Nurturing Homes Initiative Calendar

Nurturing Homes Initiative Calendar

Lessons

Calendar

Web Links

Parents

Publications

Resources

NHI Calendar

January	February	March	April	May	June
July	August	September	October	November	December

January
Week 1	Learning/Art Activity: Talk about New Year's Day. Make goals for the New Year together. Draw and color a picture of you goals.	Dramatic Play: Make paper hats and shakers (cups taped together with rice/beans inside) and have a New Year's Day parade.	Reading Activity: Read January poem. Let children come up with motions. Reread the poem and do the motions. Poem
Week 2	Art Activity: Make a picture frame.	Reading Activity: Talk about who Martin Luther King Jr. is, what he did, and how it has affected the world today. http://www.holidays.net/mlk	Sensory Activity: Play sound games.
Week 3	Dramatic Play: Talk about Benjamin Franklin and the different jobs he had. Gather objects and act out the different jobs. http://bensguide.gpo.gov/benfranklin	Learning Activity: Talk about the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year Explain how moon-pies are related to this holiday (new moon and moon-pies). Make and eat moon-cakes for a snack.	Music and Poem Activity: Sing and recite poems about the Chinese New Year. Songs and Poems.
Week 4	Music and Poem Activity: Sing and recite poems about the Chinese New Year. Songs and Poems.	Reading Activity: Read a book about another culture. Example: The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy and Jerry Pinkney

February
Week 1	Learning Activity: Talk about George Washington Carver being a famous scientist who invented over 300 peanut products.	Learning Activity: Maya Angelou is a famous black writer and poet. See if the children can come up with their own poem. Give them a start such as "Roses are red, Violets are blue..." See if the children can come up with rhyming words.	Learning and Art Activity: Alfred Cralle invented the ice cream in 1897. Add sand to a large plastic bowl or box. Add just enough water to dampen. Use scoop for sand.
Week 2	Reading Activity: Read a book about Valentine's Day (ex. Arthur's Valentine by Marc Tolon Brown) Learning and Art Activity:	Art Activity: Provide dollies, construction paper, markers, lace, sequins, and other materials for making valentines for someone special.	Dramatic Play: Dress up as mail carriers (let the children use their imaginations) and deliver the Valentine's Day cards that the children made.
Week 3	Leaning Activity: Talk about President's Day. Who is the current president? Who was the first president? Talk about the president's responsibilities and where he lives.	Talk about black history: Also talk about how we are all different. Discuss how each child is different (hair, eye, and skin color). The children can draw pictures of themselves.	Learning Activity: Take a walk outside and look the trees and plants. Talk about how the leaves will start to appear in a few weeks. Talk about different kinds of trees and plants.
Week 4	Art Activity: Draw pictures of trees the children saw the previous week. Display until the trees start to change, then go out a later date and observe again.	Art Activity: Use green, red and yellow construction paper to cut out round shapes. Tape on a craft stick. Use these to signal stop, go and yield.	Show and Tell: Have each child bring a bear or a stuffed animal. Allow each child time to share about their items. Read a book about animals. (ex. Goldilocks and the Three Bears)
Week 5	Reading Activity: Read a book about Black History. (ex. Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West by Lillian Schlissel).	Learning Activity: Provide food containers that can be matched, such as milk carton and cereal box, or a milk carton and a cookie box. Children can explore and figure out which ones go together.

