Body awareness and gross motor movement are both extremely important at the preschool age. Children are developing and strengthening gross and fine muscles that create more opportunities for independence as well as abilities to hold a crayon properly and form letters and numbers. Today we touched on all three at once! The children worked on number recognition while tip-toeing the proper formation of 1, 2, 3. They had a ball! This is an easy game to play at home with any kind of tape on the floor!
We focused on beginning sounds during our phonics study today. We popped a sound and found a picture that started with that sound. First person to cover the board was the winner!
Working the small muscles in our hands and in our fingers will be an ongoing activity throughout Pre-K this year. It is critical for young writers to build strong fine motor muscles to help them grow as writers! If you would like some activities that you can do at home, click the first picture and have fun!
Today, the toddlers enjoyed painting their hands to make hand-print pictures. They also enjoyed the sensory/discovery bags with hair gel, food coloring, and soap inside. They loved sliding their fingers around the outside of the bag and watching the squiggles and prints that their hands made.
This week, we are continuing to focus on the letter “Z’ –what sound it makes, what it looks like, what words start with “Z”, and where it falls in the alphabet. The children practiced their fine motor skills as they glued small pieces of paper to a large “Z.” They also had fun making food coloring designs in shaving cream then transferring them to paper! Very beautiful results!! 🙂 We are continuing to practice our number recognition and one-to-one correspondence.
{Miss Sarah}
On Tuesday, we painted with marshmallows and played with discovery bottles!!
When counting, the concept of “one-to-one correspondence” is the understanding that each object being counted represents “one more.”
Before a child understands one-to-one correspondence, he will count by rote memorization. When asked to count a small group of objects, he will likely count quickly through the numbers he has memorized and randomly touch the objects being counted instead of touching and counting each object just once (schoolsparkes.com). This is a very important early math readiness skill and an EASY on to incorporate into your daily lives. Count the stairs as you walk up, a few cheerios while your enjoying a bowl for breakfast….the sky’s the limit! Have fun counting!
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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