posted by Stephanie Forsman From the moment school lets out for summer vacation, anxiety about how to avoid the summer slide sets in. Summer slide refers to the loss of skills many children experience during summer vacation. As a parent, the idea of “practicing” skills over the summer was dreadful and daunting. Forcing my children to […]
posted by David Banzer When preschool children build in the block area, they typically build with a purpose. They may set out to build something specifically. This may change in the process but there is typically a clear process that occurs. Often, these constructions are representational. They are building something that they have experienced. An […]
posted by David Banzer In this past 2 posts, I’ve discussed math in block play and we’ve explored the building process of a younger child. In this post, we’ll examine spatial awareness and patterns in block play and examine more block photos of preschool children’s constructions. What do we see in the following photo that […]
posted by David Banzer I struggled as a teacher to use three-dimensional shape names. I still struggle with this and may need to look up three-dimensional names. What’s a cuboid and a rectangular prism? Most adults would know cube, sphere, and cylinder, but maybe not much more than that. In block play, some teachers, including […]
posted by David Banzer As a preschool teacher, the block area was my favorite area in my classroom and I spent a good portion of my time working with preschoolers as they built with blocks. Unit blocks specifically have enormous value in their use in the preschool classroom. Once children are familiar with the qualities […]
posted by Debbie Lee So far this month I have written about patterns of objects made both by attribute and positioning as well as patterns of movements. There is still another type of pattern. This type uses sound. The sound can be made by the body – vocalizations, clapping, stomping, etc. – or by instruments. […]
posted by Debbie Lee So far I have written about patterns that involved objects you can pick up and manipulate. Those are usually what we think of first when we think of patterns. Patterns, however, are so much more than that! The old children’s song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” is a pattern. You and […]
posted by Debbie Lee Last week I wrote about patterns and using everyday household items to make them. Did you think of some items around your house you could use? I also wrote about simple ABAB patterns in a row formed by having two different elements (fork/spoon or red/green) that alternate. There are other ways […]
posted by Debbie Lee From birth, the human brain is wired to recognize patterns. It is how infants are able to figure out the world around them. Because of this, young children can recognize patterns from an early age. We get excited when a child says “foots” even though, in English, that is incorrect. It […]
posted by Diann Gano I am block crazy. I love blocks, particularly wooden blocks. Block play is so important in the early years to help children understand important concepts in measurement, spatial reasoning, comparison, estimation, symmetry, and balance. It fosters creativity and reasoning skills. Our home runneth over with blocks and we very often […]