March
Week 1	Fine Motor Skill: Play with colored blocks. Pick up each colored block and say what the color is.	Discovery Activity: Provide a variety of eye equipment for children to explore such as sunglasses, binoculars, and magnifying glass. Talk with them about how each works.	Reading Activity : St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
Week 2	Art Activity: Cover oatmeal cans with green paper and place beans inside to make shakers. Have a parade around the house or outside.	Let's Make Telephones: You need a frozen juice can or paper cups (one per child). Heavy string cut into 3 ft lengths. Punch a hole in the bottom of each can or paper cup. Put each end of string into the hole of a can or cup. Have them move apart, making the string as tight as possible. Have children talk and listen to their friends on the telephone.	Food Activity: Eat and make (using food coloring) green milkshakes, green eggs, and green JELL-O.
Week 3	Reading Activity: Read a picture book called The Cloud Book by Tomie DePaola.	Learning and Art Activity: Discuss St. Patrick's Day with the children. Explain that St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday. Its purpose is to celebrate the life of one of its religious patrons, St. Patrick. There are many legends, one is that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. In this country we celebrate by wearing green or displaying a shamrock emblem. Make shamrocks out of green construction paper.	Dramatic Play- Give the children dolls. Encourage them to select appropriate clothing for the dolls to wear on hot, sunny day, or a cold, sunny day.
Week 4	Explore Activity: Take a walk outside. Feel the grass and other objects outside. What do you see? What do you feel? Also, look at the clouds. What shape do they form?	Listening Activity: Provide a nature tape with spring sounds such as the chirping birds or pitter-patter of rain.	Music Activity: Sing "You are My Sunshine" to the toddlers and allow them to come up with motions. You can also let them cut out suns to use when singing the song.
Week 5	. Reading Activity: Rain by Peter Spier is a picture book about a young brother and sister who explore their surroundings while it is raining.	Discover Activity: Make wind. You can blow, fan a sheet of paper, turn on the ceiling fan or a floor fan, or make a paper fan (by folding a sheet of paper back and forth like an accordion)	Learning Activity: Encourage children to blow bubbles in front of a fan. What happens to the bubbles? Try blowing bubbles away from the fan. What happens?

April
Week 1	Reading Activity: Read a book about "Spring." (example: Rain by Peter Spier)	Go outside and blow bubbles. Let the children try to catch them. (If you need to make bubble solution, you may mix 3/4 cup clear liquid dishwashing soap, 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 quarts tap water.) [Baby Games by Elaine Martin]	Art Activity: Buy some noodles that you can string. Let the children practice their hand-eye coordination and make necklaces. [Baby Games by Elaine Martin]
Week 2	Provide a nature tape with spring sounds such as the chirping birds and pitter-patter of rain. Children can talk about what the sounds remind them of.	Art Activity: Provide several spring colors of tissue paper. Show the children how to tear, wad, and glue it to their paper to make spring flowers.	Hands-on Activity: Plant a seed using a paper cup, seeds (grass or bean sprouts are good), soil, water, and sun. Water and watch it grow.
Week 3	Sand and Water: Provide funnels, cups, basters, colanders, and strainers for water play. Encourage the children to make rain by pouring water through the colander.	Physical Activity: Have the children mimic your actions and words to this poem. Jelly in the bowl, (march to the beat) Jelly in the bowl, (continue to march) Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, (say in funny voice and wiggle all over) Jelly in the bowl. (march again) [Baby Games by Elaine Martin]	Art Activity: Go outside and give the children large pieces of colored chalk. Let them draw pictures on the concrete in the driveway or sidewalk. [Active Learning for Ones by Cryer, Harms, Bourland]
Week 4	Discovery- Provide natural items such as spring flowers and a roll of masking tape. Encourage the children to create "natural bracelets."	Art Activity: Cut out several different shapes (circle, square, triangle, star, heart) to show and tell children about. Give them crayons to color anything on the shape. [Active Learning for Ones by Cryer, Harms, Bourland]	Gross Motor: Provide bubbles and a wand. Invite the children to blow bubbles. Show the children how to blow bubbles using their hands as a wand. What to do think it would feel like to be a bubble?
Week 5	Hand-Eye Coordination Activity: Roll a large ball (example: beach ball or lightweight kick ball) when everyone is sitting in a large circle on the floor.	Construction: Give each child one leg cut from a pair of pantyhose. Provide newspaper for stuffing. Encourage the children to wad up the newspaper and stuff their worm. When the worm is all stuffed, tie off the open end. Provide felt to glue on the eyes. When the children have finished making their worm invite them to give their worm a name.

