Help Preschoolers Develop Leadership Skills

What helps a child become a leader? Long ago, a friend told me she was so happy when it was her child’s turn to be the head of the line, as this family wanted the child to become a leader in the class. While most of us assign a different child to be the line leader each day or week, this is not the way to encourage leadership skills. We need to first think about what kind of leadership qualities we want our children to exhibit.

Considering this question would be a good exercise for a staff meeting or could become part of a family night or conference.

Here are a few qualities we think are appropriate for preschoolers:

·      listening to their peers

·      working well with other children

·      accepting challenges

·      believing in their own abilities

·      learning from mistakes

·      solving problems creatively

Teachers and families can play an important role in helping children develop these qualities. We should always keep them in mind as we interact with children.  One of the best things we can say to a child is to compliment them on their leadership. For example, Scott is playing with blocks and begins making a tower by placing small blocks on the bottom. The larger blocks he places on top cause his tower to fall. Then Scott begins building the tower again, using larger blocks on the bottom.

Your words can reinforce Scott’s leadership qualities. You can say, “Scott, you showed great leadership when you didn’t cry. You tried again. That’s leadership! You believed you could build a good tower. That’s leadership! You learned from your first mistake. That’s leadership!”

By naming a specific behavior and then telling the child that this behavior is leadership helps the child connect his or her behaviors with the positive aspects of leadership. This helps more than words on a poster or repeating a leadership pledge. It connects specific occurrences in a child’s day with leadership qualities. It makes leadership real!

So…remember this:

You showed leadership when you _______ (exactly what the child did).  You________ (say a specific quality from your leadership list). That’s leadership (name the target goal).

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC – 2.B.; 2.L. 01. & 02.

Head Start – II.A. & B.; IV.B.; VI. A.

Indoor Activities!

Freezing cold day? Rainy day? Snowy day? These can mean children need to stay indoors. How can you give children the opportunity to move, play, and stay busy within the four walls of the classroom or home? Here are a few ideas:

Gross Motor Movement:

• Play "Stop and Go" by having children tip-toe around the room. You say, "Stop," and children need to freeze where they are. Continue playing to help children move but in a controlled fashion. This is perfect for large groups of children.
• Ask children to move like various animals. This lets them move muscles and helps them think about how animals travel from place to place. Suggest they silently move like an elephant, slither like a snake, or hop like a kangaroo. This has the added benefit of developing vocabulary!
• Make a tent with blankets over a table. Have children crawl in and out of the tent. Use words like inside, outside, on, under, etc. to help children develop vocabulary. 
• Make snow angels indoors! Have children lie on the floor and make the motions they would in the snow to create a snow angel. When they get up, use the power of imagination to point out the wings, head, etc.
• Continue with imaginary play by having children make a pretend indoor snowman. Have them work together to roll the snowballs, lift them on top of one another, put in eyes, nose, etc. Then stand back and admire the pretend creation. There is lots of movement with this dramatic play.
• Use painter's tape to make a square, circle, and triangle on the floor. Give children directions to jump into the desired shape. This lets them hop with purpose and also gives practice with shape names. 
• Tape several old newspapers to the wall to create a large backdrop. Give children practice with arm movement by letting them write or scribble on the papers. This helps develop arm muscles needed for fine motor control, too. 
• Children can also develop these arm muscles by doing wall push-ups. Have them stand in front of a wall, put their palms on the wall, and move back and forth with just their arms as they gently touch their nose to the wall. This is also a help in developing fine motor skills. 

Quiet Games:

In our techy age, we sometimes forget the simple games that we as adults enjoyed (and learned from!) as children. Do you remember “I Spy?” Simply pick an object in a waiting room, car, or while standing in line at the grocery store. Just say, “I spy something green.” Let your children guess. Then trade places. This is simple, fun, and helps children think about their surroundings. Not to mention – it keeps young ones busy in often boring situations.

Another simple game for preschoolers is Tic-Tac-Toe. I recently played this with a four year-old using colors. He used a red pencil while I used a green pencil. We marked our squares as shown below. There was lots of laughter - - - and learning as he quickly understood there was a strategy to the game.

Even an indoor day can keep young minds busy. There is learning rather than the chance for a preschooler to become bored or annoyed. 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.A.07; 2.C.03; 2.C.04; 2.D.02;2.J.04

Head Start: I.C.; I.D.; III.B.;VIII.A.

Develop Skills With Valentine Art!

February is a time filled with hearts in our classrooms. You can make this heart love part of your curriculum in natural ways. To practice fine motor skills, sequencing, math skills, following directions, and vocabulary development create a silly valentine person.

Begin by cutting out 2 hearts, one larger than the other. You can ask children to cut these out or you can pre-cut them, depending on the skills of your class. Have children talk about the sizes of these hearts.

Next, have children glue the hearts together, as shown below. Remember that squeezing the glue bottle helps develop hand muscles. This is why we prefer bottled glue over glue sticks.

Give your children 4 strips of paper, as shown below. Again, ask children to order them according to size and talk about this. Additionally, have them discuss number (for example, 2 hearts and 4 strips).

Give the directions to fold "back and forth" as you show children how to do this. Hold up a finished strip and laugh at the bounciness of it!

