:
   Pretend to be pirates on the search of treasure that is buried in the sand on a secret island. The children can dress up like pirates. Hide a box with a surprise inside. Give the children clues as to where to look for the hidden treasure.
   
   
5. August Preschool Activities: Arts and Crafts:
   Let the children use blue fingerpaint to make waves like the ocean using the side of the hand. When the paint dries, add fish to the ocean by gluing on colored goldfish. Add other marine life such as sharks, dolphins, crabs, and jellyfish.
   
   Let the children mix red and blue fingerpaints together on a piece of white paper to see what happens. They should get the color purple.
   
   Make an octopus. Cut a paper plate in half. Let the children paint it whatever color they would like. Attach 8 streamers, strips of paper, etc. for the legs. Add the features for the face by drawing, painting, or gluing items on.
   
   
6. Reading:
   Read “Buzzy’s Big Beach Book” by Harriet Ziefert.
   
   Read “Good Night Beach” by Adam Gamble.
   
   
7. August Preschool Activities: Language:
   Introduce the letters and letter sounds for J and O. Have the children make Jell-O for letter J, then they can eat it for their snack.
   
   Sing the "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat." Practice the tongue twister “She sells seashells by the seashore.
   
   
8. Math, Thinking Skills:
   Use seashells of different sizes to have the children sort them by small, medium, and large. You can also have pictures of different marine life and have the children sort them by color, by size, or by type of animal.
   
   
9. Math, Shapes:
   A favorite treat in the summer is ice cream on a cone. Use real ice cream cones with the point at the bottom to show the shape of a cone. Let the children use play dough to pretend as ice cream to put on top of their cone. They can even add a red cherry made from play dough on top.
   
   
10. Math, Counting:
    Introduce the number 8 and show everyone how to hold up 8 fingers and count to 8. Use dried pasta shells that most resemble seashells. Let the children paint them. While they are drying, let them draw a beach scene on a piece of paper. Then, they can glue 8 of the seashells on their beach picture.
    
    
11. Coordination and Movement:
    Instead of duck, duck, goose, play surfer, surfer, shark. The children will sit in a circle and one child will walk around the outside of the circle and tap each child on the head saying “surfer,” until he decides to pick someone to be “shark.” When a child is picked to be “shark,” he has to get up and run and chase the child around the circle and try to tag the child before he sits back down in the empty spot. If he tags him, then the child is it again. If he doesn’t, then he becomes the new “surfer.”
    
    
12. August Preschool Activities: Social Skills
    Have children work in pairs, taking turns to scoop sand into a bucket. The two children will have to cooperate as they take turns using one shovel to scoop the sand. When the bucket is full, they win a reward such as a sticker or stamp.