DECE-1 1-5

Ans 1

(i)                  True. There are differences in the rate of development of boys and girls as in prenatal period i.e. before birth, the skeletal system of girls grows faster than that of boys. That’s the reason that the girl’s rate of development is faster than that of boys. The girls generally attain puberty at an earlier age than boys. So, yes that there are differences in the rate of development of boys and girls.

(ii)                The statement is false. Critical periods are the best time periods to learn but one can also learn after this period is over but would take extra effort. Critical period is a period where the child is mature enough i.e. absolutely ready biologically to acquire a development skill like talking, walking etc. If the environment is conducive enough to learn and practice such skills then child definitely acquires the skill in a stipulated time. But if not then Like, if a child needs to start speaking, for that she must listen the language first with her ears, her tongue, lips muscles and vocal cords should be developed enough for her to start speaking and once she has attained the maturity for this task she’ll be able to utter words. If there is hindrance in any of the above points e.g. she cannot hear from birth or she lives with mute people or the development of lips, vocal chords isn’t enough, the child will not speak as the kids of her age group. She might take time in this task and she would succeed only if the problem is taken care of effectively like speech therapy and keeping her in company of people who can talk.

(iii)               The statement is false. A preschool age child can understand the cause and effect relationships. By this age a preschooler has enough reasoning skills to determine the cause of the effect. Here their reasoning and problem solving skills come into play and child’s curiosity leads them to understand the cause and effect relationship. They want to know / search the cause of what all is happening around them. They are becoming aware of their surroundings, so they observe their surroundings and collect information.

(iv)              The statement is true. Preschoolers do have memory skills to memorize the sequence of number and saying out aloud but before acquiring the concept of number the child must develop the pre number concept which is ability to group, match, seriating and setting up one to one correspondence. A child generally develops these skills fully by the age of 6 or 7 years. A whole idea of numbers develops only after preschool years.

(v)                The statement is false. Crying is the earliest form of communication of the child. Upon birth to up till one month, this is the only sound a child can make to communicate her irritation or discomfort or distress to the care giver. Babbling stage comes in later- in between six to ten months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ans 2.

(i)                  Preschool education is important for children since it promotes growth in all areas and prepare child for schooling. The curriculum provided at preschool aims at all round development of children. The skill enhanced at a preschool are physical, language, cognitive, emotional, social and motor skills.

The preschool provides a setting where a child gets motivated to go with the flow and hence participates in group activities, make friends and develop their thinking abilities.

In preschools there is no primary emphasis on learning academic skills but they emphasis on building the whole child; learning basic social skills in a group setting and having the opportunity to have a structured morning of songs, stories, outdoor activities, art and listening to different kinds of music and using musical instruments. There a child learns  self-help skills and responsibility.

Once the child is physically mobile and can communicate his/her needs, s/he is ready for pre-schooling.  The environment at preschool is stimulating and the child develops social skills too. They make friends, learn to adjust in a group and learn to share and co-operate. They are taught about these skills by way of games, rhymes, songs and other playful activities.

If the child has not attended a preschool, then they may find the atmosphere of primary school a bit alien and they will be unprepared for formal routines of school. They may might find it difficult to adjust and may soon lose interest in school altogether.

 

(ii)           A close relationship between the child and the caregiver is the best way to nourish the child's growing brain. When a caregiver plays with and sings, speaks, reads or tells a story to the child and nurtures her with healthy food, love and affection, the child's brain grows. Being healthy, interacting with caregivers and living in a safe and clean environment can make a big difference in a child's growth, development and future potential.Babies need lots of care and affection in the early years. Holding, cuddling and talking to the child stimulate brain growth and promote emotional development. Being kept close to the mother and breastfed on demand provide the infant with a sense of emotional security. The baby suckles for both nutrition and comfort.. A strong foundation of trust is built in a loving and caring environment. During early years, children learn about love by being loved. Developing a strong base of trust is crucial during these early years. The most significant gift a mother can give her young child is the sense of being cared by her. Feelings of safety and trust allow children to expand beyond their own needs and to begin to appreciate the needs of others. These feelings are the first steps toward becoming a caring person. A  child begins developing trust in her mother/caregiver during infancy, as she learned that mother would be there to meet her needs. As she grows, it is important to maintain that trustful feeling with loving consistency and routines that help her feel confident and secure. When an infant knows that mother will still be there to meet her changing needs and that she can predict how you will react to her behavior, her sense of trust in mother will be strengthened. Developing trust during her early years helps the little one learn to form trusting relationships with others as she grows. A secure bond in infancy helps a child to communicate and form relationships throughout life. A child who has developed a feeling of trust interact with others more pleasurably and builds emotional bonds with them. They are more confident than those who have not developed sense of trust. This sense of trust and security also influence the child’s exploratory behavior.  They take more chances and develop their skills further.

