Environmental Print is the print of everyday life. It is everywhere (on boxes, signs, stores names, restaurants etc) and because it is everywhere it is a natural starting point to teach young children to read, write and do math. Our food box crowns help the students with letter recognition and sound identification.
What Environmental Print can your child read? I love this picture. Look closely and you can see the hands and eyes are working together and concentration is so focused on the task of cutting a piece of tape. Using scissors is fun and mastering this skill will aid in the development of hand writing skills.
What cutting activities do you do at home with your child? Playing with bubbles engages students in hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills as well as language development (“Wow, that bubbles is big’). While playing with bubbles students learn that bubbles float in different directions, you can see through them and when you finally touch one of the bubbles it disappears.
How do you play with bubbles at home? WHEN YOU DRAW IT FOR ME "Tell me about your picture" is a great approach to help your child talk about their picture. Your child may tell you the process they used, what it is, or if they like it. The phrase is open ended with no wrong answer.
What does your child like to draw? The “Big Room” is full of gross motor activities. Gross motor skills involve the movement of large muscles in arms, legs and torso. Gross motor activities include walking, running, throwing and climbing.
Playing in the “Big Room” gives the students time, space and the opportunity to move. Mat Man Shapes is a book we use in the Handwriting without Tears curriculum. It is an engaging book with hands-on activity. This is a huge hit in the classroom. The students enjoy changing Mat Man’s shape as we read the book. While making Mat Man we use big and little lines and curves. All letters and numbers are made by using big and little lines and curves.
Lines and curves are everywhere! Are you talking about lines and curves at home? Why Yoga? Yoga teaches students body awareness, how to move more freely, balance, strength and flexibility. We also learn to stay in a defined space (our mat), practice taking our shoes off and putting them back on and rolling up our own mat develops hand skills.
What body movement fun do you have at home? |
AuthorMrs. Paula Paul Archives
May 2013
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