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All the printable activities can be downloaded from the following link for $3.00!

Preschool classroom all over often spend a week or two studying apples. The apple offers many opportunities for preschoolers. Children will be using all their senses as they dive into the natural resource! I will provide ways to connect apples with all domains within the Michigan Early Childhood Standards of Quality found here: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ECSQ_OK_Approved_422339_7.pdf. These standards may be used to guide preschool classroom educators to providing a well-rounded curriculum.

Approaches to Learning: “The Approaches to Learning Domain is about the dynamics of learning how to learn on one’s own and in the company of others.”

One area of this domain involves exploring and asking questions. Apples provide many opportunities to take part in both of these activities. The following activities may be used to help children achieve these skills:

Creative Arts: “Support for children’s creative development is essential to foster their
appreciation of the arts and their competence, self-reliance, and success.”

The creative arts domain encourages children to explore all types of mediums and to show pride in their work. Apple art can take on many forms. Here are a few suggestions:

I have created an Apple Pie Recipe activity to use with children. The Apple Pie Recipe cards will meet the Creative Arts domain with dramatic play and also incorporates math skills. This activity requires the following supplies (all are affiliate links):

• 5 green pom poms Creativity Street Pom Pons, Kelly Green, 1″, 100 Pieces
• 5 red pom poms Blulu Pompoms for Craft Making and Hobby Supplies, 500 Pieces, 1.2 cm/ 0.5 Inch (Red)
• 5 yellow pom poms Creativity Street Pom Pons 100-Piece x 1/2 Inch, Yellow
• 5 white pom poms Darice Pom Poms 1/2″ 100/Pkg: White
• 5 strips of brown felt Acrylic Felt Tan Felt Sheets 9×12 Felt Sheets for Crafts, Nonwoven Fabric Sheets, Great Felt for Crafts, Patchwork Sewing, Costumes, Classrooms, Scouts, Parties- 6 PC Felt Sheets Tan Felt Packs
• Small pie tin MontoPack Disposable 5″ Aluminum Foil Pie/Tart Pan (50 Pack) | 5 Inch Round Cake Pan for Baking Personal Mini Pies, Homemade Cakes & Quiche | Oven Safe Foil Tins Easily Stack & Store, Freeze & Reheat
• Printed recipe cards

Children need to be provided a print-rich environment. Seeing the written word and making the connection that the letters have meaning are two foundations that lead to strong reading development later. Literacy is a part of everything we do in the preschool classrooms. From printing names on papers to reading books to children on our laps, early childhood educators are constantly providing language experiences for children. Here are a few intentional language and early literacy apple related activities:

I have created an Apple ABC sort game. The apples contain printed words and pictures. Each letter of the alphabet is printed on a basket. Print the pages and cut out the apples and baskets. Have the children sort the pictures by the first letter of each word into the correct letter basket. Children can use the sounds the letters make or match the printed letters. This activity helps children develop the skill of identifying and associating letters with their names and
sounds.

The link to purchase all the apple activities I have created will be provided below!

Here are some affiliate links to purchase books about apples!

• Apples, Apples, Apples
• Apples and Pumpkins
• Apples (New & Updated Edition)
• Hello, World! How Do Apples Grow?
• Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship
• How Do Apples Grow?
• Applesauce Day
• Apple Countdown
• Fall Apples: Crisp and Juicy (Cloverleaf Books ™ ― Fall’s Here!)

As the world shifted due to Covid, technology has become more important. Most people are using technology to communicate and reduce social contact with others. Children can adapt easily and already have many skills using technology. I have created a sorting activity that can be used during a virtual circle time or as an activity children can do independently. The activity is a PowerPoint slide show. Each slide is autocorrecting. Children will be demonstrating the skills of describing and creatively using a variety of technological tools independently or with peer or adult help. This activity will require children to use the mouse to click on the appropriate places.

Below is a video demonstration the activity.

