Block Center Blog
Block building centers are essential to the preschool classroom. Blocks are an open ended material that stimulates the imagination and opens doors for a variety of discovery. One day a block may be a phone, the next day it might be a bus or part of a building. Let’s explore blocks across the curriculum.
As the school year progresses so does the children’s ability to build more complex block structures based on the mathematical concepts that are inherently learning while playing. Children learn many math skills in the block building center. Height, width, depth, weight, shape, size, space and dimension are some of the mathematical concepts children can begin to understand while playing with blocks. Classification and order are two more areas that children will naturally explore and learn as they manipulate blocks. Math goes hand in hand with block building as children can also experiment with fractions, measurement, patterns and grids. Let’s add some rulers and cloth tape measures to the block area.
Children learn language and social skills while exchanging ideas and cooperating, planning for building and cleaning. Respect for the work of others and self control is an area of learning in the block area that is often challenging as it is so much fun to knock blocks over! Children learn to observe and follow safety rules. Children often choose to act out a favorite story like “The Three Little Pigs” where they can build three houses and tell their own version of the story. Paper, writing instruments and clipboards in the block area encourage writing for a purpose when making signs. Add some books with good architectural photos of buildings and bridges and watch what happens.
The block area can be used to promote social studies as children learn about people and their work. Block building encourages mapping skills. How about adding blocks with photos of the children and other people that they are familiar with?
In the area of art, patterns, symmetry, and shape are common concepts children learn while playing blocks. Adding blocks with colored inserts adds another dimension to block building as art. Patterning cards, shells and polished stones and let creativity abound.
Science in the block area involves much trial and error. Young children get a firsthand look at gravity, stability, balance, and the interaction of force. The properties of matter can also be discovered in this play area. How about adding paper towel tubes and small balls?
Physical development. Eye-hand coordination, hand manipulation, and visual perception can be achieved through block building. Remember clean up time can help develop some of these physical skills as well. Additionally, cleaning up teaches young children respect.
Dramatic play, During block play children can build pretend play dioramas and act out roles. Add some cars, trees, road signs, road mats, people, garages, boxes, trucks, and trains and train tracks. Or add doll house, dolls and furniture, fabric pieces, plastic mirrors and carpet squares. You might add trees, animals, plastic bugs or boats. Add small stones, shells, pinecones or acorns and watch your child create.
How about adding dress up outfits, hats and plastic bowls and dishes?
Can you think of anything else you can use to enhance block play?
At home: If you do not access to blocks, boxes can stand in. Add a clipboard, paper and crayons for signs. Your child can create buildings and roads and then make signs to go with what they have created.
Have fun!
Spring Activities for Children
Kendyl Brooks, student intern from Upper Cape Cod Technical School will be adding her thoughts on this blog, here is her first post!
Spring has finally sprung here in Falmouth, MA and we sure are excited about it! Things as simple as riding bikes, sidewalk chalk, or just passing a ball back and forth can get the whole family outdoors moving around. Spring is a great time to have picnics and enjoy time outdoors with your child. Young children love to go on bug hunts, and collect things like rocks (save them for a rainy day and paint them with watercolors!). Then you can use these collections to create your own Fairy Houses!
Fairy Houses at FGNS
Something that may require warmer weather and a lot of patience is a homemade slip and slide! Put a painters’ tarp on the lawn, and run the hose from the top of it; kids will be entertained for hours! A nice walk on the beach to collect shells and rocks (maybe even sea glass!) is a great way to get exercise and spend time together as a family. Bike washes and toy car washes are tons of fun, along with washing an actual car. If you have a garden kids love to help planting things, or pulling weeds. Even if you don’t have a garden, kids will enjoy hours of fun just digging and playing in the mud.
A little imagination can go a long way for those rainy days where you are stuck inside. Although kids love to watch “Frozen” on repeat all day, hearing “Let It Go” for the thousandth time might just be getting old. Something my mother did for my brother and I when we were children was to get a huge cardboard box, and a big tub of crayons. For hours we would lay in the box and just color. It’s a non-messy, creative and inexpensive project. Imagine what the box could be, a truck a boat, a chariot! Another fun rainy day project is making a blanket fort! Children of almost any age enjoy stretching blankets out over the couches, and spending the day in their newly made forts.