 

Ans 4

One play activity each for the following:

a)      To foster the concept of conservation of number

b)      To foster memory

Tray Memory Game:

Things required :

·         a tray or a plate

·         Six to seven object (crayon, ball, pencil, eraser, a block, spoon, toy car, paper cup, flower, a fruit, etc)

·         A cloth to cover the tray

 

This game can be played with a group of 4-5 kids. Once the children are sitting around a table ready, place the tray with objects in the center of the table and describe each object. Once the time is up, cover the tray and ask each child to tell how many objects as they can remember from the tray.

 

c)       To foster altruism and empathy

Name of the activity: A role play

Aim: to make aware the kids that hitting someone is not good and it makes other person hurt.

Material required: an open space.

Two more educators or helpers would be required for this activity

 

The scene opens where a girl (played by an educator) is sitting on the ground and crying. A boy (played by another educator /helper) is passing by and sees the girl crying and asks, “Hello, why are you crying?’

Girl – “ my friend hit me and it hurts”

Boy- “Why did your friend hit you?”

Girl- “ Because I threw away her doll”

The boys hugs her and wipes her tears and says

“ You should not throw other people’s things. They do not feel nice.”

Girl- “ I shall say sorry to my friend”

They both go to another girl (played by another educator/helper) and The first girl says sorry to the other girl and they both hug.

Boy- “we must not throw others things and we should not hit others”

 

d)      To foster ability to identify common relations

Name of the activity: Things that go together

Aim :  to help childrendevelop critical thinking and logical reasoning skills

Material required: printed sheets equal to the strength of the group.

A sheet has been created where there are a set of pictures in left column and a set of pictures on the right hand column. The children are instructed to match the objects on the left side with the object on to the right side of the sheet.

The following pictures are on the left side of the sheet

·         A bird

·         A toothbrush

·         A pair of sunglasses

·         A picture of rain

The following pictures are on the right side of the sheet

·         A toothpaste

·         An umbrella

·         A nest

·         The sun

 

e)      To foster language development

Name of the activity: Follow the leader

Aim: to identify body parts and actions and few opposite words

Material required :   An open area. Can be arranged by moving chairs and tables in a corner.

Follow the Leader is a physical activity to work on identifying body parts and actions, as well as following directions. Children can participate by following visual instructions. The educator has to ensure to talk about she is doing and label every action

1.     Say “Shake your hands… Shake, shake shake and perform the action of shaking both hands so that children can imitate her.

2.     “Stomp your feet, stomp, stomp, stomp” and act on stomping herfeet alternatively.

3.     Jump at your place

4.     Raise your hands

5.     Look up

6.     Bend down, touch your toes.

7.     Take one step forward

8.     Take one step back

9.     Pat you tummy

10. Nod your head

11. Twirl around

12.  Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

 

Ans 5

 

The play activities which have been planned for preschool children should correspond to the short term goals set. After identifying the activities the main objective now is to sequence them in a daily schedule. The objective of the preschool program is to nurture the development  of cognition, language, physical, motor skills and socio emotional areas.

For the overall development it should be ensured that activities based on each of above areas should be included in the schedule. This would guarantee a balance in the schedule.

The schedule should have following features to make is qualitative:

·         The activities are developmentally and culturally appropriate

·         Should have few quiet and active activities for balance

·         include routines and recognize them as opportunities to further learning

a.     Certain activities focus on development on one area and few focus on more than one area of development. For e.g. an activity where children are asked to imitate educators action and repeat whatever she says focus on language skill and also on physical development. Inclusion of such activities can promote more than one area of development.

b.    At the start of the day there should be more of physical exercise as that ensures that the educators have the kid’s full attention. But such exercises can make them tired so a relatively calm and peaceful activity should follow like snack time, drawing time or story telling session.

c.     There should be a mix of outdoor and indoor activities in a day.

d.    There should be both individual activities and group activities so that the child get individual time as well as group time.

e.     The timetable of activities should be at practical. There should be enough time for children to finish the exercise.

f.     There should a mix of activities where few are initiated and instructed by educators and few where kids are on their own.

g.    There should be mix of old as well as new exercises. The old exercises will help the kids to master the skill and will give them the sense of accomplishment and new exercises will ensure that they do not lose their interest or get bored.

