Group time lesson plans
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9. Activity name/ age group: Exploring magna-tiles, 3-5
KDI: B. Social and Emotional development, 13. Cooperative play, E. Mathematics, 32. Counting, 34. Shapes.
Originating idea: Many children enjoy playing with magna-tiles and with this activity you can take it a step farther and allow them to learn more about counting and shapes!
Materials: Magna-tiles
Beginning: Gather all the children in the large group area. Hold up some of the magna-tiles and ask them to identify the shapes you are holding up. Then dump the whole bin on the floor and allow the children to start building!
Middle: Children will be using magna-tiles to build and create different things of their choosing. With this activity it is important to be on the children’s level. Move around the large group area and prompt children to identify shapes and count with comments such as, “What shapes are you using to build?” “Can we count how many manga-tiles you used to build?”
Early: Some of the earlier learners may have a hard time identifying all the shapes or even counting out the number of magna-tiles they used. To help them with this you can point to the magna-tiles and count along with them, as well as identifying which shapes they used and then a few minutes later asking them again.
Middle: These children have a pretty good grasp on counting and identifying shapes. But they may still need more assistance in counting in numeral order. They may miss some numbers and to help them with this you can fill in the numbers they missed, going back, and starting from one and counting along with them you can help them to say the numbers they missed. If they struggle with identifying any of the shapes, do the same as you did for the early learners. Identify the shape they can not and then a few minutes later ask then again.
Later: These students can easily count to ten, and identify all the shapes being used. To help them move forward and provide a bit of a challenge, prompt them to count past ten. You can ask them more questions about what they are building and what their structure is for.
End: Set the bucket out and have the children put their magna-tiles away. Once this is done have them sit in a circle and ask them about what they decided to build and what shapes they were using. You can take it one step further and ask a question such as “Does anyone remember how many magna-tiles they used?”
Follow up idea: Have the magna-tiles in the block area. By doing this the children can go back and use them again during work time. By doing this it is allowing the children to see these shapes whenever they are choosing to work with the magna-tiles, you may be even to catch some of them lining up the tiles and counting them.
10. Activity name/ age group: Drawing with chalk, 3-5
KDI: F. Creative arts, 40. Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through two- and three- dimensional art.
Originating idea: Children love to color and be outside! They can get the best of both worlds by exploring chalk and using their imagination to draw whatever they please!
Materials: Chalk
Beginning: When you get outside gather the children in an area where everyone can see you. You can start by saying something along the lines of, I know we all like to color right? What would you guys think about coloring with chalk during outside time today? You can then pass out the chalk and let the children find somewhere on the playground to draw.
Middle: The children will use chalk to draw whatever comes to their mind on the concrete outside.
Early: Some of the early learners may not know where to go to use the chalk and be able to see their work clearly. You can help them by asking them questions like, if you color with chalk at home where do you normally color with it at? Most of the time they will be able to tell you they color on the sidewalk. You can then say okay let us go find a piece of pavement for you to color on! If they cannot answer this question, you can help them by saying something like, let us look around and see where our classmates are coloring at, should we go color with them?
Middle: These children have been able to find a spot to draw but they may not know what to draw. You can help these children come up with ideas of things to draw by talking about the things you guys see outside and then prompting them to draw some of those things. Sitting with them and coloring along side them can also help.
Later: These children know where to draw and what they want to draw. To expand their learning, you can bring up the idea of drawing something like hop-scotch and then doing it together!
End: Before heading inside, you can gather the children up again and have some of them share the things they drew.
Follow up idea: You can buy some mini chalk boards and smaller chalk pieces for the children to use in the writing area during work time. This can allow them to go back to an activity they enjoyed as well as being able to work with a different writing material.
11. Activity name/ age group: Bug hunting, 3-5
KDI: A. Approaches to learning, 3. Engagement
Originating idea: I noticed that the children enjoyed looking at and for bugs while outside.
Materials: Magnifying glasses
Beginning: I noticed some of my friends were looking at different bugs yesterday during outside time, who else likes to look for bugs? Where outside can we find them at? So, I thought it would be fun to look for bugs as a class today with magnifying glasses.
Middle: While outside, the children will move around the playground looking for bugs in different areas.
Early: These children may have a hard time knowing where to look for bugs. To help them we can pair them up with a friend who knows where to look for the bugs. We can also give them ideas of where bugs may be hiding.
Middle: These children know where to look for the bugs, so to help them expand their thinking we can have them name some of the bugs they have found.
