Are you in the process of formulating a Pre-K lesson plan that focuses on snails? Have you found yourself at a loss for ideas? If so, you may want to take a second to scroll through my list of suggestions. They may help you finish your work. Here they are:
Science
Depending on your budget, you may want to consider purchasing aquatic snails for your classroom from your local pet store. That way, the children may observe the snails up close. For example, you could have the children measure the creature’s slime trail or watch it eat vegetation. You could even use the snail as a visual aid when teaching the children about the creature’s anatomy. The Enchanted Learning website has a “Land Snail Anatomy Printout” that you may find somewhat useful for such endeavors.
Once you have the snails on hand, place them inside a 5 gallon fish tank filled with aquarium plants, aquarium gravel and distilled water. The pet shop representative should be able to tell you how much you’ll need of each item. The representative should also be able to explain how to set up the tank and care for your mystery snails. You can typically purchase the aquarium plants and gravel at the pet store too. As far as the distilled water goes, it is often available for purchase at grocery stores and pharmacies.
When it comes to “S is for Snail” handwriting worksheets, I’d suggest visiting the First School WS website. It has suitable handouts in both D’Nealian and standard font. There are also handwriting sheets available on the Twisty Noodle and Kids Soup websites. However, they each contain additional vocabulary words. The Twisty Noodle handout is for a snails and turtles unit whereas the Kids Soup sheet is for a snails and slugs unit. When the children are finished with the handwriting sheets, you may want to switch direction and talk about “sn” consonant blends. The Enchanted Learning website has consonant blend handouts should you be in need of a few.
Arts and crafts
Based on my experience, there are also several different arts and crafts projects that would work with a snail theme. For starters, you could have the children make snail finger puppets with cardstock. To make the finger puppets, print a snail coloring page and then glue it to a piece of cardstock. There are great snail coloring sheets posted on the Lucy’s Garden and Coloring Pages 1001 websites. Then let the kids color them. Afterward, cut the snail forms out of the cardstock and add two finger holes at the base of each snail’s body. That’s all that there is to it.
I should also mention that if you are crafty, you could always make the finger puppets out of other materials. For example, the Rhythm of the Home website has instructions for making a lovely one out of gardening gloves and yarn. You may want to consider giving it a try. In my opinion, they’d make a perfect addition to a dramatic play area.
Source: Personal Experience
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