Whole Child Development
When you’re teaching young children a new set of responsibilities, it can sometimes feel like you’ve suddenly become a task-master, constantly nagging them to hang their coats over here, or get their dishes to the sink, or put their toys away when they’re done. If you’ve told them once, you’ve told them eleventy million times, right?
So many great ideas for using the Time Timer! Thank you all for your suggestions! According to my highly sophisticated system for generating random numbers, the winner is Andrea, who said,
“Well, I have a rather impatient little boy, especially when it comes to food. I would love to be able to show him visually that when I say lunch will be ready in 5 minutes, he can have a better understanding of his wait time. Less abstract.”
As I’ve been writing about routines and transitions, I’ve thought back to an interesting product I discovered not long ago. This product, called the Time Timer, displays time visually with a red segment that gets smaller as time progresses. This is a great way to help children understand the concept of time. Instead of verbal reminders, which often sound arbitrary to young children who can’t tell if 20 minutes is longer than 5 minutes, time becomes a visual concept.
Within this unit, I’ve listed activities for many books about bugs, but there are certainly more to be considered! Here are a few I’ve enjoyed with many a little one. Please comment with your own favorites as well! I’m always up for a new read!
**Update**
Thanks to those of you who helped me out by sharing your opinions. Many of you pointed out some draw-backs I was already wondering about. I’ve decided to just keep it sleek and simple for now. It was fun to get your input! Almost like having you right over my shoulder! Now if I could just instantly get all of your opinions while decorating or shopping…….
I’ve been flirting with a new layout and finally decided to give it a go. Since your eyes have to stare at it more than mine do, I thought I’d see what you think about it!
If you ask anyone to make list of favorite children’s authors, Eric Carle would almost certainly be on that list. His work is both prolific and magnificent. His simple text is brought to life by colorful texture and hands-on appeal. I love talking to children about Eric Carle as we do our bug unit, because he has so many fabulous books featuring bugs!
Start off your author study by showing a picture of Eric Carle and introducing him as an author and illustrator. Explain what those words mean, and point out that the children can be authors and illustrators too. Show a wide array of Eric Carle’s books and have the children talk about what the books have in common. You could list these features on a chart paper to reinforce what has been said, as well as the concepts of print. Throughout the unit, refer back to those distinguishing features again each time you pull out an Eric Carle book to share with the children. Stock your bookshelf with a variety of Eric Carle books- not just the bug ones- and let them explore!
My mom has always said that she hated Mother’s Day. Especially as a young mom. She says that every Mother’s Day, she would go to church and hear people speak about how wonderful, selfless, patient, and kind mothers are. How sacred their role is and how God-like they are. This was all intended to honor mothers and elevate the role of motherhood. What my mother came away with, however, was a gut full of guilt. She never felt she measured up to that idyllic “Mother’s Day Mom”.
My mom has always said that she hated Mother’s Day. Especially as a young mom. She says that every Mother’s Day, she would go to church and hear people speak about how wonderful, selfless, patient, and kind mothers are. How sacred their role is and how God-like they are. This was all intended to honor mothers and elevate the role of motherhood. What my mother came away with, however, was a gut full of guilt. She never felt she measured up to that idyllic “Mother’s Day Mom”.
I facilitated a training session with a group of preschool teachers recently, and as I was transcribing a list they had created of social skills they wish every child had, I couldn’t help but wonder if a few of them could be applied more frequently to ourselves as adults as well. Here are the ones that caught my eye. [Read more…]
Here’s a quick one I’m quite sure you can take and improve on! For your flower theme, create an interactive bulletin board or flannel board activity by creating flower centers with the written numeral and corresponding number of dots. Then provide flower petals for the children to count out and place around the center, matching the dots in a one-to-one ratio. This activity supports preschool math skills like numeral recognition, counting, color recognition, and even patterning if they choose to use it that way!
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