Later: These children know where to look and can easily name bugs, to help them expand their learning we can give them pictures of specific bugs to look for.
End: At small group we can have the children talk about what bugs they found, and where they found them.
Follow up idea: We can have the children draw pictures of the bugs they found outside. Or we can read the story “Diary of a worm” as worms are a common bug found in Michigan.
12. Activity name/ age group: Gross-motor popsicle sticks, 3-5
KDI: Physical development and health, 16. Gross-motor skills
Originating idea: Children love to move their bodies and by doing this they are not only getting their energy out but they are expanding their gross-motor skills!
Materials: popsicle sticks with different movements on them (jump, hop, etc)
Beginning: Gather all the children in the large group area. Begin asking them questions like, who knows how to hop? What animal hops? Would you guys like to try hopping like a bunny or jumping like frogs?
Middle: You and the children will do the movements as you pick out the popsicle sticks.
Early: Some of the children may need to follow your lead, by doing the movements along with the children so they can see what movement they should be doing.
Middle: These children can do all the movements but may have a hard time staying out of the personal space of their classmates. You can help them to accomplish keeping personal space by making sure all the children have enough space between them and reminding these children of personal space if they begin to forget.
Later: These children can do the movements and maintain personal space. You can promote their further learning by saying things like “can you jump five times on one foot?” or just modifying the other movements to make them a bit more challenging.
End: After doing all the movements the children may be tired or out of breath, you can offer them some water and have everyone take a moment to rest.
Follow up idea: Since the children may not be able to read the popsicle sticks yet, you could get a foam dice and put pictures on each side of different animals that do the movements. Such as a picture of a frog, bunny, snake, and dinosaur.
13. Activity name/ age group: I spy, 3-5
KDI: A. Approaches to learning, 5. Use of resources, children gather information and formulate ideas about their world. H. Social studies, 56. Geography, children recognize and interpret features and locations in their environment.
Originating idea: Children love to name different objects they know as well as basic facts about them such as color or shape. By playing I spy children can pick different objects around the room and have fun guessing which object it is their classmate chose!
Materials: The whole room
Beginning: Have the children sit in the large group area, this should be a section of the room where most if not all of the room is visible. Start by asking your students, have any of you played I spy before? Lets see if we can guess what objects our classmates are thinking of!
Middle: Children will take turns picking items around the room for you and their classmates to find, usually based off color, shape, size, kind of object/ item.
Early: Some of the children may have a hard time coming up with questions to ask their classmates. You can help them think of these questions by prompting them to think about different things such as color, shape, even just guessing what the object is. Set these prompts up as "I wonder what color your classmates object is?" "I wonder if the object is a circle or square?"
Middle: To expand these children's learning you can encourage them to think of objects that may not be as obvious. Ask them questions like "I wonder if your classmates object is in the art area?" "Or could it be in the block area?"
Later: When it comes to expanding these children's learning you can have them pick objects that may be harder to guess and prompt their classmates to guess what the object is. Have them throw out similar questions to what you have asked or even give hints such as "It is in the ... area" "It is a animal, etc."
End: Once the game has concluded and as many students as time would allow get a chance to choose an object, begin a class discussion and ask the children questions like "Which object was the hardest to find?" "Why was that object so hard to find?"
Follow up idea: To follow up on this game you can get some of the I spy books and put them in the reading area. This way the children can play the game again and use their literacy skills to look through the book and find the objects.
14. Activity name/ age group: Kicking balloons, 3-5
KDI: C. Physical development and health, 16. Gross-motor skills, children demonstrate strength, flexibility, balance, and timing in using their large muscles, 18. Body awareness, children know about their bodies and how to navigate them in a space.
Originating idea: Children enjoy playing with balloons and watching them float in the air and come back down, in this activity they can experience this as well as making it into a game by kicking them into the air
Materials: balloons
Beginning: Gather the children in the large group area. I thought today it would be fun if we kicked some balloons around to some music! We can pass them back and forth to each other or kick them alone!
Middle: In the large group area children will be kicking balloons around to music.
Early: Early learners are able to kick the balloons using one foot, you can expand their learning by prompting them to try and kick the balloon using both feet, either at the same time while sitting down, or switching between feet.
Middle: Middle level learners are able to switch between feet, kick the balloons by themselves, to expand their learning you can encourage them to kick a balloon back and forth with a classmate.
