Explore food, recipes, measuring and so much more with our many manipulation, role play, and early science activities. This theme will help you create a special restaurant within your daycare!

Themes & Activities

Themes & Activities - Archives

Happy New Year 2012

AREA SETUP

(Open thematic poster-Happy New Year 2012) Print, laminate, and decorate the walls of your daycare with all kinds of posters.

To start the year off on the right foot, rearrange your daycare. Let children help you. They will surely offer many interesting suggestions!

Educa-decorate-Happy New Year 2012
(Open educa-decorate-Happy New Year 2012) Print, cut out, and laminate. Hang decorations from the ceiling or use them to decorate your walls and set the mood for the theme.

Happy New Year 2012 garland
(Open garland-Happy New Year 2012) Print. Let children decorate the garland. Cut it out and hang it within the daycare or near the daycare entrance.

SPECIAL TOOL Educa decorate-Happy New Year 2012

This tool was created in response to a special request received. Use the following illustrations to create a birthday wall. (Open banner Happy New Year 2012) Print and laminate. Use the banner to decorate your daycare.

CIRCLE TIME

Ask children to talk about the activities they enjoyed during the Holidays. You may invite them to bring photos of their Christmas gifts to show the group.

Also discuss their New Year's celebrations:

Who did they celebrate with?
What did they eat?
What did they do?
Which games did they play?
What kind of music did they listen to?

Garland-Happy New Year 2012 NEW! Educa-numbers-Happy New Year 2012
(Open educa-numbers-Happy New Year 2012) Print and laminate the cards. Display them on a wall for the duration of your theme.

NEW! Educa-letters-Happy New Year 2012
(Open educa-letters-Happy New Year 2012) Print and laminate the cards. Display them on a wall for the duration of your theme.

PICTURE GAME

The pictures may be used as a memory game or to spark a conversation with your group. Use them to decorate the daycare or a specific thematic corner. (Open picture game-Happy New Year 2012) Print, laminate, and store in a Ziploc bag or in your thematic bin.

ACTIVITY SHEETS Banner-Happy New Year 2012

Activity sheets are provided for each theme. Print for each child and follow instructions. (Open activity sheets-Happy New Year 2012)

WRITING ACTIVITY

(Open writing activities-2012) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

Educa-nuudles-Happy New Year 2012
(Open educa-nuudles-Happy New Year 2012) Print for each child. Have children color the sheet. Once they are done, they may use Magic Nuudles to turn their coloring page into a three-dimensional work of art. Variation: If you do not have Magic Nuudles, ask children to fill the spaces designed for the Magic Nuudles with bingo markers or stickers.

Stationery-Happy New Year Educa-numbers-Happy New Year 2012
You may use the stationery to communicate with parents, in your writing area, or to identify your thematic bins. (Open stationery-Happy New Year 2012) Print.

VARIOUS WORKSHOPS

Have fun with these wonderful workshop ideas provided by Caroline Allard. For this theme, the workshops are not based on one theme in particular. Let children ease into 2012 by offering them a variety of activities they can enjoy with their friends.

Construction/building blocks:

Blocks of all kinds: Legos, wooden blocks (natural or coloured), Bristle blocks, Duplo, Mobilo, etc.
Cardboard boxes filled with newspaper make great oversized blocks.
Figurines.
Various means of transportation: cars, trucks, planes, boats, trains, etc.
A garage and a mat designed for toy cars along with traffic signs and cardboard cylinders to represent tunnels.
Farm animals, zoo animals, reptiles, pets, etc.
Natural construction elements such as branches, rocks, bark, etc.

Arts & crafts:

Easel and large pieces of paper for painting.
Different sizes of paintbrushes, brushes, sponges, rollers, and old toothbrushes.
Water paint.
Finger paint with glossy paper.
Chalk and a chalkboard.
Scrapbooking paper punches.
Glue sticks, white glue, glitter glue, liquid glue.
Adhesive paper.
Feathers, pompoms, pipe cleaners, yarn, ribbon, confetti.
Construction paper in various colors.
Colourful cardboard or construction paper.
Cellophane paper, tissue paper, wrapping paper.
Paper plates, cardboard tubes, cone-shaped glasses.
Popsicle sticks, toothpicks.
Recycled material.
Catalogues and flyers.
Stencils.
A tablecloth to cover the table.

Drawing:

Coloring pages related to routines, workshops, friends, or the name of your daycare.
Markers, wooden pencils, and waxed crayons.
Oil pastels, coloured chalk.
Pencils and erasers.
Rulers and stencils.
Stamps and stamp pads.

