Small Group Activities: Counting and Measuring

Here are some fun Small Group activities that have been happening in both classrooms.  The activities provide a lot of opportunities for vocabulary expansion as well as back and forth conversation.  First up is Miss Julie's class.

From Miss Julie: This is a group that focuses on developing one-to-one correspondence. We started with pre-made dot cards and listened for observations from students such as counting, pointing and counting, noticing there are different numbers of dots on each card, etc. After our discussion we introduced noodles (or other small items) and asked the students how we can use them together. Some students covered the dots with all of the items, others covered dots with a single item, and others counted the dots and items. Students demonstrated various levels of skills counting with one-to-one correspondence. Blank cards and markers were given to students so they could make their own dot cards. Lastly, glue was introduced to allow students to add items to their own dot cards to take home. 

Next up are some activities from Miss Jeana's class.

From Miss Jeana:  This is working on measurement.  We were making color recipes - using the three primary colors to create all different hues.  

From Miss Jeana:  Fill it up!  Here we were used different sized cups to fill a larger bowl and talked about how many scoops it took to fill the bowl.

Blocks - more technical than you thought!

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) posted an article in 2015 titled Ten Things Children Learn From Block Play.  Among the 10 - problem solving, mathematics, creative play, and science.  Click on the article title to see the whole thing.  It is a quick read.

Parenting Science posted an article titled Toy Blocks and Construction Toys: A Guide For The Science Minded.  This one has references and tips on how to get the most out of your block play.

The American Journal Of Play (for those of you who like research articles) has an article titled Building Blocks and Cognitive Building Blocks: Playing To Know The World Mathematically.  It includes ways on how parents can support block play and learning (play with your kids!).

Block play is a great way to build language - provided you are on the floor playing with your child. There is a lot of vocabulary from concepts (big/little, long/short, etc), prepositions (front, back, top, under, next to), Wh- questions, and more. Blocks aren't vintage toys - they are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) toys. Our preschool kids love to play with them.  Plastic, wooden, cardboard, painted or not, blocks are fun.

Language Calendar for December

The Moog Center for the Deaf has posted their language calendar for December.  Yes, some of the activities might be too advanced for preschool, but there are a lot of great ideas.  You could also modify the more advanced activities to fit your family and your needs.  Thanks Moog Center for sharing this great resource!  Go here to print off a full size copy.

All I Want For Christmas Is.....

Every year, parents ask for ideas concerning toys that promote language.  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) blogged about this in an article titled:

10 (Non tech) Holiday Toys That Promote Language and Learning

  They aren't giving a list of specific toys, rather a list of types of toys to look for.  Blocks, books, costumes, kitchen play, etc are all great ideas.  iPads are fun, video games are fun, but they really don't promote a rich language environment.  But creative play will.

Get down on the floor and play with your child. Figure out his plan. Follow her lead.  Match your language to your child's and then expand that phrase by one extra word.  Introduce new vocabulary.  Read books together (or ask him to 'read' the book to you).

THE BIG QUESTION:  What are the favorite toys here at preschool?  

The toy train from IKEA that requires no batteries, but does require some time to set up a track.  Problem solve on how to make the track fit together all the way around.

Picture from the IKEA website

I must add here that all the cars, trucks, tractors, and busses get a lot of play as well.  Kids love things that go.

Magnet tiles.  Some of our budding architects really like these tiles.  Warning: these are more expensive than most toys.  But it sure if fun to use the colorful tiles, sticking them together to create buildings, space ships, robots.  Great toy for 3-dimensional play. Some will just stack them on top of each other - that is fun, too.

Marble runs.  The kids spend hours putting this together.  I have noticed that the different brands vary in quality.  I'm not sure what brand is the best (and Miss Jeana's marble run has been here a long time so no one remembers the brand). Look around and check ratings from other buyers. Again, lots of building involved.  I think it is fun to play with, too.