May
Week 1	Read Curious George Learns the Alphabet by H.A. Rey	Learning Activity: Name items in the home that begin with each letter of the alphabet	Activity: Dancing-Play the radio and teach the children how to dance
Week 2	Activity: Creating snacks-Allow the children to make their own snack (See handout on Snacks)	Learning Activity: Finger painting	Make Mother's Day Gifts/Cards using construction paper, glue, markers, and child Safe scissors
Week 3	Read Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt	Activity: Allow children to create their own book using different materials and pictures From magazines	Activity: Sand Box playtime (use stacking cups or spoons)
Week 4	Read Curious George Feeds the Animals by H.A. Rey	Learning Activity: Gather pictures of animals and let the children identify them	Activity: Drawing (Allow children to draw pictures with paper and markers)
Week 5		Read a book of children's choice	Activity: Play follow the leader

June
Week 1	Make popsicles (frozen kool-aid in ice trays with craft sticks inside for holding) and go outside to enjoy the sun.	Activity: Create areas or pictures that might be unsafe and ask children to identify what would and would not be safe.	Read The Rainbow Fish. Cut out fish in construction paper and paint the fish in the book.
Week 2	Activity: Song day (Teach children a variety of children's songs such as BINGO, Down by the Duck Pond, Pop Goes the Weasel, and Row, Row, Row Your Boat).	Activity: Obstacle course (Create an obstacle course inside using pillows, chairs, and cushions).	Create Father's Day cards using construction paper, pictures from magazines, comics from newspapers, yarn, glitter, glue, and bottle caps.
Week 3	Five Senses Activity: Give children different foods to taste. Let the children talk about how each foods looks, feels, smells, sounds and tastes while eating.	Activity: Allow children to create their own mini pizzas (See Nutritious Snacks for Preschoolers Age 3-5 Lesson).	Art Activity: Let children draw or paint their favorite foods.
Week 4	Read book of children's choice. Let the children tell the other children why they like this book.	Make sock or spoon puppets for the children to play with. (See Making Puppets lesson)	Finger puppets show (See Songs and Fingerplays lesson).
Week 5	Tissue Paper flowers Get several spring or summer colors of tissue paper. Let the children tear, wad, and glue it to paper to make spring flowers. Let the children be creative and have fun with this activity.	Learning Activity: Teach the children how to play Memory.

July
Week 1	Art Activity: Allow children to draw, color, or paint what Independence Day means to them. Hang the pictures on the wall .	Ask children to share their feelings about America. What it means to them. Does red, white, and blue come to their mind?	Activity: Allow children to make their own 4th of July snack with red or blue Jell-O, cool whip, and strawberries or blueberries.
Week 2	Learning Activity: Teach children how to wash their hands (See hand washing lesson).	Learning Activity: Explain to children about the harmful rays of the sun. Explain the need for sunglasses, hats, and suntan lotion.	Read book of children's choice: For example: The Mixed up Chameleon by Eric Carle.
Week 3	Art Activity: Mud Dough Mix clean dirt with cooking oil. Paint on rock, fabric, or paper. Different dirt mixtures will produce different results.	Cooking Activity: Allow children to make their own "Rockets" (See Snack Idea lesson).	Learning Activity: Take children on a nature hike and ask children to name certain things such as trees, flowers, and bugs.
Week 4	Art Activity: Have children draw or paint what they saw on the nature hike.	Activity: Allow children to do dramatic play. Have old clothes, hats, and shoes for them to dress up in.	Reading Activity: Read Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.
Week 5	Art Activity: Paint Your Garden Have children paint their own garden.	Physical Activity: Teach children to do jumping jacks for exercise.