Board games are great for sharpening their fine motor and problem solving skills. Getting children to be active inside is as easy as blowing up a few balloons and playing “Don’t Let It Touch the Ground.” A game of indoor hopscotch using painters tape on the floor, and a stuffed toy or beanbag for the pebble is a great way to get the kids up and moving around.
Spring is a great time to enjoy the company of your family both indoors and out. These ideas highlight some simple ways to spend time together.
Happy Spring,
Kendyl
Bunny Treat Bags
What is a fun way to carry your Easter treats home from preschool? How about a bunny bag!
Supplies
A white or brown paper lunch bag (one for each child)
Scissors and construction paper for the following:
Eyes
Nose
Whiskers
Ear (inside)
Glue
Stapler
You will need to cut the paper bag into a bunny shape, use the photograph below as a guide.
Have your child glue on the pieces mentioned in the list above, use the photo as a guide.
Staple the ears to create a handle. Fill with treats.
Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Teaching and Learning Math in Pre-School
I participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) training at the Cape Cod Children’s Museum capecodchildrensmuseum.org. This series of blogs focused on one aspect of STEM at a time, this is the last blog of the STEM series.
How do children learn and use arithmetic in pre-school?
Math is a way of measuring.
First what is math for the pre-school aged child? Hands on is simply the best way for a young child to learn math. Try to use real concrete objects when working through math problems. In the math center activities should be fun yet challenging. For example, as a child is sorting buttons, ask him/her to count them. Next ask how many buttons would be in each pile if you added one or subtracted two etc. You can say, “I wonder how many red buttons there would be if I subtracted two from this pile”. Let the child manipulate the materials to find the answer.
Bigger, smaller, half and zero are just a few mathematical concepts you could introduce while sorting buttons (or socks!) Children need opportunity to think about their solutions rather than knowing if the answer is “right”. Some open ended discovery will be necessary as they learn the concepts. There is no need to correct your child, rather pose some further questions for the child. For instance, if there is a pink button in the red pile you might ask, “I wonder if this button is the same color as this button”. Allow your child original reasoning and to develop problem solving reasoning skills. Your young child might have a logical answer as to why the button is in the pile. Perhaps it has just two holes and “matches” the two holed red buttons. There are many different attributes to sort by. Give your child the chance to explain and/or correct.
Let’s continue to look at math around the nursery school classroom.
In the dramatic play center you might see a child setting the table, counting and then placing one plate and one cup in front of each chair. Watch as the preschooler negotiates for materials based on how many are available in the area. A child might be informally measuring to see if an outfit will fit them or if it will fit a doll.
Math in the writing center could be making number books, it could also be numbering the pages of a story your child has written. Children may be drawing and naming shapes.
There is opportunity for math is every story you pick up to read. There are numbered pages. First, middle and last are mathematical concepts. Sequential retelling of a story has mathematical roots. Look for shapes (geometry) in the art work on the pages. Remember to incorporate new mathematical vocabulary and ideas as you speak.
Continue to explore and discover math at home. Play board games and build puzzles. Supply empty and clean, egg cartons, small boxes and/or ice cube trays and materials for sorting. Some materials you could use include bottle top/lids, colored paper clips or my personal favorite, a “party mix” of snack foods, “eat your math”! Young children enjoy inventing their own games. Supply them with paper, crayons, and dice, along with some objects to use as player pieces. A ruler, a tape measure, and other items can be used for measuring size and distance.
Math is all around us.
Teaching Technology and Engineering in Pre-School
This is the second blog of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) series by Robin Jones.
How do we teach technology in nursery school?
Technology is a way of doing.
