J is for Jump and Jars

Songs/Rhymes:
ABC
Jack and Jill went up the hill…..

Activities:
Drawing the letter J worksheet

Outside jumping — if the weather is nice, go outside and jump.

• see how high kids can jump (and reach)
• jump over cracks in the sidewalk
• jump over balls, sticks, hoses, etc
• jump rope – many kids this age don’t have the motor skills necessary to jump rope, but they like to try anyway
• hop scotch – use sidewalk chalk to make a hop scotch.  Teach the kids to jump as they count.

Jars

• How much can a jar hold?  fill a jar with one item (marbles, balls, hot wheels, etc) How many items are in the jar?  Guess and then count — works best if the number is under 20.
• Find the lid — have several different sizes of jars with lids.  Let the kids experiment to see which lids go on which jars.  Use baby food jars, spaghetti sauce jars, canning jars, peanut butter jars, etc.  Works best if there’s a wide variety of jar sizes.  Talk about what’s the same and what’s different.

Snack Idea:
Jelly Beans
peanut butter and jelly (if no peanut allergies)
soft pretzels shaped like the letter J

If you’re just joining us you may want to read the “How to set up a co-op preschool” post.  Each week I’ll be sharing ideas for introducing your preschoolers to the letters of the alphabet.   Not all of these ideas will work for everyone.  As the year goes on, you’ll figure out what works for your group of kids.  To start the alphabet, check out ideas for the letters A and B or just bookmark this page for all my preschool ideas.