Celebrate the last month of summer by throwing a party. Take children outside to draw on the sidewalks with chalk and play games such as water balloon tosses or scavenger hunts. Serve lemonade and ice cream, and enjoy a picnic lunch outdoors. You may also make reflect on each child's summer memories by creating "What I Did This Summer" books. Ask each child to draw illustrations of things he did that summer at school or with his family. Include one page that's titled "What I Still Want to Do This Summer," so children can make wishes for the final weeks of August.
With autumn just around the corner, use the last weeks of August to teach children about changing seasons. Start a season graph in your classroom. Hang up a large sheet of paper and divide it into columns for each day. If you start in the middle of August, create a month's worth of columns and continue the graph into the first few weeks of September. Each day, ask children to make observations about the weather and what's happening to the plants outside of the classroom. As you add these observations to the chart, children will be able to see how things change at the beginning of fall.
Although there are no major national holidays in August, you can still find a minor holiday to celebrate almost every day. Spend the month celebrating national days of observance that are held in August. For instance, encourage children to make art projects using only their left hands on August 13, which is the National Left-Hander's Day. Celebrate National Friendship Day, observed on the first Sunday in August, by making cards for one another. Ask each child to tell her classmates why each of them is a good friend to her.
While some of your preschoolers may be staying in the classroom for another year, it's likely that many of your students will be leaving for kindergarten in September. Since they'll be replaced by new students, spend August getting your classroom ready for the new year. Invite students to help create new wall and door decorations. Ask children to come up with ideas of pictures and banners that they think will help new children feel welcomed and comfortable in the classroom. These new decorations will fill in the spaces left by taking down all the art work created by students who are moving up.