Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

On the Morn of Mayfest by Erica Silverman

Reading Center for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

Fill your preschool reading center not only with books about May Day, but also with books about flower gardens and spring festivals.

Snack for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

May Day cookies in a basket: Serve your preschool students sugar cookies in the shapes of flowers. Serve the cookies in small, inexpensive baskets.

Concepts for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

Letter: Mm for May
Number: 1 for May 1
Shape: oval like a flower petal
Color: yellow

Fine Motor Activities for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

May basket weaving: Give each child a plastic berry basket from the produce section of your local supermarket. (Collect these over time or ask the parents of the students to donate some berry baskets for this project.) Set out numerous strips of thin ribbon and yarn of various colors. Let your students make decorative May baskets by weaving the ribbons and yarn through the holes in the plastic berry baskets.

Gross Motor Activities for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

Basket of May flowers: Gather your preschool students together. Explain that you are pretending that they are flowers in a May basket. Have them squat down on the floor, then slowly raise up, opening their hand over their heads like flower buds opening to the sun.

Art Center Activities for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

May basket (continued): Provide your students with several die cuts of flowers. Make the die cuts from different colors of construction paper. Let your preschool students decorate the die cut flowers with crayons, markers, sequins and glitter. Have your students glue each of the decorated die cut flowers to craft sticks. Instruct your students to fill their decorated berry baskets (see above) with shredded green paper that you have provided for them. Now have them place the flowers that they made in the baskets with the shredded paper "grass." Tie a piece of yarn to two sides of the berry basket and ta da! Your students have created May Day baskets suitable for hanging on door knobs.

Songs/Fingerplays for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

May Day finger plays and rhymes can be found here.

Pre-math Center Activities for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

Take away: Set out die cut flower shapes that you have laminated. For example, set out 4 flowers. Instruct your students to take away as many as they need to in order to leave only 1 flower. Have your preschool students count the number of flowers that they took away. In this case, the answer is 3.

Pre-writing Center Activities for Preschool Lesson Plan: May Day

For younger students, provide sheets of paper with the letters M and m lightly printed on them. Have the children trace the letters. Do the same with the number 1.

For older students, provide an example of the letters M and m and the number 1. Have the students practice writing the letters and number freehand.

Another idea for your preschool classroom's pre-writing center is to write the word May on the white board. Let your preschool students copy the word May onto the white board with brightly colored dry erase markers.