Give preschoolers the opportunity to learn more about their families by having them compose family facts lists with the help of their parents. Give each student a sheet of paper numbered one to five along with a note in which you ask parents to help their children write down five facts about their family. Send these home with your pupils. Upon returning to school the next day, collect them and allow the students to take turns standing in front of the class while you read the facts, giving each student a chance to shine.
Encourage family reading of non-fiction by assigning newspaper talks. Each week, select a short article about a simple topic that your students could understand from a local newspaper. Copy this article, and send one home with each student. Ask parents to read the article to their children and, upon completion, discuss what information the article contained. Instruct parents to sign the back of the article, indicating that they completed this task, then have their children bring it back to school with them.
Mix some nutrition studies in with your lessons by having students gather food packaging from products that are healthy. Ask each student to work with his parent to select a type of food from the pantry that is healthy. Before asking students to complete this task, explain what makes something healthy, and discuss how foods with lots of vitamins and little fat benefit the body. Ask students to bring in at least one food packaging piece to share with the class. Use these packages to create a healthy food exhibit.
Capture students' attention by engaging them in a study of animals. Select one animal upon which to focus each month, and acquire a collection f books about each. Borrow these books from your local library to make this task an affordable one. Each week, send a different book home with each student, asking parents to read the books to their children. At the end of the month, talk with your students about what they learned about the featured animal throughout the month.