Building = Creativity

Hands-on projects can be exciting when you recycle and reuse common items. This week in our weekly activity we discussed tall ships. Creating a tall ship, whether from connecting blocks, piling up books, or building with boxes is a creative endeavor that lets young minds see the possibilities in common objects. We have all heard stories about the children who get a new toy and are more interested in the box. This is a creative mind at work!

Encourage all children to look at a pile of items and discover what could be created. Remember that great scene from "Apollo 13" when NASA experts dumped a box of parts on a table as they needed to make a part fit? They worked collaboratively and thought in unique ways. This is the kind of creative thought we need to be celebrating in our homes and classrooms.   

So...have all children find an item in the room. You may want to suggest they find objects that could be considered trash. Put them in a pile and encourage children to CREATE! What will they do? The results are almost always amazing!

Now, take this a step further. What could children create that might float in water? You could provide bubble wrap, Styrofoam, lightweight cardboard, certain egg cartons, pieces of macaroni, etc. What kind of tall ship might be built? 

Then encourage children to test out their creations in water. What happens? As children describe their inventions they are getting important expressive language practice.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC - 2.A.11, 2.A.12, 2.D.03, & 2.J.06.

Head Start - III.C., IV.A., & VIII.B.

 

Musical Books

In the teacher portion of our Maggie's Earth Adventures activities we are currently discussing the various genres. Sign up in the box to the right if you would like to receive these FREE materials! But different genre are not for elementary age children alone. Preschoolers benefit from exploring a wide range of books, too.

With this in mind, collect a variety of books. Try to find books spanning the genres:

Traditional Literature – These are folk tales, tall tales, and fables. Books that highlight the cultural tales of various like The Legend of the Lady Slipper by Lise Lunge-Larsen and Margi Preus help children see a world beyond their own.   

Fantasy – Toys, crayons, and other objects might come to life as in the book Corduroy (Don Freeman) or The Little Engine That Could (Watty Piper). 

Realistic Fiction – These are books based on what really could happen like the Henry and Mudge series (Cynthia Rylant).  

Historical Fiction – Even our youngest children may enjoy reading about people from the past. Families with preschoolers have recently told me their young children benefited from the rich ideas in Lillian's Right to Vote by Jonah Winter and Shane W. Evans.  

Poetry – Poetry helps children learn the beauty and playful aspects of words. Any of the Dr. Suess books give children an opportunity to play with language. Anna Dewdney's Llama, Llama books help children learn to rhyme.    

Nonfiction and Informational – Many preschoolers are fascinated with the physical, biological, or social world. They love to look through How Things Work (David Macaulay) or books about animals newly published by ABC Press. 

Biography - Even our youngest book lovers appreciate the stories of someone's life, often this includes the stories of a famous person's childhood. One book we have found fun for this winter weather is Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.

A Fun Game To Introduce Children to Many Kinds of Books!  
You can give all children a chance to explore various genre by arranging your chairs as if children are going to play Musical Chairs - only there is a chair for everyone and no one has to leave the "game." Put a book on each chair. When the music stops, the children sit in the chairs and look through the book on their chair. Give them a few minutes to turn the pages and interact. Then play the music again. This allows your class to expand their literary horizons! 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC - 2.E.03 & 2.E.04.

Head Start - VII.A. & VII.D.

 

Valentine Fun!

Hearts and flowers....use this week to combine Valentine fun and key school readiness skills with art.

Give children half of a paper towel roll or toilet paper roll. 

School Readiness: Discuss its shape. Talk about cylinders. Look at the top and bottom.  Discuss circles. You can ask if the object has any edges. These are important geometry observations that children will be asked to make in school.

Let children paint the roll red, pink, or even white. They can make hearts on it if they wish. 

School Readiness: Discuss the importance of getting small amounts of paint on a brush. Have children wipe off the brush on the edge of the paint container so gobs of paint will not drip onto the table, etc. Future teachers will appreciate your development of this fine motor skill.

Ask families for egg cartons. Cut out pieces from an egg carton as shown above. 

School Readiness: Use science words to describe flowers like blossom, stem, and leaves. This helps children learn to listen for important academic/content area vocabulary words. Encourage children to "turn and talk" to a partner to use these words. The skill of "turn and talk" is necessary for young children to learn.

Give children a green "pipe cleaner" with cut-out leaves to attach to the flower stem.

School Readiness: Ask children what real cut flowers need in a vase. Share ideas like water and plant food. This helps children to think about caring for things in their lives.

Put the flower in the vase. Invite children to write a note to the person who will receive their valentine gift.

School Readiness: No matter where your children are on the writing spectrum, it is helpful for them to learn that ideas can be shared in writing. See the description of the Continuum of Writing in our Glossary for more information on emerging writers.


Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.C.03., 2.D.04., 2.E.05., 2.F.06., 2.G.08. & 2.J.05
Head Start - I.D., III.C., VII.E., X.C., & XI.B.

Time Passage!

We often use academic language regarding math terms as if we expect our preschoolers to understand. We say things like, "We will finish our art in 5 minutes." Terms like seconds, minutes, and hours often are not meaningful to young children. We help our young learners to develop an understanding of time passage, which is another important school readiness skill. 

A favorite Marilyn Burns' activity is to see how many stars a child can make in a minute. But making stars can often be difficult for preschoolers. Have them draw lines on a piece of paper. The idea is not to see who can draw the most lines, but to give them a sense of how long it takes for a minute to pass. We suggest not even counting the lines to avoid making this a competition, rather talk about how they felt during the minute that it took to draw the lines.