 

 

uality daily schedules for Preschoolers …

·         are developmentally and culturally appropriate.

·         include a balance of active and quiet activities.

·         provide for small group and whole group instruction.

·         allow for active exploration of materials within the learning environment.

·         include routines and recognize them as opportunities to further learning.

·         encourage flexibility to meet the varying needs of children.

A developmentally and culturally appropriate preschool schedule has a balance of large and small motor activities, indoor and outdoor experiences along with child-initiated and teacher-directed opportunities. Instruction occurs in small and whole groups, one-on-one as well as through daily manipulation of materials within the learning environment. Routines are also included in a daily schedule and used to further concept and skill development.

Structure and flexibility both play an important role in the daily schedule and will be determined by children’s needs, interests and attention. The daily schedule is an order of events that shape a child’s day so they can anticipate what will happen next. In general terms, it is “activity blocks” of what occurs on a day to day basis. The daily schedule must meet individual needs therefore variations in scheduling will occur.

The schedule should be posted in a location accessible to parents.  It should also be posted at children’s eye level and in a format the meets their developmental needs such as a picture schedule indicating the activities for the day.

(a)     

 

 

 

 

Ans 3

Cognition means the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

 

 

Cognitive Stages for Child Development – Learning Requires Basic Cognitive Skills
Every academic activity a child participates in requires strong, efficient underlying learning skills if it is to be completed successfully. Many children become frustrated and find schoolwork difficult because they do not have the cognitive skills required to process information properly. For these children, additional schoolwork, homework, or special attention not specifically addressing underlying cognitive skill weakness will simply compound the frustration and intensify the reading problems and learning difficulty.

Most schools do not allocate the funds or the time to provide the appropriate one-on-one training required by students struggling from weak cognitive learning skills. In addition, educators must teach curriculum at a pace that is difficult for students with underdeveloped learning skills to assimilate and process. Those students are unable to keep up with their peers and have been experiencing learning challenges and reading problems. They fall further and further behind, and often suffer a lifetime of learning struggles.

Cognitive Stages for Child Development – Stages of Learning

Learning is a complex process that develops through stages. It builds on innate abilities that are inherited and genetically coded at birth. Very few of us learn anywhere near our maximum capacity as established by our innate skills. This is why both study and practice rewards most people with growth in learning and performance. The flow of our learning development progresses through the stages of sensory and motor skills, cognitive abilities, and finally results in the ability to assimilate formal instruction. A deficiency in any one stage can result in problems in the following dependent stages.

Schools, government programs, and special education all focus on academic instruction. Unfortunately, they seldom recognize that not all students possess the fundamental cognitive skills required to efficiently process and understand information presented through academic instruction. Without the appropriate cognitive skills in place, increased academic instruction and tutoring does nothing to improve learning ability. It accomplishes little in its effort to help the students learn. A closer look at the stages of learning will reveal the importance of cognitive skill development.

·         Innate Abilities - A person’s innate abilities are at the foundation of the learning process. These represent the genetically determined abilities — and limitations — we possess at birth that we inherited from our parents. Mozart certainly possessed a greater innate musical capacity than can be said for most of us, but most of us can improve our musical ability with practice. Our upward limits are defined by innate abilities, but how near we come to performing at those upper limits is determined by other elements necessary to learning.

·         Sensory/Motor Skills - Sensory and motor skills build on the foundation of our innate abilities. Sensory skills are those such as vision, hearing, and touch. They are responsible for receiving information. Motor skills relate to muscles and movement and include crawling, walking, running, handwriting, and speaking. Motor skills give expression to the information our senses receive and process.Both sensory and motor skills are partially determined by genetic code and partly learned through repetitive interaction with the environment. These skills, in almost everyone, can be improved with proper practice. This is the basis for athletic and music instrument practice, physical therapy, and other similar performance enhancement efforts.

·         Cognitive Skills - Cognitive abilities allow us to process the sensory information we collect. These include our ability to analyze, evaluate, retain information, recall experiences, make comparisons, and determine action. Although cognitive skills have an innate component, the bulk of cognitive skills are learned. When this development does not occur naturally, cognitive weaknesses are the result. These weaknesses diminish an individual’s capacity to learn and are difficult to correct without specific and appropriate intervention. Like sensory and motor skills, cognitive skills can be practiced and improved with the right training. Changes in cognitive ability can be seen dramatically in cases where an injury affects a certain physical area of the brain. The correct therapy can actually “rewire” a patient’s brain, and cognitive function can be restored or enhanced. This is also true in students. Weak cognitive skills can be strengthened, and normal cognitive skills can be enhanced to increase ease and performance in learning.

