Seasonal/Theme

A “Seasonal/Theme Center” creates an ever-changing center which coordinates the season, holiday with activities to do in the classroom. Depending on time and subject matter, these can be changed frequently or left up for a while. These can also be integrated into the subject area centers if there is not a seasonal/theme center.

Teachers need to model how to:

·        Use and store materials

 

Materials

·        Varies by activity

 

Fall

·        Fall Theme (example: make leaf rubbings)

 

·        Create a school cheer

 

·        Labor Day Theme (example: do something about careers)

 

·        Graph the color of leaves

 

·        Graph different colored apples

 

·        Add up cost of school supplies using newspaper ads

 

·        Make and illustrate a book about favorite school activities

 

·        Books to read: Arthur's Halloween by Marc Brown, The Candy Witch by Steven Kroll, Illustrated by Marylin Hafner, Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell, Corduroy's Halloween based on the character by Don Freeman, pictures by Lisa McCue, Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois, Brenda Clark, The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey, The Halloween Performance by Felicia Bond, The Happy Trick-or-Treaters by Mary Packard, Illustrated by Charles Micucci, Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian (This makes a good flannelboard story), The Kitten in the Pumpkin Patch by Richard Shaw, Illustrated by Jacqueline Kahane, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything by Linda Williams, Illustrated by Megan Lloyd, My First Halloween by Tomie dePaola, Pumpkin Faces by Emma Rose, Illustrated by Judith Moffatt, The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King, Where's the Halloween Treat? by Harriet Ziefert, Illustrated by Richard Brown, The Witch's Hat by Tony Johnson

 

·        Halloween stickers or stamp a story: Each child may select one sticker or stamp to place on a piece of paper. The child is to then write a sentence or story about that sticker or stamp. Pencil or colored marker may be used to write with. If a child finishes one paper, he/she may select another sticker and complete another page.

 

·        Candy sorting: For each child fill a bag with several kinds of candy. Have the students estimate how many pieces of candy are in their bag. Then the students count how many pieces of candy are really in their bags. Have the students sort their candy in three different ways. First have them sort the chocolate and non-chocolate candy. Next have the students sort the candy into large and small pieces. Then they sort by favorite and not favorite.

 

·        Dem Bones candy sorting: Have students sort their candies by body parts. If you can find a graphing mat for Dem Bones, have students graph the various body parts by coloring in one square for each piece of candy.

 

·        Jack-O-Lantern game: Each child starts with a pumpkin shape. They roll the die and decorate their pumpkin accordingly. (1=triangle, 2=square, 3=mouth, 4=leaf, 5=lose your turn, 6=circle)

 

·        Harvest Theme: Explore leaves, nuts, acorns, corn, apples, apple seeds, pumpkins, squash, gourds, pine cones (using observations, measuring tape, scale).

 

·        Make a pumpkin patch picture. Encourage the students to paint a piece of brown construction paper with glue. Provide cotton balls for the students to roll in a pan of dry orange tempera paint. Supply green yarn for the students to twist among the pumpkins for a vine.

 

·        Provide a cutout of a ghost on black construction paper. Using a paintbrush, brush water onto the paper. Give the students white chalk to use on the cutout.

 

·        Spatter paint a cutout of a white cat with black paint, using a toothbrush and a stick

 

·        Make art projects using leaves, nut shells, pine cones, fall colors of paper, crayons, markers, crayons, paper cut in leaf shapes or tree shapes, pumpkin seeds, orange cotton balls, green yarn, orange paper plates or orange construction paper circles, black paper, scraps, black paper (could be cut in bat/cat shapes), white chalk

 

·        Provide orange pumpkin cutouts and black cutouts of jack-o-lantern eyes, noses and mouths for the students to glue on their pumpkin

 

·        Snip small snips around the edge of a paper plate. Have students paint the plate black. Allow to dry. Knot a length of white yarn. Insert into a slit so the knot is to the back of and up against the plate. Pull the yarn across the plate and up through a different slit, to make a spider's web design. Continue until the yarn runs out. Slip a plastic spider ring onto the yarn before pulling through the one final split. Knot the yarn on the back of the plate.

 

·        Have the students step barefoot into white tempera paint and place on black paper to make a footprint. Allow to dry and trim loosely around the footprint outline for display. Add eyes and you have a ghost!

 

·        Just paint with orange and black paint!

·        Encourage the students to match similar pairs of pumpkins. Use construction paper to make matching facial expressions for each pumpkin pair. Ask the students what makes each pair different from another. Ask them to describe why one pair matches.

