November Preschool Activities

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Fall is one of my favorite times of the year! Especially in preschool – and maybe with coffee flavors! We are exploring pumpkins, reading books about scarecrows, turkeys, and family.

For October we had a blast with Go Away Big Green Monster and Glad Monster Sad Monster.

In November some of our favorite Fall activities are:

STORY: The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything (scarecrow, clothing, colors, emotions and action words.) Rich with vocabulary and so much fun to do as a play. This book isn’t scary, in fact, it is quite funny and interactive. Repetitive for great participation and perfect for ages up to 8 or 9 years old! Today one of our youngest (2 years 10 months) was yelling out “Go Away!” to the clothes and identifying the clothing pieces and colors. (colors were presented and sometimes he matched without saying the color name). He was able to point to correct clothing item as the “sound” it makes in the book was given to him. Another child who has difficulty attending more than 3 minutes and is not verbal was acting out the motion as the book was read AND pointing to her own clothing appropriately. This book really is engaging and very helpful for learning several concepts and vocabulary. As we acted it out with the story props and masks for the old lady and the pumpkin head, we had to draw names because so many children wanted to be the pumpkin! They certainly don’t think it is scary, instead, they love to shout “BOO!” and try to scare others.

Ideas for literacy, art, and story time for The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything such as Word Wall Words, Story Props and more can be found at MakingLearningFun. I’ve included a link for you

here.

Here are some of our Fall ACTIVITIES in the following areas – Small Group, Individual or Table Top, and Free Choice:

Using nature with play dough. We make our own playdough and this easily lasts us through October and November! Find items outside, buy squash, gourds and Indian corn (I found these miniature corn cobs that are perfect for small hands to roll out the soft homemade playdough. It leaves cool bumpy imprints, as does the pinecones and other natural materials. Let them be creative with what they can do with these items.

Build a scarecrow playdough plate. See who makes the funniest scarecrow. Let them use the various materials as they wish to see what they come up with.

Fun with Slime. We make our own slime too! I thought it would be too messy and gross for our kids but they ask to get it out every day! We put googly eyes in this time for them to “pick” out. It’s messy, but loads of fun!

How we made slime:

In a small bowl dissolve 1 tsp of borax in 1 cup of water. In a medium bowl mix 1/2 cup (4 oz) of clear glue with 1/2 cup water – add food color. Slowly pour the borax mix (completely dissolved) into the glue mix and watch the magic! Add glitter if you like. If it’s too runny pour the excess water off and remove the formed slime from the bowl.

We store ours in plastic containers that are the perfect size for one child to get out and play with. Add small items you may want them to get out of the slime to build fine motor strength and eye-hand coordination.

Pinecone Turkeys – the creativity flows in our room! (pictures are coming soon)

Spider on a Pole game. Even our toddlers have a blast with this one! (Pictures coming soon)

Clothing Sort – using real clothes or pictures.

Color Sort – search for items that match a given color.

Nature Sort – search outside for items such as leaves, rocks, twigs, pinecones, nuts, flowers, grass, etc.

Download My November preschool plans by interest area and skills.

November Unit Study Plan by content area

This is a great way to plan for any theme, month, study or topic. The major content areas are incorporated throughout the whole day. The way this plan is designed requires thoughtful planning to incorporate important content in ALL areas. It’s a whole different way of planning and isn’t always easy!