·         Instruction - Formal instruction is the last and most diverse level of learning. This includes academic subjects such as algebra, reading, and typing — subjects that are neither intuitive nor likely to develop on their own. They are the result of formal education and are dependent on the strength of an individual’s underlying cognitive skills if they are to be learned successfully and easily. The knowledge base of each subject can be expanded, but without the proper foundation of cognitive skills, academic progress can be a difficult and frustrating struggle.

Cognitive Stages for Child Development — Cognitive Skills are Trainable and Can Be Improved
As individuals grow and as academic challenges increase in complexity, it becomes important that the underlying skills supporting those challenges are in place and functioning properly. Strong cognitive skills are the key to strong academic performance. Without them in place, it is impossible for an individual with learning or reading problems to perform to their potential. LearningRx training programs (ThinkRx and ReadRx) focus on training and developing the underlying cognitive skills required to excel academically. Through accurate testing and skill-specific training exercises, the programs are tailored to overcome a person’s individual weaknesses. The training is delivered in a one-on-one environment to produce rapid, noticeable, measurable changes. It is only after an individual’s cognitive skill set is in place and functioning effectively that they will be able to successfully conquer the challenges of learning. If you or someone you know struggles to learn or read, the reason may be a weakness in one or more underlying cognitive skills. If this is the cause of the learning difficulty, it can be corrected, and a lifetime of faster, easier learning and reading can be the result. Use the Learning Center Locator to contact the nearest LearningRx Training Center and learn more about cognitive skills training and how it can improve your life.

 

 

Chapter 14: ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE speech, LANGUAGE, literacy & learning

 

Activities that promote language development and use in the classroom

 

Objectives:

ü  Brainstorm materials found in the classroom and environment

ü  Have activity ideas for promoting language in the classroom

 

 

14.1Classroom Materials for Creating Activities

 

 

What are some materials you have in your classroom?

 

ü  Paper, newspaper, old magazines, scrap paper

ü  Pens, markers

ü  Pencils, colouring pencils, crayons, paint brushes

ü  Erasers

ü  Clay, mud, dirt, sand

ü  Chalk

ü  Sticks, rulers

ü  Leaves, seeds

ü  Beads, buttons

ü  Material scraps

ü  Dolls

ü  Empty packaging: blue band containers, cereal boxes, milk packets, toilet rolls, empty cans, empty water bottles

ü  Feathers

ü  Bottle tops

ü  Corks

ü  Stones, pebbles, rocks, blocks, wood

ü  Glue, tape, stapler

ü  Games, toys

ü  Books

ü  Water

ü  Boxes, bowls, cups, pans, spoons

ü  Paint

There are lots more!! In district trainings teachers were able to generate fifty or more items on their material lists. As teachers we must think creatively about how to use materials in our environment to support student’s learning.

 

Keep this list of materials in mind as you read through the following activities.

 

14.2Classroom Activities

 

The remainder of this chapter contains activities that can be done in the classroom. Some of them may not work for your group of students, but think about the ways you may be able to adapt them to make them easier or harder for your group.

The focus of these activities is on speech, language and communication, so it’s important to remember that these activities may be DIFFICULT for your students. Before beginning any new activity with childrenyou may need tobuild up the children’s self confidence regarding participation. The ability to communicate effectively is an area of particular sensitivity to children, and even to adults, as our communicative skills are such a fundamental part of who we are. As a teacher you have a lot of influence over your pupils and you have the power to make them feel good about themselves and their skills or to feel like a failure depending on your interaction with them. A child who feels like he is failing is far less likely to succeed than one who feels like he is already succeeding.

As teacher it is your job to make the children feel good about themselves and to give lots of praise and encouragement throughout these activities. You should be particularly supportive during the ones the children find most difficult.

** You should give a child 5 praises to every criticism **

Having said that, it is important to be sincere when praising a student. If a child is trying hard but consistently getting the wrong answer acknowledge their efforts. For example: “I can see you are trying very hard Abdul” or “that was almost the right answer, try one more time” or “Juma is doing a great job working independently.” It isn’t always so much what you say as the way you say it! Support your children verbally.

When you are choosing classroom activities you also need to think about the level of ability of the children and their areas of interest. As mentioned you may need to adapt the activities given in this manual to suit the level of the children you are dealing with (to make the task easier or harder) and you may want to change some of the materials that have been suggested that you use in order to make the activity more appealing to the students.