When we hear the word technology most of us think of computers and the information highway. While it is the case that children are using tablets and computers in preschools, what else is technology? Let’s start with what it should NOT be. Technology is not meant to replace experiences but to expand the range of tools with which the young child can seek information. Technology is using tools to get a job done. Technology is being inventive, identifying problems and making things work. Technology is thinking and problem solving giving equal opportunities to boys and girls.
Technology in language arts might include a listening center with books and tapes/CD’s, a player and headphones. There are many games that encourage letter recognition, pre-reading and pre-writing skills.
In the dramatic play center, when children are playing grocery store they might “scan” items to get “prices”, this shows a knowledge of how to use tools. Old phones, calculators, click counters and keyboards allow children to understand the function of these tools as well.
In the area of social development technology is talking, doing, cooperating, and helping. It might be trying out a computer game with a friend, sharing and playing cooperatively. There are many types of timers that can be used to encourage child turn taking.
Engineering is a way of doing.
Engineering is solving problems, using a variety of materials, designing and creating, building and testing until things work. The engineering process is circular: define, plan, build, test, share and begin again. Preschoolers are natural engineers because of their innate curiosity and love of hands on activities. Young children can see the game of building and testing again and again. The most prominent example I can think of is in the block area. Preschoolers will build and rebuild until they are met with success. This is usually accomplished with great joy and laughter as they solve the problems of falling blocks. Explore and use simple machines such as ramps, gears, pulleys and levers throughout the block play experience to add to the creativity.
In the art area invent and construct simple objects or structures using common tools and materials. Talk about what does and does not work. Ask why certain materials are used for the purposes that they are used. For example, why is a chair made out of plastic and not paper?
In the area of science engineering can be the study of how animals use parts of their bodies to accomplish various tasks.
While cooking discuss the function of common machines, such as a cheese grater, food mill, mixer and/or blender. Ask how they work and explain how these tools make the job of preparing food easier.
The proper use and safety of all tools is a part of the preschool engineering curriculum.
During story time look for examples of engineering when the story time characters are faced with a problem that they try to solve. The Three Little Pigs is a great example. Many titles in Curious George series of stories can be used to talk about the engineering process. Can you think of any other titles? Please share.
Technology and Engineering are just “fancy” words to describe what children do naturally on a daily basis. Let’s get busy.
Choosing the Best Early Childhood Program
How do you choose an early childhood program?
Location and cost are important to the family looking for child care outside of the home, so how do you find the best fit for your budget, yourself and your child?
In my experience, word of mouth is the first stop for most families. Start by asking your friends, acquaintances and colleagues about where their child is in early care. Keep in mind looking for the best fit for you cannot be judged by your friends alone. I would advise looking at more than one place and perhaps making more than one visit. The decision of where to place your child outside of your home should be made keeping in mind that research shows the importance of quality care in early developmental years. Convenience and price might not be in the future generation’s best interest.
Next make sure that the child care on your list is licensed. In MA you will find a listing of all licensed child care providers both home based and center based at www.eec.state.ma.us. You will be assured of health and safety standards as defined by the Commonwealth.
A higher level of quality for a center based childcare is national accreditation by the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) www.naeyc.org for home based care go to www.nafcc.org
Since you will have needs specific to your family, gather more information by looking for a website or making a phone call to verify that the childcare centers on your list offer the days and hours of operation you require. You might ask about other policies that are important specifically to you for example, celebrations, family involvement, wellness policy, cancellation, or closures.
Next you will need to arrange to visit the child care setting. It is advisable to call ahead to find out if you can “drop in”. There are a range of safety pre-cautions that vary from site to site, home to home from very lenient to very strict policies of no admittance without an appointment.
Once at the site, assess the atmosphere. Ask yourself how you feel. Does the environment welcome you and your child? Are the children happy? Is the noise level appropriate for a group of children at play? What are the children doing, how about the adults? Are the children being supervised? You should see smiles all around, hear pleasant sounds, notice hands on play and activity. There should be enough materials for everyone.
Pay attention to interactions between children and between teachers and children. They should be mostly positive without overuse of the word “no”. Guidelines and rules should be clearly understood and explained for everyone.
Equally important to the indoor space is the outdoor space. Asses this space as you would the indoor space.
