Tutorial Tuesday: Pretend Play

Pretend play is such an essential part of childhood. My 2.5 year old has a grand imagination and loves pretending. Aiden enjoys making caves from blankets. Any time things go over his head (power lines, trees, bridges, etc), he sees them as tunnels waiting to be explored. Lately, he has been playing under the dining room table saying it is a tunnel. I decided to set up a little invitation for pretend play.  

 Our table has drop sides that make for a natural tunnel. I hung a blanket to the front and back creating a cave. 

 

Inside the cave, I placed several of his stuffed animals.  

 The animals were going to have a party in the cave, and they needed some supplies. I added some foam letters to a toy pan for some alphabet soup. I placed the soup on some torn pieces of orange paper that represented fire.  

 To a bowl of cheerios, I added some magnet letters and a spoon. The letters on top spell Aiden's name.  

 A stack of plates and a few plastic discs completed the setup.  

 When Aiden awoke from his nap, he saw the blankets covering the table. Curious, he looked at me. I told him he could go in the cave and see what was there. He crawled in and saw the party that awaited. He made some noises of excitement and began to play. "I'm going to eat some cheerios," he said. "My animals want some, too." He passed out the plates and gave them each some cheerios. He pulled the letters out of the cheerios and named them each. "A - I - D - E - N that spells Aiden!" He gave the animals magnet letters and foam letters to eat along with their cheerios. Not only was he practicing letter recognition, he was also working on fine motor skills by serving the animals. As he talked to the animals during his pretend play, he was working on language skills. Pretend play is a wonderful venue for practicing a number of different skills. It's all up to your imagination. Thanks for letting me share our fun with you! Would you like to see more ideas for toddlers/preschoolers from me? Here are a few of my favorites. What Can you Learn from a Cardboard Tube? 20 Ideas for Practicing Measuring Outdoor Sound Hunt Inspired by Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?

 

Trisha is a stay at home mom to her 2-year old son, Aiden. She writes about their adventures at Inspiration Laboratories, a blog dedicated to encouraging learning through creativity and play. Trisha is an educator with a passion for science literacy. It is never too early to start encouraging science learning (or any kind of learning for that matter). Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

20 Toddler Goals Fulfilled at the Beach

Well, we are here at the hot, sunny Lake Erie (except for that one day of crazy thunderstorms we got stuck in) for the week and I thought I would share some of the things with you that my toddler has been learning. The objectives I am using come from the draft of the new early childhood content standards for Ohio. The age group is "Younger Toddlers."

OBSERVING YOUR SHADOW

1. Show a sense of satisfaction when making things happen. (Approaches Toward Learning)

2. Recognize self as a separate person with distinct characteristics. (Social and Emotional)

THROWING ROCKS/SHELLS IN THE WATER

3. Using trial and error to discover how things fit and move in space. (Math)

4. Use trial and error and repeat actions to explore objects. (Approaches Toward Learning)

USING TOOLS TO DIG, SCOOP, POUR, AND FILL

5. Repeat actions intentionally to achieve goal. (Approaches Toward Learning)

6.Use objects in new and unexpected ways. (Approaches Toward Learning)

7. Explores the environment through a variety of sensory motor activity. (Approaches Toward Learning)

8. Use both hands together to accomplish a task. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

GATHERING, COLLECTING, GROUPING ROCKS/SHELLS

9. Pay attention to quantities when interacting with objects. (Math)

10. Notice changes in quantity of objects. (Math)

MATCHING SIMILAR SIZES and COMPARING DIFFERENT SIZES

(disclaimer: my son did not do this, it is just an example)

11. Match 2 objects that are the same. (Math)

12. Shows awareness of the size of objects. (Math)

WRITING IN THE SAND WITH A STICK

(disclaimer: my son also did not do this)

13. Use a full-hand grasp to hold a writing tool to make scribbles. (Language and Literacy)

And here are the rest of the goals/objectives that we covered at the beach while doing all these activities:

