This week we read an focused our small groups on the adorable story Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.
Ms. Cally played “Listen & Color” and helped the preschoolers practice their listening skills. This is great prep for following directions and understanding classroom dynamic. So much of traditional schooling is based on auditory learning. Preschoolers need to practice being able to listen not only to directions, but for directions as well. We structure our classroom to give cues to call attention such as flashing the lights or clapping our hands. This helps create awareness for what is happening around us in the classroom. Ms. Cally instructed the preschoolers to ‘color the star orange’ or ‘find the spoon and color it purple’. This is a great activity to do at home with your little one!
Next with Ms. Lori we practiced our counting skills. Each child had a turn to roll the dice and count how many dots they had. Then we colored the spot on the gingerbread baby that had the matching number on it. This was a fun way to count, work on number recognition and strengthen fine motor muscles!
In Ms. Courtney’s group, the preschoolers practiced number recognition. On each gingerbread baby was a number. Their job was to count the right amount of pom poms to decorate the gingerbread baby. This is a great task for hand-eye coordination.
This was the first of our December Gingerbread Study. We are very excited to explore more stories!
To productively participate in the classroom, all children must be able to understand and interpret spoken words. Auditory processing skills develop with time and practice. We incorporated our sight words of the week along with our friends names into our practice, today.
At the beginning of kindergarten, children are expected to consistently and accurately understand verbal directions. This includes following multi-step directions with ease, whether from familiar or unfamiliar people. For example, a child may be asked to color a worksheet, place it in a specific tray when it is completed, then line up to go outside. A teacher will give all three directions at the same time and expect a child to remember and execute all three steps without being reminded of what comes next at each stage of the activity. Children are also expected to respond appropriately to verbal questions such as, “What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?” Although this is a basic question, it is not uncommon for a child with poor auditory processing skills to respond with the answer, “In a cup” or “I eat ice cream all the time.” A child with weak auditory processing skills likely heard the words “ice cream” and maybe the word “favorite” but was unable to process the sentence correctly.
Kindergarten children will be taught reading skills, number concepts, and science and social studies concepts through verbal explanation and visual demonstration. Children are expected to understand and process the information presented in these lessons.
Children are expected to interact comfortably and independently with peers in play and work situations with little or no adult assistance. This requires listening to a peer’s directions and responding appropriately. An adult may be needed to begin the group work by suggesting a game or preparing the materials required for an activity. However, once the activity has begun, children should be able to complete the activity without a teacher’s assistance by listening to the other children’s comments and responding appropriately. (Source)
If you would like to help your child develop these skills at home, click on the photo below for a website with wonderful activities you can incorporate into your homework routine. Have fun!
Check out what we did during small group time today! We are working on the letter “J” by writing it in pink sand. The children enjoy this sensory experience as they practice writing. They also painted stars in the night sky to go with our “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” theme. Another small group got to take turns putting their hands down in a special cup (covered in a colorful holiday sock) to retrieve a letter. They would retrieve the letter and identify it and its sound.
{Miss Sarah}
Check out the fun we had in our sensory center. We have a winter theme this month…and the children loved putting on gloves to play in the “snow.”
We read the book “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” We did an activity where we danced around (to “Twinkle, Twinkle” on the iPod) on various shapes taped to the rug…and when I stopped the music, the children had to run to the star shape. We had a lot of fun with this. 🙂
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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