January Monthly Activities

Make an evacuation plan in case of a fire. Teach your child to "Stop, Drop and Roll."

Let your child cut out or draw various foods they like and that are healthy for them. Glue them on a paper plate and talk about them.

How about a healthy snack? Try Ants on a Log! Take a stalk of celery, fill the center with peanut butter and put raisins on top. The raisins look like the ants crawling along the log. Ask your child to make up a story about the ants.

Song Day!

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.
Now change the vowel sound to A.
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-pples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-pples and ba-nay-nays.

Practice Dog Safety

Always ask the pet owner if you can pet their dog before reaching out and touching them. Pretend a stuffed animal is a real dog and practice petting them.

Talk about when to wash your hands. Ask your child before and after what activities they think they should wash their hands.

Visit Your Library!

Visit the library and choose books about good health and eating well. Ask the librarian to help you find a cookbook for children.

Read Growing Vegetable Soup. What are some vegetables you have in your house? Make some soup! If you don't have enough ingredients, draw all the vegetables you would put in your soup.

Talk about the importance of limiting the number of sugary foods you eat. Have a "No Sugar" day today.

Exercise by giving the children a sequence of two things to do. "Jump up, then sit down." Increase to three things. "Touch your nose, turn around, then sit down." Also sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" to keep up the energy!

Bath Time!

During bath time, talk about the importance of being clean. Make up your own bath song!

Focus on grains. What are they? How many different grains can you find and eat?

Exercise by playing tag or jump rope. If it is too cold outside, dance inside. If your child is a baby, practice bouncing the baby on your knees. You can use the repetition to sing the alphabet or to count.

It's a New Year! Make a list with your child of their favorite memories of last year. Have them draw some of the memories to share with friends and family.

Find out your child's favorite vegetable, and cook a meal that includes it.

Draw safety signs like "Stop" and "Yield". Talk about what they mean when crossing the street. Talk about traffic lights and their colors. Have everyone play the game "Red Light, Green Light."

Science Day!

Talk about seeds, plants, and how different vegetables are grown. Identify the different parts of plants, such as the roots, leaves, stem etc.

Mother Goose Time!

Wee Willy Winkey
Runs through the town
Upstairs, downstairs in his nightgown
Knocking at the windows, yelling through the locks
"Are all the children in their beds? For it is nine o'clock!"

Concentrate on showing your child how to brush their teeth well. Learn the toothbrush rhyme: I have a little toothbrush, I hold it very tight. I brush my teeth each morning and then again at night.

Draw pictures of different fruits and vegetables and save them for tomorrow's activity.

Take the pictures from yesterday and put them on popsicle sticks or straws to make a puppet show about eating healthy. Invite everyone in the house to participate.

Help your child make a noisemaker out of pasta, cereal, or beans by placing some in a paper cup and taping another on top. Use it to read the rhymes on this page.

Make a Nutrition Train!

The body works like a "Nutrition Train." Along the way, whatever children eat gets loaded onto the train. Bad foods slow the train down. Healthy foods speed the train up and help it work right. Make your own train. Draw the good things that are part of the train!

Mother Goose Time!

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider, who sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away. Today we call curds and whey cottage cheese!

Play a game outside like Tag, Kick the Can or Hide and Go Seek. If it is too cold to be outside, then exercise by putting on music and dancing fast. Talk about some of your favorite songs.

Talk about being safe. Make sure everyone in the family knows their name, address, telephone number, and what to do in case of an emergency.

Song Day!

Sing: "Are You Eating" to the tune of Frere Jacques
Are you eating
Are you eating
Healthy foods?
Healthy foods?
For your body needs them
For your body needs them
Everyday
Everyday.

Talk about the right way to cross a street: hold hands, look left, then right, then left. Can you remember safety signs from the activity earlier this month? Try to draw the signs you see every day.

Everyone dance together and you can make up your own tune. Then do the "Hokey Pokey"!

Let your child make their own pretend first-aid kit for dramatic play with a box, cotton balls and swabs, popsicle sticks, and cut up gauze or use toilet paper.

MOO! MOO! Cows provide dairy and milk makes your body and bones strong. Can you drink two glasses of milk today and talk about all the different bones in your body?

Talk about how important vegetables are to being healthy. Try to eat three different vegetables today.

Song Day!

Sing and march to "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" 
Do your ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot?
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them over your shoulder
like a Continental soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

Eat the Rainbow!

Help your child list or draw a fruit for each color in the rainbow.

Mother Goose Time!

Old MacDonald had a farm
e-i-e-i-o
And on that farm he had a cow
e-i-e-i-o
with a moo moo here
and a moo moo there
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo
Old MacDonald had a farm
e-i-e-i-o