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Water and Ice Play
The Beetles and Centipedes both explored water play today. The Beetles enjoyed tub time with bubbles! The Centipedes explored items frozen in water and also painted with ice paint!
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Catchin Up to Do
Wow- i just realized how long it's been since my last post. Life's gotten the best of me but I have some photos and videos from the last few weeks to share.
Eli and Marley work on putting simple wood puzzles together.
The Centipedes built an animal den at Lincoln Park using sticks and leaves.
Grace and Eli relax on a neighborhood walk in the double stroller.
Life's Simple Pleasures
Ahhhh... I love Fall! The colors, the crispness in the air, and the smells! Today we hauled two huge wagons full of leaves into our yard from the apartment complex next door. They had so much fun and so did I!!
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Group Play
As children grow and develop they move through different stages of play. Infants and young waddlers are usually involved in solitary play or parallel play. They play alone or side by side without necessarily working together. As children mature their play more often becomes group play. Kaito and Jackson worked together to build this structure talking about where to place each block and how to design their castle. They were very proud of their completed project!
Community Helpers Activity
The Centipedes are learning about how different people work and help in their community. During classtime they were eager to take on different roles; working together to get work done.
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Naptime
1 Darkened room + 12 adorable little cots + 12 cozy blankets + a handful of loveys & binkies+ a very loud ocean playing on repeat=
atleast a good 1.5 hrs of peace and quiet :)
I know it's hard to imagine so I took this little video during naptime last week. Ahhhhh.......
atleast a good 1.5 hrs of peace and quiet :)
I know it's hard to imagine so I took this little video during naptime last week. Ahhhhh.......
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What are they learning through dramatic play?
Pretend Play Builds Language Skills
Have you ever listened in as your child engages in imaginary play with his toys or friends? You will probably hear some words and phrases you never thought he knew! In fact, we often hear our own words reflected in the play of children. Kids can do a perfect imitation of mom, dad, and the teacher! Pretend play helps your child understand the power of language. In addition, by pretend playing with others, he learns that words give him the means to reenact a story or organize play. This process helps your child to make the connection between spoken and written language — a skill that will later help him learn to read.
Your child also builds vocabulary when she engages in pretend play. You and your child's teachers can introduce theme-specific words. For example, if your child loves to play with her toy dinosaurs, she will quickly learn the very big words for their names if you point them out. Often children like to pretend to do the things that you do around the house. Consider providing magazines, books, paper, and pencils to her collection of dramatic play props at home. Your child will be using pre-reading and pre-writing skills to mimic real-life situations. For example, she can "read" to her dolls and stuffed toys, "write" letters, make lists, and even pretend to take telephone messages with a toy phone!
Pretend Play Builds Thinking Skills
Pretend play provides your child with a variety of problems to solve. Whether it's two children wanting to play the same role or searching for the just right material to make a roof for the playhouse, your child calls upon important cognitive thinking skills that he will use in every aspect of his life, now and forever.
Does your child enjoy a bit of roughhousing? Great! Some researchers in early brain development believe that this sort of play helps develop the part of the brain (the frontal lobe) that regulates behavior. So instead of worrying that this type of activity will encourage your child to act out or become too aggressive, be assured that within a monitored situation, rough-house play can actually help your child learn the self-regulation skills needed to know how and when this type of play is appropriate.
Pretend play also promotes abstract thinking.
The ability to use a prop (such as a block) as a symbol for something else (such as a phone) is a high-level thinking skill. Eventually it will enable your child to recognize that numbers represent quantities of things, and that combinations of letters represent the words she speaks, hears, and reads.
Have you ever listened in as your child engages in imaginary play with his toys or friends? You will probably hear some words and phrases you never thought he knew! In fact, we often hear our own words reflected in the play of children. Kids can do a perfect imitation of mom, dad, and the teacher! Pretend play helps your child understand the power of language. In addition, by pretend playing with others, he learns that words give him the means to reenact a story or organize play. This process helps your child to make the connection between spoken and written language — a skill that will later help him learn to read.
Your child also builds vocabulary when she engages in pretend play. You and your child's teachers can introduce theme-specific words. For example, if your child loves to play with her toy dinosaurs, she will quickly learn the very big words for their names if you point them out. Often children like to pretend to do the things that you do around the house. Consider providing magazines, books, paper, and pencils to her collection of dramatic play props at home. Your child will be using pre-reading and pre-writing skills to mimic real-life situations. For example, she can "read" to her dolls and stuffed toys, "write" letters, make lists, and even pretend to take telephone messages with a toy phone!
Pretend Play Builds Thinking Skills
Pretend play provides your child with a variety of problems to solve. Whether it's two children wanting to play the same role or searching for the just right material to make a roof for the playhouse, your child calls upon important cognitive thinking skills that he will use in every aspect of his life, now and forever.
Does your child enjoy a bit of roughhousing? Great! Some researchers in early brain development believe that this sort of play helps develop the part of the brain (the frontal lobe) that regulates behavior. So instead of worrying that this type of activity will encourage your child to act out or become too aggressive, be assured that within a monitored situation, rough-house play can actually help your child learn the self-regulation skills needed to know how and when this type of play is appropriate.
Pretend play also promotes abstract thinking.
The ability to use a prop (such as a block) as a symbol for something else (such as a phone) is a high-level thinking skill. Eventually it will enable your child to recognize that numbers represent quantities of things, and that combinations of letters represent the words she speaks, hears, and reads.
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