Lastly, would your child be comfortable, happy, and engaged in the environment you are visiting. If all of the above is met, you’ve met your match.
Rainbow Jello for Saint Patrick’s Day
I am excited to share with you a fun St. Patrick’s Day snack.
First a disclaimer, you have to really like having fun with young children on Saint Patrick’s Day as this is a time consuming snack, you will need several days to complete this.
Supplies
One box each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple jello
Water
Small clear cups
Start by making the purple jello according to the directions. Pour about a ½ inch worth of purple jello into your pre-counted cups. Make sure that the children watch this process. This is the only step that they should see, so that they are surprised at the end when their jello has turned rainbow!
Next make the blue jello according to instruction and pour a layer on top of the purple jello layer. Continue with green, yellow, orange and last add a layer of red!
On Saint Patrick’s Day surprise your young child with rainbow jello!
If you are into leprechaun tricks, here are a few favorites at preschool.
Turn the milk green. Turn the toilet water green. Turn anything green!
Build a leprechaun trap. During the night leave a glitter trail leading to a lost piece of gold.
Hide gold coins.
Leave a trail of small handprints/footprints leading up to a small tea party.
Leave a tuft of leprechaun hair and a piece of clothing on the window sill as if a leprechaun left in a hurry.
Turn a select few things upside down.
Leave a message from a leprechaun.
Have fun, happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Family-Teacher Conference Time
It is time for family-teacher conferences. This means different things to different families. While one family might really be looking forward to meeting with the teacher another family may really be dreading this meeting.
What is the family-teacher conference? It is a time to reflect on the goals, objectives and even dreams of your child. It is a time to forge mutual respect for the parent and teachers role in your child’s education. Educators prepare for your child’s conference by combining a series of observations, rating scales, checklists, observations from other educators and their own expertise. These data points are compiled into a progress report for your preschooler.
During the conference the educator will want to find out more about your personal culture and family life. There should be a sharing of information about the child that results in teamwork and collaboration for your child’s education.
Progress reports generally review your child’s progress in the following areas: language, math, history, social science, science, health and integrated arts.
NAEYC suggest that families prepare for conferences in the following ways.
Be willing and ready to share information about your child and family. You are the most important influence in your young child’s life. You know your child better than anyone else and have valuable insights to share with the teacher. Share things about your child’s life at home. Focus on the things you believe your child’s teacher needs to know.
Stay focused on your child. While it is easy to wonder how your child is doing compared to other children, his/her own siblings or even yourself at the same age it is important to focus strictly on observable progress for your child. Stay focused on your child and his or her unique temperament, individual needs, and special interests. .
Attend every parent-teacher conference. Arrange to be at all scheduled conferences whether in person or by phone, use the conference as a time to exchange information with the teacher and discuss ways to work together to enhance your child’s education.
Arrive on time. Teachers usually have a tight schedule for conferences. If you think you will need additional time ask for it in advance.
Remember, children can hear and remember what is said. Conferences are generally a time for adults to talk. It’s best to arrange for a caregiver for your child.
Listen with an open mind. Ask questions when you don’t understand. Speak up if you disagree with a strategy or don’t understand how it will support your child’s development and learning. Explain the reasons for your views and voice your concerns, but be open to suggestions. Stay on the subject: your child’s progress. This is important dialog for your child’s education.
Be prepared. If you have specific question to ask the teacher, it’s a good idea to ask the most important question first, in case time runs out. Remember, while teachers have a specialized education, they don’t have answers for everything nor can they diagnose or speak to issues outside of their specialization.
Keep the conversation focused on what can be done for your child. When there are problems, both teachers and parents need to stay calm and work together for the best interest of the child. Follow up conferences/meetings will be scheduled if necessary.
Stay involved. Try to visit the center or school frequently, not just for conferences and Back to School Night. Ask the teacher to suggest activities you can do at home to reinforce your child’s learning. Look for opportunities to engage yourself in your child’s education. If you have questions find out what format the teacher likes to receive and answer so that lines of communication remain open!
