Four- to five-year-old children are developing their coordination. To help them learn, use dancing activities. Give each child two pieces of waxed paper to stand on and play waltz music. Have the students glide around the room. Instruct them how to slide their feet along the ground without lifting their feet. Gliding on waxed paper works on hardwood, tile or carpeted flooring.
Freeze water in a gallon plastic or cardboard milk container. Cut off the container just before class. Line a large tray with a section of newspaper and place the block of ice on top. Have the students dust the top of the ice block with coarse salt. After the ice starts to melt, let them squeeze drops of food coloring on top of each block. As the salt melts the ice, the food coloring will seep through the tunnels. Use more than one color on each block so that, when the tunnels meet, the colors will mix.
Explain that you will be playing a cat and mouse game. Choose one child to be the cat. Form the rest of the kids into a circle; they will be the mice. Have the kids in the circle join hands and walk in a clockwise direction. Have the cat walk counterclockwise outside the circle. Call out, "Cat, cat, cat, mouse." On hearing the word "mouse," the cat will tap a mouse on the shoulder and that mouse then becomes a cat and comes out of the circle. Have the cats count off to see how many cats there are now; the number will always double. Also have the mice count off to see how many mice are left. Their number will drop as more mice are turned into cats.
Talk to the kids about how important it is to wash their hands and how germs can spread if you don't. Pick several students and put some glitter into their right hands. Have the students with "germs" shake hands with two other students. Proceed with the rest of the day as usual. Just before the end of class, have the students walk around the room and see all the places that have glitter on them. Have them look at each other's faces and hair to see that germs spread.