Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hide and Seek with Objects

I hope you enjoyed sock day! Todays lesson starts with finding 3-6 child friendly objects that will fit in a medium size basket, purse, school bag, box, or anything your child likes to carry things in. Have your child help hunt and choose the objects and put them into their carrying item. Once the objects are found, find a cozy spot to sit and place the objects in front of your child. (Start with 3 objects first and see how difficult it is and add more as needed.) Tell your child to close their eyes and you are going to take one object away. When I tell you to open your eyes, you can tell me what object is missing.
Teaching tip: When the objects are in front of your child, say the name of the objects from left to right by pointing to the objects and saying it's name. Some children learn better if they touch each item and say the name.
Play the game for a while and add more objects one at a time.
Hide two objects rather than just one.
Play the game outside, using things from nature.

Object suggestions for more learning opportunity:
Use numbers that you have from magnets, a number puzzle, or print numbers on a separate piece of paper. (Number recognition)
Use the letters of the alphabet. (Letter recognition)
Use shapes.
Use your child's name. Print each letter on a separate piece of paper. (Name recognition)

Infant and Toddler Object Hide and Seek
Take one object, like a ball, and hide it under a blanket and say "Where is the ball?" a few times and then pull the blanket up and say "There is the ball!" Older toddlers can take the blanket off themselves. Try using 2 objects under a separte blanket.

Start saving toilet paper, paper towel, and wrapping paper tubes for a project to come.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sock Day

Take a laundry basket and collect socks from every family member of your house. Try to collect colored socks with the white socks. Below are some fun activities you can do with your socks.

* Sort the socks by color and size.
* Print color words on a piece of paper and have your child put the colored sock on the correct
color word. (For younger children use colored pieces of paper. If you do not have colored
paper, have your child color the paper.) Coloring the paper and having your child help you
print the color words are a great art activity.
* Make patterns with your socks by color and size.
* Roll your socks into a ball and take turns throwing them into the laundry basket. To add math
to this activity, make a target on the floor with a piece of paper and number the rings. Have
your child help with making the target. If a target is to hard, get three to four boxes and
number them. Have fun adding the numbers with your child. Use the extra socks as counting
tools to help them add.

Baby and Toddler Sock Time

Toddlers may do some of the activities above along with the following baby activites.

* Put a sock on your hand and play a body part game. Rub the sock on your child's arm and say
("I got your arm, arm, arm,") Continue with as many body parts as you want.
* Pretend your sock is a puppet and talk to your baby in different voices. Have the sock
sing songs to the baby.
* Play catch with your baby using a balled up sock