The ingredients:
2 cups flour
Whole Child Development
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 15 Comments
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 12 Comments
In many preschool rooms, the sensory table is often surrounded by children. It is an inviting area of the room where children are encouraged to stick their hands into the medium of the day, be it water, colored rice, or even slime! Children gleefully run their fingers through a new texture, scooping and dumping to their hearts’ delight, all the while using vocabulary words like, mushy, gritty, or runny. They naturally compare volumes and textures, diameters and temperatures as they engage in their play. Flow patterns are observed, compared, and manipulated as children pour water down tubes and rain gutters, and cause and effect is constantly tested. The sensory table is a melting pot of a variety of developmental objectives while also being so completely fun and engaging! Sensory tables designed for and sold to schools easily run into the hundreds of dollars. Parents and teachers in smaller preschools are often left feeling like the sensory table is an experience reserved only for large institutions. That does not have to be the case! Here are a few ways to put the sensory table in reach of every child’s hands.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time Leave a Comment
This fantastically fun read is by one of my favorite authors, Robert Munsch. He began as a storyteller who always knew how to get and keep a child’s attention, and was later convinced to put his stories into print. This silly tale follows a little boy through his mischief as he makes pretend cookies out of playdough and serves them to his unsuspecting family and friends. It’s sure to grab the interest young children as they join in the repetitive text and absorb the outrageous illustrations of the characters’ outlandish reactions to eating playdough.
Each time Christopher makes a new cookie, this book implements a fantastic use of onomatopoeia with a repetitive text that just begs for kids to join in. Here’s how I do it (words in italics from the text):
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills 5 Comments
Many parents and teachers are reluctant to engage their children in sensory play. It’s easy to see the reason for their hesitation when you envision what could happen when you combine preschoolers or toddlers with a thousand grains of rice! The key to sensory play is two-fold: recognize that there will be somemess, but also set limits and boundaries to keep it within a range you can live with. Here are some tips for setting appopriate boundaries with sensory play.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 23 Comments
by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 18 Comments
In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.
Content Copyrighted (2008-2024), Amanda Morgan, All Rights Reserved