Berry Basket Weaving

**Once you've enjoyed some summer berries (dipped in vanilla yogurt?), recycle the container by weaving pretty ribbons throughout.**

Share recycling with your children.
Is this the world you want to leave them?

Protect That Brain! Eggheads

This format is a bit different because I used it in my math & science class.

Materials: Eggs, newspaper, markers, scissors, tape, various materials to construct with (Examples: fabric, rubber bands, styrofoam, bubble wrap, egg cartons, cardboard, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, straws, anti-slip mat, etc.)

Objectives: Observing, comparing, and communicating. Discover why we wear helmets when we ride our wheeled toys.

Age Group: Preschool

Procedure: Your brain controls your entire body. You brain helps you move and think and learn! Our brains are soft and they are protected by our bony skull, just like the inside of an egg is protected by the shell.

Invite the children to draw faces on the eggs and create various helmets from the supplied materials to protect their “eggheads.”

Drop the eggs wearing the helmets from about waist height. If the eggs break while wearing the helmet you can ask “Was the helmet unsafe?”, “Did the egg fall at an angle so that it was not protected?”, “How would you make the best helmet?”

Scaling up: Challenge children to protect eggs dropped from a higher level.

Scaling down: Have a few egg-helmets ready made for trials. Or cut apart egg cartons for the helmets to eliminate the construction part.

Safety Concern: Raw egg can contain salmonella bacteria. Keep eggs cold until ready to use. Wash hands thoroughly! You could cook the eggs beforehand.

Slide Painting

Today we did slide painting. I covered the slide with butcher paper and extended it about 6 feet out and we dipped various items in tempera paint and rolled them down. I let the kids select items too based on what they thought would roll. Some of the more interesting prints came from a plastic hair curler, a golf ball, and a pinecone. It was a collaborative group effort but you could cut the finished product into squares to save or send home.

Benefits of Play

Play is SO important that the UN High Commission for Human Rights says play is the RIGHT of every child.

Play enhances every domain of a child's development- gross and fine motor, language, cognition, social and emotional development.

Children are not passive learners. Children learn best when they play- being actively involved, engaged, free to explore in safe and supportive environments, and using all of their senses- sight, taste, touch, hearing, smelling.

To reach children the best way we know how, we must expose them to a variety of rich learning experiences in multiple contexts.

Parenting a Prosocial Child

Ways to encourage Helping, Sharing, and Caring behaviors in your child

1. Children are the best copycats! Model caring behaviors for your child. Help other people out of the kindness of your heart and let the child participate when possible.

2. Make time for group play, whether it be a planned play date or casual interaction at the local playground. Play time is a perfect opportunity to develop social skills- making new friends, sharing, teamwork, starting and holding conversations, manners and more.

3. Label feelings & emotions expressed during play. Feelings are complicated! By putting a name to a feeling, the child gains some control over the emotion and may eventually be able to say “That makes me jealous!”

4. Help the child see how their behavior affects others. Ask “How do you think Margie feels when you color on her paper?”

5. During a social conflict, involve the child or children involved in problem solving. Gather ideas and examine how each might resolve the problem at hand, pick one together and proceed!

6. Giving the child age-appropriate chores will give them a sense of contribution to the household.

7. We all make mistakes. Let the child see you make apologies. Apologize to your children too. They are learning forgiveness.

8. Be gracious. Count your blessings together. Send Thank You notes. Show appreciation to the people around you for what they do.

9. Point out facial expressions in illustrations of books you read together. Talk about what feelings it might be expressing as well as what might make the character feel better. The child gets the benefit of gaining “emotional scripts” through reading, something they can act out next time they need the skill.

10. Praise your child’s acts of empathy, or attempts at such. Praise is powerful!

Using a Visual Schedule

This is a visual schedule I created to show a bedtime routine. Cards can be flipped over once completed.

Q: Why do we use visual schedules?
A:
1. To reduce anxiety/frustration! In order to communicate successfully, we need to know what is expected of us. Young children especially thrive on predictability!
2. Provide motivation to work through a less favored activity knowing a favored one follows.
3. To promote independent behavior.
4. To teach skills required for daily learning.
5. To reduce the possibility that challenging behaviors will occur.
6. To reinforce time organization and sequential memory.

Q: Who benefits from using a visual schedule?
A: Almost everyone can benefit. Consider the child’s ability to UNDERSTAND rather than the ability to speak. A visual schedule is especially important to children that may have difficulty understanding oral language and directions. Children with autism show strengths in the areas of rote memory and understanding visual information.

Q: How do I indicate changes on a visual schedule?
A: Once is in place, stick to the schedule as much as possible. If life interferes, return to the schedule as soon as possible. If a change must be made, a question mark can indicate a new activity.

A visual schedule should be:
Left to right, as in reading or top to bottom
Child manipulated
At least two items at a time so children learn events aren’t isolated but happen in sequence
Taught and practiced
Used with consistency

Most of us learn objects and actions through the following common levels of abstraction
Actual objects and actions
Photographs of objects and actions
Black and white line drawings of objects and actions
Written words which describe objects and actions

Use whatever makes the connection for the individual, decreasing the level of abstraction if the individual seems confused or frustrated.

When designing, ask:
1. Will the child understand or recognize the pictures or words?
2. Is the activity represented by the visual schedule obvious to the child?
3. Can the schedule be made clearer by the use of words, more images, or objects?
4. Does the child know and have available the tools required to successfully complete the activity?

Patternpillars

Pattern + caterpillars= patternpillars! Glue pom poms to a craft stick in a pattern. C's pattern was A B C A B C. Add wiggly ears and antennae if you'd like. The kids made so many of these today it was like a visit to the butterfly gardens, well before butterfly season.

*Variation: Glue on beans or buttons.

*Extension: For a chrysallis you can slip the caterpillars into a sock, and before the kids see them next, you slip in and add some wings of cellephane, tissue paper, or gift wrap so when they pull out their caterpillar it is no longer. Suprise, beautiful butterflies!