 

·        Provide students with orange and black shapes and encourage them to match and sort the shapes and colors

 

·        Encourage the students to place pumpkin cutouts into graduated order. Emphasize the concepts big, bigger, biggest; small, smaller, and smallest.

 

·        Sort paper cat cutouts by color or features. (Teachers, make sure to cut a large variety of different colors and different feature; such as, no tails/tail, long/short whiskers, big/small bodies, etc.

 

·        Provide a cutout of a cat or a pumpkin and a cutout of a fence and have students practice their directional words. "Place the cat on the fence", "place the pumpkin beside the fence", etc.

 

·        Make Halloween playing cards using Halloween stickers. Make matching pairs of cards. Lay one of the pair face up on the table and encourage kids to match it.

 

·        Encourage the students to make Halloween necklaces from macaroni and black and orange yarn. You can also dye the macaroni in the same way as the seeds listed in the art activities.

 

·        Carve a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.

 

·        Compare canned and fresh pumpkin and pumpkin pie. Encourage the students to smell the fresh and the canned pumpkin, feel the texture, and to taste. Eat a piece of pumpkin pie!

 

·        Talk about the characteristics of a cat.

 

·        Play a tape of Halloween noises and discuss what is making the noises.

 

·        Talk about shadows: Using a flashlight and a sheet, have students stand behind the sheet, or use Halloween cutouts to make a shadow puppet play.

 

·        Listen to spooky stories

 

·        Purchase 5 different packets of creepy crawlies (bugs, flies, bats, centipedes, and spiders). Put them all into a cute little Halloween bucket.  Make a blank graph on the computer with pictures of each creepy crawly at the beginning on each blank row of squares. The students have to "reach in" and grab a handful of creepy crawlies and then sort them, count them and graph them!

 

·        Cut your Word Wall words into separate letters, put the letters to each word into those cute little jack-o-lantern holders.  The students have to dump the letters and "spell" the Word Wall words!

 

·        Word Surgeons: You teach the kiddos to do surgery on a word by "surgically cutting" the paper apart and inserting a comma which is called the "scar." Then they glue the new word down on a new piece of paper with the "scar" inserted where the "incision" was made. You can use latex gloves and surgery masks from a local hospital.

 

·        Estimate number of seeds in a pumpkin. Count the seeds.

 

·        Pumpkin bowling: save water bottles and squirt a little orange tempera in each. With the tops screwed on tight, shake them up to coat the inside of the bottle. Add faces with some "build a jack-o-lantern" stickers. Put some of those folder labeling sticky dots on the carpet so the kids could reset the bottles after they bowled.

 

·        Estimate and checked how many wooden cubes, Math Their Way tiles, and candy pieces will fit into a goodie bag.

 

·        Create a Thanksgiving menu

 

·        Read The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. The children will write about what they would do if they had a 260 pound chicken for Thanksgiving.

 

·        I give the children suitcase or Mayflower patterns. They need to pack what they would take for their trip and why. This is nice in pairs.

 

·        Take shopping bags and cut them into skins. have the children sue symbols to write on their "deer skin"

 

·        Estimations and measurement with cranberries (Dry or fresh). Children can guess how many cranberries long some items are and then use actually berries to measure.

 

·        Acrostic Poem using Thanksgiving

 

·        Have each child make a quilt square showing something they are thankful for. Put it together for a class quilt.

 

·        A Venn diagram of thanksgiving long ago and today.

 

·        Assist the students in making turkey placemats for Thanksgiving. Provide each child with a sheet of manila paper and finger paints. The students can dip their hands in the paint and press them on the manila paper. After the placemats have dried the child may wish to decorate the handprint to resemble a turkey. Label with the child's name and cover with clear contact paper.

 

·        Encourage the students to make their own turkey pictures using chalk and construction paper dampened with liquid starch. The students can brush on the starch with paint brushes and then use chalk to create their pictures. After the chalk dries, spray the pictures with hair spray to keep them from smearing.

 

·        Make turkey puppets using lunch bags and paper plates. They can draw feathers on the plates before assembling. Assist the students in gluing the paper plates to the backs of the paper bags. They can also add facial features to the front of the bag.

 

·        Have the students design a collage of things they are thankful for and things they like. Provide magazines and old photos, construction paper, glue and scissors. Label the items, directing the students' attention to the words that correspond to the pictures.

 

·        Have the students create designs using dried corn.

 

·        Make tie-dyed napkins by boiling cranberries in water. Dip squares of white material that has been tied into knots into the water. Let dry!

