Splat painting with fly swatter

I found that it is fun painting with fly swatter, especially setting up this activity outdoor with big pieces of paper. Some children quite like this creative painting when it goes splat! What we need in this activity are:

• 2 or 3 colors of paint in containers

• Cut up pieces of kitchen sponge

• Fly swatters

• Big pieces of paper

What learning is happening here?

Through using fly swatter, children not only have fun but they can be inspired to choose and experiment with different materials. It also provides opportunity to explore actively with all the senses, develop knowledge that playing around with ideas and materials, with no object in mind, can be enjoyable, creative, and valid approach to learning.

Marble Painting

Marble painting is another great idea for developing children’s motor skills and eye-hand coordination skills. When children experience rolling marbles on the paper, they practice in multi-tasking to tilt the box, make sure the marbles not fall out of the box and roll trough the paints at the same time. Let’s experience this cool activity now! What we need to prepare are:

• A tray or box
• Containers for different colors tempera paint
• Marbles
• Teaspoons
• Paper

I normally provide 3 containers with different colors in and 3 marbles in each container. Lay the paper in the tray or box, and then use the spoon to scoop the marble and drop on the paper.

When children start rolling marbles, I encourage them to do it side to side and up and down, which can develop children to think about the direction from left to right and top to bottom. Some children might concentrate on rolling marbles for a long while which reflects their patience and concentration.

What do you usually do at mat time in half hour with children 3-4 age group?

Individually, I normally have 3 steps in my mat time schedule:

(1). Singing songs/ a game of copycat

(2). Movement/ Action song/ felt board story/ puppet show

(3). Story time+ discuss with children

(1) Singing songs/ a game of copycat

The first thing I usually do is singing “hello song”, “greeting song”, simple action songs or doing copycat action to get children’s attention.

Some children’s favorite song examples:

Hello How Are You

Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink

Days Of The Week Song

Down by the Station

Wind The Bobbin Up

B-I-N-G-O

…………

Songs of Copycat game:

“1, 2 you know what to do”

“ Head, shoulder, knee and toe”

“Everybody standing up”( the tune of London Bridge)

“Mrs bunny”

………….

(2) Movement/ Action song/ felt board story/ puppet show

On the second step, I often choose some CD books or action songs to do some exercise with children. Ask children to listen carefully to CD and do actions they heard.

Examples:

“Giant’s Breakfast” (recently super popular)

“The Gingerbread man”

Yoga exercise with kids

“Stretching”

…….

OR read some stories/puppet show with children engaged in to act the characters.

Examples:

Little Red Riding Hood

Three Little Pigs (Little Golden Book)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

………

OR felt board stories, or even let children to recognize alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, trucks and so on.

Examples:

“Five little monkeys”

“Brown bear”

“Hungry caterpillar”

“Jack and the bean stalk”

……….

(3) Story time+ discuss with children

Let children to choose the books they interested, and related to their current curriculum planning. And also discuss with children some issues that might happen in the stories.

For example:

In this week, we are talking about eating healthy food. So teachers can choose some books related to this topic. And then give some time for kids to talk about their eating behavior and favorite food. ask questions like what, why and how….

At the end of mat time, teachers can give children to do “washing hand songs”, such as “peanut, butter, marmite and Jam, children’s name go and wash your hands!”

Thanks for reading through my post, and I hope you can share your ideas about mat time with me. Much appreciated!

No.3  Constructions

Set up some toy vehicles, such as dump trucks, diggers, bulldozers on road way made by children themselves in the sandpit. They can travel along vehicles and transfer sand from one part to another, making tunnels and castles, creating river with water and so on.  This activity provides opportunities for the children to develop their muscles when they lift, dig, carry and rake. These kinds of activities help develop their gross motor skills; and also develop their fine motor skills by pouring, sifting, patting and decorating. It is also extending children’s imagination. During this activity, teachers can ask children some questions, such as “the name of all vehicles”, “how do they use them,” “what do they want to do”, and “how do they do it”……

And at the same time, teachers don’t forget to give children times to do things themselves, such as problem solving, sharing, turn taking, co-operation and interaction with others. Children will gain confidence and competence, learn to be independent, and also develop their language and social skills through play.

