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Whole Child Development

Make Your Sensory Table Pop: Using Popcorn as a Sensory Medium

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments

dscn1297The sensory table is an area of the preschool room that children go to because, as the name implies, they are drawn in by the many appeals to the senses.  Few activities I have done in the sensory table have drawn as much widespread interest as popcorn kernels.  My guess is that it’s because it draws in the sense of hearing, as few other media do.  It literally calls the children over to explore.  Every time those kernels fall, they rap against each other, or against the plastic bottom, making almost as much sound as popcorn actually popping!

I began my popcorn-as-a-medium collection with the help of my two-year old, who managed to spill quite a bit from our pantry onto the floor…and mix it with the rice…and the flour.  Well, no use crying over spilled milk, or grains, so I sifted it out and added it to the sensory table.  Along with the popcorn, I included paper-towel tubes, funnels, clear tubing (from Home Depot) and my sand mill, along with several scoopers (from laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and infant formula containers for a variety of sizes).  The children loved filling the paper towel tubes to the brim and then lifting them up, letting all the kernels drop to the bottom, rapid-fire like rain on a tin roof.  Without even knowing it, they experimented with math principles of size, volume, and circumference, as well as motor skills as they scooped and poured the hypnotic golden grains.  I even included a small funnel, which I knew would likely not allow the large kernels to pass through, just to create the questions that would lead to learning.  Pour a little popcorn into your sensory table and see what concepts your children tackle!

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Make Those Shaky Eggs

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement Leave a Comment

dscn1247Shaky eggs have to be one of the simplest instruments for children to play.  Even toddlers participate with ease when egg shakers are involved!  In fact, as soon as  infants can grasp with their hands, they can play shaky eggs!  I’ve seen shaky eggs for sale for as much as $5 for a set of 2!  I’m here to tell you that you can make a class set for about that much!  And the process is so simple, you could even let the kiddos each make their own! 

This time of year is the right time to do this project, because with Easter around the corner, you can find these plastic eggs for $1 a package!  All you need to do is place a little bit of dry rice or popcorn kernels in each egg and seal the egg with electrical tape.  (The electrical tape works best because it bends around the egg rather than puckering like many of the other tapes do.)  Once your egg is filled and sealed, feel free to decorate it with stickers or use permanent markers to draw designs or write names.  Then all that’s left is to SHAKE! 

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Mail Match Math!

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 3 Comments

dscn1304Who doesn’t love getting a letter?  To preschoolers the mail ranks up there with other anticipated special deliveries like their Easter Baskets and Christmas stockings.  Perhaps the one thing more exciting than receiving mail, would be getting to be the all-powerful letter carrier!  Here’s an activity that lets your children in on the fun of delivering the mail, while also reinforcing the basic math skills of numeral recognition and counting.

Create letters by writing the number name in the address spot.  Place the same number of 1 cent stamps in the stamp corner.  For the group I was working with, I did numbers 1-10, but you could adjust that to meet the needs of your group.  Next, create houses or mailboxes by writing the numerals corresponding to your letters.  These can be simple pieces of paper as I show here, or you could make actual house or mailbox drawings.  (I wrote mine on colored paper, and we began by putting the numbered papers in order, and then pointed out the abc pattern created by the colors.)  Put these numbered papers in your pocket chart or in the center of your circle of children.  Place all of your letters in a bag like a mail carrier.  Have each child take a turn being the letter carrier (add to the effect by giving them a postal hat to wear during that turn).  Each child will reach into the bag to select a letter and then place it in the appropriate spot by matching the number of stamps on the letter to the numeral written on the house/mailbox.  After the children have experienced this activity, you might consider putting it in your dramatic play area along with your post office theme!

Rhyme-A-Saurus

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 4 Comments

dscn1290For a fun rhyming activity with your preschoolers, create a Rhyme-A-Saurus!  This dinosaur is not a meat-eater or a plant-eater, he eats rhymes! 

