Today is the last day of school for my preschool class, and I wanted to share the distance learning preschool lesson I am doing with them. We usually meet twice a week (my students are 3) but during distance learning research suggests that activities and lessons shouldn’t be as long or as frequent as in class. I have been sending my preschoolers one video read aloud a week with a mini-lesson and an email with coordinating activities. I wanted to share it with you and will be creating and sharing more of these posts throughout the summer as we prep for back to school in a very uncertain atmosphere. I hope the way I create my preschool video lesson plan and share remote learning activities will inspire you to find the right way for you.
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The Book
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff is a contemporary classic, and if you have ever read it to a group of children, you will know why. The story builds as one thing leads to the next when you give in to the whims of a silly little mouse! This is a great book to work on a bunch of skills. The first being prediction. “What do you think will happen next? Can you make a prediction?” As well as the ability of retelling after you are done reading by asking,” What happened next?” these are both really easy and essential tools for early literacy.
Preschool Video Lesson
Find a place where the background isn’t busy. That’s on my living room floor for me. If we are distance learning again in the fall, I will invest in some fancier materials like an easel, but for now, we are making do with my trusty cookie sheet magnet board.
- I start my preschool video lesson with my Good Morning song with photos of my students. As I say their names in the song, I point to their photos I have attached to a cookie sheet. This is one way to include my students in a lesson that is not live. I have decided not to do live zoom style lessons because of the age of my students as well as knowing families are sharing devices, and I wanted families to have the flexibility of viewing the lessons on their schedules.
- Next, it’s time to read the book! I love this book because the text isn’t too long. When you are reading books on video, using shorter books is critical to keep your students engaged. As I read, I stop to ask questions as I would in a traditional circle time giving my students time to answer me.
- After the book, it’s time for a quick lesson. This week we are adding candy chips to our chocolate chip! I put magnets on the back of some buttons, grabbed a die, and printed out this plain cookie here. I attach the plain cookie to my cookie sheet with a magnet, and on video rolled the die and added the buttons. Take time to count the buttons on the cookie after they are added.
- Finally, its time to sing! Sing Who Stole The Cookie From The Cookie Jar – but make it “interactive” by using the photos of your students in the song. As each person is accused of stealing the cookies, put their picture up. This is, of course, one more little step to connect when we can’t physically be together.
This lesson plan created a 10-minute video.
Email to Family
Hello friends and families!
This week we are reading a great story about what comes next. Click here to see the video! ( for the blog post, I do not link the actual video as I share my student’s faces and names in it.)
Suggested Activities
1. Make cookies with play-dough Use buttons or other small items like plastic gems to make “chocolate chips.” Use cookie cutters and rolling pins to turn your kitchen table into a bakery.
2. Count the chocolate chips. Use these cookie printables for some fun counting, or print out for a cookie hunt! Hide them around the house and go in search of these cookies.
3. Sing – Who Stole The Cookie From The Cookie Jar! Not sure of the lyrics? Check out Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby singing it here!
4. Draw a picture of your family. Grab some paper and crayons and make a family portrait together, just like Mouse did in the book!
Easy Mouse Craft
This craft is easy for young children to make, and you can do it with recycled cereal boxes if you have no heavy paper on hand.
Paper Plate Cookie Craft
If you don’t have the supplies for puffy paint, just use regular paint!
Cookie Baking Sequence Cards
Print and cut out these photos, then together with your child, decide on which order they go in. What’s the first step for baking cookies? What’s next? Just like the book, one action leads to another.
Roll & Cover Chocolate Chip Cookie
We did this in the video lesson. Now it’s time to try again!
For this activity, you will need a die or dice, a tray, something to mark the spots if you have chocolate chips, they would be fun to use, and the printable. Roll the dice and cover the same number of dots as you rolled. Keep going until the whole cookie is covered. For older kiddos, use two dice and have them do some addition. For younger kids, you can take turns rolling to make it go faster.
Cookie Jar Letter Match
Print out the cookie jar and the cookies and cut out. If you have a laminator or sheet protectors, you can use a dry erase marker to write some letters in your jar. If not, just use a pencil as I did. Give your child the cookie and match them up! You can work on matching lowercase to lowercase or write uppercase letters in the jar and work on matching upper to lowercase letters.
Have a great week!
Ms. Allie
More Remote Learning Resources for Preschool Video Lessons
All of the ideas in this preschool video lesson plan are from my If You Give A Mouse A Cookie Preschool Activities – there are many more in the post, but I chose the activities that fit MY students. Click on that link to find more that might be more suitable for your students. I also have other popular books matched with activities here. Throughout the summer, I’ll be creating more of these resource posts as we all prep for an uncertain start to the school year.
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