Plant a garden for the children to nuture. Start with the dirt for the garden and explore what is found in the ground. Even if the garden will be indoors and potting soil will be used, exploring dirt outside can segue into the indoor garden project. Dig up dirt to discover worms and all types of crawling insects. Try to identify the insects.
Plant flowers and/or grape tomatoes in the garden. Purchase inexpensive small watering cans and have the children water the garden each morning. As flowers and tomatoes grow, the children learn about living things -- and they can eat the tomatoes for lunch.
Celebrate any occasion with face masks made with paper plates. Use the regular, flimsy paper plates for this project. Hold the plate over each child's face to measure where to make eye holes. Cut out the holes for the eyes, and have children use either finger paint or crayons to color their masks. Use felt stickers, feathers and glitter to add pizazz.
To fit them to the child's face, take two long pieces of pipe cleaners, poke a hole into each side of the paper plate mask and wind the pipe cleaners into the holes. The pipe cleaners can be twisted in the back to fit each child's head.
Felt boards are fun and easy to make. Go to a pizza shop or two, and ask for a couple of boxes. Purchase inexpensive pieces of colored felt from any fabric shop and glue a piece of the felt to the inside of each pizza box. Bend the box backwards so it stands like an easel. Cut shapes and letters out of the remaining felt. Since felt sticks to felt, use the felt box to teach children colors, shapes, letters and even counting exercises by sticking the felt objects to the felt on the box. Children will enjoy sticking felt shapes onto the felt box.
Using a large piece of poster board, make a name poster for each child. Cut out or purchase inexpensive letters so each child can paste his or her name of top of the board. Letters should be at least 6 to 8 inches high. The name board becomes the child's personal learning tool. As children master numbers, letters, colors and shapes, they glue a sample of those items on their posters. They can glue their telephone numbers on the boards once they learn them, along with their parents' first names, which are things they should know in case of emergency. The name poster can be used to track their learning progress, and children get a thrill out of putting new things on the board. Add stars and glitter to decorate the posters.