Centipedes Chart About Their Families

Preschoolers can begin to understand charting, graphing, and basic math skills as young as two years old and should be exposed to them. 

At the beginning of each school year, we begin introducing the preschoolers to simple charts and graphs. Our older Centipedes, like Myla, have already had lots of experience graphing and are eager to write their names on our family chart. 

Anna Lee, one of our new preschoolers, watched the older Centipedes and wanted to try writing too. In the beginning of her process of learning to write, she will make combinations of lines, circles, and dots that aren't necessarily representations of specific letters, yet. Over the next year, her scribbles will develop into recognizable symbols.

Kaya is beginning to use the correct tripod grasp. This grasp requires the thumb, index, and middle fingers to work together and is also called the pincer grasp.Young children usually begin writing by holding their writing tools in a closed fist grasp. When using the fist grasp the toddler moves their writing tool using mostly her shoulder and entire arm. The fist grasp requires extra effort and child who uses a closed fist grasp will tire easily and struggle with the task of writing. Once a preschooler develops a tripod grasp, the child moves his fingers with the writing utensil and doesn't use the entire arm.

Through graphing, children can sort objects by color, size, and shape, count them, and record the data on charts. Charts can reflect the number of snowy days in December, how many bean plants have sprouted, or the number of children with pets.