Social, Emotional, and Physical Health: “During the preschool years, children increase self-understanding, cooperative and social interaction skills, improve movement skills, and develop greater knowledge about the importance of physical activity, exercise and good nutrition to their overall health.”

The following activities will help children develop skills in this domain:

An activity for children to work on fine motor skills is lacing. The following printable allows children to use fine motor skills in multiple ways. Print the page. Provide children with hole punches and string. Allow the children to create a pattern with the string on the apple. The apple can be printed on colored paper or white so the children can also use coloring tools to change the color of the apple.

Many of the math skills in this domain go beyond counting. Children develop skills in solving mathematical problems, classify objects and patterns, begin to think in algebraic terms at a young age. The following are activities to help children develop these skills:

A way to help children develop the skill of investigating patterns and describing relationships is with Apple Pattern Memory. In this activity, children will match the apple patterns. There are 10 matching pairs included in the download.

Children are naturally curious. Apples are a natural resource that offer many opportunities to explore with all the senses. The following activities focus on the Science learning domain:

Children look at the lifecycle of objects in the Science domain. This helps children to learn to classify objects as living and non-living. One activity to do with with children with apples, is to provide them with lifecycle cards of the apple tree. Children can use these cards to sort how an apple tree starts as a seed and ends as a tree.

Preschool children all know apples. The apple is a great tool children can relate to and understand. There are many uses of the apple in the preschool curriculum!

All the printable activities can be downloaded from the following link for $3.00!

In honor of 9/11 Day, Violet will be taking part in a service project for her social studies class. She will be holding a book drive to benefit a local school that fell victim to arson on July 15, 2020. Ford Early Learning Center serves the community of Ypsilanti, MI. It is a school for pre-k and kindergarten. The teachers lost everything.

More information regarding the fire can be found here:

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/07/500000-in-damage-caused-by-suspected-arson-fire-in-ypsilanti-area-elementary-school.html

Additional information regarding Ford Early Learning Center can be found here:

https://www.ycschools.us/our-schools/pre-k-and-kindergarten/ford-early-learning-center/

Violet has created an Amazon wish list containing books geared towards social justice and social emotional development. This list contains books about families, children of color, and differing abilities. Violet hopes to not only replace what was lost, but expand the diversity provided to the children of Ford Early Learning Center. When books are purchased from the wish list, they will be sent to Violet. She will collect books from 09.11.2020 – 10.11.2020. On October 12th, Violet will deliver the books to Ford Early Learning Center.

Thank you for taking part in Violet’s service project!

Amazon Wish List

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1Q9NYSE1TEK3H?ref_=wl_share

Typically I post regarding my profession, early childhood education. However, I am also a mother of 5 children. This school year I have a 1st grader, 3rd grader, 5th grader, 7th grader, and a senior. Our schools are online for the first trimester, at least. We can reevaluate at that point what is right for our family. All summer, I knew we would be learning virtually in the fall. I waited until the last minute to prepare our home, which is typical in our house. I needed desks, just like the rest of the virtual schooling families. I didn’t just need one desk, I needed 3. I scoured the internet. Everything was sold out or had a long wait for shipment. I hit resale shops with no success. I went to Walmart, Target, At Home, Meijer…all with no luck. My last store was Ikea.

Ikea had a long line to get in. I waited with a 100 other people, most likely on the lookout for school supplies also. I headed upstairs to see what the options were. There were a few that did not say they were out of stock. I went downstairs to the warehouse to find the desks to purchase. Every shelf was empty. There was not a desk to be found. I was able to find some useful supplies to build our virtual homeschool set up. I purchased the following items from Ikea:

• Magnet Board https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/svensas-memo-board-white-00440363/
• Wall Rail Bar https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/sunnersta-rail-30303722/
• Wall Containers https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/sunnersta-container-white-50303735/
• White Picture Frames https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/fiskbo-frame-white-00295653/
• Green Picture Frames https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/fiskbo-frame-light-green-10464730/

I was still without a desk though. I am not the most handy person. It seemed that I was going to have to build desks from scratch. School was scheduled to start in 3 days and I was headed to Home Depot for wood. I wandered the aisles, looking for something to reach out and grab me as an easy way to make a desk. I know from past experience, legs are the toughest part for me. Precision is not my strong suit and legs need to be exactly the same or you get a wobble. As I was wandering, I found wooden sawhorses. These would be perfect legs! Already formed and inexpensive. Next, I found a piece of birch plywood the right size. I gathered some screws, wood glue, and a quart of paint to complete my supplies.