Later: Later level learners are able to kick balloons back and forth with a classmate, or switch feet, you can expand their learning by encouraging them to keep the balloon off the ground by only using their legs, feet, or knees.
End: Have all the children bring their balloons to you and place them back into a large garbage bag. You can have a large group discussion by asking them things like "did you think it was hard keeping the balloons up in the air?" "what was your favorite way to keep the balloon in the air?"
Follow up idea: Bring the balloons outside during outside time and do the activity outside. Or you can do the activity again but set up targets on the wall for the children to hit the balloons with.
15. Activity name/ age group: Sorting animals, 3-5
KDI: G. Science and technology, 46. Classifying, children classify materials, actions, people, and events.
Originating idea: Children enjoy playing with, talking about, and learning about animals! In this activity they can learn more about animals that may or may not be common in the area they live in.
Materials: Three hula-hoops, one brown and one blue and one white, a variety of land and water animals
Beginning: Gather the children in the large group area, have the three hula-hoops set up in a row and a have a basket of land and water animals. Today I thought it would be fun to sort these animals into different categories, if they live in the water, on land or can live on both! The blue hula-hoop is for the water animals, the brown hula-hoop is for the land animals and the white hula-hoop is for the animals who can live on both.
Middle: Pass the basket around the circle and allow the children to pick a animal, get up and place it in the corresponding hula-hoop.
Early: For the early level learners, they may have a hard time remembering which animals live on land and which live in the water, to help them begin to make the decision, remind them that land animals have legs for walking and water animals have flippers or fins, this can help make the decision a little easier for them as well as reminding them of characteristics land and water animals have.
Middle: These children understand which animals live in water or live on land you can expand their learning by having them name different characteristics that land and water animals have that are different. For instance, land animals have fur, whereas some water animals have scales.
Later: Encourage these later level learners to choose animals that could live in both land and water and have them place the animal in the white hula-hoop.
End: At the end have the children stand up so they can clearly see all the animals placed in each hula-hoop. Have them go around in a circle and name a different animal each and which hula-hoop it is in.
Follow up idea: Have the children draw a picture of either a land or water animal in their habitat, you could also let them choose a animal who lives in both such as a frog. You could also have a local wildlife expert, zoo keeper or biologist come in and allow the children to ask questions about animals from the habitat they choose.
KDI: B. Social and Emotional development, 13. Cooperative play, E. Mathematics, 32. Counting, 34. Shapes.
Originating idea: Many children enjoy playing with magna-tiles and with this activity you can take it a step farther and allow them to learn more about counting and shapes!
Materials: Magna-tiles
Beginning: Gather all the children in the large group area. Hold up some of the magna-tiles and ask them to identify the shapes you are holding up. Then dump the whole bin on the floor and allow the children to start building!
Middle: Children will be using magna-tiles to build and create different things of their choosing. With this activity it is important to be on the children’s level. Move around the large group area and prompt children to identify shapes and count with comments such as, “What shapes are you using to build?” “Can we count how many manga-tiles you used to build?”
Early: Some of the earlier learners may have a hard time identifying all the shapes or even counting out the number of magna-tiles they used. To help them with this you can point to the magna-tiles and count along with them, as well as identifying which shapes they used and then a few minutes later asking them again.
Middle: These children have a pretty good grasp on counting and identifying shapes. But they may still need more assistance in counting in numeral order. They may miss some numbers and to help them with this you can fill in the numbers they missed, going back, and starting from one and counting along with them you can help them to say the numbers they missed. If they struggle with identifying any of the shapes, do the same as you did for the early learners. Identify the shape they can not and then a few minutes later ask then again.
Later: These students can easily count to ten, and identify all the shapes being used. To help them move forward and provide a bit of a challenge, prompt them to count past ten. You can ask them more questions about what they are building and what their structure is for.
End: Set the bucket out and have the children put their magna-tiles away. Once this is done have them sit in a circle and ask them about what they decided to build and what shapes they were using. You can take it one step further and ask a question such as “Does anyone remember how many magna-tiles they used?”
Follow up idea: Have the magna-tiles in the block area. By doing this the children can go back and use them again during work time. By doing this it is allowing the children to see these shapes whenever they are choosing to work with the magna-tiles, you may be even to catch some of them lining up the tiles and counting them.
10. Activity name/ age group: Drawing with chalk, 3-5
KDI: F. Creative arts, 40. Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through two- and three- dimensional art.