Picture from Target

Other favorite toys in both preschool rooms that the kids love:  building blocks (plastic, wooden, or giant cardboard 'bricks'.  We make roads, buildings, garages for cars, and forts.

Kitchen items.  Regular pots, plans, dishes, cups, and cooking utensils bought at the dollar store.  combine that with realistic looking pretend food, cardboard boxes that were saved from cereal or oatmeal, and empty spice containers.  These kids LOVE to pretend to cook.  We also have laminated place mats, shopping bags bought at the dollar section of Target, and menus.  The kids play 'restaurant' and are constantly cooking up some creative dishes.  Peanut butter eggs with syrup and strawberries, anyone?  Yum!

Puzzles.  Simple wooden puzzles or cardboard puzzles are fun.  And there is a big sense of accomplishment when the puzzle is done and the child says "I did it!"

Dress up clothes:  Regular grown up clothing items the teachers have collected, ties, dresses, medical scrubs, sparkly costumes, suit coats, scarves, silly hats.  They are worn for the most interesting play.  One child likes to wear the wizard costume and carry the doctor bag and stethoscope around.

Art supplies:  crayons, markers, play dough, paint paper, envelopes, stamps, stickers.  Some of our children love to create.  Getting messy is okay.

There you go.  So many fun toys and none that require a battery.

December Week 1: Jungle Yoga

Phoneme: /m/

Materials: laminated letter M, book

Pre-literacy: Draw the letter M.  Draw up the mountain and go back down.  Draw up the next mountain and down to the town.  What words have that m-m-m-m sound? The children came up with mom, monster, and moo.  We checked our names to see if anyone had a /m/ sound in their names.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: head, back, hips, hands, knees, heels, feet, tongue, palms, high/low, on top/under, in/out.

Transition Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Transition Song: Must Be Santa by Raffi

This week in Large Group we read You Are A Lion! (and other fun yoga poses) by Teeun Yoo.

The children loved it moving their bodies.  We looked at the pictures, tried to perform the pose, and then guess what animal it was going to be.  There was a lion, cat, dog, butterfly, frog, and a mountain ("That not animal, Miss Carrie.")  We talked about stretching muscles. Usually I play some kind of spa relaxation music, but chose not to this time simply because I wanted to make sure there was more focus on the book.  I wanted to see if the children would/could use visual cues to determine what to do.  Often I would tell them "Look at Miss Jeana.  Look at Miss Julie.  See what they are doing?" and then point out specific things such as "Her head is down."  Then we looked at more animal pictures and tried to pose like flamingos, bears, monkeys, and penguins.  This is a great way to teach children how to follow directions by looking for visual cues, whether it be pictures or watching others.

Train Is A'Comin, Oh Yes!

This is a new song that Miss Julie introduced in her preschool classroom and the kids have loved it.

November Week 2: Food or NOT Food?

Vocabulary and concepts: chicken, banana, bread, cheese, strawberry, grapes, cup, spoon, car, lego block, space man, pony, book, necklace, tissue, glue, playground, NOT, in/out, choose, my turn/your turn, reach inside, What questions.

This week Miss Carrie brought in a VERY BIG BOX.

There were things rattling in the box.  The children gathered on the rug in large group and learned a quick song for Large Group.  Everyone clapped their hands or tapped their knees along with the song (tap-tap-tap-hold):

What's in the box?
What's in the box?
Reach inside - 
What's in the box?

Miss Carrie then asked a child to come reach inside the box and show their friends what they found.  We guessed if it was food or not food and put them in a pile for food and a separate pile for not food.  What happens if you put things in your mouth that is not food?  It could make you sick.  Or, if it is a toy, that means that we have to wash it before our friends can play with it.  We also talked about the foods we found and if we liked it or did not like it.

We're prepping for next week where we will learn to set the table and talk about placemat, fork, knife, spoon, plate, cup, and napkin. The last two weeks we'll be talking about Thanksgiving foods and what we like to eat.