Make a list with the class of other things that might take a minute to do. Some children may say washing their hands, brushing their teeth, walking in a line to the playground. Time different activities throughout the day to check children's understandings. For example, if someone said, "It takes a minute to sing our morning song," time the song to see if this is accurate. This will likely bring in the concept of two or three minutes. 

An hour can seem like an eternity to children. After you have helped them understand a minute, continue with understanding an hour. Set a classroom timer so they feel the passage of time. Does it take an hour for you to do the calendar, sing songs, read a book, and do circle activities? This will help children get a feel for an hour. 

Enlist families in your lesson. Send home a note, put it in your weekly newsletter, or post it on your door:

What takes an hour to do?

Families can make a list, Is it preparing dinner,  eating, and cleaning up? Is it going to the food store? Could it be riding to a relative's house? Families may not understand that young children do not have a feel for time passage.

One fun note: BEFORE you begin this activity, have children draw a picture of something that takes a minute to do and something that takes an hour to do. Label these pictures. It's fun to look back at initial impressions!  

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.F.04 & 2.F.07
Head Start - X.A.

Clothing Materials: An Avenue for School Readiness Skills

It's that time of year when children bundle up to protect themselves from the cold and snow. Use all that time you help with zippers and mittens in your classroom as a discovery lesson.

Show pictures of children playing in the summer. Discuss with children the kinds of clothing we need in hot weather. Then show pictures of children in the snow and ice. Have children share the clothing that is needed to stay warm. 

You can help your young learners to consider the skill of contrasting by laying down two hula hoops. Use photos of summer clothing and winter clothing (or even actual clothing items) in each hula hoop.  This is a wonderful visual to help children understand the school readiness skill of contrast. 
  
Later on, use the clothing, photos, and hula hoops as a center so that every child has a hands-on opportunity to contrast items.

Then talk about types of materials. Have examples ready like wool, cotton, felt, leather, silk, etc. (You can get small pieces of these materials by visiting a local fabric or craft store.)  Encourage children to look at, feel, and smell each piece of material. 

Ask children to state which material they like best and to give at least one reason why this material is preferred. The goal of this kind of question is to encourage children to describe the material, not necessarily to find out who likes what material. The observation is then meaningful as children are asked to state a detail about the fabric.  Being able to support a conclusion is another school readiness skill.   

Discuss the kinds of material that keep people warm in the winter and those that keep us comfortable in the summer. 

Conclude the lesson by having children look at their coats, hats, and mittens. Ask children if they can identify the materials used to create each clothing item.  

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.B.04., 2.D.03., 2.G.04.
Head Start - IV.C., V.B., VIII.B., XI.B.

Devloping Verbal Skills: Winter Trees

This week, our printable weekly activity highlights a strange plant. We use this fruit to teach math concepts. If you haven't signed up to receive these free activities, please do so in the box to the right.

Staying on the theme of plants, we know you talk with children about the ways plants, animals, and trees change with the seasons. Use the idea that some kinds of trees lose their leaves in the winter to help children describe nature and their response to it. If you have classroom windows or can go outside to see deciduous trees, ask children to tell about that type of tree. You can always show photos of these trees, too.  

Ask children to use their senses to talk about deciduous trees. Provide guiding questions such as: 

• How does the tree look? 
• Do you think this tree smells different in the winter (no buds, leaves, flowers, etc.)? 
• Might the tree sound different when the wind blows through it? (Children should understand that since there are no leaves, there will not be a rustling sound). 

You can also have children compare their response to winter weather to a tree's response to the cold. People bundle up in layers of clothes while trees lose all of their leaves. Have children color a picture of a winter tree and then add themselves to it to show this difference. Feel free to use this drawing as the basis for your lesson:

Finally, one numeral that can be difficult for children is zero. Use this concept freely when talking about the number of leaves on a winter tree. "There are 0 leaves." Have children use the term in other fun ways in the classroom, too. "We see 0 monkeys in that tree!" Encourage families to say zero when discussing what children learned during the day.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.03, 2.F.02, & 2.G.03
Head Start - VIII.B.1 & 2, X.A.1, & XI.B.1.

Teaching Correct Use of Vocabulary

Preschoolers easily confuse many words including plurals of common vocabulary such as sheep, goose, etc. How do we handle situations like this? We want children to use vocabulary correctly but we also don’t want them to stop experimenting with new words.  Here is one method we’ve found helpful.

We keep short notes on words we see children using incorrectly. Then we make it a point to model the correct use of these words. This helps children learn to listen to others and make changes in their use of words.

For example, a child might say, “ I see lots of childrens on that page.” You could rephrase the child’s statement and say, “Yes, there are a lot of children on the page.” Reinforce the word, children.  

Later as you talk about the book, ask the child how many children are on this page:

Count as a group. Reinforce there are 7 children. At that point you can even say, “We always say children when there is more than one child. We don’t say childrens.” Have the class repeat it together, while making eye contact and smiling at the child who had trouble.

Talk with any children still having trouble and ask what they learned about saying the word children. Applaud them for being good listeners and learning from what you said. This way children learn to learn – and that’s important!

Illustrations are from the book, Is There Really A Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. This is a wonderful book to use to encourage rhyming skills!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC –  2.B.01; 2.D.01,

Head Start – IV. A.; V.III. A & B.