The Shape Song

Shape-tastic!!!

Learning to identify and categorize different shapes is an important early childhood skill, which also helps your child prepare for kindergarten geometry standards.

When discussing shapes with your child, there are no limits to what shapes to discuss. It is always good to start with the basics: square, triangle, circle, and rectangle. However, youngsters love stars, hearts, octagons, and trapezoids.  Talk about the number of sides and where your child has seen the shape before. This can be on the road, on their plate, in a book, or on the internet.

My preschoolers love shape stories. We make a scene by combining basic shapes. This simple yet exciting activity can build your child’s knowledge of shapes, ability to analyze and categorized, and create a scene by combining these skills.

For example, I want to make a house. I am going to begin with a big square. For the roof, I am going to draw a big triangle. Now, I need a door. A door is the shape of a rectangle. Oh, I need a door handle as well. My door handle can be a circle. I want two windows. I want my windows to be squares. What else can I add to my house? What shapes should I use?

My students add to the scene with creative ideas, which create whimsical scenes, as well as discuss science, health, and language. Some additional ideas to explore include the ocean, city, farm, and plate with food.

TAKE A LOOK: The Shape Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRuLS-Vnjs )

This animated YouTube music video identifies basic shapes (square, circle, and triangle), as well as the number of sides they have. Additionally, the clip concludes a shape scene which combines the basic shapes in various sizes. This is an excellent example of a shape story.  What shapes can you find in the picture?

TAKE A LOOK: Purpy’s Shapes (http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/ngames/shapes.htm)

Purpy’s shape game is a free, interactive, online game which identifies different shapes and allows you and your child to identify the shape of common objects. For example, triangles can be the shape of a piece of pizza and the capital letter A. You also get to explore a picture to find different shapes hidden within the scene. The shapes identified include circle, square, triangle, oval, and rectangle. This website will require adult assistance to support learning and help with mouse control; the user is required to click to select different shapes.  

Cooking with Kids

The inspiration for this activity is derived from my favorite memories of Sunday afternoons in the kitchen with my parents cooking tasty treats. From vegetables to cakes, we made them all.

Cooking with children can be a thrilling learning experience resulting in a tasty product. Through cooking, children learn to follow step by step directions, categorize types of food, learn safe cooking practices, and develop early math skills. Additionally, the conversations with your children throughout the experience can increase language skills and vocabulary.  

TAKE A LOOK: Monkey Mayhem- A Monkey Made of Fruit

Ingredients:

1 pineapple circle slice (face)

1 strawberry (nose)

2 orange wedges (ears)

2 blueberries (eyes)

1 apple wedge (mouth)

*Due to the wide variety of fruit required, this activity may be best for a group.

*Fresh, frozen, or canned fruit can be used.

Directions:

Explain that you are going to create a monkey by using fruit. Look at the ingredients… What color is the fruit? What shape is the fruit?

Begin with the pineapple slice as the base for the head. What goes on the monkey’s face?

As your child explains what is on the monkey’s face, let them select the fruit to represent it. I have made suggestions in the ingredients section. Ask your child, what do the _(ears, nose, eyes, mouth)_ do? Where are your _(ears, nose, eyes, mouth)_?

Upon building your monkey masterpiece, enjoy the healthy snack! You can find a monkey book in your personal library or local library to extend the monkey experience.

TAKE A LOOK: Pinterest Recipes- Search for the Perfect Cookie

For those who already love or will soon discover the creative social sharing on Pinterest (www.pinterest.com), it is a great avenue to get your kids involved in the search for recipes and arts and crafts, as well as teach your child about the internet. You can explain the purpose of a password and internet safety. By exploring the Website together, you are able to model appropriate behavior on the internet.

For this activity, search for a perfect cookie on Pinterest. Ask your child what their favorite cookie is. Talk about the different letter sounds in the word. Discuss types of descriptive adjectives for the cookie like delicious, tasty, and sweet. While cooking, talk about measurements and which is big and small. Let your child mix the dough and even use their hands; this will strengthen their fine motor muscles. Most importantly, have a sweet-tastic time!

Twitter List: Activities, Apps, and Research for Early Childhood

During the past week, I have created a Twitter list, which is a separate folder for Twitter accounts with a specific theme. In order to provide more resources for you and our classroom, I decided the Twitter list should supports the goal of this Blog, which is to encourage family learning, interaction, and fun.

The criteria for the accounts include early childhood/preschool relevance; technology incorporation; kinesthetic, interactive, and artistic activities, which are developmentally appropriate; and a consistent and concise theme throughout the Twitter account.

I hope you can incorporate the Twitter list into your existing Twitter accounts. By following these accounts, you will receive frequent updates regarding research, new technology applications, and interactive and artistic activities for your preschooler. I will be integrating some of the resources into my classroom, and I hope other teachers and their students will benefit as well.

Throughout the search for helpful Twitters, I have located several exceptional resources for you to follow and use at home. For the complete list, check out this link: https://twitter.com/#!/ZandraWarren/ed-529

When you actively engage your children in activities, academics, and conversation, an amazing bond is created between the participants. By playing with your children and possibly incorporating some of the ideas from this Blog or other resources, you can teach your child. Play time can be one of the most impressionable learning experiences for young children, so lets work together to help your children grow and learn to love learning!

TAKE A LOOK: Applications for iPhones and iPads- BrightStartApps @brightstartapps

BrightStartApps presents a variety of links to new and exciting applications for Apple technologies.  The suggestions are relevant for preschool learners and support academic and language learning. The most recent tweet includes an application for Pre-K Letters and Numbers through Famigo; it received four stars.  

TAKE A LOOK: Art Activities- Education.com @preschoolers

Education.com provides daily art activities and supplemental links for special events. The most current tweets supply links for an “easy-store puppet stage”, Dr. Seuss links, and sight word Bingo.

TAKE A LOOK: Current Research- Autism Classroom.com @AutismClassroom

This Twitter has links to current research, activities and applications to support your family dynamic, and support group information. Other Autism awareness groups tweet additional relevant research and activities. Some of the most recent tweets include “sensory-friendly” family films, links to literature and video resources about the diagnosis, and social skills activities.