Archive for the ‘Literacy Play’ Category
How to teach preschoolers and toddlers to speak well
Mar
Effective communication is one of the most important life skills anyone can have. There are many people who have excellent academic qualifications but if they have not learnt how to express themselves in a creative and interesting way, will lose out in many ways to others who do not equal their academic qualifications but have learnt how to communicate effectively through spoken language and how to co-operate and build positive interpersonal relationships with others.
Parents can provide opportunities for their preschoolers and toddlers to become effective communicators when they understand the different types of oral communication. Listening and speaking are the basis for language development and are as important as completing their written activities or perfecting neat handwriting.
- Provide an environment to encourage them to express themselves.
Effective communication is when parents learn how to allow their children to express their own thoughts and ideas freely. Have a warm and supportive home environment where they can learn to express themselves without the fear of criticism or judgment. Help them understand that making mistakes is a necessary and an expected part of learning. - Set aside some time to listen to your preschoolers and toddlers.
Listen empathically by encouraging them to explain and defend their viewpoints while at the same time listening to yours. Parents should try not to interrupt while they are speaking or finish off their sentences for them. Be patient with them as they might take a little longer to express their thoughts as they are still learning to put them into words and interrupting them will not help but will impede fluency and make them less confident. - Parents can forge close bonding with them by reading their favorite story books or watching movies together. Encourage them to express their own thoughts, feelings or viewpoints on the characters in the stories or movies by asking them open-ended questions. Show them that you value their individual differences of thought and opinion and encourage them to be original and creative in self-expression.
- Organize activities for your preschoolers and toddlers that will invite them to explore and manipulate ideas and think “out of the box”.
Have gardening, drawing or cooking activities together to provide them interesting life experiences as this can help to broaden their vocabulary and the more diverse these experiences are, the wider their vocabulary will become for them to be able to express themselves accurately and succinctly. - Encourage them to describe things accurately.
When they answer your question with an “okay’ or “all right”, ask them what they mean by that. Do they mean “funny’, “entertaining” or “interesting”? Using precise words is important for accurate and unambiguous communication. - Develop strong reporting skills by allowing your preschoolers and toddlers to tell you about their present and past experiences. Encourage them to reflect on these experiences by asking them to describe how they felt or how would they have reacted if it happens again and compare them with other experiences they have had.
- Reasoning skill is another important oral skill for them to inculcate. Training them on how to explain processes, articulate problems and suggesting solutions and opinions can kick-start their creative thinking to come up with a whole range of brilliant and imaginative ideas. Using their imagination is one way of thinking that leads to having great ideas.
Preschoolers and toddlers need time, opportunity and encouragement to develop these life skills and they learn best by ‘having a go” when they have nothing to fear or be anxious about and all their intelligence and creativity is employed to the full. This is the natural way to learn.
Tags: brain teasers for kids, preschool worksheets, preschoolers and toddlers
Preschoolers activities for pre-reading skills
Jan
Click book to view samples
Songs, poems and finger plays are some of the preschoolers activities that promote pre-reading skills. These activities help them to strengthen their vocabulary, develop memory capacity, hear syllables, gain phonological awareness, learn auditory discrimination, play with rhyming, understand sequencing and hear the rhythm and flow of language.
You can engage a little twist to singing songs. Play any familiar songs but sing each syllable backwards, for example, “Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool” become “Aab, Aab kcalb peehs, evah uoy yna loow”. When the preschoolers hear the familiar melody, they will recognize the song and the preschoolers find them humorous as they are sung in a funny manner giving them laughter and enjoyment.
Songs, poems and finger plays are great preschoolers activities as they can instill a love of words and language.
Creating books has many benefits;
- Train them to become readers and writers
- Learn to apply the literacy concepts
- Learn to associate oral language with written language
- learn how to sequence events
- Compose their own stories and write at their own levels
- Motivate them to develop their writing skills at higher levels
- Help them to gain confidence to believe that they are great readers and writers
When preschoolers are given the opportunity to create their own books foster an environment of excitement and enthusiasm encouraging them to keep and re-read their own books. Creating books is one of many special and meaningful preschoolers activities for pre-reading skills.
Dramatic play allows preschoolers to explore oral and written language. Ideas and concepts which they have learned and familiar with are no longer abstract and arbitrary but become real when they engage in dramatic plays. When they are surrounded by an enriched literacy environment, learning becomes natural as they can practice, experiment and explore oral and written language.
