Groundhog Day, written by Gail Gibbons, is a great book for preschool students to explain why we celebrate Groundhog Day every year on February 2. This book explains the tradition of the day and gives a description of the groundhog as an animal.
Click on the video link to listen and read along to the story:
My First Biography: Martin Luther King, Jr , written by Marian Dane Bauer and illustrated by Jamie Smith, is a good book to read for preschool students. This book gives an easy explanation of why we celebrate MLK Day every January. Young children can see and begin to understand the reasons for the changes in the laws related to black people and white people.
Click on the link to listen and read along to the book:
Strega Nona is a Caldecott Award winning classic book of an old tale written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.
Click on the video link to listen and read along with this classic tale:
The Mitten, adapted and illustrated by Jan Brett, is a great preschool book for the cold winter months.
This is the story of a boy who has brand new mittens from his grandma but he drops one in the white snow on his walk.
Many animals find the mitten and make themselves at home inside until the tiniest animal does something to the biggest animal. Then all the animals come flying out of the mitten.
But does the boy get his mitten back? And his grandma angry with him for losing his mitten?
Find out by clicking on the video link to listen and read along:
For a fun ice-breaker game with school age students, try the balloon toss challenge game.
Start by tossing a balloon to the group. Students must keep the balloon in the air. When the balloon touches the ground, the last person to have touched it must pop the balloon and complete the task written on a slip of paper inside the balloon.
Depending on the size of the group and the number of balloon tosses, you may decide to count 10 balloon tosses or touches. The tenth person to touch the balloon must complete challenge task.
Ideas for challenge tasks: Do 10 jumping jacks. Recite the memory verse. Say the alphabet backwards. Recall the Bible lesson theme of the day/month.
The Candy Land DVD game is a great game for preschool students and young school age students. 
Students are watching a DVD and interacting with the instructions at the same time. This activity feeds students’ interests in electronics and screen time while allowing them to learn and interact on an active level.
See this image of students following the Candy Land spots on the floor while listening to the instructions on the screen.
