Favorite Toys List

 In Preschool, we like toys that don't light up or do the thinking for you. Blocks, kitchen utensils and really boxes, cars/turcks/trains/tractors, puzzles, sorters, art.  Parents are always wondering "What toys are the favorites at preschool?"  Here you go:

The Kid Tough Recycling Truck from Lakeshore Learning.

What's Fun About It:  It's big.  You can put little things in side like dinosaurs, Matchbox cars, blocks, or (kid favorite) crumpled up pieces of paper to recycle. They also have a fire engine that is very popular.

Magnet Tiles from Amazon

What's Fun About It:  fun colors and shapes, great for problem solving as you try ways to put them together.  Also fun to stack.  We like to work on shapes and colors with these. The Magnet Tiles and various versions of them often go on sale on Amazon.

Train Set from IKEA

What's Fun About It:  So. Many. Parts.  Putting together encourages problem solving.  Be warned: many children don't want or feel the need to connect in a continuous circular pattern.  They may make a wavy line that is long.  No stress - this is okay.  Don't offer a better solution that may only be better for you.  Take advantage and talk about the long track, the beginning and the end.  Kids love the trains and also seeing what else they can put on the track that may not even go with it.

ART SUPPLIES:  markers, crayons, scissors, paper, paint, paper punch stamps, ink stamps, glue, yarn, beads, pipe cleaners, stickers, empty cardboard rolls, washi tape and colored masking tape. Oh, the color tape!  Do much fun to create with tape. A lot of local stores will have the tape and art supplies, but also look around your house.  Can you imagine a big box of different art supplies?

Snap Bots from Lakeshore Learning

What's Fun About It:  There are so many ways to create when putting together your own robot.  There is also problem solving when you realize that not every part will fit the way you first try it.  Out Snap bots are from Lakeshore. There are less expensive versions on Amazon.

Kitchen Items: Cash Register, Realistic Play Food, Pots/Pans, Dishes

What's Fun About It: When playing in the kitchen area, we try to use real utensils, plates and cups (unbreakable, of course) and realistic play food and containers.  The children love using the old cell phones to order food, cash register to pay for it, and the kitchen area to cook in.  There is also a pretend microwave, slow cooker, and waffle maker.  They all get used daily.  The kids love to pull out the wok and make the most amazing creations for the teachers to "eat".  Strawberry spaghetti, anyone?

Wood Building Blocks

What's Fun About It:  Your child's imagination is amazing.  There are so  many things they like to build.  Towers, race tracks for matchbox cars, zoos for the toy animals, tunnels, volcanoes.  And there is so much fun in building and wrecking.  Colors or plain wood, it doesn't matter.  Blocks never grow old.

Realistic Looking Animals

What's Fun About It:  It doesn't matter if they are zoo animals, ocean mammals and fish, farm animals, or dinosaurs, kids love playing with them.  They play with dinosaurs at the zoo, farm animals in Lego houses, sharks drive the tractors, and horses gallop everywhere. 

Those are some of the most popular toys.  You can ask your child's teacher to see if your child has a favorite.  

November Week 2: I Like It! I Don't Like It!

Transition Song: Gobble, Gobble song by Nooshi

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: I like it/don't like it, labeling food items, He/She, Who questions, What questions, Where questions, hot/cold, thumbs up/thumbs down.

This week we looked at a lot of pictures of different foods.  Hot food, cold foods, foods that were very familiar, and foods that might have not been seen before.

Everyone could comment "I like it" and give a thumbs up, or "I don't like it" and give a thumbs down. We asked our peers "Do you like (oranges, doughnuts, scrambled eggs)?  Miss Carrie likes tomatoes.  She doesn't like peanut butter or peas.  But, Miss Carrie keeps trying a tiny taste of peanut butter or peas to see if she changed her mind.  Miss Carrie might change her mind as she grows up.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Talk about the foods you like or don't like?  Practice taking a tiny taste of foods you don't like or foods you think you won't like to see if you changed your mind.  I like using tiny spoons for this ala My Munch Bug SLP Melanie Potock.

 Instead of convincing your child to taste (which can put too much pressure on them), model it yourself and take a tiny taste to see if you like a certain item.

November Week 1: Food or Not Food?

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  familiar and unfamiliar food items (pizza apples, carrots, tomatoes, doughnuts, spaghetti, legos, markers, glue, toy people, cars, Potato Head feet, stacker rings), not, like/don't like, food/not food.

Transition Song: Gobble Gobble by Nooshi

Note:  We're only singing the first verse and much more slowly than this is sung.  We're also beating a pattern of knees-clap-knees-clap while we sing.  We show the foods that may be typical at Thanksgiving and talk about them.  I emphasize "If I don't know if I like it or I think I won't like it, I still try a tiny bit.  Just in case I changed my mind."

This week, Miss Carrie brought box full of toy food and toys.  We took turns pulling it out of the box with our eyes closed.  We talked about what it was and if it was food or not food.

If it was food: do we like it or don't like it?  It is okay if my friends don't like something but I do like it.  Everyone loved french fries and watermelon.  Some people didn't like eggs.  Some people liked pizza.  We learned that spaghetti could also be called noodles or pasta.  We still don't put pretend food in our mouths.  We hold it away from our mouths and pretend to eat it.

If it wasn't food, we discussed if we could still put it in our mouths.  NOOOOO! Miss Jeana and Miss Kazia would have to wash it and they do not want to wash any more toys.

DO THIS AT HOME:  talk about the foods at dinner and if you like it or don't like it.  Do you want to try a little bit to see if you changed your mind?  That's what Miss Carrie does.  She keeps trying peanut butter or peas to see if she changed her mind. (No, she hasn't changed her mind yet.)