August
Week 1	Reading Activity: Read to the children a book about summer such as: Clifford Keeps Cool by Norman Bridwell.	Song Activity: Teach children "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands." Also, use different feelings such as mad, sick, tired, instead of happy to teach children about feelings.	Music Activity: Have a variety of music for the children to dance to. Show them how different beats in music can affect their feelings. Example: Fast, up-beat music - happy.
Week 2	Sensory: Berries Materials: variety of fresh berries, small paper cups Talk about how the berries look, taste, smell, and feel.	Learning Activity: Cloud Watching - On a bright day with some clouds in the sky, have the children lie down and look at the clouds. Ask them if they see any pictures.	Movement: Walk like the Animals No materials needed. Make sounds the animals make as children walk. Explore walking like a bear, elephant, or giraffe.
Week 3	Art Activity: Allow children to paint clouds that they saw while outside using paint, crayons, markers, and tissue paper.	Reading Activity: Read a book about plants, such as The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss.	Learning Activity: Teach children how to plant seeds. Use a variety of seeds along with clear plastic cups so that they can eventually see the roots.
Week 4	Snack Activity: Have a variety of vegetables that the children can taste. Make sure that you name the vegetables so the children will know what they are trying.	Learning/Snack Activity: Show children what fruits will sink or float. (See Sink or Float Salad in Snack Ideas lesson.)	Art Activity: Allow the children to draw their favorite things about summer by using crayons,markers, and paint.
Week 5	Art Activity: Have children create fish in an aquarium using paint, markers, construction paper, tissue paper, and crayons.	Reading Activity: Read Curious George Goes to the Aquarium by H.A. Rey.	Wheels Have pictures of many types of machines that require wheels. Show children pictures of as many different wheels as possible.

September
Week 1	This is Me! Give children sheet of manila paper. Ask them to draw themselves. Then label the parts (i.e. nose, mouth, and ears). They can then share their favorite parts!	Snack/Learning Activity: Have a taste testing party. Have a variety of foods that the children can try such as lemons, cookies, pickles, pudding, pears, carrots, and chewy candy. This helps children learn about their senses.	Art/Learning Activity: Place a small amount of cocoa, curry, paprika, and dry mustard in separate sections of a muffin tin. Add a small amount of water at a time until each is the consistency of watercolor. Have the children paint on paper. Explain how long ago some cultures would use common food items to make paint.
Week 2	Give each child a paper muffin cup with a "scoop of alphabet cereal" letters. Let the children play with the letters and glue them on construction paper.	Snack Activity: Have children help make "Dinosaur Thins" (See Snack Ideas - Dinosaur Sesame Thins)	Reading Activity: Read a book about dinosaurs to children, such as: Curious George and the Dinosaur by H.A. Rey
Week 3	Art Activity: Have children draw their favorite dinosaurs or allow children to create "dinosaur tracks" on paper using plastic dinosaurs and paint.	Sing children's favorite songs with them.	Reading Activity: Read a book about farms to the children such as Clifford's Animal Sounds by Norman Bridwell.
Week 4	Learning Activity: Have children look through books and magazines and help them identify different farm animals and what they sound like. Example: cows - moo, sheep - baa.	Read Cock-A-Doodle Do: A Farmyard Counting Book by Steve Lavis	Art Activity: Have children draw their favorite farm animals and then ask them to tell you what sound the animals make.
Week 5	Read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Big Hungry Bear. Written by Don & Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood.

October
Week 1	Physical Activity: Place a long thick rope on the floor and show the children how to walk the tight rope or teach them to jump rope.	Take a walk outside and talk to the children about how the leaves and the weather are changing. Ask children to describe what changes they notice.	Art Activity: Have children draw or create their favorite pet using construction paper, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, paint, markers, and crayons.
Week 2	Hot or Cold Hide an object in the classroom. As children look for it tell them if they are hot or cold. They are hot when close and cold when not close to the object.	Merry Maracas Decorate cups with markers. Put about ¼ cup uncooked rice in a plastic or paper cup, turn second cup upside down on to of first cup, put cloth tape around cups where rims meet. Wrap tape around twice. Shake away!	Leaves Provide a basket of leaves for the children to sort by color, shape, and size. Invite children to describe the texture of each leaf.
Week 3	Dramatic Play: Line up chairs in a room and have children act like they are riding in a train, airplane, or fire truck.	Learning Activity: When the leaves start turning colors, ask the children to name all of the colors they see.	Learning Activity: Teach children about fire safety. Teach children how to escape if the house is on fire. Show the children the planned escape route and meeting place and practice this a few times.
Week 4	Corn Cob Toss Provide corncobs and a basket. Challenge children to throw the cobs into the basket. Gradually increase the distance between the basket and the thrower.	Read The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll	Art Activity: Paint the toddlers hands black and allow them to press their hands onto paper, heel to heel with their fingers spread out. This makes a very cute spider.
Week 5	Snack Activity: Allow children to create "Spiders" (See Snack Ideas Lesson - Special Spiders)	Art Activity: Have a pumpkin drawing contest. Allow children to draw what they think the face of the pumpkin should look like. Then have several pumpkins that you can trace the faces onto and set outside for everyone to enjoy for Halloween.	Carve a pumpkin. Toast the seeds and let children taste.

