Preschool activities for April center around the theme of “Rain, Rain, Go Away.” It tends to be a rainy month here in Texas which also means it can be a very dangerous time of year because we have intense thunderstorms with high winds, large hailstones, and tornadoes. This is a great time to ensure that flashlights are operating with good batteries and placed in optimal locations in case of a power outage for those child care providers that operate in their home. Also, practice getting the children to a safe room such as an interior closet or bathroom. It is important to plan your evacuation route and practice it especially if you have babies and young toddlers that will require 100% of your assistance to get them to safety in the event of an emergency. Make sure that this safe room is equipped with any necessary supplies.

Below you will find preschool activities for toddlers and preschoolers. These activities include science and social studies ideas, imagination play, arts and crafts, reading and math activities, coordination and movement games, and social skills ideas.

Theme: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Letter: R, U (rain)
Number: 4
Color: Blue
Shape: Oval (Raindrop)

1. Holidays:
April 1- April Fool’s Day (wear something silly)
April 12- Easter
April 22- Earth Day

2. April Preschool Activities: Science
Teach the children how to use recyclables to make a compost in celebration of Earth Day. Explain the importance of recycling paper, glass, and plastic and how it helps our environment and planet.

Make April Fool’s Silly Putty. In a bowl, add some corn starch. Mix in some water until the mixture is the consistency of paste. Teach the children about how the mixture goes from a liquid to a solid. (Optional: Add food coloring to mixture. The color of the month is blue.)

Use the rain gauge made in arts and crafts to record the levels of rain on different days.

Go on a nature walk and see what plants, flowers, trees, leaves, and insects you can find to celebrate Earth Day. Collect some of your findings along the way.

3. Social Studies:
Research when the umbrella was first invented (about 4 thousand years ago). Who used them and for what purpose (Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese for the purpose of shade)? The Chinese were the first to make them of waterproof material.

4. Imagination:
Have the children put on raincoats, rain boots, and grab an umbrella. Pretend it is a rainy day and put down blue carpets or blue paper for puddles. The children can go around the room jumping from puddle to puddle.

5. April Preschool Activities: Arts and Crafts
Make your own Little Cloud using blue construction paper and white cotton balls. Let the child make an outline of any cloud shape, then pull-apart some cotton balls and glue them to the cloud shape.

Make a page of leaf rubbings from leaves collected on your nature walk.

Make a rain gauge using plastic soda bottles or plastic water bottles. Remove the cap and discard. Cut off the top of the bottle about 1/4 of the way down. Place the cut off top upside down in the top of the bottle. This will allow the rain to travel inside the bottle to be collected. Mark the outside of the bottle using a permanent marker in 1/2 inch increments.

Use stickers to decorate plastic Easter eggs.

6. Reading:
Read “Little Cloud” by Eric Carle. Talk about what cloud shape each child would like to be and what they like to do on a rainy day.

Read “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams. Talk about bunnies and what they like to eat and where they live.

7. April Preschool Activities: Language:
Sing “Rain, Rain, Go Away” and “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring.”

Introduce the letters and letter sounds for R and U. Have the children use blue finger paint to practice tracing over a pre-written R,r and D,d on a piece of paper.

Use an umbrella to teach the opposites of up, down and open, shut.

8. Math, Thinking Skills:
Sort plastic Easter eggs by color or have the children match halves of plastic Easter eggs to make a complete set.

9. Math, Shapes:
Place several shapes on the floor in a circle. Be sure to include a lot of ovals. Play music, as the music plays the children will walk in a circle along the path of the shapes. When the music stops, if the child is not standing on an oval, he or she will have to sit out. The game continues until there is only one child standing on an oval. You may need to remove the number of ovals as the game progresses to reduce the chances of landing on an oval.

10. Math, Counting:
Introduce the number 4 and show everyone how to hold up 4 fingers and count to 4. Let the children string 4 beads, pieces of cereal, or other objects onto a string.

11. Coordination and Movement:
Practice hopping on 2 feet like bunnies. Then challenge the children to hop on one foot at a time. This will require some good balancing skills.

12. April Preschool Activities: Social Skills
Hide the plastic Easter eggs that the children made during arts and crafts. Have each child pair up with a friend to find the Easter eggs. The children will have to cooperate to work together to find the eggs.

There are so many February Preschool Activities that relate to groundhog day, Valentine’s Day and President’s Day. Here are some of the activites I do with my children in my in-home child care.

Theme: Sweethearts and Friendship
Letters: B, H
Number: 2
Color: Red and Pink
Shape: Heart
Activities:

For other February Preschool Activities and Craft Ideas, visit A to Z Childcare Directory or you can go directly to Valentines craft ideas.

Teaching about feelings to preschool children is an essential part of a young child’s development. Understanding what feelings are and why we have them can help teach children how to control their feelings and more importantly, it teaches them how to empathize with others. When children understand their own feelings, they are likely to relate better to other children and communicate better with others.

It is easy to have feelings, but it is not always easy to control them. When teaching about feelings to preschool children, you will want to identify all the different types of feelings,

particularly the most common: happy, sad, mad, and scared. Having a name to associate with the feeling helps children to identify when they are experiencing that particular feeling. Provide or show examples of each feeling so that the child knows what these feelings look like when they are expressed.

Once children identify their feelings, they need to be taught that there are socially acceptable ways to deal with those feelings. For example, it is not socially acceptable to express mad feelings by hitting or biting other children. Instead, teach the child to use their words to express their feelings of anger.

Teaching about feelings to preschool children can be done through a variety of activities. On my website, A to Z Childcare Directory, you will be able to find a lot of ideas and activities to teach children about feelings. In addition, you will find specific activities related to these feelings:

• Happy
• Sad
• Mad
• Scared

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