Using a set of rhyming cards (you can find printable ones here or purchase a set at a teaching supply store)  give your children one card each, and keep the rhyming pair yourself.  Explain that this dinosaur is a rhyme-eater and loves rhyme sandwiches.  Ask them to help you make a sandwich by putting two rhyming words together and feeding them to the dinosaur! 

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Book Activity: Bartholomew and the Oobleck

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills Leave a Comment

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Bartholomew and the Oobleck is an enthralling story to read with children!  It follows a king who wants something new to come from the sky, so he orders his magicians to make “oobleck”.  As with many alterations of Mother Nature (Michael Jackson comes to mind) this, of course, turns out to be a disaster!  It is only remedied when his page, Bartholomew, convinces him he needs to say the words, “I’m sorry.” 

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Dinosaurs Frozen in Time

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments

dscn1182Try this activity in your sensory table for your dinosaur fans!  In containers of various sizes, freeze sand, shells, plastic dinosaurs, and or plastic bones in water.  (If your items tend to float, freeze the container half full with the water and the items.  Once it’s frozen, and holding the items in place, you can fill the container the rest of the way with water and freeze again.)

Place these prehistoric ice cubes in your sensory bin alone or with sand.  You can also bury them in the sand for even more fun!  Add containers of warm water with droppers or larger containers with warm water that the ice cubes can be submerged in. 

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Post It! Simple Graphing with Preschool Children

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment

dscn1243When you think of graphing, you probably think back to stale worksheets in your third grade class, or to more complicated parabolas in high school calculus.  Graphing starts out as a very simple concept, one that can and should be explored with preschool children, particularly the four year-olds.  One of my favorite ways to do that is with a Post-it graph. 

The easiest way to start with the concept of graphing is to chart the  number of boys vs number of girls in a group.  It is a clear-cut dichotomy (in preschool anyway :)) .  Start by having the children look around.  Do they think there are more boys or more girls?  In a larger group, this is often harder to do just by looking.  We need to organize the information to make it easier to compare.  Show your prepared chart, with a grid divided between boys and girls.  Explain to the children that you will be using this grid to graph how many boys and how many girls are in your class.  Ask each of the girls, one by one, to come up, get a Post-it and place it on the chart above the “Girls” label.  Remind them that each person only gets one sticker, and that when we build a graph, we climb up the chart like a ladder: one sticker per square.  Next, invite the boys to do the same thing. 

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Up, Up, and Away! Superhero Capes for Preschoolers

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

dscn1253If you’re looking for a quick, inexpensive, no-sew way to create capes for your super-preschooler, look no further!  No super powers are required here, just fabric, self-adhesive Velcro tabs, and scissors!

For your fabric, start with tricot (pronounced “tree-co”).  Call your local fabric stores to find one that carries it.  It is fabulously shiny and light so that it ripples and flows as the wearer takes flight!  As for super powers, it doesn’t fray, so it doesn’t require any hemming to finish the edges.  Tricot comes on very wide bolts.  You only need about 20 inches, so with the wide width, you can purchase twenty inches and make probably 3 or 4 capes.  Once you have the tricot, cut a rectangle about 18 inches by 20 inches.  dscn1257(The size is by no means exact.  This is the size that has worked for my 2-5 year olds, but feel free to adjust!)

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Make a Fantastic Dinosaur Mural

by Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience 3 Comments

dinosaur mural

To create a dinosaur mural that involves all of your preschoolers, start with a piece of paper as large as you have room for.  This art project on a grand scale gives the children just a taste of how big dinosaurs were.  I covered my art table, but you may want to take it outside and use even more space!  Draw the outline of a dinosaur with a Sharpie.  If you’re not comfortable free-handing, use an overhead projector to transfer an outline you can trace.  Provide a variety of painting tools with different textures.  I used sponges, combs, texture rollers, brushes,  print blocks, and paint brushes in a variety of widths.  The children will often use their own fingers and whole hands to paint with as well.  To accommodate all the different tools, I poured tempera paint thinly into the lids of plastic containers (sour cream, ice cream, etc.).

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