• Class Size: 8

• Teachers: 2

• Ratio: 1:4

Our classroom offers a significant amount of space for our Treetop Tots to move and explore. There are a variety of learning centers for the children to explore, and there are dedicated spaces for individual exploration, large group activities, and for large-motor physical movement.

Community Playthings Room Design Link

Community Playthings (2025).

New York State Office for Children and Family Services (October 2021).

National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Theme: Weather

Title: Weather Bottle Exploration

Objective: Children will explore and engage with different weather-themed sensory bottles.

Brief Description:

1. The children will manipulate the weather sensory bottles.

2. There will be a label on each sensory bottle for the children, which will include a weather symbol and the name of the weather it represents.

3. The children will analyze the contents inside of the sensory bottles as they manipulate them.

   
   

Visual: To support multiple children engaging in play in the center, there will be a few sets of sensory bottles in the dramatic play center.

Theme: Weather

Title: Filling and Dumping Clouds of Rain and Snow

Objective: Children will identify blocks of different colors and begin to develop sorting skills as they fill and dump the bins.

Brief Description:

1. Wrap half of the smallest wooden blocks in blue paper, and wrap the other half in white paper. The blue blocks are rain, and the white blocks are snow.

2. Use two shallow see-through gray bins to create gray clouds.

3. Children can scoop, mix, and dump the different rain and snow blocks into the gray cloud bins. The children can mix these blocks up as much as they want, creating rain, snow, or sleet.

Christine. (2024, February 14).

Theme: Weather

Title: Making Shadows

Objective: Children will observe and explore the cause-and-effect relationship between a light source and shadow formation through the manipulation of objects.

Brief Description:

1. Secure a flashlight on a flat surface out of reach of the children (perhaps the top of the science center). Be sure to test that the light reaches a wall or flat surface and that the on and off switch can be used. (Painter’s tape would be a good tool to secure the flashlight.)

2. Place various types of plastic toy animals in the science center (farm animals and Safari animals) where children can see and access them.

3. Place one animal in the light and create a shadow on the wall. Leave this example for the children to observe and manipulate. Children may also observe and explore creating their own shadows.

4. Be sure to turn on the flashlight for the children and dim the classroom lights as needed.

*My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson, would be a great book to accompany this learning center. Including posters and/or images of the sun and shadows in the center would serve as a good model for children.

Preschool Sun theme. (n.d.).

Theme: Weather

Title: Warm Sun Texture Collage

Materials:

Glue

White cardstock paper

Blue watercolor paint

Yellow paint

Cardboard circles (precut and painted yellow)

Cardboard (painted yellow and orange, precut into small rectangle pieces)

Yellow tissue paper (precut into small pieces)

Orange/yellow pieces of silk (precut into small pieces)

Yellow and orange pompoms

Yellow and orange sponge pieces (precut into small pieces)

Various yellow and orange plastic flowers

Yellow and orange leaves (when seasonally available)

Yellow and orange paper (magazines, different types of paper) (precut into tiny pieces)

Yellow and orange pieces of felt (precut)

Yellow and orange pieces of pipe cleaners (precut)

Brief Description:

Children will create unique suns by selecting and attaching different textures in the colors yellow and orange.

Kelly. (2020, July 21).

Theme: Weather

Story Summary:

Simple and evocative language and charming illustrations describe a girl's experience on a snowy day.
In this gently rhyming board book, a young girl makes a snowman, sleds, and has other winter fun!
Elizabeth Spurr and Manelle Oliphant together create a perfect sit-in-your-lap reading experience for toddlers.

Story Based Center Activity:

1. Cut out circles of white felt in three different sizes (enough to make 3 snowmen). Then, cut out 3 black hats, 3 orange carrots, 3 yellow scarves, 6 brown arms, 9 black circle buttons, 6 black eyes, and 3 black half-circles for the smiles. (All of these felt pieces are for three snowmen.)

2. Label each piece of the snowman with its corresponding word (circle, hat, scarf, etc.)

3. Securely assemble one snowman from the materials of felt.

4. Cut out large white x’s of felt (9 total). Securely assemble 3 of the white x’s in an overlapping pattern to make a snowflake.

5. Label the assembled snowman and snowflake.

6. Place all items on a felt board in the library center, with the excess materials next to each item (snowman and snowflake).

7. After reading In the Snow, encourage the children to make their own snowman and snowflake on the felt board in the library center.

Title of Book: In the Snow

Author: Elizabeth Spurr

Illustrator: Manelle Oliphant

Year: 2017

Publisher:  Peachtree; Brdbk edition

Amazon Link for Book

Theme: Weather

Title: Sorting Snowballs

Objective: Children will gain an understanding of different sizes by manipulating “snowballs” of different sizes and sorting them into different containers specific to size.

Materials: 4 clear plastic containers/baskets, approximately 13 of each sized “snowball” (white pompoms of 3 distinct sizes (small, medium, large), labels for each jar/basket, glue/tape. (2 sets to allow multiple children to engage in the learning activity)

Brief Description:

1. I will have pre-made labels of small, medium, and large, each attached to their own jar/basket with glue/tape.

2. On each jar/basket, I will glue/tape the corresponding pompom size as an example.

3. All pompoms will placed in the 4^th container/basket for children.

4. Children will manipulate the pompoms and place them into the container/basket that matches the size of the pompom they have selected from the pompoms container/basket.

(Learning and Teaching Preschoolers, 2011)

Christine. (2024, February 14). 20 Creative block activities for toddlers | KiDorzo. KiDorzo. https://www.kidorzo.com/block-activities-for-toddlers/

Community Playthings (2025). Sample Classroom Room Design and Planning.
https://www.communityplaythings.com/Inspiration/sample-classrooms Ulster Park, NY

Kelly. (2020, July 21). Recycled Collage Sun Craft. DIY Thought. https://www.diythought.com/recycled-collage-sun-craft/

Lakeshore Learning (2025) Complete Classroom Design. https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/services/completeclassrooms Carson, CA

Learning and Teaching Preschoolers. (2011, January 18). Sorting Snowballs. Retrieved March 28, 2025, from https://learningandteachingwithpreschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/01/sorting-snowballs.html

Levin, Vanessa (2025). Pre-K Pages: Learning Centers and Lesson Plans. https://www.pre-kpages.com/

New York State Office for Children and Family Services (October 2021). Group Childcare Regulations 418
http://ocfs.ny.gov/main/childcare/daycare_regs.asp, OCFS: NYS

Preschool Sun theme. (n.d.). Preschool Plan It. https://www.preschool-plan-it.com/preschool-sun-theme.html#Science