Baby Oil & Flour- new sensory opportunity!

So you probably are wondering why we keep posting again and again about all the sensory experiences the children enjoy here.

This is by FAR the most important way that young children 

learn ---> as it's all about the senses at this stage of 

development.

It's mainly through taste and touch that children are discovering and making sense of the world in the first 3-5 years of life. And yet we often resist these activities because of the mess that it involves (and I totally understand this feeling!)

 

 However, you can always do these things in the garden, the bath, on the kitchen floor or in a deep, plastic tray to contain things a little bit. Your child will thank you for ever for giving them some of these experiences in early life!

 

One morning this week we made a play-dough mixture using 2 ingredients:

Baby oil + Flour!

What an interesting experience it was for the children!

 The different feel, the smell, the texture, and workability...  

 One thing the children noticed was that after making shapes...it didn't lift off like regular play-dough does! 

It stuck to the tray!

 BL carved out letters from her name!

 In a discussion between the children about how this dough feels SO SOFT & OILY...
Rachel chose to make a little ball, and said- "Here's an olive! We can squeeze it to make Oil!"
(Its so nice, when you see the children transferring knowledge from previous experienced.)

 BL made an animal...and then pointed out "Here is a long tongue, like a giraffe's tongue!"

 

Vinegar & Baking Soda? Science & Sensory fun @ Gan!

We welcomed the children back after winter break with a new type of sensory & science experiment!

 

 We set the activity table with trays of baking soda, along with basters and colored water (Vinegar)

 

The children worked on their fine motor skills to manipulate the baster, drawing up the liquid, and squeezing it out, onto the tray of Baking soda!

 The children watched in amazement as they liquid turned into foamy bubbles...sizzling...and popping!

 What was so interesting, was to see how some of the children, even once all the baking soda was finished "reacting", enjoyed the sensory experience of feeling the interesting texture of the new material! 

BL worked with the colors on her tray for about half and hour! 

Enjoy this video of the reaction of the children and the sounds of the soda...

Teaching children the correct pencil grip. VIDEO!

Research shows, preschool is the most opportune time for children to master the correct way to hold a pen or pencil. It is called the "tripod grasp."  This will help them in their later years of school, to not get "tired fingers!" 

 

A child’s natural response is to hold a pencil with his entire fist, pinky finger closest to the paper and index finger and thumb on top. A correct pencil grip involves holding the pencil between the thumb and pointer finger, and resting the pencil on the middle finger for added stability.

At Gan, we taught the children a fun song- to help them remember the correct way to hold a pencil!

Enjoy the video!

 The words are:

I bend my thumb 

pointer points to the tip

Tall man uses his  side

I bend my last two fingers in

And take them for a ride!

Combining letter recognition, life skills & Fine motor!

One morning this week we put out a bunch of laminated words- combining the children's own names, and familiar words.

We stuck individual letters onto clothes pins! (another real life object, children should learn the skill of using, as well as opportunity to build those fine motor skills!)

 

Children  needed to find a matching letter from the word they chose, and place it onto of the letter using clothespins. It was interesting and helpful for us to see the different skills levels in the class.

Many of the children are able to now recognize their friends names, and become familiar with different letters and their sounds! 

This is a wonderful preparation for later reading and phonics.

 

Obstacle Course- Gross Motor Skills!

We are so lucky to have a large enough classroom, where we can set up lots of opportunities to promote the children's gross motor skill development.

From balancing to climbing, coordination to flexibility....we had lots of fun this week with some new provocations set up!

 

We duct-taped a stack of large blocks as a balancing beam.

 Using masking tape, we drew a ladder on the floor. Children had to carefully walk through it without stepping on the lines. 

We also did this with jumping...

Hopping on one foot...

Walking backwards...

Kicking a ball from a marker, into a designated goal...

This took concentration and coordination.

We helped the children do headstands, sumersaults and experiment with different positions they could put their bodies in!

After all the tasks...we asked the children what was the most challenging job to do?
and what was the easiest job to do?

Here's what some of them said was most challenging...
BL:  "Hopping on one foot"
CS: Balancing on the beam"
SK: Hopping on one foot"
YH: "Walking backwards"
RL: Walking on balancing beam"
MM: "Headstand"

Here's what some of them said was the easiest..
BL:  "Jumping on trampoline"
CS: "walking backwards"
SK: "Kicking a ball"
YH: "Sumersault"
RL:  "Jumping"
MM: "Kicking a ball"

Nuts & Bolts- exploring real life materials

We like to offer the children real life materials to work with, as they build their skills and grow!

 B&B hardware gave us a wonderful discount, in purchasing this set of Nuts/Bolts & Screws to put out for the children to work with!

 It wasn't easy at first....
Finding the right sized nut to screw on. There were 4 different sizes for the children to experiment with.

Older children modeling for the younger ones.

Look! I did it!

This activity was a fun way for the children to build their fine motor skills, discern different sizes, spatial and math concepts, and of course allow the children to feel BIG using materials that are needed for building and fixing REAL world things.

Discovering new materials...manipulating them!

Now that Chanukah is over, we like to spend a couple weeks focusing on each of our students individual development, in various areas of growth.

In addition to the most important area of growth- the children's social/emotional well-being, we monitor how the children are progressing in their academic goals (math/cognitive/linguistic), fine motor skills, gross motor skills and more.

Throughout the year, we offer opportunities for growth in all areas, but at this time, we like to invest even more energy to document and take note of where each child is at- to include in each child's professional portfolio. (parents, you will enjoy looking at these towards the end of the year!)

We put out a variety of opportunities for the children to manipulate, explore and learn.

One day this week, we put out a bunch of colanders, alongside all sorts of funky shaped/textured pipecleaners!

At first the children weren't sure what to do. 

We asked the children if they thought the pipe-cleaners would fit inside the holes?

The holes in this colander were too small for the thicker pipe-cleaners, which encouraged some problem solving!

 

Chaya discovered that her colander had different sized holes, and that the larger ones would fit into the larger holes, and the thinner ones- could fit in the smaller holes!

After several attempts...

the children were able to manipulate the new materials...and come up with all sorts of creations!

Look, I made lots of tunnels...i can put my fingers through it!

This activity provided us with lots of information about the children's skills, and was a wonderful opportunity for the children to explore and investigate new materials!

It also promotes:
* creativity and independent thinking
* sensory and tactile play
* hand to eye co-ordination
* developing fine motor skills
* vocabulary: texture and descriptions (children could describe some of their creations.)