Valentine's Day is a time to put your students to work delivering the mail. Set up tunnels, hula hoops, bouncy balls and tables to climb over and under throughout the classroom. Line your students up at the beginning of the obstacle course and place a shoebox at the opposite end. Give each student a blank envelope. Have them practice writing their names on their envelope and use rubber stamps and ink pads to stamp the envelope. Demonstrate for the students how they must crawl through, over and around the obstacles in the course to deliver their mail to the box.
Everyone loves a parade, especially children. Have your students color dry noodles and place them in washed-out plastic soda bottles to make shakers. By stretching rubber bands over foam meat trays your students can make guitars. Decorate oatmeal containers to create drums. Line your students up and let the parade begin. Direct your musicians using hand gestures for the music to be played loudly or quietly, quickly or slowly. Enjoy the music.
Preschool children do not feel self-conscious. They are creative people who act out with wild abandon. Give your students the opportunity to act out a wide array of animals while you read a story to them. Choose a story to read to the class that uses many animals as main characters, such as "Giraffes Can't Dance," by Giles Andreae, or "Little Beaver and the Echo," by Amy MacDonald. Every time you read an animal type, pause and allow your students to both act out the animal and make the appropriate animal sounds.
No child is too young to learn appreciation for the beauty of the world around them. Help your students discover and sort a variety of nature items found in the school yard. Use three ropes to hang three 5-gallon buckets from tree branches. Label one bucket "leaves," another bucket "sticks and stones" and the third bucket "pine cones," or other items specific to your area. Call "Go" and have your children run through the area collecting and sorting the nature items. Talk together about what they found and which ones were easiest to find and which ones were the most difficult.