December Activities
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This can be a busy month, so try a simple activity together. Tell or read a familiar story or fairytale to your child. Change your voice for different characters. Help your child retell the story back to you or to another family member. If you have time, you can go to the library and get different versions of the same story, read them and talk about the differences. (For example, there are many versions of the Three Little Pigs.)
Other Ideas:
- To act out the story with simple puppets, draw a face on a paper plate and glue the plate to a popsicle stick.
- Talk to your child about when you were little, or talk about your heritage or traditions. Ask your child or children if they would like to start a new tradition that your family can do together. She if she/he has ideas. (It can be as simple a tradition as cooking or baking together, singing special songs or something outside the home, such as visiting people who are sick.)
Related Books
- Tell Me a Story Mama, by Angela Johnson
- A Birthday Basket for Tia (Una Canasta de Cumpleanos Para Tia), by Pat More
- Through Grandpa's Eyes, by Patricia MacLachlan
- Los Tres Cerditos: Un Cuento Tradicional, by Margot Zemach
- Different versions of fairy tales such as The Three Little Pigs or The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Jaunuary Activities
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Have your child choose the clothes to wear when it is cold and practice doing the zipping and buttoning. Make a game out of keeping all these clothes together when you take them off. Make a rap: "You put your mittens in your hat and your hat in your sleeve." If there is snow on the ground, make three different sized snowballs and use the words big, bigger, and biggest to describe them. Bring one of them inside and put it in a bowl. If there is no snow, put an ice cube in the bowl. Ask your child, "What will happen to the snowball or ice cube? How long do you think it will take?"
Other Ideas:
- When you go out, walk to the tree you chose in the fall and ask "What is different about the tree now?"
Related Books
- The Snowy Day (Un Dia De Neive), by Ezra Jack Keats
- The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, by Shirley Neitzel
- The Hat, by Jan Brett
- Leo the Late Bloomer (Leo El Retona Tardi), by Robert Kraus
February Activities
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Have your child draw a picture and "write" (or scribble) a note to himself/herself. Address the envelope and write the return address. Talk about why you write a return address and why it is important to know your own address. Put a stamp on your letter and explain why. Take the letter to a mailbox or the Post Office and ask: "How long do you think it will take for the letter to come back to us?" See if you are right. To have writing materials ready to use, make a writing box. Decorate a shoebox and put writing materials in it such as: pencils, crayons, note pad or scrap paper, scissors, glue stick, scraps of yarn or cloth, old greeting cards, stickers. You can keep this in a special place in the house for writing/drawing projects. Take the writing box with you when you travel (by car, bus, subway, plane).
Other Ideas:
- Lift the flap on an envelope to make the shape of a "house." Write your address on it and have your child decorate it. Put it on your refrigerator.
- Send a card or letter to a friend or relative. Have your child draw a picture of someone they love and mail it. This is a good opportunity to talk about feelings: loving someone, missing someone, being sad, being happy, or mad, etc.
Related Books
- Letter to Amy, by Ezra Jack Keats
- Mailing May, by Michael O. Tunnell
- Dear Mr. Blueberry, by Simon James
- Loving, by Ann Morris
- Guess How Much I Love You (Advina Cuanto Te Quiero), by Sam McBratney
- Everybody Has Feelings: Moods of Children (Todos Tenemos Sentimentos), as Photographed by Charles E. Avery
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