~ on Preschool Interactive Daily Activity Calendar ~

*Parent/Teacher Note:  I've listed all the activities we are hoping to do during our Friendship Celebration Week.  There are purposely more activities for each day than we probably have time for.  Mix and match them to your child's/children's interests, offering a balanced mix throughout each day.  For instance, choose some active and some quiet activities each day and be sure to read every day!  Tailor each activity to your child's specific interests and abilities.
 

view printable .pdf version

Main Idea:  Cherishing others, respecting differences, creating friendship bonds

materials list/Resources:

Books (book links available in left sidebar under menu):  Winnie the Pooh, Charlie the Caterpillar, Do You Want to be My Friend?, Corduroy, Clifford the Big, Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
Optional:  Will I Have a Friend? by Miriam Cohen, Maisy books by Lucy Cousins, The Giving Tree, Barney's Beach Party DVD

Social/Emotional Development:
Show & Tell Thursdays:  Bring in a picture of a friend or a stuffed friend to show your school friends.
Morning Meeting/Circle Time (daily skill work including:  weather, calendar, counting, ABCs, patterning, colors, shapes, songs, music, finger plays, rhymes, creative Movement) (outside links):
The More We Get Together, All God's Critters, I Love You (Barney Song), It's a Small World, Oh Playmate, Come Out and Play With Me, Return to Pooh Corner, The World is a Rainbow

Creative Activities/Art/Music/Drama/Aesthetic Learning (including Fine / Large Motor Activities): 
Make a Bear, Friendship Cards, Friendship Bracelets, Name Ball Game

Cognitive/Intellectual Learning:
Language Arts/Literacy Activities/Social Studies:  Friendship Book, Friendly Counting Sentences
Science/Math/Social Studies:  Ice Cream Bags, Friendship Memory Matching Game, Friends Attribute Graph, Color Books, Left/Right

Internet Links - supplementary (outside links):  Pooh Friendship Day:  Fun & Games, The Lion and the Mouse Online Story, Maisy's Fun Club, Clifford the Big Red Dog via PBS Kids, Clifford the Big Red Dog via Scholastic, Barney Online Stories

Vocabulary Words:  friendship, same, different, compromise, respect, Spanish color words (white/blanco, pink/rosa, red/rojo, orange/naranja, yellow/amarillo, green/verde, blue/azul, purple/morado, brown/marron, black/negro), author, illustrator, sew

Benchmark Skills:
1.15 Understands and respects differences
5.7 Engages in two-way conversation with children and adults
 

1.  Winnie the Pooh - Friends Attribute Graph, Friendship Bracelets

Benchmark Skills:
3.10 Classifies objects by physical features such as shape or color
3.15 Demonstrates an understanding of number (how many) and numeral (3 is a numeral) relationship (numeration)
3.12 Recognizes patterns and can repeat them (patterning)
4.7 Uses small muscles for self-help skills

Friends Attribute Graph:  Decide on one or more attributes to graph (hair, eye or skin color, girl/boy, tall/short, long hair/short hair, etc.).  Using only one attribute per graph (for instance, eye color), provide unifix cubes, snap cubes or legos in the appropriate colors for the children to choose from.  Call on one child at a time, have the children tell you the color of the friend's hair.  That child then chooses the corresponding cube color and stacks it on the bar graph.  Each color has its own bar.  When finished, count each one.  Talk about which one has more/less, put them in order from fewest to most, etc.  Label each with a number noting how many are on the stack.  Be sure to mention that no matter which color each friend chose, he/she is special and a good friend.  (A graph can stir a lot of discussion.  Lead it wherever you wish!)
 
Friendship Bracelets:  Provide the children with appropriate lengths of stretchy, clear cording (available in craft sections for making jewelry), and a variety of beads.  Tie a bead on one end of the cording to keep the beads from falling off as the children string them.  Encourage the children to lay out a pattern before stringing the beads, but most of all it should be beautiful to them!  Allow the children to make two of each bracelet - one for a friend and one to keep. 