Glue the shorter arms and longer legs onto the valentine body. "Shorter" and "longer" are good vocabulary words for children to use. Have children complete their valentine person by adding a face and perhaps hands and feet. You may even want to add hair.

Finally, have children hold up their dancing valentine people. After a few minutes of play, have them give you descriptive words. Write these words down on a chart. Each morning read the words and have fun laughing at your silly valentines!

For more ideas see our post - We Love to Talk About Hearts http://www.maggiesbighome.com/2014/02/we-love-to-talk-about-hearts.html

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC: 2.C.03; 2.D.03; 2.E.05; 2.F.03; 2.J.05
Head Start: I.D.; III.C.; VII.D.; VIII.B.;X.E.

Fine Motor Snow Fun

Is snow falling in your area? Are you snowed in? Even if you are in the sunny South, take advantage of all the snow talk in the media to involve your children in integrated fine motor and science activities.

For those of you in snowy areas, bundle up and observe the snow. Use a giant magnifying glass to look at the banks of snow or collect individual snowflakes on a mitten. Ask children, “What do you see?” Invite them to explain why snow falls.

Guiding questions can include:

·      What is the air temperature like when it snows?

·      What does the sky look like when it snows?

·      Do you think the snow could turn to rain?

·      When could it do this?

These and other questions involve children in scientific inquiry.

There are many fun activities to encourage learning that can be done even in snowy weather. Build a snowman and use words like rolling, lifting, above, etc. These help children to use verbs in correct ways. You can even add math to the fun by talking about the 3 snowballs for the snowman’s body, the 2 eyes, 1 nose, etc.

When it’s time to go into the warmth, build those fine motor skills with this engaging art project.

The adult cuts out a mug.

Draw an outline of hot chocolate. Have the child cut this out. (This allows important cutting practice.) I like to draw the outline and give the child an appropriate-sized piece of paper, as shown. This helps children cut with a greater degree of accuracy. 

Have the child glue the hot chocolate onto the top of the mug. This uses another direction word, top. In addition, squeezing a bottle of glue helps build hand muscle strength, needed for fine motor control.

Give the child a scrap of white paper. Encourage him or her to use the thumb and forefinger (pincer grasp) to tear small pieces of paper. Glue these on the hot chocolate to become marshmallows!

Enjoy the weather and the range of possible learning activities it brings! Why not visit your library and check out 2 of our favorite snow books? We love The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.C.; 2.D.; 2.G.; 2.H.

Head Start: I.D.; III.C.; IV.A.; IX. A. B.; XI. A. B.

Art and Alligators + Science!

We know that animals fascinate children. Many of these animals are humanized in children’s books, but it is always helpful to invite children to explore the realities of the animal world.  This week, our activity (which is FREE to you if you sign up in the white box) educates children about the always amazing alligator. 

We like to begin a lesson about animals by asking children what they already know. You can make a list of these facts by writing them on a chart. This helps children understand that reading and writing are simply “talk written down.” It doesn’t matter if any or all of your students can read your chart, you are modeling the importance of writing.

If children offer facts that are not true, put them in a column labeled, “To Check.” This is an important school-readiness skill that models for children the importance of using resources to make sure their thinking is correct.

You can read aloud the text from our activity or from books you find in the library. Then invite children to make changes or additions to the set of alligator facts. You may want them to view this video the Maggie’s Big Home team took while on a recent visit to Mississippi. Can they spot the swimming alligator? Ask them to look for clues about where alligators live.

In our activity, we offer children the chance to make a puzzle out of the alligator. But here, we share an outline of an alligator for children to color, cut, and paste on another piece of paper. They can then draw objects like water, the sun, or a grassy bank to show an alligator’s habitat. 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2G.05; 2G.06; 2G.08

Head Start – XI.A

Sequence Stories

We know it is necessary to read to and with preschool children. But did you know that oral storytelling can be just as important? Watch the video below for more information!

You can suggest this to families by placing these few sentences in your newsletter or posting them on your door:

Ask your children to tell you about their day. Give them the beginning sentence, “When I woke up.” Encourage them to tell about all their activities. End with, “And then you went to bed.” This helps children talk about their day in order (sequencing). 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.D.03; 2.A.04

Head Start: VIII.B; IX.C5

Play = Science Understanding

The wonderful world of play can help preschoolers learn important science concepts. As your children roll toy cars around the room, ask questions designed to get them thinking.

Questions that begin with the words, “what if,” encourage children to develop an understanding of scientific concepts. For example, ask questions such as:

·      What if your car didn’t have wheels? What might happen? This could lead to children using objects without wheels to try and make an object move. Children can then see the power of the wheel.

·      What if you used blocks to make a ramp? Would your car change speed? Have children change the slope of the ramp. This develops key ideas about slope and speed.

·      What if your car rolled on snow, rain, or rocks? What could happen?

These and other questions encourage children to predict and describe their play experiences.  They investigate and share outcomes. These are skills of scientists and necessary school readiness thinking skills.

For more on how vehicles work, share this video with your class. Ask children to share their observations about this machine at work. 

Note: Sharing observations are an important part of the scientific process and, of course, help to develop verbal skills and vocabulary.

Please sign-up for our FREE printable activities. You can use them in your classroom or send them home for family engagement. This week, we highlight the wheel!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.D.03.; 2.D.06.; 2.G

Head Start: IV.A.; VIII.B.; XI.A&B.