 

·        Give the students a large sheet and squeeze bottles full of tempera paint. Have them paint all over, for a Thanksgiving table cloth.

 

·        Make Native American headbands or drums using empty shortening cans.

 

Winter

·        Winter Theme

 

·        Make Holiday cards for the elderly

 

·        Read holiday books

 

·        Winter Holidays Theme (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa)

 

·        Write letters to Santa

 

·        Make an ornament

 

·        The students cut red hats shapes out of felt. Then they glue on cotton balls for trim, green holly leaves and red berries. Glue on some jingle bells! Write their names on the top of the cap with the year written underneath.

 

·        Cut stocking shapes out of red construction paper. Have the students glue cotton balls along the top of the stocking. Write the students' names in glitter pen and have the students decorate with sequins, glitter, etc.

 

·        Cut 2 ornament cutouts per child. Have the students punch holes through both cutouts. Have the students glue on tissue paper to 1 side of 1 cutout. When finished, glue the two pieces together, covering the glued tissue paper up. Hang in the window for a beautiful Christmas ornament.

 

·        Give the students one sheet of black paper and one sheet of white paper. On the white paper, have 1 small, 1 medium and 1 large circle drawn. Have the students cut out the circles and glue onto the black paper. Ask them what it looks like (a snowman). Have them decorate their snowman with markers; or use a salt wash over the paper to look like snow!

 

·        Make some cinnamon dough (recipe on craft recipes page). Use a Christmas cookie cutter to cut a design. After the dough is dried, have the students paint with food coloring diluted with water.

 

·        Give the students a cutout of Santa's face with a long beard. Have the students glue cotton balls on for his beard and wiggle eyes for eyes!

 

·        Encourage the students to make their own wrapping paper. Use newsprint or a brown paper sack cut into large pieces to decorate. Use sponges, potatoes cut into stars, trees, etc. for printing, and red and green paint.

 

·        Have each child lay one hand on a piece of green paper. Trace around the child's hand, or have them do it themselves. Cut out the hand. Lay each child's hand, thumb side down around in a circle to make a wreath. Add small red circles for berries and a big red bow!

 

·        Make stained glass ornaments. Cut a piece of waxed paper into a Christmas shape. Have available many one-inch squares of tissue paper. Have the students dip a paint brush into white glue diluted with water and apply to the waxed paper. Glue a square at a time and fill in the whole shape. Allow to dry and hang.

 

·        Assist the students in covering pine cones with whipped Ivory Flakes tinted with green or red food coloring or paint. Provide glitter for them to decorate the cones.

 

·        Make Christmas cards using construction paper and glitter pens. Encourage the students to fold the cards themselves and place in envelopes.

 

·        Have several cutouts of candy canes of various sizes for the students to place from smallest to largest.

 

·        Have several different sized circles for the students to make snowmen.

 

·        Bring in some old Christmas cards. Place them in a large box and have them classify the cards (ones with Santa, ones with snow, etc.). Then have them count the cards in each group.

 

·        Have Christmas candy in a jar and have the students count the pieces and separate all the red ones, green ones, etc.

 

·        Have several cutouts of snowflakes of various colors, making sure to make two of each color. Have the students match the snowflake to its mate. To make it harder, make them all the same color, with different patterns for them to match.

 

·        Provide a few different sized stockings and various sized toys. Encourage the students to fit the toys into the stockings. Have small, medium and large stockings and toys available.

 

·        Make a gift wrap express. Supply an area with boxes, tape, wrapping paper, bows, gift bags, Christmas cards, gift tags, and a small Christmas tree. Let students "wrap" gifts and put under tree. They can also make Christmas cards to "mail", and decorate the tree. The students love this one!!

 

·        Make a stocking, snowman, or other Christmas related object into lacing cards. Make two of the same object for each child. Use laminated construction paper, hole punch and yarn. Not only are they lacing and using fine motor skills, they will have a stocking to put their little gifts in to take home!

 

·        Sensory Gift Box- Gift wrap a box, to use for your sensory activity. Use packing peanuts for "snow". Place small ornaments, packages, canes, etc; for students to find in the "snow".

 

·        Provide red and green pipe cleaners for the students to twist into various shapes to hang on the tree.

 

·        Toss "snowballs" (cotton balls) into a small box

 

·        Paint a large picture of Santa with his toy bag onto a piece of cardboard. Cut a hole at the top of the bag. Tape the picture in front of a trash can, making sure the hole at the tip of Santa's bag extends above the top of the can. Have the students throw bean bags into "Santa's bag".

