Sunflowers Classroom (2 1/2 years – 3 1/2 years)
As children learn and grow their thinking capacities expand and become more flexible.The teacher support and guide this process by responding to child’s interest with new learning opportunities and to their questions, with information and enthusiasm. We also help children discover ways to solve problems that arise in daily activities. Sun, Moon, and Stars Learning Center encourages active learning, rather than emphasizing that children learn passively to adults.
All children are imaginative and have creative potential. They need opportunities and tools to develop and express these capacities. The way each activity center is set, helps Children develop social skills that help them work and play co-operatively and productively with other children and adults.
According to Kirstin Parsons from Get Set for SchoolTM, a new curriculum focused on helping preschool children prepare for kindergarten, suggests a few activities from the curriculum that parents/teachers can do to encourage these skills in preschoolers:
•Read -Reading with your child shows your children the importance of communicating through words.
•Draw – Children who draw often write better. Giving young drawers broken pieces of chalk or crayons to use forces them to hold the small pieces correctly.
•Cook – Make letters out of cookies to familiarize children with letters and to teach the importance of following directions.
•Sing – Sing the alphabet, showing your child letters as you sing. Sing songs that use their fingers, like the “Itsy Bitsy Spider:
•Move – Use and teach spatial words like “under, over, top, middle, and bottom”, along with visual representations. For example, go to the “top” of the slide or put one hand “under” the other.
•Live and Learn – Children can learn while participating in everyday activities. “Explain the concept of waiting in line when you are at the supermarket, re-iterate body parts as a child dresses or undresses; use bath time to count toys in the tub, draw letters on the wall of the tub in shaving cream and learn how to pour water from a pitcher”, says Parsons.