Children will be more motivated to do an activity if they are interested and enjoying themselves. For example, if you had a child in the class who loves animals and you want to work on his ability to follow directions, then you can incorporate his area of interest into the task by giving instructions that involve animals (e.g. colouring the giraffe red or selecting the small, pink elephant).

If a child has any difficulties completing a task then try and break the task down into small steps to see what exactly the child is finding hard. Work at the level where the child may be able to get it correct 7 out of 10 times. As they succeed on each step, increase the difficulty until they can do the task you initially had in mind.

Don’t forget you can also work with an individual child who is having difficulties within the larger group activity. Just make a conscious effort not to ostracize the one or two students you may be paying special attention to.

As mentioned before, it is important that children do not feel like they are constantly failing. Do not continue to repeat a task over and over again if students are consistently having difficulties. It is up to you to teach it or present it in another way to help them understand. Try to simplify the task, help a child do the task hand over hand or support your verbal directions with gestures/pictures or words. Perhaps the activity is just too hard and you need to teach them the vocabulary necessary to participate first.

 

As you read through each activity consider how you might attempt to implement these with your class group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memory Game

 

Best played with an individual child or in a small group (2-3 children), this is a game that can be adapted to give a child practice in any of the following areas(and more):

• naming common objects
• naming verbs (action words)
• naming basic concepts (including ‘same’ and ‘different’)
• using singular and plural endings for words
• using visual memory
• turn-taking skills
• following rules and learning to win and lose appropriately (these are important social lessons that need to be learnt).

 

Materials:

- matching picture pairs (choose the pairs depending on the skill area that you are targeting with the child).

 

How to play:

 

1. Use the picture pairs cards that you need to target whatever it is that you are focusing on with the child (if you are simply practicing social skills and visual memory then use the common object picture cards).

 

2. The first time you play the game you can place the cards face-up in rows on the table. Allow the child to look at the pictures and encourage her to look at the fact that there are two of each picture. Tell her that she needs to remember where the pairs are. Turn all the cards over so that you can no longer see the pictures on them but keep the cards in the same position as when they were face up.

 

3. You go first to demonstrate how the game is played: turn over two cards, one at a time, naming each one as you do so. If the cards are the same, you get to keep the matching pair and have another go, turning over two new cards. If they are different then you need to turn them over again so that they are face down, keeping them in the same position on the table so that the child has an opportunity to memorize where the cards are.

 

4. Make sure that you are using the language needed to help the child learn            whichever language skills you are targeting. For example, if you are working on plurals then say ‘1 dog’ as you turn over one card and then ‘2 dogs’ when you turn over 2 of them. Encourage the child to do the same when it is her turn. Or if you are working on the concepts of same and different, make sure that as you turn           the second card over, you either say ‘same’ or ‘different’ depending on whether the second card matched the first.

 

 

5. When you have turned over 2 cards that do not match it is the child’s turn to turn over two cards. Make sure you encourage her to use the target language as she takes her turn.

 

6. The game ends when there are no more cards left on the table. Each player counts the number of pairs that they have collected during the game and the child with the highest number of pairs is the winner. The game can be played with 2 or more players but remember that the more children that play, the harder it is for each one to remember where the cards are (as they have to wait that much longer for their turn) and the more likely it is that someone else will take the pair that they were trying to remember by the time they get there turn again i.e. it is easier to play with fewer children.

 

7. After the first game, you no longer need to have the cards face-up to begin with as the children will know how the game works.

 

Note:Make sure that the child does not get to keep any pairs until he uses the target language that you are working on. Do not lose sight of what you are aiming to achieve by playing the game.

 

To make the game easier:

• use less cards
• always have the cards face up initially before turning them over (as you did the first time you played)
• only have 2 players.

 

To make the game harder:

• use more cards
• do not turn the cards face up to begin with
• have lots of players.

 

Bingo

 

There are lots of different ways to incorporate Bingo in your lesson plans! It’s a simple idea, but can be adapted to use pictures or words depending on the level of individual learners.

 

Materials:

            - A bingo grid for each child

- A small pile of bottle tops for each child (buttons, small stones or squares of paper would also work)

 

1. Give each child a bingo grid. The smaller the grid, the easier the game. Start with a 3x3 square. See below.

 

2. Each child will have a grid with different pictures in it. For example different animals.

 

 

 

3. The teacher calls out the name of an animal. If the child has that animal on their grid they can place a bottle top on it.

 

4. The teacher continues to call out names until a child has covered all 9 squares. They are the winner.

 

What it teaches?

 

In this example Bingo is being used to teach children vocabulary. They are learning to associate theanimal name with the picture on their board.

To increase the difficulty some children could have written words on their grids rather than the picture. Then they would have to learn to pair the spoken word with the written word.

 

Alternatively, rather than just saying “giraffe” the teacher could say, “a tall animal that eats leaves and has a very long neck.” By using clues, you are helping children generate the vocabulary and expanding their knowledge about each of the animals.

 

The great thing about Bingo is it is extremely versatile and can be used in lots of different ways. I have seen teachers who use numbers in the squares. For their less able students they will hold the number up so all the child has to do is match the way the numbers look. For their children who are learning the names of numbers they will call out the numbers. Even more advanced, some teachers will put a simple addition or subtraction sum on the board and the children have to answer it correctly to know the number that is being called out. 

 

 

 

 

Nursery Rhyme Share

 

1. Choose a nursery rhyme and teach it to your students.

 

2. When your students know the rhyme have them act it out

 

Depending on the level of your students you can allow them to get into groups and decide how they want to perform the nursery rhyme, or you can help them and make it a whole class activity.

 

What it teaches?

 

Excellent in multicultural settings as you can choose whatever rhyme, poem or song that fits with your curriculum and the children in your group. Knowledge of rhyming couplets is a good predictor of later reading skills, and memorizing rhymes gives students a sense of poetry, story, rhyme, sequences, basic concepts, and song.  Specific goals you are working on could include:  Phonemic awareness, syllables, first sounds, and rhyming.

 

Finger Print Animals

 

Materials:

            - Paper for each child

- An ink pad

- Pens, markers, or pencils

 

1. Children dip their fingers in the ink pad and make fingerprints on the page

 

2. When the ink dries they turn their finger prints into animals

 

3. Children can dictate stories to their teacher about their animals

 

 

 

What it teaches?

 

Children enjoy the opportunity to be creative. When they get the chance to do open ended activities like this they can often show you what they know. This activity can be used to work on curriculum content (for example: in the boy’s work above he made monkeys because they had been talking about monkeys in class that day. The fingerprints could have been turned into fruits or something different depending on lesson plans for the week.) When you take story dictation about the picture this activity can also be used to help children develop their narrative skills.

 

Lunch Talk

 

Materials:

 - None. But this is an activity that must occur during a meal time.

 

1. During break or lunch time when the students are taking meals, the teacher can practice using open-ended questions about the food the students are eating.  Focus on concepts represented in the food (i.e., shapes, colors, tastes, textures, categories).  This activity can be done during other times of the day also.

 

What it teaches?

 

Emphasizes open-ended questions and the use of daily activities to reinforce language. Specific student goals may include: Increasing the amount and complexity of student talking (encouraging them to use more complex grammar and longer sentences), conversational skills and vocabulary. 

 

Collage

 

Materials:

            - Paper for each child

- Scraps of paper, cut out pictures from the newspaper or other collage materials

- Glue

- Pens, markers, or pencils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Children use the scrap paper or pictures to create a piece of art work

 

What it teaches?

 

This activity can be used to work on a variety of skills depending on how it’s presented. If you cut up a large pile of pictures from newspapers you can have children sort them by category and glue them (e.g. foods, sports, occupations etc..) Alternatively you can work on colour and make single colour collages. If you want to consider this a motor activity have the children cut/tear up the paper for the collage or cut/tear pictures from the newspaper.

 

If you have older students, or students who function at a higher cognitive level you may want to increase the difficulty of the collage activity. Try some of the other collage activities as described below.

 

Story Collage

 

Using newspaper ad inserts, participants cut out and glue pictures that will help them tell a story, then they will share it with the group.

 

What it teaches?

 

Emphasizes how materials readily at hand can be used to support vocabulary, narrative, and creative language.Specific student goals might include narratives, description and vocabulary.

 

Theme Collage

 

Like story collage, ask students to make a collage based on a specified theme (things we can eat or sports or transportation).  Have students discuss their work with the class.

 

What it teaches?

 

Helps participants understand how categories and relationships can be talked about in many settings. Specific student goals might include knowledge of categories, themes, relationships.

 

Make a Toy

 

Materials:

- Empty packaging and/or paper tubes, paper plates, string, newspaper, bottle tops,

- A stapler, tape, foil, wire or glue to assemble

 

1. Give the children ample amounts of recycled packaging. Allow them to work independently or in groups to create a toy
2. When they are done, have them show the toy to the class and indicate (via gesture/sign/speech) what their toy is and how it works.
3. Allow the class to ask the presenting child questions about their toy.

 

** Be sure to have the class clap at the end of each child’s presentation. There are no right and wrong ways for a child to respond to this kind of activity. Even if they only did a small drawing be positive about their participation.

 

What it teaches?

 

Emphasizes the language potential and creativity in easily accessible materials Specific student goals might include: Increase amount and complexity of talking with children, turn-taking, and question/response.

 

Concept Sort

 

Materials:

- Make picture cards!

-- You can do this by cutting pictures out of the newspaper and gluing them onto index cards.

            -- Alternatively you can make them using drawings/marker pens

 

Think about creating sets by category. For example make a set of colour cards, a set of ‘things we wear’ a set of ‘things we eat’ or a set of vehicle cards.  Try and accompany the picture/object with a written word wherever possible.

 

            For example:

 

            Your shape cards might look like this:

SQUARE

 

CIRCLE

 

Your colour cards might look like this:

 

Black

 

Blue

 

1. Give the children small sets of card to work with. Have them sort the cards into category piles 

 

In the beginning you may give students a set to work with containing only 2 categories. As they get better at sorting them, add more categories.

 

2. When the children have sorted their piles, have them explain to you WHY they made the choices they did. For example maybe given a pile of cards containing vehicles they will separate all those with wheels.. or they will separate animals with 2 legs from animals with 4 legs. If you ask the children about their choices you can get to know where there categorization skills lie. If children are having difficult sorting animals from vehicles, talk them though it.

 

What it teaches?

 

Concepts such as shapes and colours (depending on the cards created). Categories, similarities and differences, vocabulary

 

Odd-one-out/Pairs

 

Materials needed:

- A selection of picture cards or objects from various categories. Think about including fruit(apple, banana, mango,

orange, pineapple), clothing (socks, t-shirt, trousers, hat, dress), toys (teddy bear, dolly, toy car, pencils), animals (dog, cat, rat, lizard), household items (spoon, plate, pot, cup), and/or furniture(chair, table, bed, book case)etc.

 

1. Put 3 pictures in front of the child, 2 from the same category and 1 from a different category. Ask the child to tell you which one does not belong and why. Start with an easy task e.g. with a picture of a banana, a mango and a hippopotamus. After some practice you can make the task more difficult by adding cards, or including more similar items (e.g. by having pictures of a chair, a table, a bed and a cup).

 

Make sure that you mix up the order of the pictures so that the odd one out is not always in the same place on the table (which would make it too easy for the child- they are smart at picking up these kinds of patterns in teacher behaviour!!).

 

2. Lay out 4 pictures – 2 from one category and 2 from another and ask the child which ones go together and why. As the child’s skills improve, increase the number of pictures to 4 pairs and so on. You can make this into a memory game. Turn all the cards over, face down and take it in turns to turn over just 2 pictures. When you get 2 from the same category you get to keep the pictures and have another go. If the 2 pictures are not from the same category, you turn the cards face-down again and it is the next person’s turn. Continue until all the cards have been won. The winner is the person at the end with the most pairs.

 

What it teaches?

 

Categories (depending on the pictures used), similarities and differences, vocabulary, inclusion and exclusion of category members

 

Sharing Characteristics.

 

1. Students are given two (or three if you want to make it harder) pictures, words or actual objects that might be related by color, function, shape, location, material (wood, paper, plastic), size, or quality (sticky, wet, cold, hot). 
2. Students are asked to determine how the objects might be related, and explain their answers. 

 

When you do this activity with your children, you will need to provide many clues, models and assistance before children begin to make guesses successfully and independently. Always accept the answer given.  Children will be concretebut will become more abstract with encouragement and practice.

 

What it teaches?

 

Students can be reinforced for their creativity.  This is a good way to discuss enrichment vocabulary, which are not only categorized in terms of noun (things you can touch), verb (things you do) and characteristics (number, size, function) but are related to the current classroom themes.

 

 

Scavenger hunt

 

This can be done in many ways. The basic premise of a scavenger hunt is that you make a list and have your students find those items. Think through the items you’ll have them find carefully.

 

Some teachers will have students find objects that all begin with the same letter (e.g. ‘s’) as a way of introducing new vocabulary (so his words might be: smile, spoon, sock, soap, stick). Other teachers will actually make a list of ‘clues’ of what they want children to find (e.g. find something red or find something that opens and closes).

 

Materials:

- Make a short list of three to five items and write them on the board or a piece of paper. Be sure to draw a picture of the items next to it.

            - have the children either individually or as a group search for the items

- when they have found them come back as a group and talk about the objects

 

What it teaches?

