Whole Child Development
When you’re studying dinosaurs with preschoolers, nothing really takes the place of a trip to a dinosaur museum or another hands-on dinosaur experience. Check in your local area and see what options you may have. Don’t forget to check into nearby universities as some have free exhibits or perhaps a professor (or maybe a grad student) who would meet with your group of little ones and show a few prehistoric specimen.
There’s just something about preschoolers and dinosaurs. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of tiny children that have been on this earth just a few years and the enormous specimen that left millions of years ago. In addition to being a fascinating topic of study, a look at dinosaurs serves as a vehicle for learning a variety of skills and concepts.
Ahh, Summer Vacation! It’s fantastic, but has turned our schedules upside down! Between family reunions, boys with bloody lips, and summer online classes, I’m struggling to get as much done here as I’d like, but I promise more is coming! I just wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten you!
It’s well known that being read to is one of the best ways a child gets ready to read. But the benefits of story time come from more than just hearing words. Here are 10 ways to make story time meaningful for your early readers.
1 Get Familiar– Before diving right in to your next read, take a minute to look at the cover with your children. Talk about the title, what could it mean? What can you guess from the pictures on the cover? What might this book be about? In addition to getting them interested in the book, this gives your children the opportunity to make inferences and think creatively. They may ask questions that will be answered in the story. What a great tool for building comprehension!
While you’re exploring the topic of seeds, you might as well have yourself some fruit snacks. No, not the gummy imitation of fruit my children try to count as one of the four food groups, but actual fruit, for snacks. Instead of quickly doling out fruit slices on each child’s plate, turn snack time into science time. Take some time to examine and talk about a few fruits and their seeds.
Select a few fruits with different sized seeds: small (strawberries, kiwis), medium (apples, oranges, watermelon), large (peaches, nectarines, mangoes). Hold up each fruit, one at a time, and talk about the characteristics of the fruit, how the fruit grows and where the seeds might be. As you cut up the fruit, isolate the seeds and pass them around for the children to look at (include magnifiers if you like). Compare the sizes of the different seeds, even sort them into groups of small, medium, and large if you’ve used several samples.
Dramatic play is a fantastic way for preschoolers to really synthesize the information they’ve been gathering throughout their experience with a theme or unit. They naturally use new vocabulary words, implement concepts, and contemplate new ideas all in a meaningful way. Here are a few ideas for dramatic play themes within a seeds, plants, garden, or flowers unit.
What unit would be complete without great books to incorporate?
Ok, first of all, a few that are old standards, not in any specific book. I always try to brainstorm nursery rhymes and fairy tales as I do my book list. These are all too often disregarded in favor of the newest and freshest. We need to remember however, that these are new to most young children and necessary for a foundation for future literacy. Think of it as the Shakespeare and Homer for preschoolers. Here are two that come to mind on the topic of seeds: Mary Mary Quite Contrary, of course; and Jack and the Beanstalk. Any others you would add?
It’s only June, and my preschool age son is already antsy for school. He asked me to “play preschool” with him yesterday. A convenient request, since I’m pretty good at playing preschool. He’s watched the show Sid the Science Kid on PBS (a great show for kids and teachers alike), and wanted to do a “Super Fab Lab” science activity like they do. He was in luck! I just happened to have such an activity on hand! It might be one you’d like to recreate as well!
I had been sprouting pumpkin seeds in Ziplocs with wet paper towels. It gives them a jump-start when you plant them, and also helps me determine whether or not the seeds we’ve dried from last year’s jack-o-lanterns are viable seeds. Well, the seeds were great, and I’d planted all I could use, but still had quite a few left over in a bag. Being a procrastinator, I left the last bag on the window sill, until I decided what to do with it. And then I forgot about it. I noticed it the other day, and it had full-on seedlings in it. Luckily I didn’t throw it out, because it was perfect for our “Super Fab Lab”.
Because seeds come in such a wide array of colors, sizes and textures, they are great for creating mosaics and collages. You may want to use a collection of seeds that are already mixed, maybe seeds leftover from another activity, like rain sticks. You could also take the time to open several containers of seeds and look at each type. Compare the seeds to the plants they grow into, as well as to each other. Either way, the variety of seeds gives a great opportunity to introduce a multitude of descriptive words, as well as the concept of comparing and contrasting.
To make the mosaics, you can take your pick of these two ways. The first is the standard Elmer’s glue method. I like to put the paper on an art tray to control the strays, and provide a jar lid of glue and a paintbrush to make it easier for the children to control how much glue they use and where it ends up. The children can apply the glue and then select their seeds from a nearby container and sprinkle them where they’d like.
During the preschool years, children have a need to assert their independence. Giving them choices when it’s feasible feeds that need, and can stock up points in an account of sorts, to draw upon when choices are not negotiable. When children feel like they already have power, they are less likely to demand it through tantrums.
Think of the ways you can invite children to make their own choices. “Which barrette do you want to wear?” “Which center do you want to explore?” “Do you want 1, 2, or 3 apple slices?” Be careful when you’re phrasing the choice, to offer only those scenarios you are truly willing to accept. Don’t ask, “Which shoes do you want to wear?” if you are not willing to let him wear his plastic rain boots. Narrow down to only acceptable choices, two or three, therby giving him the choice of suitable options. Few things incur the wrath of a child like offering a choice, only to take it back.
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