This activity can involve a small group of children. The materials needed are flash cards or pictures that are both related or not to the place they will pretend to go together, in this case the beach. First, children will be encouraged to talk about their experiences to their friends while an adult is monitoring the conversation. They are going to be told that they will go on a pretend trip to the beach. The adult in charge will lay the pictures face down on the floor or a table, and will ask the children to take turns to pick a card and determine whether the item in the picture is something they would take to the beach or not, then ask why are they saying that.
Listening Skills
"Whose Voice is this?"
This activity can be great to do in small groups, 5-10 kids, during circle time. A recorder and a picture of each child will be necessary.The teacher or caregiver needs to prepare in advance and record each child’s voice saying: “Hi Friend, who am I?” The day of the activity, after talking about what the word FRIEND means and what friends do, the teacher or caregiver will put all the pictures on the floor, and start playing the children’s voices one by one. The children will have to pay attention and listen to guess which of their friends is the one in the recorder and associate their voice with his/her picture.
Emergent Writing Skills
"A letter to my friend"
Prior to this activity, the teacher or caregiver can talk a little about the function of a mailbox, and together with the children they can build one. The whole class can be involved in this “A letter to my friend” activity, but teachers or caregivers should separate children in groups of two. For this activity, construction paper and any type of writing tools, such as pencils, markers, colored pencils, and crayons, will be necessary. The adults should make sure that each piece of construction paper has a name on it, so it will be easy to deliver the mail. The children will work with their partners for that day, and then they will “write” a letter to their friend in order to tell them how they felt about working with them, and when done, they will place it in the mailbox. At the end of the day, the teacher or caregiver will officiate as the mailmen and make sure each child receives their letter.
Emergent Reading Skills
"The Name Puzzle" This is an individual activity. The materials needed are one envelope, two pieces of strips of paper, and red and black bold markers. First, write the name of the child with the black marker on the first strip, and then do the same thing with the second strip but using the red marker this time. Show the black strip to the child and tell him that this is his name. Run your finger under the name from left to right as you say it aloud. Have your child do the same. Now point to each letter, one at a time, and say the letter name aloud. Ask your child to copy you. Leaving the first strip intact, pick up the second strip with the red letters and cut the letters apart into individual pieces. As you make each cut, say the name of the letter that you are cutting off the strip. Mix up the pieces. Ask your child to help you put the red name puzzle back together, using the black strip as a guide. He should also try to put the pieces together in order, so he gets used to the sequence of the letters. After he’s successfully matched the red letters to the black ones to build his name, ask him to build his name from memory, without looking at the black strip. To adapt it to the theme, the activity can be done using the word FRIENDS, to indicate that both adult and child are that, and at the and together they can say: yes, we are friends!