Role play:

Anything you can find that can be used for dress-up play.
Adult or child clothing (parents can provide you with items they no longer need), handbags, shoes, belts, scarves, hats, old jewellery...
Electronics (toy versions or real ones with the electrical cords removed), dishes, table and chairs, plastic food items, empty food containers.
Dolls, doll clothing, cradle, high chair.
Puppets and small theatre.

Manipulation:

Memory game using educatall.com picture games.
Puzzles.
Modeling dough for sculpting and for use with cookie cutters.
Different sizes, colours, and shapes of beads for necklaces.
Lacing shapes.
Objects which may be used to practice lacing, tying, and zipping.
Toys which involve assembly or matching.
Lotto games, memory games, and other board games adapted to the ages of the children in your group.
Card games, magnetic numbers and letters.
Magnets of all kinds and a cookie sheet.

Pre-reading:

Fairy tales, storybooks, picture books.
Book and CD sets, children can listen to the stories with headphones.
Album with pictures of the children in your group.
Books with the letters of the alphabet.
Magazines containing plenty of pictures.
Felt board with characters which may be used to create stories.
Comfortable armchairs, cushions, a small table.
Posters for decorating the walls.
A small "hideout" corner for extra privacy.
A small floor or table lamp.

Pre-writing:

Dotted letters for tracing.
Games in which children must search for differences.
Hunt and seek games.
Activity sheets which involve tracing and letters.
Games with educatall.com word flashcards.
An old typewriter which may be used to type real letters.
Magnetic numbers and letters.
A whiteboard and dry erase markers.

Sensory bins:

Sand and/or water table. You can replace the sand or water with: oats, lentils, uncooked pasta, sunflower seeds, cotton balls, leaves, peas, cereal, etc. The possibilities vary according to the ages of the children in your group. You be the judge of what is safe for them!
Spray bottles.
Funnels, empty containers which may be used for pouring.
Small objects or figurines which may be hidden in the bins.
Kitchen utensils for stirring.
Straws, sponges.
Measuring cups, colander.
Objects which float and others which sink.

Science/nature:

Posters of animals and natural phenomena.
A map, an atlas, a globe.
Plants, soil, vivarium, aquarium, gardening tools.
Magnifying glasses and rubber gloves.
Objects found in nature (logs, branches, leaves, rocks...)
Scale.
Funnels and eyedroppers.
Containers of all kinds for mixing.

Music:

Posters of musical instruments.
• A tape recorder and a microphone for singing and recording.
• Music from different countries, different musical styles.
• Musical instruments (toy versions or real ones).
• Rhythm sticks, triangles, drums, cymbals, xylophones, bells, etc.

WORD FLASHCARDS

Word flashcards

The flashcards may be used during circle time to spark a conversation with the group or in your reading and writing area. They may also be used to identify your thematic bins. (Open word flashcards-Happy New Year) (Open giant word flashcards-Happy New Year) New Year's Day, trumpet, hat, streamer, turkey, cranberries, accordion, harmonica, New Year's Eve, spoons, midnight, confetti.

ROUTINES AND TRANSITIONS

My New Year's Path
(Open New Year's Path) Print, laminate, and secure the illustrations on the floor to create a path leading to various areas within the daycare. The path can lead to frequently visited areas such as the bathroom and the cloakroom or simply delimit your various workshops.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOTOR SKILLS New Year’s Path

Lacing-2012
(Open lacing-2012) Print, laminate, and punch holes around the models. Children can use a string, shoelace or ribbon to lace.

It's raining horns and streamers
Deposit several party horns and serpentine streamers in the centre of a parachute or blanket. Children firmly hold the edges of the parachute. When you give the signal, they must raise the parachute. When the horns and streamers fall to the ground, children race to pick them up.

Champagne glasses
Provide children with two dozen small (plastic) champagne glasses. Pile the glasses one on top of the other, counting out loud every time you add one until they all fall down! Start over again and again! Variation: Arrange the glasses to make a pyramid. Throw a foam or plastic ball to make them fall down.

The months of the year Lacing 2012
(Open 12 months of the year) Print, laminate, and glue them to the floor. Play music. When the music stops, children must sit on a month (like musical chairs). Variation: Have fun recognizing the months of the year. Glue them to the wall in the correct order, at children's eye level. Give children different instructions, depending on their age and level. You may, for example, tell a child to stand in front of his birthday month or next to the first month of the year.

Clothespin race
Hang a long clothesline between two chairs. Divide the group into two teams. Give each team a bag of clothespins. When you give them the signal, each team adds clothespins to the clothesline to the sound of music. When the music stops, count how many clothespins each team added to the clothesline. The team who added the most wins! Identify each team's clothespins with a different color.

Hot potato
Sit in a circle with your group. Children pass a potato around the circle to the sound of rhythmic music. When the music stops, the child holding the potato must sit in the center of the circle. The game continues.