• Sawhorse https://www.homedepot.com/p/Signature-Development-29-in-Wooden-Sawhorse-378739/100029549
• Plywood https://www.homedepot.com/p/Birch-Plywood-Common-3-4-in-x-2-ft-x-4-ft-Actual-0-728-in-x-23-75-in-x-47-75-in-154148/203504324
• Wood Glue https://www.homedepot.com/p/8-oz-Titebond-II-Ultimate-Wood-Glue-5003/202180087
• Screws https://www.homedepot.com/p/DECKMATE-8-x-1-1-4-in-Star-Flat-Head-Wood-Deck-Screw-1-lb-Pack-115975/306587122
• Paint https://www.acehardware.com/magnolia-home-by-joanna-gaines

I sanded the edges of the plywood and the sawhorse to give a rounded edge. Then place glue on the top of the sawhorse and place the plywood on top. Measure to make sure the plywood is centered. I placed the plywood with 10 inches on each side and 10 inches on the front side. This allows for more space for legs under the desk. Then screw the plywood to the sawhorse with one screw on each side. I used a hole drill bit to create a cord space on the back of the desk top.

The desk took about 2 hours from start to finish and cost $60. It is much larger than most desks in this price range. The kids loved being involved! Here is the finished set up with our Ikea finds installed as well.

Desk success! Easy, affordable, and perfect size. Day one of virtual homeschool is underway.

As schools start back, there are two activities children are being asked to do. First, wear a mask. And second, wash your hands to keep everyone healthy. The more children use skills, the stronger the connections become in the brain. Muscle memory kicks in and these skills become second nature. Healthy habits are something a child will use for the rest of their lives. It is important to introduce these habits at a young age. Michigan’s Early. Childhood Standards of Quality Care found here https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ECSQ_OK_Approved_422339_7.pdf outlines social, emotional, and physical health standards. A unit on hand washing and germs helps a child to “begin to have knowledge about and make age-appropriate healthy choices in daily life.” Children demonstrate they are mastering this goal by showing independence in keeping themselves clean, talking about ways germs spread, and beginning to recognize activities that lead to the spread of germs.

There are a number of ways to introduce these concepts to children. The first is through literature. A number of books have been written about germs and hand washing. There are many regarding Covid-19 specifically being published also. A few suggestions include (affiliate links):

• Germs Are Not for Sharing (Board Book) (Best Behavior Series)
• What are Germs? (Very First Lift-the-Flap Questions & Answers)
• Teacher Created Materials 27336 YOUR World: GERMS: Addition and Subtraction (Mathematics in the Real World)
• Germs: Fact and Fiction, Friends and Foes
• Germs, YUK!: Interactive Germ Book for Preschool & Toddler Children Ages 2-5 | Hand Washing Book for Kids
• Perry and Steve’s New Normal: Life During COVID-19: (Kids ages 3-5, Kids ages 4-6, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Quarantine) (Penguin Adventure Series Book 3)
• Germs! Germs! Germs! (Hello Reader! Level 3 Science)

If you are interacting with children virtually, there are many books available electronically.

I have created a number of activities that are available to download for FREE. Each of these activities correspond with a Michigan Early Childhood Standards of Quality while helping children see the value of hand washing and self-care.

