Me on the Map

Teachers and parents, here is a great book for learning about maps, it's called "Me on the Map" by Joan Sweeney. I have completed a first grade lesson plan on maps and have included this book into the lesson. This book is kid friendly and is told from a child's perspective. The maps in this book change from showing just a bedroom to a map of the world. Scale can be discussed along with the use of a map key. When describing scale, start out with a definition and then give examples in the book of maps with different scales. I found myself explaining scale by zooming a picture in and out. In the class that I was in they were talking about cities and what you would find in cities. By using maps students can learn how to find items in the city or find the city on a larger map. After reading this book, have the students/child make their own map. To make a map, you have to look at the room from up above (a bird's eye view). Everything is not drawn out perfectly, so a map key is helpful to explain what items are. There is so much that you can do while learning about maps and the book "Me on the Map" really is a great foundation to start out with to introduce maps. So the next time you are learning about maps, consider reading the book "Me on the Map" and see what you and your students/children think.

Lowercase and Uppercase Letters

This activity is similar to the number matching activity except that it works with letters. As a child learns how to write letters there is more of a focus on uppercase letters. Learning the strokes needed to form each letter can be challenging and that is why there is a focus on only one form of letters at a time. This also helps so that a child does not become so overwhelmed with this new task. For many children the first chance they have of writing lowercase letters is in their name. When writing names it is good to explain why the first letter is uppercase and the rest are lowercase. In my preschool classroom we talk about the way an uppercase and lowercase letter looks, along with how they are similar and different. We talk about letter lines being big, little, curved, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. There is a lot of terminology that goes into letter writing and can help a child differentiate between two letters.  In this activity above the children can match the big uppercase pig with the little lowercase pig. This is a good form of letter recognition too. When working with a child, you can have the uppercase pigs and say "I have the uppercase "A" can you find the lowercase "a"?" Adding letter recognition into different activities makes the learning fun!

Counting

Counting Numbers/Objects

Counting is a concept that every child needs to learn. This concept does not come as easy from some children as others. Recognizing that nine objects is the same as the number 9 can be challenging to understand. I have witnessed children also having struggles visually seeing a number 24 and thinking it is fourteen. The concept of counting by 2, 5, or 10 may help with counting objects, but it can also be challenging to understand. As you can see, as an adult we may think counting is easy, but learning the concept is not always as easy as it looks.

So what can you do to help your child or students learn this concept? The idea is to make counting fun! In the picture is an example of counting cow spots and matching it with the number on the other half of the cow. These cows have each been cut out differently, so the child will know if they got the answer right or not. The idea is to make the objects something that the child is interested in such as farm animals, cars, frogs, flowers, or princesses. Use this activity in real life while on a car ride, eating snack, or every day play. If you want have a small white board handy where the child can right the number down. This can help the child’s ability to say and write that number. I hope my ideas help as you tackle the concept of counting with your child or students!

Just Playing

In my preschool classroom we put up a bulletin board, as seen in the photo of pictures that had been taken throughout the year. We used the poem “Just Playing” to demonstrate that even though it may look like the students are just playing, it is more than play, it’s their work. This bulletin board shows all the different ways play can impact a person’s decisions down the road and what they are learning. In preschool we many times hear parents say “I want to see more teaching and learning, rather than so much play”. At this time the poem “Just Playing” becomes very helpful, as it shows what happens during a child’s play. Adults may think that in order to learn books are needed with core learning and the teacher needs to be the main focus and teach them every concept. If this were true, students would be missing out on individual learning and the teachers would be burnt out. A child play is their work and this poem describes just what learning is taking place in many situations during the day. So if you are a parent, just remember how important play is for a child and encourage it!

             Just Playing

When I'm building in the block room,
Please don't say I'm "Just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play,
About balance, I may be an architect someday.

When I'm getting all dressed up,
Setting the table, caring for the babies,
Don't get the idea I'm "Just Playing."
I may be a mother or a father someday.

When you see me up to my elbows in paint,
Or standing at an easel, or molding and shaping clay,
Please don't let me hear you say, "He is Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I just might be a teacher someday.

When you see me engrossed in a puzzle
or some "playing" at my school,
Please don't feel the time is wasted in "play."
For you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to solve problems and concentrate.
I may be in business someday.

When you see me cooking or tasting foods,
Please don't think that because I enjoy it, it is "Just Play."
I'm learning to follow directions and see the differences.
I may be a cook someday.

When you see me learning to skip, hop, run,
and move my body,
Please don't say I'm "Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning how my body works.
I may be a doctor, nurse, or athlete someday.

When you ask me what I've done at school today,
And I say, "I just played."
Please don't misunderstand me.
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to enjoy and be successful in my work.
I'm preparing for tomorrow.
Today, I am a child and my work is play.

~Author Unknown

Reading and Flip Folder Books

Hello and welcome to Emily's Exciting Activities/Ideas! I am a preschool teacher along with a student at Southwest Minnesota State University, obtaining my BS in Early Childhood Education. As a teacher, it is fun and helpful to share ideas with other teachers that can be implemented into the classroom. I hope to share ideas on this blog that may interest you. This is my very first blog and I hope you enjoy it.

As a teacher I realize how important reading fosters education and helps children integrate into our society. The concept of reading starts very young, with children being read too as infants. The more a child is read too while growing up, the easier it will be for them as they start reading themselves. There are many different concepts involved in reading. As a child is read too, they hear words being pronounced. They can also gain memorization skills as they listen to the story, remembering the plot of what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Pictures found on the page can help a beginning reader depict words. A lot goes into learning to read, such as recognizing letters along with there sounds, and developing phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming words or words with the same sounds in the beginning/end. When learning to read it is always more appealing if the learning is fun.

To incorporate rhyming into reading, I made a flip folder book as seen in the pictures. Rhyming is fun when it is silly, so when I made this book the one animal sits on the other animal. The outside sections of the book flip back and forth. By having the sections flip children can change the pages to have different animals sit on each other, without the rhyming. With there being a picture of the animal, along with the name it can make it easier for beginner readers, as they only need to read the simple sight words in the middle. Do you have a young child learning to read? Make a “Silly Animal Rhyming Words” book or any other flip folder book that they may enjoy!