Originating idea: Children love to color and be outside! They can get the best of both worlds by exploring chalk and using their imagination to draw whatever they please!
Materials: Chalk
Beginning: When you get outside gather the children in an area where everyone can see you. You can start by saying something along the lines of, I know we all like to color right? What would you guys think about coloring with chalk during outside time today? You can then pass out the chalk and let the children find somewhere on the playground to draw.
Middle: The children will use chalk to draw whatever comes to their mind on the concrete outside.
Early: Some of the early learners may not know where to go to use the chalk and be able to see their work clearly. You can help them by asking them questions like, if you color with chalk at home where do you normally color with it at? Most of the time they will be able to tell you they color on the sidewalk. You can then say okay let us go find a piece of pavement for you to color on! If they cannot answer this question, you can help them by saying something like, let us look around and see where our classmates are coloring at, should we go color with them?
Middle: These children have been able to find a spot to draw but they may not know what to draw. You can help these children come up with ideas of things to draw by talking about the things you guys see outside and then prompting them to draw some of those things. Sitting with them and coloring along side them can also help.
Later: These children know where to draw and what they want to draw. To expand their learning, you can bring up the idea of drawing something like hop-scotch and then doing it together!
End: Before heading inside, you can gather the children up again and have some of them share the things they drew.
Follow up idea: You can buy some mini chalk boards and smaller chalk pieces for the children to use in the writing area during work time. This can allow them to go back to an activity they enjoyed as well as being able to work with a different writing material.
11. Activity name/ age group: Bug hunting, 3-5
KDI: A. Approaches to learning, 3. Engagement
Originating idea: I noticed that the children enjoyed looking at and for bugs while outside.
Materials: Magnifying glasses
Beginning: I noticed some of my friends were looking at different bugs yesterday during outside time, who else likes to look for bugs? Where outside can we find them at? So, I thought it would be fun to look for bugs as a class today with magnifying glasses.
Middle: While outside, the children will move around the playground looking for bugs in different areas.
Early: These children may have a hard time knowing where to look for bugs. To help them we can pair them up with a friend who knows where to look for the bugs. We can also give them ideas of where bugs may be hiding.
Middle: These children know where to look for the bugs, so to help them expand their thinking we can have them name some of the bugs they have found.
Later: These children know where to look and can easily name bugs, to help them expand their learning we can give them pictures of specific bugs to look for.
End: At small group we can have the children talk about what bugs they found, and where they found them.
Follow up idea: We can have the children draw pictures of the bugs they found outside. Or we can read the story “Diary of a worm” as worms are a common bug found in Michigan.
12. Activity name/ age group: Gross-motor popsicle sticks, 3-5
KDI: Physical development and health, 16. Gross-motor skills
Originating idea: Children love to move their bodies and by doing this they are not only getting their energy out but they are expanding their gross-motor skills!
Materials: popsicle sticks with different movements on them (jump, hop, etc)
Beginning: Gather all the children in the large group area. Begin asking them questions like, who knows how to hop? What animal hops? Would you guys like to try hopping like a bunny or jumping like frogs?
Middle: You and the children will do the movements as you pick out the popsicle sticks.
Early: Some of the children may need to follow your lead, by doing the movements along with the children so they can see what movement they should be doing.
Middle: These children can do all the movements but may have a hard time staying out of the personal space of their classmates. You can help them to accomplish keeping personal space by making sure all the children have enough space between them and reminding these children of personal space if they begin to forget.
Later: These children can do the movements and maintain personal space. You can promote their further learning by saying things like “can you jump five times on one foot?” or just modifying the other movements to make them a bit more challenging.
End: After doing all the movements the children may be tired or out of breath, you can offer them some water and have everyone take a moment to rest.
Follow up idea: Since the children may not be able to read the popsicle sticks yet, you could get a foam dice and put pictures on each side of different animals that do the movements. Such as a picture of a frog, bunny, snake, and dinosaur.
13. Activity name/ age group: I spy, 3-5
KDI: A. Approaches to learning, 5. Use of resources, children gather information and formulate ideas about their world. H. Social studies, 56. Geography, children recognize and interpret features and locations in their environment.
Originating idea: Children love to name different objects they know as well as basic facts about them such as color or shape. By playing I spy children can pick different objects around the room and have fun guessing which object it is their classmate chose!
Materials: The whole room
Beginning: Have the children sit in the large group area, this should be a section of the room where most if not all of the room is visible. Start by asking your students, have any of you played I spy before? Lets see if we can guess what objects our classmates are thinking of!
