Two toddlers display different abilities in singing “Old MacDonald” while playing with felt farm pieces. The play inspires one toddler to ask his teacher to read an Old MacDonald song book, and the other toddler dances to the singing. The song continues even after the toddlers move to another center and play with a barn.

A teacher leads preschoolers doing hand movements while singing a song in a regular voice and then a deeper “Papa Bear” voice. She then challenges the children to audiate the song (hear it in their heads without singing it) while doing the hand movements. After that success, the class tries an additional audiation challenge, which requires them to resist the impulse to sing specific sections of the song.

During center time, two preschoolers choose to go to the writing center and help their teacher make a list of food to serve at the ball they have been planning as a classroom. As she writes down their ideas, the teacher prompts the children to identify letters that connect to the phonemes (sounds) at the beginning of some words. One child later reads the list of foods to another teacher.

Two toddlers use cotton swabs to paint rocks. They discuss colors with their teacher and use different strategies to put paint on rocks and paper. One toddler experiments with putting paint on her hands. The children paint in parallel but do not interact.

Pretending that the carpet is lava, two preschoolers set up large hollow blocks on the floor and carefully step from block to block. They create maps to show where it is safe to go and discuss various scenarios related to the lava and their maps. A third child is busy building a robot, but the pace of his play appears to respond to the urgency of the lava play. A teacher asks probing questions about the purpose of the maps.

A creative dance educator asks children to move across the floor in pairs using happy and then angry movements. She models and also connects the emotions to other concepts, such as speed and clenched fists.

Two toddlers work together to build tall towers with blocks. Their teacher describes what they’re doing to another toddler, who joins in the play. The children celebrate when they successfully place a block on a wobbly tower, and exclaim with delight when the towers fall over. One toddler begins to notice which blocks will not support additional stacking.

After reading a book, a preschool teacher revisits the shared writing they did prior to reading where children had made predictions regarding what the book would be about. As a transition activity, she invites each child to approach the chart paper with a tool to highlight/frame and name either a letter or a whole word. The teacher differentiates the activity for each child.

A preschool teacher leads a shared writing activity as a review session for a physical fitness experience the children participated in earlier in the day. The teachers prompt children with questions to help them remember what they did, as one teacher records their responses. Some children write their names, and one child demonstrates the jumping jacks he did.

At the sensory table, two preschoolers try a variety of strategies to transfer water from one spray bottle to another.