• Have plastic animals as well as pictures of animals in the Science and Math Center. (A few live animals would also be great!) Label the animals with both words and picture signs. Encourage the children at this level to spontaneously use the words and signs in actions with the animals.

• Show these children the pictures of the room as you move around to each center. Find things in the picture that are in each center, and show them the actual objects that are shown in the pictures.

• Let the children at this level try to put the animal cards in the corresponding home pockets. For these children, the goal is not to match the animal and home but, rather, to get the card in a pocket.

• Let these children experiment with the flashlight, turning it on and off and shining it up and down.

Functional Level

• The children at this level will like finding the animal pictures in the magazines. They may not be able to cut, but they can snip pieces.

• Let these children experiment with shining the flashlight on the ball. They will not understand the comparison to the moon, but they can practice controlling the light.

• Let these children attach the moon to the calendar with a peer.

Symbolic Level

• Discuss what “nocturnal” means. Let children at this level arrange the pictures of animals in categories of “animals that are alike” on a chart. For example, they might put “animals that fly” together and “animals that walk” together or make categories of “large” and “tiny” animals. Encourage these children to think of different ways that they could put the animals together in categories. Emphasize that they all go together because they “play at night.”

• Have these children match the moon to put on the calendar. Show them how the light can make a crescent on the tennis ball like the moon.