November Preschool Activities

1. Holidays:
   Thanksgiving
   Apple Month (Actually, September, October, and November are all considered Apple Month)
   
   
2. Science:
   Since corn has long been a tradition in Thanksgiving celebrations, you can talk about corn, how it grows, and what is used for, and the parts of the corn cob. Try popping your own popcorn kernels in a pan the old-fashioned way. Turn your stove on to medium heat, and then place enough vegetable oil in the bottom of a saucepan just to cover it. When the oil is hot, add your popcorn kernels and cover with a lid. Soon you should hear the popping sounds of the kernels bursting. This will also make a tasty snack if the children are over the age of 3. ** Remember popcorn is a choking hazard so you may want to send the popcorn home in baggies and let the parents decide if it is ok.
   
   
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   Have the children help you make some pumpkin bread. Let each child take a turn helping to measure out an ingredient and stir the mix together. Show how it transforms from a liquid like state into a solid. Enjoy the pumpkin bread.
   
   
3. November Preschool Activities: Social Studies
   Teach the children the story of the First Thanksgiving. Who was there? What foods were shared? Are any of these foods the same ones they we eat today at our Thanksgiving meal?
   
   
4. November Preschool Activities: Imagination
   Have a Thanksgiving feast on the floor with half of the children dressed as pilgrims and half of the children dressed as Indians. They will make their costumes during arts and crafts. Lay down some brown paper and set out paper plates in front of the children. They can eat turkey, grapes, cheese cubes, corn, rolls, and other age appropriate foods.
   
   
5. Arts and Crafts:
   Make a turkey using the children’s handprints and footprints. Trace each child’s feet onto a piece of brown (color of the month) construction paper. Then trace the handprint on a couple of different colors of construction paper such as orange, red, and yellow (you will need about 3 or 4 handprint cut-outs). Cut all of the shapes out and begin to assemble. Take the 2 footprints and glue one heel of the footprint on top of the other heel in a diagonal manner. This will create the body using the heel as the head and the toes of each footprint as the legs and toes. Then glue the handprints around the sides and top behind the footprints. This will create the feathers. Give the turkey some eyes, a triangle nose, and the snood (the little fleshy part that hangs from the beak).
   
   Let the children choose if they would like to be a pilgrim or an Indian. If they want to be an Indian, use a brown paper bag to make a vest. Cut arm holes and a neck hole with the bag still folded together. Open the bag up and make a cut from the bottom to the top on the front of the vest to create an opening. Let them decorate their vest any way they would like. Then use a strip of brown paper, long enough to go around the child’s head, to make a headband. Fasten it together with glue, and then attach some feathers (real or cut-outs) that stick up from behind. To make a pilgrim’s hat, you will need black, white, and yellow construction paper. Cut out a black strip of paper that is long enough to fit around a child’s head and fasten together with glue. Cut out a black hat from the construction paper and glue it to the front of the black headband. Cut out a band from the white construction paper and glue it on to the front of the hat. Add a square buckle to the front using the yellow construction paper.
   
   Make apple prints using real apples. Put out bowls of different colors of paint. Cut apples in half and let the children use them to dip into the paint and press down on paper to make apple prints.
   
   Give the children a pre-made picture of corn on the cob. Let them glue on corn kernels to the corn on the cob, then cut out the picture. Attach corn husks to one end of the corn on the cob to make it more authentic.
   
   
6. November Preschool Activities: Reading
   Read ”One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims” by B.G. Hennessy.
   
   Read "The Perfect Thanksgiving” by Eileen Spinelli.
   
   
7. Language:
   Introduce the letters and letter sounds for N and Q. Provide the children with a page that has a capital N and lowercase n printed on it. Give them different nuts or nutshells to glue along the outline of the letters N and n. Do the same for the letters Q and q, but this time let them use Q-tips (cut in half) to glue along the outline.
   
   Teach this traditional rhyme:
   
   The turkey is a funny bird,
   It’s head goes bobble – bobble;
   And all he knows is just one word…
   Gobble, gobble, gobble!
   Traditional
   
   
8. November Preschool Activities: Math, Thinking Skills
   Using red and green apples or red and green apple cut-outs, let the children see how man patterns they can come up with. For example, they could arrange the apples in a red, green, red, green sequence or red, green, green, red sequence. Whenever the pattern is finished, ask they what would come next if they had more apples.
   
   
9. November Preschool Activities: Math, Shapes
   Have the children bring in an oatmeal box or any can with a lid. Show them how the oatmeal box is the shape of a cylinder. Then, during arts and crafts time, make a Native American drum. Cover the cylinder with brown construction paper. Let the children draw or paint different Native American symbols all around it. Put the lid on the can. Cover the lid with a circle cut from a paper bag or construction paper that has been cut 2” larger than the circle of the lid. Drape the circle over the lid and secure around the oatmeal box with a rubber band.
   
   
10. Math, Counting:
    Introduce the number 11 and show everyone how to count to 11. Make a noodle necklace using dried pasta and a piece of string, ribbon, or yarn. Reinforce the letter N and that the word “noodles” starts with the letter N. Then, let the children string on 11 noodles. When they are finished, tie the ends together. You can let them paint the noodles first.
    
    
11. November Preschool Activities: Coordination and Movement
    Play the “Hokey,Pokey.” Children can practice following directions, using right and left, and using the appropriate body part.
    
    
12. November Preschool Activities: Social Skills
    Teach the children about the importance of being able to say “I’m sorry” when they hurt someone’s feelings, break something, or disobey a rule. It is important that children feel remorse and learn to show that they are remorseful by saying the words “I’m sorry.”