Though it may not seem like a large age difference the capabilities of children 18 months old versus 2 years old versus three years old can be VERY different! So I love activities that are easy to incorporate in my multi-age classroom. A great example an activity like this is our recent caterpillar building exercise! A simple project that really required noting more than a pipe cleaner and beads was able to captivate and challenge all the kiddos! At one level the kids are working on fine motor skills, stringing those beads onto that pipe cleaner. At another level encouraging those that can to say the bead colors as they string them on, and even helping those little learners who haven't mastered their colors yet. Yet another level, having the older range count their beads once they have finished stringing them on was one way I kept their attention while some of the younger ones were able to get caught up finishing getting all their beads on. Then we had all the friends line their caterpillars up from shortest to longest. This gave me several opportunities! 1) I was able to work with the children on positional phrases "underneath", "on top" and "next to". 2) It gave me the chance to watch some of the older kids assist the younger ones and I was able to use this time to remind the older ones about using kind words versus bossy words. Hearing these instructions don't just help the older ones I'm guiding but it helps all the children learn those important social skills.
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Why are daily routines important in a Family Child Care Home? Having a small group of kiddos ranging from 5mo-3yrs makes having a routine VERY important part of our day going smoothly. A typical day here at Kiddie Korner goes a little something like this:
Isn't this pic too cute :) Here we were singing our good morning/ day of the week song and the kids were shouting "it's a great day"!
Free time is also when I remind the kids to get a drink of water and take a potty break!
They thought it was so silly that a friend had their shoe! But it helped reinforce the idea of ownership and building on that self-concept skill. After everyone had found their shoes we worked on getting them on. Some kiddos have learned to put them on unassisted. Others know few steps but need help pulling them on the rest of the way still. Last we wrapped up playing roll the ball while everyone waited on their mommies to come. Sometimes we play a game at the table, sometimes we play a game like this, sometimes we dance! Today this is what the kiddos wanted ❤
I believe that trying to stick with a routine is very important. It helps the kids know how their day will go. Those that are new to the separation from mom seem to do better when our day has structure to it. They learn that after snack we have one more activity before it's time to get ready for mommy to come. Transitions For some kids transitions are hard. One thing that I have found extremely helpful to get the children to prepare for a transition is to announce a five and two minute countdown. It just gives the children a little reminder that it's almost clean up time. This gives them a chance to finish up an activity or game they are playing without cutting it short. I've also found lately that a water break really helps with transition time because kids love to find their water bottles and they get excited to clean up so they can go get them! I follow the lead of the child in terms of how long to spend on the MGT activities during the day by starting an activity with them, leading them through it and staying near them for questions and help as they need. Once they are finished they really enjoy showing me what they've done! We talk about their project and then they put it in their cubby (or continue to play with it). From there they move onto what they would like to do. Some kids will stay at the table working on their activity until it's time for clean up, others will stay a few minutes and then move straight into free play. Sometimes, we have activities that the children love so much that we expand on it by creating more or bringing the concept/activity into imaginative play! The lion project I shared in the photos earlier is a perfect example. They became puppets that some of the children created characters from! Other times we have activities that was just don't quite spark their interest and they work through the project/activity for a bit and then are ready to go find a new activity to do during free play. The thematic study that Mother Goose Time provides each month really helps spark the interests of the children in different ways each day. They are able to connect different topics together over a few days. They learn concepts and ideas that they connect to real life and they will even bring them up months later! The ideas and materials really connect to the kids on their level of learning. One thing that really helped me to determine how to schedule our day and what to REALLY focus on in terms of what concepts, activities and lessons to work with the kids on was this Mother Goose Time article that talks about the different learning domains.
I love the skill wheel and it helps me to see what skills are getting covered with different activities and to get an overall idea of whether I've covered them within that month's activities or not. |
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Proud supporter of Mother Goose Time curriculum!All the posts in this blog are from real life experiences. We've taken the activities and materials provided in the Mother Goose Time curriculum and modified it in different ways to fit our lifestyle. Enjoy the read!
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