November
Week 1	Reading Activity- Read a book about colors. A Purple Cow: How to Learn Colors by Betsy Lee.	Learning Activity: Teach children about colors by labeling items around the room with their proper color. Ask children to identify objects that are a certain color. It is also good to use fruits, vegetables, and clothing.	Dramatic Play- Explain to children that it is Friendship Day. Tell the children that today they are going to do everything with a "buddy". If you have an odd number of children make one group have 3, they can be "super buddies."
Week 2	Dramatic Play- Provide hats from different professions. Ask children if they know which profession goes with each hat. They can put hats on and act out that profession. Example: fireman.	Art Activity: Have children make "stained glass" by using clear contact paper and scraps of colored cellophane. Peel the contact paper and lay sticky side up and allow children to place the scraps on the contact paper. Place another piece of contact paper on top and hang in the window.	Art Activity: Have children make bracelets from old beads and buttons and allow them to trade with their friends to teach the concept of sharing.
Week 3	Learning Activity- Ask children to bring their favorite wintertime hats. Ask children to describe why they like their hat so much. Ask them which of their friends' hats do they like best? And why?	Reading Activity: Read a book about hats such as: Old Hat, New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain or What's on my Head? by Margaret Miller	Dramatic Play: Have a variety of hats that the children can play with and wear. Make sure the hats are made up of different materials so that the activity can include something on the sensation of touch.
Week 4	Snack Activity: Allow children to paint bread and then toast it. Ask children to identify the colors that they painted on the bread. (See Snack Ideas Lesson - Painted Toast)	Art Activity: Allow children to make their own turkey by using their hands to trace a figure of a turkey. Have markers, crayons, construction paper, and a variety of other materials to decorate their turkey.	Sensory Activity: In a large bowl, add dry stuffing mix. Allow children to explore the dry stuffing mix by smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling, and seeing it.

December
Week 1	Reading Activity: Read a book about winter such as: The Snowy Day by E.J. Keats.	Art Activity: Have children draw or cut out snowflakes and/or snowmen. Hang these from the ceiling or on the wall. Have the children pretend that it is snowing.	Learning Activity: Play the matching game using multicolored mittens, gloves, socks, and hats. Show them how to match each item.
Week 2	Snack Activity: Make snowmen or Christmas sugar cookies and allow the children to decorate them.	Song Activity: Teach children Christmas songs such as "Jingle Bells," "O Christmas Tree," and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."	Art Activity: Have children finger paint or draw Christmas ornaments using washable paint, markers, and crayons.
Week 3	Learning Activity: Teach children about Christmas tree and winter safety.	Reading Activity: Read a book about Christmas such as: Clifford's First Christmas by Norman Bridwell.	Art Activity: Allow the children to make Christmas cards from old newspapers, magazines, and construction paper to give to their friends and family.
Week 4	Learning Activity: Have children explain what Christmas means to them.	Learning Activity: Have the children create snowmen by using white Play Dough or shaved ice and then talk to the children about how snow and ice melts.	Reading Activity: Read a book on playing games such as Duck, Duck, Goose! by Kristen Hall.
Week 5	Learning Activity: Teach children how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose."

Lessons	Calendar	Web Links	Parents	Publications	Resources
These Pages are designed for use with WebTV®. * This project is conducted by Mississippi State University Extension Service in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Human Services Office for Children and Youth. nhi@ext.msstate.edu Visit: MSUcares \|\| DAFVM \|\| USDA Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution.