Stages of artistic development in preschoolers and toddlers

Art is an important aspect of learning in early childhood education and must be carefully designed to enhance their artistic development and nurture an appreciation for beauty in their world. Art enriches the lives of all preschoolers and toddlers as it provides experiences for them in finding meaning about themselves and the world around them.

“From the moment the child discovers what it looks like and feels like to put lines down on paper, he has found something he will never lose, he has found art” – R.Kellogg1969.

Rhoda Kellogg has studied 100,000 young children’s drawings drawn with pencil, pen, crayon or brush and this extensive study has helped significantly in our understanding of children’s artistic development. She was particularly interested in the scribbles of young children and she discovered that children progress from making scribbles to drawing pictures by using a built-in, spontaneous method of self-teaching and would continue until the children were 5 years old and only in the later stages of development that children’s artwork can be coached and guided by an adult.

Kellogg also identified various symbols that have been drawn by children across various cultures. The mandala design which is a simple circle or square divided by intersecting lines is produced by children in different parts of the world.

Kellogg also discovered that preschoolers and toddlers unlike older children are not concerned about their art pieces looking nice or resembling real things but they move their hands to express a feeling that comes from within them and are delighted in the movement and scribbles they produce. With this knowledge in mind, it is important not to force them to look at physical objects and try to copy it but allow them to experiment, create in their own unique way thus providing them an opportunity to express their own ideas and feelings.

The artistic developmental stages are the scribble stage, basic form stage and the pictorial stage. Although there is a predictable pattern to their development, preschoolers and toddlers move through the levels in different ways and at their own pace. These stages can assist parents or teachers as they work with young children and provide guidelines for planning for a specific group of children.

Kellogg’s developmental stages

1. Scribble stage
   These are the earliest drawings of young children. They are simple and random markings, made for the pleasure of drawing scribbles. During this stage, the young children have no concern in trying to draw to represent anything but rather are enjoying the process of making scribbles on the paper.
2. Basic form stage
   Children begin to draw simple lines and shapes. Kellogg identified several universal symbols that children use around the world. These include the mandala, sun, ladders, spirals, wavy lines and rainbows. These symbols were being used to communicate and were the beginnings of writing. Children in this stage continue to draw for pleasure.
3. Pictorial stage
   During this stage, children use the shapes from stage 2 to draw symbolic representations of real people and things such as houses, tress and windows. They begin to identify their drawings, tell related stories and expand their drawings to include new meanings and understanding.

Positive and appropriate nurture of preschoolers and toddlers beginning artistic efforts can provide a strong foundation for later development and enjoyment of artistic experiences.

Tags: kindergarten games, preschoolers activities, preschoolers and toddlers

How to make kindergarten learning fun and creative

Kindergarten learning is the period of life where they learning to develop their motor skills, cognitive thinking, social skills, creativity and it is very important to ensure that they are having fun and enjoying themselves.

During this period, they love to play and creating games which are fun are most effective for learning.

Pretend play

Pretend to use an imaginary object and have the children guess what you are doing. You can pretend to hammer a nail, water plants, cook, swim or drink a glass of water. Reverse roles where you guess while the children pretend.This game never fails to delight them but do not look down on this classic and simple game as it fosters many benefits as it can develop communication skills, cognitive thinking, observation skills, creativity and imagination.

Open-Ended Questions

Ask children open-ended questions during their kindergarten learning as such questions can stimulate learning by encouraging them to think and discover on their own. Suggested open-ended questions are such -

How would you describe…?

How would you design this schoolbag to make it more comfortable to use?

How does this work?

Why did you pick that?

Why do you need to drink milk?

Who would you like to be when you grow up?

What does a cotton ball feels like?

What would happen when you can combine pretend play with open-ended questions? Awesome and “FUNtastic” kindergarten learning!

1. Baby, Story time!
   When you read stories to your children regularly you are encouraging them to be good readers and you can promote pretending to read by providing them opportunities, such as reading to their baby dolls. Children who pretend to read in their kindergarten years are more likely to become successful readers.
   Set up the scene in their bedroom and place their favorite dolls, stuffed animals on the bed. Give your child books with big prints and colorful pictures, play lullaby music to set the mood and encourage them to read to their favorite dolls and although they are not really reading, they feel like readers when they pretend to read.
   After the story telling has ended, ask them open-ended questions like -
   How does your baby feel when you …….? Or
   what can you do to make them feel happier?
   This game can be played at their kindergarten but you can also bring this kindergarten learning to your home as the props are easy to set up, very safe, a single player game and can release you well needed time to do your own work.
2. Vet, Vet, Help! My pet is sick!
   When children are given opportunities to answer questions, their communication skills and as they become more active in questioning and answering, their understanding of the language will increase.
   Set up props to make your play area look like a veterinarian’s office. Make signs like “We are Open”, “Opening Hours”, or something humorous like “No toys please, we only treat real animals”. Encourage the children to think creatively for more of such signage to be hung around.
   Prepare slips of paper for them to “register” their pets – name, type, age of pet and allergies to any food. Have children pretending to be the receptionist, veterinarian and the customer.
   Roll the camera, start and action!
   After the session is over, ask them open-ended questions like -
   How can you tell if your pet is sick or happy?
   What did you do to help it feel more comfortable?

There are endless creative pretend games which you can create for fun and effective kindergarten learning such as playing detective, doctor or firefighter. When you provide props to enrich the environment, unique literacy experiences are enhanced that encourages children’s creativity, stimulate more ideas to bring into play and capturing their interest as they learn to read and write and have fun at the same time. Fun learning is effective learning!

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, kindergarten learning, make learning fun, preschoolers activities

Preschoolers activities for pre-reading skills

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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;

1. Train them to become readers and writers
2. Learn to apply the literacy concepts
3. Learn to associate oral language with written language
4. learn how to sequence events
5. Compose their own stories and write at their own levels
6. Motivate them to develop their writing skills at higher levels
7. 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 -

1. To stimulate ideas
2. To learn to interact by encouraging them to communicate their needs and ideas to peers
3. To provide unique literacy experiences that develops their creativity
4. 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

Laughter is a powerful tool in childhood education for its many benefits -

1. Develops good social skills – laughter helps to break the ice and creates bonds between people
2. Develops pre-reading skills – kids love poems and nursery rhymes for their rhyming words or nonsense syllables
3. 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.
4. 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.

1. 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)
2. 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

How to match preschoolers activities to their learning styles

Every preschooler is unique and if they are guided or shown preschoolers activities that are easy for their brain to do, then they are most likely a good match to help them attain a higher level of outstanding competence.

The first step in the matching process is to identify their learning styles which can be categorised into:

 1. The Follower

Preschoolers falling under this category love routines, orderly and are thus very predictable and are self-organized.

2. The Dramatic

These preschoolers love to give, placing other people’s needs first over their own and are usually very sentimental.

3. The Inventor

Being imaginative their main trait, they abhor daily routines and repetitive tasks and are usually high spirited and love to reinvent the wheel.

4. The Thinker

 Preschoolers falling under this category like to be in charge and maintain order by delegating and in control by making the decisions.

Learning styles can overlap but observe which learning style is more dominant in your preschoolers.

The Follower

They excel in preschoolers activities which require using fine motor activities as they are very precise in coloring inside the lines, cutting along the lines but do not rush them as they are cautious and careful in what they are doing. They are best when the activities have step-by-step and how-to instructions and they may need a bit of coaxing before they are willing to try anything new. Explain to them what is to be expected from them and you can then leave them alone as they will know what to do and will complete them in time and exactly what is required of them.

The Dramatic

Preschoolers falling under this category are rather dramatic as they are very expressive and emotional children. Preschoolers activities which are a match for them are those which have finger plays, pretend plays and storytelling as all these activities help them to connect with people and an opportunity to express themselves.

The Inventor

 Preschoolers of this style find repetitive routines boring and stifling. They are imaginative and innovative and brain boosting preschoolers activities like puzzles, quiz, and mazes will definitely intrigued them. Challenge them to invent new games from old, for example the traditional game hopscotch as they are great at creating and imagining new and exciting games to play.

The Thinker

 These preschoolers excel in mathematical preschoolers activities as they can think logically, accurately, analytically and decisively. Jigsaw puzzles are also great for them as they like to take things apart and put them back again.

When you understand and recognize your preschoolers learning style, communicating and nurturing them will be more pleasurable and enjoyable. Focus on their strengths and abilities and help them to become the masters of their own thinking.

Consider downloading Mind Power Series today with a 56 –day trial 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, preschoolers activities