 

Depending on how you structure the activity you could be teaching receptive language, receptive vocabulary, alphabet knowledge and sight words.

 

Charades  

 

Once again there are lots of possible varieties on charades. In its most basic form it is about having the students act things out.

 

1.    Students are asked to pretend to perform an activity using at least three steps, for example:

·         Making chair,

·         Getting dressed,

·         Going to the market,

 

2.    The rest of the students are asked to guess the specific three steps pretended by the acting student.  There will be some guesses that are correct, but were not intended by the actor as one of the three steps. 

 

What it teaches?

 

Temporal concepts: first, second, next, then. Routines, pretend play. Children benefit from as much experience interpreting actions at different levels of symbolism as the teacher can provide.

 

Water Play

 

Materials:

            - Bring in an assortment of plastic containers, buckets and cups

            - Water

 

1. Allow the children to play with the water. Guide their play with conversation. For example:
1. When a child is transferring water from one water container to another, make predictions about how many cups of water will take to fill the bucket. 
2. Look at the different containers and talk about which ones are bigger, which ones are smaller
3. Use words like wet, dry, more, less, lots, spill, fill, empty etc.

 

2. You could also add some other objects like stones, wood, and toys. Talk about which ones float and which ones sink. Can the children predict whether or not it will sink?

 

What it teaches?

 

Water play provides a great opportunity for working on foundation math and science skills. There is opportunity for questioning, measurement, prediction and testing hypothesis. Be sure to ask open ended questions to provoke children’s thinking.

 

A Look at Rocks

 

This kind of classroom enquiry can be done with any number of things besides rocks. For example: It might fit better in your curriculum to look at leaves rather than rocks.

 

1. Start this activity by posing a large question to the group. For example:

What makes rocks different from each other?

 

2. Ask the students how they think you should go about trying to answer this question. Write down their suggestions. Try and incorporate as many of these suggestions as possible into the lesson plan

 

3. Take a rock collecting walk with the children around the school. When each child has at least one rock come back to the classroom. Once in the room give the children ample time to look at each of the rocks.

 

4. As a group talk about the similarities and differences of each rock.  Be sure to make a list with the children. 

 

There are many aspects to explore – the surface area, the size, the weight, the smell.  The possibilities are endless!  See which rock is the favorite and why.  Be creative.

 

5. think about having the children dictate stories about their special rock.  Where would they take it?  If it was alive and living how would they take care of it? 

 

6. Feel free to do some classifying and grouping with the rocks.  Be sure to place the collection where the children can access them.

 

What it teaches?

 

Concepts:  rocks, sensory, comparison, classification.

Vocabulary:  rock, surface, smooth, rough, weight, heavy, light, color words, shape words, collection, examine, specimen, identify, edge, flat, round

 

Ramps and Construction

 

Materials:

- Do this lesson using the blocks in your classroom and assorted other objects from around the room.

 

1. Gather the children in the block area and start this activity by posing a large question to the group. For example:

What is a ramp? Does everything roll down a ramp?

 

2. Show the children how to make a ramp.  Use flat blocks or a piece of cardboard against the edge of a shelf/table or against a stack of blocks.

 

3. Provide materials for the children to construct their own ramp.  Have a variety of objects for them to use in this experience.  A natural object would be a small vehicle but come up with other classroom staples – small blocks, stones, a ball, marbles, markers, rocks, small manipulatives. 

 

4. Model for the students how to make an object roll down the ramp.  Give the children one object at a time.  Make predictions as to whether the object will roll down the ramp or not.  Help the children think critically about why an object will or will not roll.  Allow the children to experience rolling the objects down their ramps.  Revisit their predictions.  Keep this experience alive by talking to the children about the angle of the ramp.  Have the children change the angles with their ramps.  Make predications and re-roll the objects.  Revisit the predictions again.  Did anything change?  Was it easier for any of the objects?

 

What it teaches?

 

When learners are physically engaged in an activity that makes them question how and why something is happening, we know they are learning! Both this activity and the rock one above are activities that promote science at the primary school level.

 

Concepts:  construction, motion

Vocabulary:  ramp, motion, angle, roll, object names, fast, slow, move, incline, slant, steep

 

A Final Word:

 

The key to all these activities is in the adult’s interaction with the child..

 

As a teacher you are needed to prompt your students to think, learn, speak, explore, write, read, question, problem solve, discuss and narrate. The quality of the teaching is in the teacher’s interaction with the students. Their speech, language and communication development is reliant on your ability to meet them at their level and lead them gently to the next level.

 

 

Good luck, and remember.. it should be fun!