No.4 Pretend Play

Pretend play is a very important part of learning. Children take on a role and recreate real-life experiences. They use props make-believe about a wide of variety topics. This is important to later academic success in school/ when children pretend, they have to recall experiences and recreate them. To do this they have to be able to picture and remember experiences. Children usually need to co-operate with others to defend their ideas.

Teachers can set up sandpit like kitchen, bakery or even barbecue area. Add some old tea set, kitchen fittings such as tin pots, pans and forks. So children can make mud pies or cakes, cook “dinner” and make tea. Moreover, teachers can use natural materials like rocks, shells, bits of wood to create the appearance of a house and garden. Children can help to design their own family by thinking and creating.

Through pretend play, Children can develop their social skills, such as:

• Interact with others;
• Express individuality and creativity;
• Play co-operatively with others;
• Role play and re-enact life experiences;
• Develop the ability to imagine

Improve cognitive development, such as:

• Use symbols to represent real objects and situations;
• Identify and plan play episodes with others;
• Draw on past information and experience to solve problems;
• Classify props according to common characteristics;
• Persevere at a task

Physical Development:

• Improve small muscle control;
• Use hand and eye-co-ordination;
• Use visual discrimination skills—matching and grouping objects

Values of sand play:

• Provides sensory experiences
• Opportunities to explore and experiment with different textures
• Creative construction and building
• Solitary play experiences-concentration, total involvement
• Role playing-dramatic experiences
• Language skills-conversation
• Develops co-ordination and manipulative skills
• Concentration
• Can achieve success/satisfaction on completing tasks
• Develops science and mathematical concepts
• Co-operative play-sharing

Sandpit fun activities:

No.1 Sandpit volcanoes

Sandpit volcanoes activity is a good activity for children to explore science through having fun.

You need Volcanoes Ingredients:

• Baking Soda
• Vinegar
• Food Coloring
• Container

Instruction:

• Make a mound in the sand like a volcano; and put the container on the top of the volcano;
• Add baking soda and food coloring (prefer Red color) into the container;
• Pour in some vinegar and watch it explode

What children learn from the activity:

Asking children to make a mound by digging, raking, molding sand with peers or by themselves, which gives kids opportunity to develop their gross and fine motor skills and also to learn the importance of team work.

Letting children to engaged in the activity by taking turns, following the instruction, and communicating with others, which promotes children’s interaction with others and also learn how to share with peers. Discussing with children what kinds of ingredients you used, and why this phenomenon happens. Children will develop their language and also learn about maths and science.

No.2 Dinosaurs’ Paradise

Collect some stones and twigs with leaves on to make a landscape for Dinosaurs. Display different plastic dinosaur toys in the sandpit. Children may be interested on it. They can have dramatic play with dinosaurs or pretend to be a giant dinosaur roaring and eating. They can also recognize different kind of dinosaurs, develop their language and also extend their imagination.

Welcome everyone to give me more ideas about sandpit play. I’m going to collect more activities on sandpit play which provides a lot of fun for kids.

Please follow this link to read sandpit play ideas part 2.

When early childhood teachers use literature to gain information, they should first identify their reading purpose, and then make a plan to help them clarify clearly what they want to know. For example, they could examine the title of the selection to find and select the most relevant information, and then set questions about what they are looking for. The clear they are at trying to discover relevant information, the easier it is to find in the literature.

Combining the scanning and in-depth reading skills in study will help early childhood teachers to get relevant information from a great deal of material. The scanning skill consists of searching for important information and the most outstanding facts. It requires a high speed while looking for answers to specific questions. The in-depth skill requires the early childhood teachers to comprehend the ideas and arguments the literature contains. When they find what they need, they may need to re-read the relevant material more carefully, even several times, and note down what they do not understand to review later. It is an essential way for early childhood teachers to gain new knowledge and improve their ability. They need to make sure they understand the ideas clearly, and reflect on what they have read and ask themselves questions relating to the text and phrase the answer positively. They can use their notes and reflections to help themselves comprehend the text.

In conclusion, different people have different reading strategies; it depends on the reading purpose. Early childhood teachers should look for the effective reading strategies that suit themselves. An effective plan for reading literature is a good beginning for early childhood teachers.