2. Charlie the Caterpillar - Left, Right; Friendship Cards

Benchmark Skills:
4.9 Freely participates in gross motor activities
3.3 Demonstrates knowledge of how to use a book
4.8 Uses writing and drawing tools with control and intention

Left, Right:  Sing A Book has Two Covers, which introduces the concepts of print as well as the concepts of left and right.  Have the children form a circle by holding hands and having them tell you whose hand they are holding with their right and left hand.  Now, play Hokey Pokey while helping the children distinguish between their left and right sides.  Throughout the week, reinforce this concept by saying things like, "Pick up your juice with your left hand", "Kick the ball with your right foot", etc.

Friendship Cards:  After reading Charlie the Caterpillar, get the children talking about their good friends and what they like about their friend.  Help them write a sentence about the friend, "I like you because _______."  Provide the children with folded construction or cardstock paper, and some combination of:  markers, colored pencils or crayons, stickers, small "treasures" to glue, glue. 

3.  Do You Want to be My Friend?  - Color Books, Friendship Memory Matching Card Game

Benchmark Skills: 
3.25 Applies information or experience to a new context (scientific process:  applying)
3.5 Understands that print conveys a message
3.11 Classifies objects conceptually (things that go together)

Color Books:  Make mini-color books for your students using construction paper.  Fold the construction paper into fourths, cut along lines to make four pages of one color.  Label the page with the English and Spanish versions of the color words:
 

Friendship Memory Matching Card Game:  Make student flashcards with a picture of the student and his name printed underneath along with a matching card with just the child's name to play Friendship Memory Matching Card Game - just like Memory. 

4.  Corduroy  - Make a Bear, Friendly Counting Sentences

Show & Tell Thursday:  Bring in a picture of a friend or a stuffed friend to show your school friends.

Benchmark Skills: 
5.2 Uses effective oral communication skills:  speaking in complete sentences, speaking with appropriate grammar
4.6 Coordinates eye and hand movements to complete tasks
3.6 Demonstrates an interest in using writing for a purpose
3.16 Demonstrates an understanding of addition and subtraction, using manipulatives

Make a Bear
Use this pattern to cut out two shapes from felt.  Children can use plastic needles to sew the two sides together, leaving one side open to stuff.  For older preschoolers, give each child two large buttons with 2-4 holes and allow them to sew Corduroy's buttons on as well. 
Alternatively, use the template to print out one bear for each child on cardstock.  Color, decorate the bears.  Provide scrap fabric for the children to glue clothes on their "Corduroy".  Hand out two cardstock buttons, each with two holes, for them to line up and sew on.

Using 5 sentence strips, label them, "I see one friend."  "I see two friend."  "I see three friend."  "I see four friend."  "I see five friend."  Put the sentences in order.  Have children help you count out friends using the Friendship Memory Matching Cards to place beside each each sentence as well as a corresponding numeral card (1-5).

For snack, pour some Teddy Grahams (or other bear cookie) into each child's bowl and have them estimate how many are inside.  Provide a bowl with 5 as a reference.  Figure out how many more they need to have 5.

Benchmark Skills: 
1.19 Works cooperatively with others on completing a task
1.4 Shows curiosity and desire to learn
3.30 Functions as a member of the classroom community
2.5 Enjoys singing games, dramatizing songs and moving to music

Ice Cream Bags: 

Pair up the children.  Give each child a different ingredient.  Each friend has an ingredient for making ice cream.  We have to work together to combine all ingredients and work towards our common goal - eating our ice cream!

After we've made the ice cream, we'll play the Name Ball Game while we wait for the ice cream to freeze.  How to play:  Players sit in a circle.  One child from each pair has an ice cream bag.  Before he/she gently tosses it to a friend, he/she names the friend and tells something he/she likes about him/her.  Each child gets a bag tossed to him/her once before anyone gets it a second time.  Children can continue tossing bags back and forth between partners until ice cream is ready. 

Sing Icy Creamy Ice Cream while tossing, serving or eating!

Show Time Friday:  Barney's Beach Party

Children are awarded I'm a Good Friend!" awards.

See other Preschool Activities, Lessons, and Themes!