A Bag of Shoes

Materials

1. Various pairs of shoes, slippers, and boots
2. Grocery bags

Instructions 

1. Gather a variety of shoes for this activity (check yard sales and second-hand stores). Send a note home asking for donations of old pairs of shoes that are clean enough for classroom use. With large shoes, children are more willing to leave their socks on while trying on the shoes.
2. Place the shoes in a pile and ask the children to find matches or "pairs."
3. Ask them to do a variety of sorting activities. For example, ask them to put all of the shoes that could be worn in the snow in one pile and all of the shoes that could be worn in the summer in another pile.
4. Children can sort shoes by size, color, and marks on the soles, or by those with laces, Velcro, or buckles.
5. Encourage the children to count how many shoes, slippers, and boots there are and compare the results.
6. At the end of the activity, have the children find pairs of shoes and put them in grocery bags.
7. Put the shoes in the dress-up so the children can try them on. More to do Read The Shoemaker and the Elves to the children. Set up a "shoe-making" area with shoes and toy hammers. The children can pretend to be elves making shoes.

Instructions

1. Make a tape of familiar sounds in the classroom. Tape environmental noises,
such as the squeak of a door, toilet flushing, water running, children
laughing, and so on.
2. Play the tape and challenge the children to identify the sounds. It is
especially fun to tape each child talking and have the children try and
identify the speaker.
3. This is a fun activity that will help develop children's auditory skills.
4. Read stories or sing songs that focus on sounds.