Who Doesn't Love an Orange Smoothie?
Who Doesn’t Love an Orange Smoothie?
Teaching Social Skills: "Can I Play"
I am a firm believer that social skills should be taught directly, and then implemented and brought into habit through play and experience. During the very first weeks, I introduce the tools for entering play and taking turns. These are key areas of social conflict when you get a group of new preschoolers together!
Teaching Social Skills: “Can I Play”
I am a firm believer that social skills should be taught directly, and then implemented and brought into habit through play and experience. During the very first weeks, I introduce the tools for entering play and taking turns. These are key areas of social conflict when you get a group of new preschoolers together!
Clean It Up!
While we’re on the topic of clean up time, I thought I’d mention that I use Laurie Berkner’s song, “Clean It Up” as my clean up music. (You can find it at iTunes for just a dollar. Though if you can get out of iTunes having only spent one dollar, my hat’s off to you!) I give kiddos a five minute reminder before clean up time, then after five minutes I turn this sing on repeat until the task is done. The trumpets at the beginning are great for getting everyone’s attention, and the song is fun and child-friendly without being hokey. (That’s a trademark quality of Laurie Berkner’s music. It’s kid appropriate, active, fun, and full of awesome musical elements and different genres-not watered down monotony. I’m obviously a big fan.) Sometimes, as we’re getting close to finished, I challenge the children to see if we can be done before the song is over. They’re usually up for the race. Music is great for signalling routine transition times such as this. If the ‘Everybody Everywhere’ version of a clean up song is working for you, stick with it. If you’re ready for a change, and maybe a little more musical styling, check this one out!
Photo courtesy frecuencia.
Book Activity: Pigsty by Mark Teague
At the beginning of each year, I really like to read Pigsty by Mark Teague with my new little ones. It is a funny, and fantastically illustrated story of Wendell Fultz who decides he does not want to clean his room. His mother tells him it’s his choice if he wants to live in a pigsty. Wendell is content with his choice, even when a few pigs show up to live in his pigsty. The piles keep growing, and soon, Wendell begins to discover some of his prized possessions have been chewed on, smashed, and lost in the mess. He demands that the pigs help him clean up! With the room nice and tidy, Wendell is happy, but the pigs don’t feel quite so at home, so they move to Old MacDonald’s farm and now only come to visit for game night.
Willoughby Wallaby Woo
I’m sure you can find other versions of this song, but does anyone really do it better than Raffi? Willoughby Wallaby Woo, is a great song for practicing new names in a class. As an added benefit, it is also great for getting kiddos to laugh! As you can hear in this YouTube clip, it’s a simple silly song, using consonant substitution (a great pre-reading skill) to fit each name into the song. This is particularly fun if you have an elephant puppet to set above each child as you sing that child’s name. (If the elephant reference doesn’t make sense, you need to listen to the clip!)
You can download the song from Raffi’s Singable Songs for the Very Young album, available at iTunes. You might as well pick up a few more Raffi classics while you’re there. The man is a genius!
Push Down and Play Time
As I began writing this post, it became apparent that I was writing a sermon in two parts. (Brevity has never really been my strong suit.) Don’t worry, you don’t need to change into your Sunday best, your pajamas are just fine (you know who you are). Just get comfortable, I’ve got a lot on my mind.
If you want to get preschool teachers all riled up, talk about “push-down curriculum” (pushing academic standards from one grade down to the next- pushing fluent reading skills from first grade to kindergarten, and now to preschool, for example). I read this article the other day, and it really got me thinking about academics and preschoolers.
Playing Around with Playdough
Classic Playdough is a staple of childhood! Not only is it fun and creative, but working that dough builds fine motor strength and control. These skills are just as critical to developing young writers as is learning the ABCs. Pushing objects into playdough creates a new type of sculpture and also presents a new challenge to children as it requires them to use the pincer grasp and push at the same time (a skill similar to writing with a pencil). I’ve found that preschoolers love to scatter their creations withtoothpicks, pipecleaners, googley-eyes, feathers and beads. 
Recently, we experimented with a new kind of “push-in”. I gathered accessories from a “Cooties” game as well as our Mr. Potato Head. The kiddos had a great time coming up with all kinds of creatures. 
(It appears I have a budding Picasso on my hands with that face arrangement!)
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