This article from NPR.org looks at some new research that examines the way young children play, screen time, and simple blocks. Well, you all know that I LOVE blocks. I even wrote about my new favorite blocs last week. In short, the research says that children who play with simple toys, especially when they stimulate adult/child […]
Sometimes the greatest gems are found when you aren’t even looking for them. Two weeks ago, I attended the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference in Philadelphia, PA. I spent each day agog at the sheer quantity of amazing people, services, products, systems, and ideas designed for educators. As an early childhood person, […]
This phrase “scope and sequence” can be heard in every area of education. “Scope” refers to what we teach and “sequence” refers to when we teach it. Both the scope and the sequence are very important when thinking about math curriculum. When I was teaching kindergarten, I was frequently questioning the scope and sequence of […]
All children want a “say” in what happens. It is only fair that they should get some input in the the things that affect them. Voting is a great way for young children to feel that they are involved in the decision-making processes of their day. As an adult, remember to use voting as a […]
Everyone speaks of the “consistency” of the routine for young children. We often say that it builds trust with the caretaker and the experience of childcare as children have an expectation of the day and when that expectation is met, they feel safe and secure. Did you also know that the consistency of the routine […]
Putting like objects together is called matching. Identifying dissimilar objects is called discriminating. The interesting thing about this is that the process of matching requires that children also discriminate. Imagine that you ask the children to put all of the small stuffed animals into a basket during clean-up time. The children who are able to find […]
What do toddlers love to do more than anything else? They love to DUMP everything on the floor. If they can get the bin off the shelf, then you can bet that whatever is in the bin will end up strewn across the rug. What begins as the “Dropsy” game (dropping items off of the […]
Children will sort naturally. They really don’t need a lot of special equipment, toys, or materials because they separate, combine, recombine, and organize their “stuff” all of the time. When you simply observe them at play, you will often see them moving their toys around, seemingly in senseless ways. But if you watch and listen […]
We have old friends who taught us a lot about parenting. When their children were really little (3 and under) they would go into their bedrooms, the basement,or the playroom, and find toys that they never played with or forgot about and rewrapped them so they had something to open on their birthdays or holidays. […]
Last week I wrote about traditional Nesting Dolls as a great math manipulative, so today I thought we could explore Nesting Blocks as an extension that post. Nesting blocks provide all of the good fun of sequencing as the dolls do, but they have the added benefit of being square with flat sides. This means that […]