Musical chairs Color by number-Happy New Year 2012
A classic game to play! Arrange one chair less than the number of children in your group (for example, if there are 10 children, arrange 9 chairs). Children form a circle around the chairs. To the sound of music, they walk around the chairs. When the music stops, children must quickly sit on a chair. One child will remain standing since one chair is missing. This child is eliminated (you may invite him to stop the music for the next round). Remove another chair and start the music. Keep going until there is only one child left.

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES

Color by number-Happy New Year 2012
(Open color by number-Happy New Year 2012) Print for each child. Children must color the picture according to the color code.

Magnifying glass game
(Open magnifying glass game-Happy New Year) Print and laminate the board game and the illustrations. Cut them out and store them in a box or in a plastic bag. Children pick an illustration and search for it on the board game, using a magnifying glass. Once they have found a match, they deposit the illustration in the correct square, on the board game.

Educ-pairs-Happy New Year
(Open educ-pairs-Happy New Year) Print. Children draw a line between identical items. If you prefer, they may color identical items using the same color. For durable, eco-friendly use, laminate for use with dry-erase

markers.

New! Educa-symmetry-Happy New Year
(Open educa-symmetry-Happy New Year) Print. Children must color the picture on the bottom (black and white) so that it is exactly the same as the picture on the top (with color).

Hunt and seek-Happy New Year Educ pairs-Happy New Year
(Open hunt and seek-Happy New Year) Print and laminate. Children pick a card and search for the item in the scene.

Puzzles
(Open puzzles-Happy New Year) Print, laminate, and cut the puzzle pieces. Children must place the puzzle pieces correctly to recreate the scenes.

MORAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Traditional dance
Children dance in a circle, holding hands. They move to and fro, then grab hold of a partner's arm and turn around. They can also change partners and start all over!

Spoon game
To the sound of rhythmic music or traditional folk music, show children how to make music with a set of wooden spoons.

CULINARY ACTIVITIES Educa-symmetry-Happy New Year

New Year's punch
Set a large punch bowl in the center of the table. Fill it with fruit punch or grape juice. Suggest different fruit children can add, one at a time. Provide a spoon they can use to stir the punch. Serve in small plastic champagne glasses.

Our buffet
Prepare a buffet lunch with your group. Make sandwiches and a pasta salad. Cut vegetables and prepare homemade dip, etc.

ARTS & CRAFTS

2012 mobile
(Open craft-2012 mobile) Print. Trace the number 8 on heavy cardboard and cut it out. Next, cut out the other numbers. Thread different lengths of string through the holes on each of the numbers and hang them from the number eight to write "2012". Thread string through the holes on the number eight to hang from the ceiling.

Puppets-Happy New Year 2012 Puzzles-Happy New Year
(Open puppets-Happy New Year 2012) Print the puppet models on cardboard. Ask children to cut them out and decorate them with arts & craft materials. Attach Popsicle sticks behind the shapes to create puppets.

Stencils-Happy New Year 2012
(Open stencils-Happy New Year 2012) Print and cut out the different stencils. Children can use the stencils to trace or paint the shapes. The stencils can also be placed on a large white paper banner. You can add food coloring to water in a spray bottle and spray the shapes or dab them with sponges previously dipped in poster paint. You can also use old toothbrushes to splash the shapes with paint.

Making confetti Puppets Happy New Year 2012
Let children punch holes in cardboard or construction paper using a hole-punch. Have them store their confetti in a small container. They may use the confetti for a craft or, if you are up to it, let them throw it in the air and shout, "Happy New Year!"

My 2012 scrapbook
There's nothing like a new scrapbook to start the year off right. Use it throughout the year. (Open scrapbook-2012) Print several copies of each page. Have children color the pages. Take pictures of the children and add them to their scrapbooks. Add personalized comments. Glue the cover page on heavy cardboard and join the pages together with ribbon or add them to a binder for each child.

New Year's memory
(Open scrapbook-Happy New Year) Print for each child. Add to each child's scrapbook.

COLORING PAGES Scrapbook 2012

(Open coloring pages theme-Happy New Year 2012) Print for each child.

New! I am learning to draw
(Open I am learning to draw-Fireworks) Print and laminate the model sheet. Invite children to practice their drawing technique on the model sheet. Once they are comfortable, let them draw fireworks on their own.

New! Complete the drawing
(Open Complete the drawing-Happy New Year) Print a copy for each child. Children must complete the picture by drawing the missing lines and items.

SONGS & RHYMES

Happy New Year

by: Patricia Morrison

sung to: Winter Wonderland Songs and rhymes-Happy New Year