Middle: Children will take turns picking items around the room for you and their classmates to find, usually based off color, shape, size, kind of object/ item.
Early: Some of the children may have a hard time coming up with questions to ask their classmates. You can help them think of these questions by prompting them to think about different things such as color, shape, even just guessing what the object is. Set these prompts up as "I wonder what color your classmates object is?" "I wonder if the object is a circle or square?"
Middle: To expand these children's learning you can encourage them to think of objects that may not be as obvious. Ask them questions like "I wonder if your classmates object is in the art area?" "Or could it be in the block area?"
Later: When it comes to expanding these children's learning you can have them pick objects that may be harder to guess and prompt their classmates to guess what the object is. Have them throw out similar questions to what you have asked or even give hints such as "It is in the ... area" "It is a animal, etc."
End: Once the game has concluded and as many students as time would allow get a chance to choose an object, begin a class discussion and ask the children questions like "Which object was the hardest to find?" "Why was that object so hard to find?"
Follow up idea: To follow up on this game you can get some of the I spy books and put them in the reading area. This way the children can play the game again and use their literacy skills to look through the book and find the objects.
14. Activity name/ age group: Kicking balloons, 3-5
KDI: C. Physical development and health, 16. Gross-motor skills, children demonstrate strength, flexibility, balance, and timing in using their large muscles, 18. Body awareness, children know about their bodies and how to navigate them in a space.
Originating idea: Children enjoy playing with balloons and watching them float in the air and come back down, in this activity they can experience this as well as making it into a game by kicking them into the air
Materials: balloons
Beginning: Gather the children in the large group area. I thought today it would be fun if we kicked some balloons around to some music! We can pass them back and forth to each other or kick them alone!
Middle: In the large group area children will be kicking balloons around to music.
Early: Early learners are able to kick the balloons using one foot, you can expand their learning by prompting them to try and kick the balloon using both feet, either at the same time while sitting down, or switching between feet.
Middle: Middle level learners are able to switch between feet, kick the balloons by themselves, to expand their learning you can encourage them to kick a balloon back and forth with a classmate.
Later: Later level learners are able to kick balloons back and forth with a classmate, or switch feet, you can expand their learning by encouraging them to keep the balloon off the ground by only using their legs, feet, or knees.
End: Have all the children bring their balloons to you and place them back into a large garbage bag. You can have a large group discussion by asking them things like "did you think it was hard keeping the balloons up in the air?" "what was your favorite way to keep the balloon in the air?"
Follow up idea: Bring the balloons outside during outside time and do the activity outside. Or you can do the activity again but set up targets on the wall for the children to hit the balloons with.
15. Activity name/ age group: Sorting animals, 3-5
KDI: G. Science and technology, 46. Classifying, children classify materials, actions, people, and events.
Originating idea: Children enjoy playing with, talking about, and learning about animals! In this activity they can learn more about animals that may or may not be common in the area they live in.
Materials: Three hula-hoops, one brown and one blue and one white, a variety of land and water animals
Beginning: Gather the children in the large group area, have the three hula-hoops set up in a row and a have a basket of land and water animals. Today I thought it would be fun to sort these animals into different categories, if they live in the water, on land or can live on both! The blue hula-hoop is for the water animals, the brown hula-hoop is for the land animals and the white hula-hoop is for the animals who can live on both.
Middle: Pass the basket around the circle and allow the children to pick a animal, get up and place it in the corresponding hula-hoop.
Early: For the early level learners, they may have a hard time remembering which animals live on land and which live in the water, to help them begin to make the decision, remind them that land animals have legs for walking and water animals have flippers or fins, this can help make the decision a little easier for them as well as reminding them of characteristics land and water animals have.
Middle: These children understand which animals live in water or live on land you can expand their learning by having them name different characteristics that land and water animals have that are different. For instance, land animals have fur, whereas some water animals have scales.
Later: Encourage these later level learners to choose animals that could live in both land and water and have them place the animal in the white hula-hoop.
End: At the end have the children stand up so they can clearly see all the animals placed in each hula-hoop. Have them go around in a circle and name a different animal each and which hula-hoop it is in.
Follow up idea: Have the children draw a picture of either a land or water animal in their habitat, you could also let them choose a animal who lives in both such as a frog. You could also have a local wildlife expert, zoo keeper or biologist come in and allow the children to ask questions about animals from the habitat they choose.