 

·        Simply use this time to decorate a Christmas tree with all the decorations the students made.

 

·        Tell the story "The Night Before Christmas", using props such as a stocking, a small Santa and a reindeer.

 

·        Hold a stocking treasure hunt. Hide small stockings made from construction paper and encourage the students to find them.

·        Have an evergreen branch available to look at with a magnifying glass.

 

·        Have smelly jars with Christmas scents; such as cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, peppermint, etc.

 

·        Place an ice cube in a jar and time how long it takes to melt. Discuss why this happens.

 

·        Have different kinds of pine cones available for examination.

 

·        Encourage students to crack open different types of nuts. Have the students taste the different varieties and compare how each one looks and tastes different.

 

·        Make and illustrate winter activity books

 

·        New Year’s Theme (example: draw Father Time)

 

·        Make a bird feeder

 

·        Make snowflakes

 

·        Black History Month Theme

 

·        Presidential Theme

 

·        Valentine’s Day Theme

 

·        Provide red, pink, and white construction paper, glitter, glue, stickers, doilies, ribbon, and markers out for the students to design their own valentines. Write down the messages they want on the cards, or have them "write" their own.

 

·        Encourage the students to sponge paint heart designs on paper. Provide red and pink paint. Count with the students the number of hearts placed on their page.

 

·        Encourage the students to make a variety of hearts using materials of their choice: tempera paints, crayons, wallpaper scraps, construction paper, markers and clay. Encourage students to mix red and white paint to make their own pink paint.

 

·        Provide Valentines related cutouts for students to paint, white, red or pink; such as cupids, hearts, flowers, candy, etc.

 

·        Provide many heart shapes in a variety of sizes and colors for the students to glue onto paper or onto doilies.

 

·        Provide the students with hearts, stickers, glitter, ribbon, etc. to make their valentine sack.

 

·        Give the students doilies and glitter and let them have a ball!

 

·        Provide hearts of various sizes and shapes and have the students sort them by color and size.

 

·        Give each child 10-15 heart candies or Valentine M&M's and a piece of paper divided into as many sections as there are colors of candies. Color in a heart matching the color of the candies for the students to graph the candies according to color.

 

·        Encourage the students to find red and non-red items in the classroom.

 

·        Have a pile of hearts or a jarful and have the students guess how many there are in the jar

 

·        Provide candy hearts and an empty egg carton. Write the numbers 1-12 in the bottom of the cups and have the students place the appropriate number of hearts into the cup.

 

·        Make patterns using different colors of beads.

 

·        Play valentine lotto or bingo using hearts cut from a variety of wallpaper samples.

 

·        Assist the students in delivering valentines to their classmates. Assist the students in identifying the names on the bags.

 

·        Have hearts shapes drawn on paper for the students to cut out, trace or just to color.

 

·        Provide large heart cutouts and lace. Encourage the students to glue the lace around the outer edge of the heart.

 

·        Encourage the students to pick up candy hearts using tweezers.

 

·        Mix red and white paint to make pink or red food coloring and white frosting to make pink frosting. Then eat!

 

·        Discuss the heart. What it does in our bodies, where it is, etc.

 

·        Place red, blue, or green food coloring, water and a tablespoon or vinegar into individual bowls. Provide the students with multiple strips of cloth cut from old sheets or rages that are white, yellow and brown. Have them predict what color each strip will turn when dipped into each color.

 

·        Make Valentines

 

Spring

·        Spring Theme (examples: plant grass, make a spring mobile, brainstorm signs of spring, design a kite, make paper flowers, decorate flower pots)

 

·        St. Patrick’s Day Theme (example: research Ireland, write limericks, make potato print art)

 

·        Encourage the students to make a collage entirely of green things. Provide magazines, paints, markers, and construction paper. Explain how the color green is usually associated with St. Patrick's Day.

 

·        Make rubbings of shamrock shapes. Provide the students with cardboard shamrock shapes, paper and crayons. Place paper over the shape and have them rub over the outline with the crayon. Explain how the shamrock is a good luck symbol connected with St. Patrick's Day.

 

·        Make a March flyer. Provide the students with a paper plate, yarn, and streamers. Have the students punch four holes around the plate. Tie yarn around holes, then bundle the four pieces into one at the bottom, to make one string to hold. Have the students add streamers around the plate. Fly the flyers out in the wind!

 

·        Provide the students with blue and yellow finger-paint. Assist them in discovering how to make green.

 

·        Provide a white shamrock shape and have the students paint it green and add green glitter.