The first activity is a hand writing printable. The child will use a writing utensil or finger to trace the dotted line from the hands to the germs. In order for children to become proficient in the standard relating writing skills, they need many experiences to write. Children show they are mastering “beginning to develop writing skills to communicate and express themselves effectively for a variety of purposes” when they use a variety of forms of writing, begin to understand their ideas can be written, and begin to write familiar words. Tracing allows children to practice forming the basic shapes of letters.

Free downloads: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Germ-Trace-5959369 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Germ-Trace-5959353

The next activity focuses on patterning. Patterning is a math skill. Children will use classification, comparison of objects, and classify objects when patterning. This FREE printable activity provides 6 unique patterns for children to extend. As children develop the skill of patterning they can recognize, extend, and create patterns.

FREE Download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Germ-Patterning-5959428

Seriation is putting things in order. Size, location, and position are examples of ways children can use seriation with items. The FREE printable cards below provide children an opportunity to put the steps of washing hands in order. Children will start with the first step and end with the fifth. The more a child practices and has experiences with a skill, the stronger the brain connections will become. These seriation cards offer children a different kind of experience with hand washing.

FREE Download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Handwashing-Seriation-Cards-5959412

An easy science activity can be done with the FREE printable. Print the .pdf and place it in a ziplock bag. Trace the child’s hands on the outside of the bag. Place the bag, while held upright, into a bowl of water. The germs will magically disappear, but the hands will remain. This happens because of light refraction, but also demonstrates how washing hands will make germs disappear. The following link demonstrates this activity: https://www.ronyestech.com/2020/05/zip-lock-bag-water-refraction-halloween.html

FREE download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Disappearing-Germ-5959382

I have also created a poster with the steps to hand washing. Place this by the sink for children to have a simple to read reminder!

FREE download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Handwashing-Steps-Poster-5959399

The final activity I have created is available for a very low cost. This activity is a PowerPoint slide show that works great during a virtual class. Children will count the germs on various objects as you click your mouse. Children may count together, guess on their own, or print the activity to be used independently. This activity focuses on the numbers 1 to 5. Children will work on counting and cardinality as they work through these germy objects!

Download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Germ-Count-5959445

All the activities are available to download for a minimal price at the following link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hand-Washing-and-Germs-5959482

Hand washing and germ awareness has always been important in Early Childhood Classrooms. Society is catching up and focusing the the importance of these topics. Practice helps children become more proficient in these necessary skills.

Childcare centers are now required to have children ages 4 and up wear masks in community spaces in Michigan. Children ages 2 and up are strongly encouraged to wear a mask in confined classrooms. This seems like a daunting task. I attended a training with a pediatric ER doctor, a behavioral pediatrician, a child psychologist, and the director of licensing. These individuals provided support, ideas, and scientific evidence to support children wearing masks.

Children are resilient. We see this all the time in the classroom. Things that would cause adults to fret for days, pass by children as a fleeting moment. Children also are capable. Children are able to comply with safety rules from infancy. Between the ages of 2 and 7 children are in the preoperational stage. At this point, children are egocentric. Children are able to think symbolically. When taking these two facts into consideration, the best way to approach mask wearing with children is to focus on how the child’s actions are helping others. The child focuses on the actions they can do while also making the connection of the mask and safety. Children in this stage are also beginning to attach meaning to objects with language. Use simple, child-friendly explanations for mask wearing.

Children need grace. Wearing a mask all day is not going to be an easy task for children. Children lack impulse control. Their pre-frontal cortex is just beginning to fire. This area of the brain regulates self-control. You may find children frequently touching their face or removing their mask. Help children understand cognitively the importance of the mask, redirect and guide when needed, and celebrate the behavioral success when the mask is worn. Children thrive on mastery. Becoming an accomplished mask wearer is an opportunity for a child to experience growth and success. Do not expect perfection.

As children are introduced to wearing masks, provide support. Here are some suggestions to implement in the classroom:

• Provide doll sized masks for children to play with.
• Have the children decorate and personalize a mask.
• Allow children opportunities to play games involving masks.
• Adults should be wearing masks with pride.
• Allow mask breaks (this may be while eating or outside).

