Looking for a few hands-on activities to expand your earth science or English Language Arts lessons for your early childhood classes? Here are three Kindermusik art activities teachers love to use in PreK, Kindergarten, and First Grade.

3 Art Activities to Use to Support Common Core Lesson Plans

1. Life Cycle Unit: Egg Carton Caterpillar

Use this as children explore the life cycles of plants and animals along with the Common Core exemplar texts as part of your state’s or schools standards. The Egg Carton Caterpillar activity supports a multi-sensory approach to learning that actively engages young students. The completed caterpillar can also be used in English Language Arts as children create a story about their creation.

2. Recycling Unit: I Spy Recycled Bottle Kids’ Activity

Use this activity as part of an Earth Day, Ecology, or Science Lesson. As your class chooses which items to add to the bottles, discuss what each of the objects are and what they might be turned into after recycling. Ask the students to share how the objects are alike and different.

3. English Language Arts: Wooden Spoon Puppets

Use this activity along with ELA lesson plans to use storytelling to support reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language development. For example, as young children create a fairytale, a puppet can be used in collaboration with their story to enrich the narrative experience. Storytelling through wooden spoon puppets provides an avenue for young children to gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through their own creations.

Looking more video-based ideas for classroom activities? Follow Kindermusik International on YouTube!

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer in the Atlanta area.