Learning to recognise and understand feelings is an important skill to develop in early childhood as anyone living or working with little ones will know! We want to encourage children to: Recognise and label their own emotions Learn how to manage their feelings productively Understand that other children and adults have feelings too Activities that can […]
Counting On when you only have a Minute
As a teacher I have found 2 things to be true ~ a) There’s not enough time in the school day for all children to grasp every learning concept. b) There’s always wasted minutes in the school day where you feel you should be teaching something but there’s literally only 2 minutes. It wouldn’t matter […]
How to use Board Games to Maximise Math Skills
Do your children love using board games and dice? There are an almost unlimited supply of great ways to teach and learn using this method. But what if we could tweak games to increase mathematical understanding in young children aged 3-7? There is a strong link between a child’s understanding of numbers as a continuation on […]
Let’s Unearth CVC Words
There are many wonderful (and super fun) ways for our little ones to practice putting letters together into CVC words. This activity is for budding archeologists and explorers who must not only uncover letters, but guess what each word might be in advance. One of the benefits of guessing, and hopefully writing, CVC words is […]
No Cook Orange Play Dough
There’s not much need for a post as the No Cook Orange Play Dough infographic is pretty self-explanatory. But I guess I’d better write something! I absolutely LOVE play dough. There’s just something satisfying about all that squishing, molding and pounding. No wonder it’s such a great tool for kids whether for fun or learning […]
10 Research-Based Tips for Reading With Your Child
Research has shown that the level of a child’s vocabulary in the home before heading off to school is an important indicator for school-readiness as well as predicting later academic achievement. Of course, this is not set in stone BUT, if we as parents want to ensure the best start possible we can’t go past […]
CVC Transport Mats for Play Dough and Driving!
Kids LOVE play dough. Kids LOVE transport toys. So why not create a learning activity that can use both? That was my thinking when I was mulling over a new activity for learning CVCs (3-letter words such as dog and cat). Since I was focused on transport I decided I’d use ‘go’ and ‘stop’ signs to […]
9 Easy and Crafty Math Activities
For this Brownbag Back-to-School Blog Hop I’m focusing on crafty math activities for Kinders. Check out the links below for more first day ideas from my blogging buddies! Are you going back to school soon? Are your walls and ceilings looking bare waiting for student work? Engaging your kids in a crafty math activity can […]
Interactive Bulletin Boards to Promote Literacy: 3 Little Pigs
Children LOVE visual aids when learning about fairy tales. Have you tried an interactive bulletin board? It’s a great way to extend learning beyond simple re-telling and to see stories in a new light. You can also use felt boards. This process can help Create a deeper understanding of the story Challenge children to think […]
Make an Interactive Picture Book: Virtual Book Club for Kids
Eric Carle’s books are famous for inspiring art projects for children. His book, The Very Lonely Firefly, is set at night and lends itself beautifully to oil pastels on black. My students LOVED this book and related well to feelings of loneliness and the need to find friends. The Very Lonely Firefly is born at sunset […]