The following are suggestions a caregiver can offer for a parent:

• Provide multiple masks each day.
• Masks need to clean each day.
• Have your child choose a mask. Make the mask fun and something that appeals to the child.
• The following link contains information and videos for children sesamestreet.org/caring
• Reusable masks are more cost efficient and produce less waste.
• Parents can encourage children to wear a mask through out the day at home.

Children are hard wired for social skills. Even though a mask with cover the bottom portion of the face, children will be able to decipher emotions through other means. Children use tone of voice, eye movements, eyebrow shapes, and sounds being made to determine what a person may be feeling. Offering children practice with this may be helpful. I have created a PowerPoint activity that may be used virtually or printed. Children are tasked with determining how the masked children are feeling. This activity may be downloaded for a very low fee at the following link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Masked-But-Still-Feeling-5930676

I have also created an emotion match game, empowering posters, and a mask that may be decorated. These are available for FREE at the following links:

• Emotion Match Cards https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Emotion-Mask-Match-5930703
• Empowering Posters https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Empowering-Mask-Posters-5930711
• Mask Printable https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/My-Helper-Mask-Printable-5930733

If you download these items, please leave feedback! I greatly appreciate it!

Literature is often a great starting point for discussions with children. Here are children’s books available from Amazon affiliate links.

• Lucy’s Mask
• Let’s Talk About Masks: A Children’s Book and Conversation Starter for Parents
• Billie and the Brilliant Bubble: Social Distancing for Children
• A Unique Start From 6 Feet Apart: A Book About Returning to the Classroom During a Pandemic
• Why Did the Whole World Stop?: Talking With Kids About COVID-19
• The Day the Lines Changed: An Inspiring Story about a Line, a Pandemic, and How Change Shapes us All
• Kelly Goes Back to School: More Science on Coronavirus
• The Love Behind the Mask

Another idea is to use non-washable markers to color a mask for the children to wear for the day. This would be an expense, but may help children take ownership of the mask. These are single use masks, and should not be worn for multiple days. This may be something you can suggest to parents to do at home to have a new mask for each day.

• Vanecia 30 pcs Color Kids Face Masks PInk Green Yellow White Blue, Cartoon

I hope these tips and activities help mask wearing with children seem a little less daunting. The best quality early childhood educators have is to be adaptive. We think fast on our feet in all situations. Mask wearing is a new situation, but we will all succeed!

The Early Childhood Standards of Quality for the state of Michigan includes early learning expectations for science. One learning expectations for preschool age children is to “show a beginning awareness of scientific knowledge related to living and non-living things.” The full document of the Early Childhood Standards of Quality can be found at the following link: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ECSQ_OK_Approved_422339_7.pdf. As children develop this scientific skill, they will begin to demonstrate an ability to talk about living and non-living things. Children will also will begin to categorize items based on characteristics that are observable, begin to develop an awareness of lifecycles, and begin to describe the relationship between animals and plants.

Children are natural scientists. Play provides children the opportunity to develop knowledge through exploration. A study conducted by Claire Cook at MiT concluded that children who are given ambiguous information were more likely to seek additional information through experimentations. These children defined variables and tested out theories. Children who were given the opposite information, did not define variables. These children lacked the trial and error process their peers took part in. The full findings may be read at the following link: https://web.stanford.edu/~ngoodman/papers/CookGoodmanSchulz2011.pdf

As a facilitator of children’s development, it is important to remember these key findings. A child’s natural desire to experiment can be easily stifled by an adults intervention. Adults need to provide children with rich experiences that will lead to exploration. Adults need to step back and allow children to lead the process as this process is the scientific method. When adults use the scientific method, they are seeking to answer a question by forming a hypothesis. Children take part in the same process when they interact with a rich environment.