 

·        Make Play Clay (in art recipes sections) and have the students roll the dough and cut out a shamrock using a cookie cutter. Add a hole at the top, using a straw. When it dries, have the students paint it green, add a piece of ribbon or yarn and you have a necklace.

 

·        Provide the students with a black cutout of a pot and several yellow circles. Have the students glue the "coins" into the pot for a pot of gold. Explain the story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and the leprechaun.

 

·        Have the students find green in any of their clothing or in the classroom.

 

·        Have the students sequence leprechaun shapes by size.

 

·        Provide a laminated black pot and several yellow paper coins. Have the students place the coins on the pot and count them as they go!

 

·        Provide each child with several shamrock cut outs that are all the same size and a long strip of adding machine tape. Measure the tape to the height of the child. Then the student glues the shamrock cut outs on the tape and measure how many shamrocks tall they are!

 

·        Provide several cutouts of shamrocks of various shapes and sizes and have them sort by size and color.

 

·        Encourage the students to make shamrocks out of green pipe cleaners.

 

·        Have students reach into a bag of change. Have students graph the change that they pull out with their hands.

 

·        Make paper airplanes to see which flies farthest.

 

·        Have the students make their own rainbows by cutting construction paper or cellophane paper in red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple. Paste on paper.

 

·        Ask the students what they would wish for if a leprechaun granted them three wishes. Place their responses on green paper shamrocks.

 

·        Have prisms available for the students to look at. Assist them in holding them so the light shines through to produce a rainbow. Ask them what colors they see.

 

·        Examine a potato with eyes growing on it with a magnifying glass.

 

·        Use a scale to weigh potatoes. Which are heavier, which are lighter?

 

·        If possible, find real four leaf clovers growing outside. How many leaves do they have? Examine with magnifying glasses.

 

·        Mix together mint ice cream and milk to make St. Patty's Day shakes. Discuss what happens to the mixture. What made the ice cream melt? What is ice cream made of?

 

·        Have one container of water with yellow food coloring in it and another with blue food coloring. Encourage the students to mix the two and explain what happens.

 

·        Easter Theme

 

·        Color some rice using water tinted with food coloring and a little bit of alcohol. Soak rice to desired color and drain. Dry on paper towels. Trace and cut out a tag board egg shape. Glue lengths of yarn to divide the egg into sections. Brush glue on a section and have students add their rice to their egg.

 

·        Using a cutout of an egg or bunny shape, punch holes randomly along the shape. Glue several colors of tissue paper squares on the back of the paper. Dry and hang in a window.

 

·        Make a mosaic using bits of colored egg shells and glue.

 

·        Give the students a piece of paper, Easter grass and oval shapes in various colors. Have the students glue on their eggs and Easter grass.

 

·        Assist the students in cutting bunny ears from pink construction paper and gluing of stapling the ears to a headband.

 

·        Give the students a bunny cutout in any color, except white. Have the students use cotton balls to paint their cutouts white and add a colorful cotton ball tail.

 

·        Place about 20 jelly beans in a jar and have kids estimate how many are in the jar. Have them count to see how close they were.

 

·        Provide several egg cutouts with various patterns drawn on them. Make sure you make two of each. Have the students match the pairs.

 

·        Provide an egg carton and a dozen plastic eggs. Have the students count the eggs as they place them in the slots.

 

·        Place a pile of carrots on the table and have the students guess how many are in the pile. Encourage the students to count to see if they were correct.

 

·        Provide paper bunnies in three sizes. Encourage the students to arrange them from smallest to largest.

 

·        Encourage the students to make eggs out of play dough. Give the students craft sticks to decorate their eggs. They can also make bunnies out of the dough.

 

·        Give the students paper and scissors to cut out ovals. They can then decorate them with markers or crayons.

 

·        Provide the students with rabbit or egg shaped lace cards.

 

·        Place a raw egg in a glass container filled with vinegar. The vinegar will slowly dissolve the shell and rubberize the egg. Have the students observe changes daily. In about 2 days the shell will disappear. In about 3 days, take the egg out and have the students hold it. How does it feel?

 

·        Dye Easter eggs using store bought dye or make your own, using teabags, cranberries, etc.

 

·        Place a boiled egg and a raw egg on the table. Ask the students if they can figure out which egg is cooked. Encourage them to compare the color, weight, and by shaking. Spin the egg. Does one wobble more than the other. Crack them both open and see if they were correct.

 

·        Earth Day Theme

 

·        Summer Theme (end of year)