14. Purposefully try behaviors to make things happen. (Science) 

EX: scooping and pouring sand, throwing rocks

15. Try out different things with an object to see what happens or how things work. (Science)

EX: throwing rocks at different lengths, at different angles, or different heights

16. Focus on an activity for brief period of time (Approaches Toward Learning)

17. Show emerging signs of responding positively to limits and choices offered by adults to help guide behavior. (Social and Emotional)

EX: reminding child to share toys with other children

18. Walk with increasing coordination and balance. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

19. Participate in active physical play. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

20. Follow adult intervention/guidance regarding safety. (Physical Well-Being and Motor)

EX: reminding child not to go too far out into the water

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Tutorial Tuesday: Sign Language

My toddler talks, why would I teach him sign language?

Some feel that the use of sign language is only to bridge the communication gap while infants are still not talking. True – sign language is a great resourceful tool to help with communication at the infancy stage but sign language is just as resourceful for toddlers as well!

Many of the benefits still apply!

•           Reduce of frustrations (for both parents and children) & tantrums (when their point is understood quicker than trying to guess the verbal word they might not be able to get out intelligibly or remember!)
•           Increase in social skills
•           Increase in joint attention skills
•           Promote early communication
•           Increase in vocabulary skills
•           Increase in reading abilities and desire to read
•           Increase in visual attending skills
•           Increase in cognitive development (higher IQs)
•           Reduce “terrible two’s” J

Toddlers are able to attend to information presented to them much more than infants – everyone knows that. Why not provide them with educationally resourceful information while their brains are such active sponges? They are eager to learn. Using sign language teaches them a second language at an early age and being that toddlers are such visual learners, sign language fits in perfectly with their learning styles.  Toddlers are able to understand the association between the two-dimensional (2-D) picture with the sign associated to it.  They are so interested in the world around them. With the use of sign language, they are increasingly interested in playing together, reading together, and learning new lessons.

One thing I love about the toddler stage is ‘the power of the point’ (as I call it). Toddlers are at a great age that they understand and use joint referencing. So as the parent, when you point to something, your toddler will look. And this works vise-versa as well! When your toddler points to something, they expect you to look. This is a perfect way to learn new signs and increase their vocabulary skills. My daughter understands the sign for TREE every time we are taking our walk and she points to the tree. She looks at me pointing and I say, ‘yes, it’s a TREE.’  She always points to our family pictures in the living room – this is a great time for her to learn the labels of people and now sign (e.g. MOMMY, DADDY).

The benefits are endless. Many parents find that their toddlers and pre-school children are learning sign language at daycare as part of their curriculum. A few of my parents from classes or on the streets come to me and say, “my daughter is signing DIAPER because she needs her diaper changed.” My response: “Great – thank your day care because you are one leg up on that potty training thing that everyone else has such a tricky time doing.” But most importantly, it’s something that my family participates in together. Sign language – the benefits are endless!

Kristy works as a speech-language pathologist in the school systems, early intervention, as well as with private clients. Kristy uses ASL both personally (with her daughter) and professionally in her therapy sessions and by teaching classes, tutoring sessions, and workshops. She is a Master Level Certified Sign Language Instructor through Signing Time®, a new blogger, a student in Nova Southeastern University’s SLP.D program, a wife, and a new mom of a 14-month old. Visit her new blog and her Facebook page and become followers! www.hearmyhandsasl.com

Listening Activity

This activity is good not only to teach listening and comprehension of language, but also to gauge their ability to follow through with detailed, multi-step directions. Give each child a piece of paper and some crayons or markers. Describe an object that you have drawn on your own paper. Be very detailed using describing words such as color, shape, size, and various parts of the object. It can be an animal if you are studying animals or whatever fits with your theme. Give the children plenty of time to complete their work and then show them your drawing and see how close they came. An extension you can do is allow a child to describe a drawing of their own and see if the others can draw it. Also if its an object that you can actually bring into the classroom or observe outside, let the children see it or a similar object and give them a chance to describe it. Encourage them to use words that they may not use on a regular basis. For the older children, have them write some of the words they come up with.