The skill of differentiating living from non-living things begins with questions. The world is already technologically dependent and the pandemic has moved the necessity for digital skills to younger children. Preschoolers need hands-on experiences to supplement virtual education. One way to provide children an easy hands-on experience to look at living and non-living things is with Nature Bingo. In this activity, children use their surroundings to look at objects that are either living or non-living. As they find the objects in nature, they mark them off on their bingo board. Children can attempt to get four in a row, cover all the items, or seek to make a different pattern. In addition to the exploration, children can be prompted with questions to encourage children to look at the items in a living or non-living classification system. The following are questions an adult may use to prompt children to think deeper during the activity:

• Does the item move on its own?
• Does the item need water?
• Can it eat food?
• Does it make food?
• Does it breathe?
• Does it need air?

The download includes 5 unique bingo cards that can be printed as many times are you need. The cards can be found for download at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nature-Bingo-5917955 for a very low fee.

In addition to the Nature Bingo, you can provide children with literature that supports the development of this science learning expectation. The following are affiliate links with resources that will help children develop this learning expectation.

• What’s Alive? (Rise and Shine) (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)
• Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?
• Are You Living?: A Song About Living and Nonliving Things (Science Songs)
• What Kind of Living Thing Is It? (Introducing Living Things (Paperback)
• What Is a Life Cycle? (The Science of Living Things)

An additional activity to help children develop this knowledge is to sort images of living vs. non-living things. I am including the link to download my sorting cards for FREE! Images for these cards came from www.unspash.com.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Living-vs-Non-Living-Sorting-Cards-5918504

One of the Early Childhood Standards for Quality created for the state of Michigan includes the following learning expectation: Counting and Cardinality. Children extend their understanding of numbers and their relationship to one another and things in their environment. The full copy of the Standards can be found at the following link: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ECSQ_OK_Approved_422339_7.pdf

Children may demonstrate they are working on this expectation by showing an awareness of numbers to determine the quantity of items, label amounts, and moving beyond rote counting. I have created an activity to use with preschool age children to practice this math learning expectation.

Cardinality is the ability to tell how many are in a set. The last word in the counting sequence names the quantity for the set. Prior to moving to cardinality, children focus on one-to-one correspondence. Children demonstrate one-to-one correspondence by giving a number name to each object in a sequence.

Begin with presenting the book “Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli” by Barbara Jean Hicks. You may purchase the book at the following affiliate link Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli. A read-a-loud version can be found on YouTube. The read-a-loud version would be useful for a virtual circle time.

Once you have read the book, present the counting activity. Children will count the monsters and then determine how many of each item they need to feed the monsters. This activity presents concrete items for children to count and then recounts the items a second time. Additionally, the activity provides the written number for children to begin to connect the verbal words with the written symbol. This activity teaches children cardinality by having them count the monsters using one-to-one correspondence. The next step asks them to name the number of monsters that must be fed. This number is the final number of the counting sequence and therefore the name of the set.

The following video demonstrates the full activity.

You can find the Feed the Monster Activity for download at the following link for a nominal fee. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Feed-the-Monster-Math-5903295. The activity uses PowerPoint and is fully functional upon download. This activity can be used in a virtual circle time or as an independent activity.

Please print the following activity to use with individual children to practice cardinality. Children will count the number of monsters in each box. Have the children point to each one as they count. Focus on the last number said to label the set.

Visual closure is the ability to correctly perceive an object or word, even when it is partly hidden. The ability to quickly decode helps children to read and comprehend quickly. Practicing visual closure with various activities trains the eyes to decode symbols to be letters rapidly. This skill is completely visual and should be practiced as such. The ability to not actively assess each line of print helps with reading and writing fluency.

Some signs a child may need additional support in visual closure include:

• Trouble completing mazes and puzzles
• Difficulty identifying objects that are partially obscured
• Difficulty with math tasks
• Needing extra time to identify familiar letters

One way to practice visual closure is to place a number of different objects in a box. Have the objects overlap. Ask the child to find various objects that are partially hidden.

