Whose Lunch Box?

Materials

• Children's lunch boxes
• Masking tape

What to Do

1. Place a strip of masking tape on the floor, long enough to place everyone's lunch box on top.
2. At the end of group time and before lunch, ask the children to sit in a large circle around the strip of masking tape.
3. Bring the children's lunch boxes to the circle and line them up on top of the tape.
4. Starting with the first lunch box, ask each child, one by one, to pick up a lunch box and match it to its owner. Then the child hands it to its owner. If they don't know who it belongs to, they can ask, "Whose lunch box?" Young children delight in this activity, especially at the beginning of the school year.
5. The children can either wait until everyone has their lunch box or go wash their hands as they get their lunch box.

More to Do

• Literacy: As the year progresses, the children can begin to match written name cards to the lunch boxes.
• Math: Depending on the variety of lunch boxes, you could make a graph showing the quantity and types, such as hard and soft, colors, and so on.

Instructions

Following are some reasons why singing with children is beneficial.
1. Increases intellectual development. Children learn many basic concepts
through song lyrics and enhance their creativity by recognizing patterns,
identifying rhyming words, adding motions, and creating original lyrics for
favorite tunes.
2. Provides opportunities to develop physical/motor skills. Singing allows
children to release excess energy through clapping, snapping, stomping,
swaying, and other appropriate movements. In addition, they develop rhythm
and coordination.
3. Enhances perceptual awareness. When singing and moving, young children
refine their sense of spatial relationships and direction.
4. Develops language and increases vocabulary.
5. Increases cultural awareness. Music has long been a common link between
mankind that can help us better understand the world and those who live in
it. By introducing songs, instruments, and musical traditions of different
cultures, teachers can expose children to the diversity that exists in our
society.
6. Gives opportunities to practice social skills. Successful singing experiences
build children's self-esteem while teaching them how to be a contributing
member of a group.
7. When introducing a new song, sing the entire song through, rather than lineby-
line. Children will attempt to join you in singing the songs they find
appealing as early as the first time it is heard. If a song doesn't catch on, drop
it. There are plenty of others to try.
8. Variations for singing include:
* adding instruments,
* omitting words,
* adding motions,
* singing at various levels (soft or laud) or at a different pace (fast or
slow),
* singing in different voices.