Let’s Play!: Theater Enrichment for Itsy Bitsies (Ages 1-5)
Welcome families! We’re so grateful you’re exploring our ACTivities. Our lessons incorporate the creative arts such as creative drama, storytelling, music, and movement plus mindfulness tools. For more information on our preschool theater enrichment program, please visit here.
Note: We offer weekly, bi-weekly and monthly classes to several programs and so we’ll do our best to make it easy to know which lesson your child(ren) have been exposed to. Do check in with your itsy bitsy, too!
The Playcrafter Kids Theme Song
More Opposites
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Listening and engaging in Outdoor Opposites by Barefoot Books
- Acting out opposites with their bodies and faces
- Singing “Down by the Bay” and making up silly verses
Home Extension ACTivities:
- Play “I Spy” opposites game. “I spy something hot…I spy something cold.”
- Watch video of Outdoor Opposites
- Play tug-of-war or Red Light, Green Light
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Acting out farm animals, chores, and what it’s like on a farm
- Enjoyed a yoga farm story
- Listened and moved to “Down on Grandpa’s Farm”
Home Extension ACTivities:
Fort Collins is home to many wonderful kid-friendly farms such as Lee Martinez Farm, Well Fed Farmstead, Garden Sweet, and Laughing Buck Farm. A visit this spring and summer would be worth it! Also, the Old Town Farmer’s Market restarts Saturday, May 20th from 9am-1pm.
If you cannot make it to a farm, bring the farm animals to you! Check out Little Angels Pony & Pals.
Farm
Opposites
Started April 4
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Acting out opposites with their bodies and ribbons
- Listening to Elephants Cannot Dance by Mo Willems
- Practicing this rhyme: “Jack in the box is as small as a mouse. Jack in the box is as tall as a house.”
Home Extension ACTivities:
- Read Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. Ask your child how Gerald the Giraffe is different and similar to Gerald the Elephant in Elephants Cannot Dance. Don’t have the book?! Check out a read aloud on Youtube.
- Play an Opposites Game
1. Make it a Scavenger Hunt (use plastic eggs and fill with opposite words. Try and match up the opposite.)
2. Act out different opposites and then try and do the opposite. When you call out “happy,” act “sad” and vice versa. Most likely to end up in hysterics!
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Listening to A Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burach
- Acting out a butterfly’s 4 stages of metamorphosis
- Singing and dancing to original songs (see below)
- Playing with butterfly puppets
- Learning terms such as metamorphosis, pupa, chrysalis, proboscis, nectar, molt, life cycle
Home Extension ACTivities:
- Enjoy the “Metamorphosis Mantra” song by Playcrafter Kids. Want more? Check out The Butterfly Brigade soundtrack
- Consider planting a butterfly garden at home
- Visit Fort Collins’s very own Butterfly House at The Gardens on Spring Creek
- Make an after school treat!
Butterfly Celery Snack: A twist on the good ol’ fashion, Ants on a Log
Ingredients - 1 celery stalk, nut/seed butter, 3-4 raisins, 2 pretzels
Directions - Cut the celery into 2-3" pieces. Spread chosen nut butter onto the celery. Add a line of raisins. Add the pretzels for wings.
Butterflies
Started March 28
Spring
Started March 21
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Telling the story of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen with sound effects and movement.
- Being part of a forest soundscape.
Home Extension ACTivities:
Experiment with a tongue twister and add movement to help with memorization
She sells seashells by the seashore.
Zebras zig and zebras zag.
A big black bug bit a big black bear made the big black bear bleed blood.
Music: “Spring Song” to the tune of Frere Jacques
Spring is here!
Spring is here!
Goodbye snow, flower grow
Birds and bees
Leaves on trees
Hello spring!
Hello spring!
Discuss: What are the first signs of spring? Go on a nature walk to discover any signs.
Feelings
Started March 7
Today in class your child(ren) enjoyed:
- Listening to Emily’s Tiger by Miriam Latimer
- Twirling a calm down jar
- Experimenting with emotions playing Emotional Walk game
- Listening to “I Feel Angry” by Music with Michal and practiced these steps:
1. Stop 2. Name the Feeling 3. Breathe in/out 4. Stamp feet and count to 3
Home Extension ACTivities:
Relisten to Emily’s Tiger narrated by Deanna Mae. See video below.
Make your own calm down or glitter jar - Directions here!
(I’ve personally made the liquid soap version with success.)