December 6, 2019

Highlights of the Week:

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Implementing fun and interactive games and activities will facilitate the children's learning and build their cognitive skills. The teacher hid the color shakers and showed one. What color is missing? As she repeated and alternated the colors, the children appeared intrigued and curious. They each focused and articulated their guesses.

The children engaged in a fun game that consisted of color, number, and number sets. They learn to recognize and identify colors and to count using one-to-one correspondence, a vital beginning math skill for preschoolers.

SCIENCE/SENSORY/LANGUAGE/SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. IT IS ALSO A GREAT ACTIVITY FOR FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT.   

Playdough is a scientific concept that involves the mixture of different components (flour, water, salt, and watercolor (optional) that produce the playdough to change its form).  The children poured, mixed, took turns, squished, poked, patted, and flatten their dough. It stimulates the children's senses while offering an opportunity to use their imagination to explore.

Teagan: “Happy Birthday, cake! I putting in the oven.”

Teacher: “Is the oven hot or cold?”

Teagan: “Is hot!”

Ericksen: “Look a tunnel!”

(He takes the Popsicle Stick and passes it through the playdough as if he is crossing to the other side)

Ericksen: “Beep, beep! Bye-bye train!  

(Moving the Popsicle sticks back and forth in the tunnel)

Ericksen: “Thomas, Thomas, going to tunnel. Henry and Thomas, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 blast off.”

Fine Motor Skills/cREATIVITY

Lego blocks come in a vast range of shapes and sizes, in which small hands learn how to assemble and take apart. The small twists and turns of their hands, fingers, and arms promote coordination and dexterity. Through their manipulation, children learn about applying differential pressure; some blocks need small amounts of pressure when building, while others require a great deal. Each block is essential to ignite their imagination and develop their creativity.

Teacher: “Teagan, what you building?”

Teagan: “A boat. Somebody on my boat.

Teacher: “Who is on the boat?”

Teagan: “Mama, dada, and Teagan. Ericksen on the boat, too.”

Ericksen: “Mommy and daddy on the boat! Whee!”

Teacher: “Do boats go up in the sky or the water?

Ericksen: “The water!”

Cognitive/Fine Motor Skills

These soft matching puzzle pieces help children use their problem-solving skills by pairing and connecting the correspondent piece.

“Octopus!”

“A green turtle!”

Fine Motor Skills/Self-awareness/Self-identification/Language

December Self-Portraits
The mirrors encourage children to look closely at the shapes of their facial features and learn to identify the different facial features and see how they are changing. The continuous movement of the writing tool helps and builds fine motor skills and bilateral coordination skills. The tool promotes the use of the pincer grasp and naturally strengthens the small hand muscles.