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Whole Child Development

Surprise Pumpkin!

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 11 Comments

Children love good storytelling!  When the storyteller engages them with facial and voice expression and tailors the story to the young audience, even the most boisterous young children can be found sitting with rapt attention!  Listening to storytelling has much of the same benefits for young children as being read to.  There isn’t the print corrolation, but there is tremendous building of language and listening skills and the concept of story structure.  Here is a fun and engaging storytelling activity perfect for this time of year!  You should practice it and get comfortable with it before “performing” for children.  Let your own creativity take over and change it up any way you like to make it your own story!  I actually heard this story as I was sitting in a library story time with my sons and tweaked it a bit to make it mine.  I’m sure you could put your own spin on it and make it even better!

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Book Activity: Runaway Pumpkin

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment

Runaway PumpkinRunaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis, is relatively new, and completely new to me this year!  It’s a delightful story about what happens when two mischievous boys start a giant pumpkin rolling down a hillside.  One by one,  family members envision delicious pumpkin treats, as the pumpkin continues on it’s destructive path.  Finally, the pumpkin is stopped and well-used on a Halloween night.  The text on the page seems to bounce right along with the pumpkin, a great feature for building phonological awareness.  The children (OK, so did I) really get a kick out of seeing the whole family in their Halloween costumes!

Follow up this book by making a favorite pumpkin treat, like Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!

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Book Activity: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

Red Leaf, Yellow LeafHave I mentioned yet that I really love Lois Ehlert’s books?  Her collage-style illustrations are just so simplistically and realistically appealing.  Particularly for fall, they really capture the vibrancy and texture of the season!  In Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, Lois Ehlert spotlights one of my favorite trees, Maple, as it is selected and planted while a seedling, then as it grows through every season, highlighting the narrator’s favorite season for the tree, fall!  This book is great as a science focus, as well as for an art focus!

Afterward, have the children create their own colorful fall trees.  First smock up!  Once each child has a piece of paper on an art tray to work with, have each one take a brush, and with brown paint make the trunk and branches of their trees.  Talk about the difference between the straight lines of the trunk and the curving, climbing, intertwining branches at the top. [Read more…]

Book Activity: The Apple Pie Tree

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

The Apple Pie TreeIf you are doing a study of apples, or  on trees in general, you should really consider using the book, The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall.  This wonderfully illustrated book follows a single apple tree, and the two girls who love it, through the seasons, until its fruit can finally be picked, chopped, and baked into a perfect apple pie.  It is a great illustration of the cycle of seasons, as well as the process of making pie! 

Understanding the cycle of seasons is a pretty obvious science objective, but learning to put things in an ordered series also builds cognitive and language skills  that lay the foundation for reading and writing (beginning, middle, end) while also contributing to preschool math  and problem-solving skills. 

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Old-School Leaf Rubbing

by Filed Under: Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

leaf rubbingI once heard someone say that we have to be careful not to be in such a rush to give our children all the things we never had, that we forget to give them the things we did have.  That saying comes to mind as I think about this old-school leaf rubbing activity.  I don’t think I even need to give directions, do I?  I hope you all had plenty of opportunities to make leaf rubbings as children!  I just wanted to remind you to pass on that opportunity!  Even today, in the age of the internet and wii, children light up as the leaf seems to magically appear on the page while they feverishly rub their crayons across the paper!  This activity increases fine motor skills while also creating awareness of the texture and other characteristics of leaves (science).  Combine this with other leaf activities that can be found at the fall favorites page!  Enjoy childhood!

Leaf Pounding

by Filed Under: Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement 3 Comments

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This is one of my favorite activities!  Help your child take a leaf and place it between two strips of muslin or other white, cotton fabric.  Together, hammer the muslin with a rubber mallet.  As the mallet strikes the leaf, the chlorophyll is released from the leaf and absorbed by the fabric.  Colored leaves in the fall work also as long as they have not become too dry (though their red and purple colors come from a type of sugar in the tree instead of chlorophyll.  Check out this website  for more science information about fall leaves.)

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Falling Leaves Parachute Activity

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement, Positive Guidance and Social Skills

Parachute activities are always enticing to kids.  They’re great for building motor strength and control, as well as self-control.  They also strengthen the child’s ability to listen to and follow directions and to work with others as a group,  all great social skills.  Parachutes don’t have to cost much.  I picked up a small, 6 foot version, to be used in small spaces and with groups of 10 or less children for about $10 (see where to order it here).  You could also just use a bed sheet instead of a parachute.

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