Source: Adapted from H. Seplocha, 2004, “Partnerships for Learning: Conferencing with Families,” Family Ties, Young Children 59 (5): 96–99.
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Pre-School Science Blog Series
Since there is a recent emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) this blog series will start with science in the preschool curriculum with two more to follow.
Science is a way of thinking.
Science is NOT something you know it is something you do. Science answers questions, it is a way of looking at the universe, it is a way of investigating. The product of science answers questions, how we do this is the process of science.
Young children are naturally curious. A preschool science curriculum includes experiences to broaden thinking and build new understanding. It involves questioning, trying things out and taking risks. Inquiry and exploration, what things are called, how they work, and why something happens, these questions are the basis of science.
There should not be a specific science time in preschool. Science is integrated into all content areas for the naturally curious young child. It is best to let things unfold rather than correcting ideas, teaching information or providing an explanation.
In discovery children will use all their senses to gain information about their environment. The science curriculum for the young child will support observing environmental change, cause and effect, systems and cycles. Classifying living and non-living, weighing and measuring, gravity and magnetism, making predictions are all aspects of a preschool science curriculum.
Let’s look at science in a typical preschool day.
During morning circle a teacher lead activity may include discussing the daily weather. As the educator leads a discussion about the weather and children share experiences from home, the discussion may turn to caring for a pet or finding shells on the beach. Many times music is played at morning circle. Conversations regarding the music allows for the discovery of sound and the instruments that create it.
During center time, in dramatic play the children might be seen balancing tea cups and plates trying to defy gravity or they might compare and contrast the dolls to real babies. Young children act out having a baby by stuffing dolls in their shirts. This is science, remember that you do not need to correct, teach or provide an explanation. Science is all about discovery.
At the writing center, science might be comparing colors or discovering what happens if you press down very hard on a pencil point.
At snack time body processes and functions is a very popular preschool science investigation! The nutritional content of food is another popular topic at snack and lunch time. During the process of preparing snack one might witness the transforming of whole apples into applesauce, witnessing solid to liquid.
Project time might be color mixing or making play dough where the dry ingredients mix with the wet and then cook into a malleable solid. Watch what happens when you dip dry chalk into water and draw on dark paper. Again this is all preschool science.
Growing seeds, caring for plants, caring for school pets, hatching caterpillars or eggs, watching the sunset, collecting insects, using magnets and magnifying glasses, watching a pumpkin rot, listening to your heart with a stethoscope, brushing your teeth, on and on this is preschool science!
Runny Noses, Coughs & Colds
Can you believe that the simple act of hand washing can keep your child healthier this winter? I was reading an article by Dr. Marz of Bass River Pediatrics where he says that young children entering preschool for the first time will spend the next 18 months or so experiencing the entire inventory of cough, cold, runny noses and viruses in the area. If you relocate the pattern continues with “new” local bugs. In fact this is a normal pattern. Your child’s immune system is not sub optimal.
Many of us take hand washing for granted as a way of staying healthy and perhaps focus on good food, sleep and exercise which are all important to our good health. Pair this with hand washing and your child’s health might improve.
What is proper hand washing? Soap and water are integral to good hand washing. Using soap and running water, hands should be rubbed vigorously together for 10 seconds, be sure to include the back of the hand, wrists, between the fingers and under the fingernails. Dry thoroughly with a paper towel and repeat as necessary throughout the day!
Great news, young children love washing their hands. Here is a fun poem to wash to!
Little fingers like to play
In mud and paint and sand all day.
To get those fingers squeaky clean,
Wash the fronts and backs
And in between!
We used finger paint and made our handprints on a separate piece of paper and then sprinkled on a bit of corn meal “dirt” and then recited this poem. It is now hanging on the wall to remind us to wash often.
We also have fun with this poem, as we teach the children to put their coughs or sneezes into their “wings” or elbows.
If you need to cough or sneeze,
Put it in your elbow please.
Throw your tissue in the can,
Now it’s time to wash your hands!!
May these little tidbits keep you healthier this winter!