Young children function best when working in small groups due to the fact that their social and cognitive skills are still developing. The bulk of our day is devoted to small group activities to help children grow both socially and cognitively. When children work with only a few other children, in a small group setting, they learn important lessons about cooperation, compromise and the give and take of conversation. Also, when working in small groups with a teacher, children are able to receive the more focused attention they need for completing complex tasks and activities.
Man, have our toddlers grown! On Friday, the boys and girls sat so patiently while we came around to help them build boats with pool noodles, straws and foam triangles. After the children finished their boats, they were able to go see if they would float! Our sensory tub was filled with water, along with some other tubs around the room. The boys and girls really enjoyed splashing, dunking and floating their boats!
The boys and girls had a blast fishing with Ms. Laurel today! This was such a fun and interactive way for the children to review their colors and shapes. The boys and girls were given a chance to go fishing, then they told the other children what color their fish was and what shape it had on it. They all did a great job recognizing their shapes and colors!
We have been working on developing our fine motor skills. These skills are very important for young children as they begin their journey in writing. We have been putting an emphasis on fine motor lately to ensure that each child is able to hold a pencil correctly, write their letters, cut, before they enter their preschool and k prep year.
We are working on the number ten this month, so we practiced hole punching ten holes on a card.
We practiced forming the first letter in our names with paint and Q-tips.
Growing our own bean seeds for our garden unit this month!
We used tongs to pick up seeds and buttons and place them in the separate compartments of an ice tray.
For Easter we worked on color sorting jelly beans into the correct colored easter egg.
We worked on our fine motor skills and used tongs to move pom poms into each egg in the carton.
Young children have the desire to create. We see it in our own children every day! What we may not know is that art is a way for children to express their feelings and emotions. Open-ended art allows them to make independent choices on what materials to use, the outcome of the work, and individual expression rather than on the final product. Exploration and creative thinking are linked to meeting challenges throughout our life! So log off pinterest, grab the plain white paper, tubes of paint, brushes and let them lead the way.
“It’s a treasure map and X marks the spot for the treasure!”
“See it in the middle? X marks the spot!”
In this strategy, students read aloud to each other, pairing more fluent readers with less fluent readers. Children who read at the same level may be paired to reread a text that they have already read, for continued understanding and fluency work. In order to increase student fluency, readers need experience reading to and listening to other readers of all kinds. Specifically, lower-level readers benefit from strategies such as Paired Reading by listening to the reading of a higher-level reader. Reading with someone else encourages students to try reading material that may be above their usual reading level, while also building oral skills so that students are more comfortable with their reading.
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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