During dramatic play, props are usually used for their many benefits -
- To stimulate ideas
- To learn to interact by encouraging them to communicate their needs and ideas to peers
- To provide unique literacy experiences that develops their creativity
- To expose them to print from real-life situations and use these prints in meaningful ways. Suggested ideas are creating a scene from a doctor’s office where you have a receptionist writing down the particulars of patients using sign-in sheets or a scene from a restaurant with waiters or waitresses writing the orders from customers using order pads.
Dramatic plays are very fun preschoolers activities which provide the opportunities to discover literacy concepts in a natural environment or setting.
Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.
Tags: games for fun kids, kindergarten learning, kindergarten letter activities, pre-reading skills, preschoolers activities
Funny for kids’ animal games
Jan
Laughter is a powerful tool in childhood education for its many benefits -
- Develops good social skills – laughter helps to break the ice and creates bonds between people
- Develops pre-reading skills – kids love poems and nursery rhymes for their rhyming words or nonsense syllables
- Develops creativity – when kids are given the opportunities to do silly or funny things such as walking backwards or walk and quack like a duck instill in them a sense of humor which has long-term benefits such as they are encouraged or allowed to stretch their imagination, think outside the box and expose them to look at situations from different perspectives.
- Develops cognitive thinking – among the areas of cognitive thinking are intelligence, reasoning, language development and memory. Laughter can increase learning and retention as both sides of the brain are stimulated and when kids are enjoying themselves while learning tend to learn and retain more of what is being taught.
Below are several funny for kids’ animal games which will make your kids roar with laughter.
- Five Mischievous Monkeys
You can finger play while reading this short story.
One mischievous monkey eats banana (pretend to peel banana)
Two mischievous monkeys walk like crabs (walk sideways)
Three mischievous monkeys sing like ducks (quack and flap your arms)
Four mischievous monkeys dance like ballerinas ( raise arms and toes and circle round)
Five mischievous monkeys sleep all day (put your hands against cheek and snore) - Three little Pigs
Encourage the kids to act out the story as they are read and to make this funnier for kids, show them how to do the actions in slow motion and the movements must be in tandem with the reading. This game develops the kids in many skills such as body awareness, cognitive thinking, creative movement, emotions, listening, observation, reading, coordination and socializing. This is a group game and is great for parties too.
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs.
The first little pig built his house with straw
The second little pig built his house with sticks.
The third little pig built his house with bricks.
One day, a big bad wolf came to the straw house.
“Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
“No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the first little pig.
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf. (To make this even more funny for kids, encourage them to think creatively how to act silly while huffing and puffing)
And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
The big bad wolf came to the stick house.
“Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
“No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the second little pig.
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
The big bad wolf came to the brick house.
“Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
“No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the third little pig.
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
So he huffed, and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed, but he couldn’t blow the house down.
So the big bad wolf climbed on to the roof and came down the chimney…..
Splash! That was the end of the big bad wolf.
At the end of the play, ask the kids why the big bad wolf could not blow the house down and what happened to the wolf when he came down the chimney. Encourage and allow the kids to make up the ending of the wolf themselves.
Kids are fond of animals and can empathize with their feelings and when they are exposed to such funny for kids animal games help them to explore and understand the world of animals in funny ways.
Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.
Tags: funny for kids, games for fun kids, kids animal games, kindergarten games, preschoolers activities
Funny and playful kindergarten games that promote kindergarten learning
Jan
Children laugh when they are doing playful and funny kindergarten games and laughter can stimulate both sides of the brain, increases learning and retention and breaks down communication barriers and creates bond between people.
Children will roar with laughter when they hear, read, do or see something silly or funny.
- “Knock Knock” silly stories to promote literacy skills
This game requires more than one child to play and can develop rhyming and sequencing skills. Pair the children and ask them to pretend play as they think of something to say, pretend to knock on the door when saying Knock Knock and the other child putting their ear against an invisible door.Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Susan
Susan who?
Susan, the crooked cat who caught a crooked mouse.Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Peter
Peter who?
Peter, the knight riding on a white horse. - Reading to my Baby Toy/Doll – to promote pre-reading and language skills.