Another way to practice visual closure is with a PowerPoint presentation. Create a slide with a large single letter. Insert a shape and choose the square. Place the square on the letter to obstruct different lines of the letter. Change the fill and outline of the square to white. Insert a blank slide. Put the full letter on this slide. This activity can be done during a virtual circle time. Prepare the PowerPoint presentation ahead of time. Share your screen with the children and have them shout out the letters.

This activity can also be done with simple images for children who are not familiar with letters.

You can download this PowerPoint presentation for free at the following link!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Visual-Closure-5862943#show-price-update

Some additional activities can be found on the following links:

• https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-closure-activity-bugs-theme/
• https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/visual-closure.html
• https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-closure-flower-match-up-activity
• http://drzachryspedsottips.blogspot.com/2016/03/free-visual-perceptual-worksheets.html

The following are affiliate links. These manipulatives would be helpful in developing visual closure for children.

• Coogam Numbers and Alphabets Flash Cards Set – ABC Wooden Letters and Numbers Animal Card Board Matching Puzzle Game Montessori Educational Toys Gift for Toddlers Age 3 Preschool and Up Years
• Spot It! (Color of Packaging May Vary)
• SmartGames Bunny Peek a Boo

The children have been fascinated by sharks lately. Many have been sharing shark facts at the last couple circle times. I decided to use this fascination to keep the children tuned in to our most recent virtual circle time.

The children were sent the invitation to our circle time. The invitation encouraged the children to practice some printing activities.

On the social media accounts, I shared activities for the children to do that encourage writing skills. Additionally, I shared the following article from NAEYC to give parents information regarding emergent writing skills. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/emergent-writing

A great activity for fine motor development and emergent writing skills is lacing. Families were provided a shark lacing activity to download and complete at home. Feel free to print and use this lacing activity for yourself!

Our first activity during the virtual circle time was to learn about sharks! We listened to Sharks by Kate Riggs on Youtube.com. The reading of the book is a little fast, but the concepts shared are simple and engaging.

Following the book, we played a shark game. I shared the PowerPoint presentation with everyone. The children were to feed the shark the letter I said. They told me the color of the letter to acknowledge they had found it. The children were all unmuted and just shouted out the answers.

This is an easy game to make on PowerPoint. Simply place a shark, or any clipart animal, in the center. Add text boxes with each letter of the alphabet. Choose a different color for the letters. Once you have all the letters placed, use the animations tab to create the movement. Choose the Exit Effects animation then select the drop option to have the letters fall away. On the animations pane, you should see the letters of the alphabet in order. This will ensure that the correct letter will fall when you click your mouse.

Our final activity was a movement song. The kids enjoy interacting physically with one another. Movement songs is an excellent way to feel connected.

I hope you enjoy your shark day as much as we did!

A favorite book in the classroom is The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood. The story is simple, and easy for children to remember. On the second reading, children are able to recite parts of the book. The Little Mouse is trying to keep his red, ripe strawberry from the big hungry bear. He hides it, disguises it, and locks it up. None of these are effective until the reader makes a suggestion.

The book can be purchased from the following affiliate link: https://amzn.to/39fs4Zm

The children were asked to come to our virtual circle time in disguise so they wouldn’t be found by the big hungry bear.

Once the children were gathered on Zoom.us, the story was read over a shared screen. I no longer mute the children while the story is read. Our group size is small so it is fun to hear the children react to the story. The following link is the read-a-loud I used during our virtual circle time.

https://www.schooltube.com/media/The+Little+Mouse%2C+The+Red-Ripe+Strawberry+and+the+Big+Hungry+Bear/1_vbnqehhc

Our activity was a strawberry hunt. I obtained the background images from https://unsplash.com/. This site offers free images to use. I created a slideshow on PowerPoint. I added the circles and then used animations to have them appear one at a time.

The children were unmuted during the activity. They counted, used preposition words, and described the locations of the strawberries. Many different skills were used during the strawberry hunt.

We finished the virtual circle time with a song about fruits and vegetables. This allowed the children to move around!