Children who play kindergarten games which encourage them to pretend to read during their early years are more likely to become successful readers. Provide the children with many opportunities to pretend to read, such as reading to their baby dolls. Find books with big prints and pictures and read to your child and later encourage them to read the same book to their favorite toys and you can also play lullaby music to set the mood. - What will Papa buy? – to promote creativity and imagination skills.
Sing this nursery rhyme and encourage the children to think what Papa will buy for the baby.Hush, little baby, don’t say a word;
Papa’s going to buy you a mocking bird.
If the mocking bird won’t sing,
Papa’s going to buy you a diamond ring.After you have sung this rhyme, challenge the children to sing the same rhyme but replace “diamond ring” with something else.
Children will enjoy these kindergarten games as they are delightful and fun to play with and provides the foundation for language development in their early years.
Consider downloading Mind Power Series today with a 56 –day trial at www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the Mind Power Series has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.
Tags: funny for kids, games for fun kids, kindergarten games, kindergarten learning
Funny for kids games – a new discovery in kindergarten learning
Dec
Adults often laugh when they hear or see something funny but when kids laugh, it might mean many things as they might only be mimicking the adults or other kids as they naturally model their behavior on what they see and feel around them. Parents who often laugh when they read, hear or see something humorous are subconsciously living a model for their kids to develop a good sense of humor. Culturing a good sense of humor can help to develop the kids pre-reading skills, creativity and cognitive thinking.
When kids are having fun and enjoying what they are learning helps them to retain more of what is being taught to them as the old saying goes “Laughter is the best medicine” can be extended to “Laughter can enhance memory skills and improves alertness and concentration”.
Here are several funny for kids games which will tickle their funny bone:-
- Tongue twisters
Tongue twisters rock kids with laughter and they also helps to develop language fluency, letter recognition, listening skills and fosters imagination. You can find many tongue twisters in the internet but here is one which you can try.
She wishes to wish the wish you wish, but if you wish the wish the fish wishes, I won’t wish the wish she wishes to wish. - Poems and finger plays is one of the many classic funny for kids games
I always love to do this with the children at my daycare center and it has never failed to light up their smiles. Try this classic poem.
Miss Polly had a dolly
Who was sick, sick ,sick (place your hand on your forehead and mimic a really sick expression)
So she called for the doctor
To come quick, quick, quick (use a toy phone and pretend to use it)
This encourages creative movement and enhances listening and rhyming skills - Short stories and dramatic play
This is another funny for kids games which I played during my English program and the kids enjoyed themselves so much that they kept asking for more short stories to play and never tire themselves acting out the stories over and over again. Some of the short stories which I played with them are The Three Little Pigs, The Bear who lost his tail and the Farmer and his silly Donkey. One of the kids will read out the story while the others act it out and it is really hilarious and funny to see how each group tries to outdo each other and had my center bombed with laughter. This can also be a great party game.
This game encourages creativity, imagination and reading skills. - Memory Train
This game enhances the kids concentration, memory and listening skills and would also help them to understand the concept of sequencing. Another great funny for kids games.Today is Monday,
Today is Monday,
Monday pizza,
To share with you,
Come and take your piece,Today is Tuesday,
Today is Tuesday,
Tuesday wind chimes,
Monday pizza,
To share with you,
Come and take your piece,Today is Wednesday,
Today is Wednesday,
Wednesday storytelling,
Tuesday wind chimes,
Monday pizza,
To share with you,
Come and take your piece,Continue the rhyme for the rest of the week and you can see the children roaring with laughter while trying to remember the sequence. This is not only funny for kids but helps them to understand the concept of time.
A sense of humor can be cultivated in children just as they learn values like love, respect and kindness. When children are enjoying themselves while learning can help them to learn more quickly and enrich their learning process.
A highly recommended site to visit for activities which are designed to equip parents, teachers, child care providers or anyone who are interested in early childhood education on the different aspects of child development, please click here as www.gamesforfunkids.com has more than 360 fun, enjoyable and brain boosting activities and tips to help children age between 3 to 7 years of age to explore, develop and tap into their individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills. The most unique feature of these activities is that the users are guided with short, practical tips on how to get the best out of these activities for child development. Click here now to view their sample activities and you would wish you had used them earlier for your children.
Tags: fun brain learning, funny for kids, games for fun kids, kindergarten learning, preschoolers activities
