Saturday, March 14, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Science experiemnet 1
Fruit or vegetable?
Resources: different foods such as; tomato, carrot, avocado, orange, potato, starwberry ect., chopping board and a knife.
Classifying foods as fruits or vegetables.
Cut all of the foods in half.
Look at the insides an see if you can see a seed or not.
If there is a seed then the food is classified as a fruit (avocado and tomato are classified as fruits).
Explain this to the child/children.
Ask the child/children to decide whether the rest are fuits or vegetables.
Once finished enjoy the great taste of the fruits and vegetables!
I like to do this one at lunch time.
Resources: different foods such as; tomato, carrot, avocado, orange, potato, starwberry ect., chopping board and a knife.
Classifying foods as fruits or vegetables.
Cut all of the foods in half.
Look at the insides an see if you can see a seed or not.
If there is a seed then the food is classified as a fruit (avocado and tomato are classified as fruits).
Explain this to the child/children.
Ask the child/children to decide whether the rest are fuits or vegetables.
Once finished enjoy the great taste of the fruits and vegetables!
I like to do this one at lunch time.
Outdoor activity 1
Puzzle hunt
Players: 3 or more plus a supervisor
Ages: 5-10
Resources: Picture/drawing for the children to cut out, scissors
This game combines the fun of a search with the challenge of a puzzle.
Children create their own puzzles by cutting out pictures or drawings the created earlier. They should cut them into 4 (or 6, 8 or 9 for a greater challenge) pieces. The children swap 1 piece of their puzzle to anopther player. The rest of the pieces are hidden through out the yard (or room if playing indoors) by the supervisor. The children must then find only the pieces of the puzzle that match the one in their hands. If they find a different piece they must leave it in the position it was found. The player to find all pieces of the puzzle first wins the game. Encourage the winner to then help the other players to complete their puzzles.
Enjoy! This game is a great time waster and children have fun making their own puzzles.
Players: 3 or more plus a supervisor
Ages: 5-10
Resources: Picture/drawing for the children to cut out, scissors
This game combines the fun of a search with the challenge of a puzzle.
Children create their own puzzles by cutting out pictures or drawings the created earlier. They should cut them into 4 (or 6, 8 or 9 for a greater challenge) pieces. The children swap 1 piece of their puzzle to anopther player. The rest of the pieces are hidden through out the yard (or room if playing indoors) by the supervisor. The children must then find only the pieces of the puzzle that match the one in their hands. If they find a different piece they must leave it in the position it was found. The player to find all pieces of the puzzle first wins the game. Encourage the winner to then help the other players to complete their puzzles.
Enjoy! This game is a great time waster and children have fun making their own puzzles.
Fisrt installment: Indoor activity
Tongue Twisters
Players: 2 or more plus adult or older child to provide tongue twister
Ages: 4 and up
Resources: timer or stopwatch
This is a contest to see who can repeat the most tongue twisters at lightning speed. Children absoluely LOVE the silly sounds and slip-ups they make during this game.
An adult gives each player a tongue twister to repeat as many times as they can before making a mistake. The players are timed and the next player tries to beat the time without making a mistake. For fairness players should be given the same phrase. The winner is the child who goes the longest with out making a mistake, or reapeats the phrase the most times.
Here are some tested tongue twisters:
- She sells seashells by the seashore.
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
- Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
- How much wood would a woodchucker chuck if a woodchucker could chuck wood?
- Toy boat.
- Unique New York.
- Red leather, yellow leather
- Six thick thistle sticks.
- One smart man, he felt smart; two smart men, they felt smart; three smart men, they all felt smart.
Give it a go. Older children as well as younger children will love this activity. Even adults give this game a go and have a good time.
Players: 2 or more plus adult or older child to provide tongue twister
Ages: 4 and up
Resources: timer or stopwatch
This is a contest to see who can repeat the most tongue twisters at lightning speed. Children absoluely LOVE the silly sounds and slip-ups they make during this game.
An adult gives each player a tongue twister to repeat as many times as they can before making a mistake. The players are timed and the next player tries to beat the time without making a mistake. For fairness players should be given the same phrase. The winner is the child who goes the longest with out making a mistake, or reapeats the phrase the most times.
Here are some tested tongue twisters:
- She sells seashells by the seashore.
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
- Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
- How much wood would a woodchucker chuck if a woodchucker could chuck wood?
- Toy boat.
- Unique New York.
- Red leather, yellow leather
- Six thick thistle sticks.
- One smart man, he felt smart; two smart men, they felt smart; three smart men, they all felt smart.
Give it a go. Older children as well as younger children will love this activity. Even adults give this game a go and have a good time.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
children's activities: the beginning
This is the first blog of my new blog site aimed at helping parents and educators with ideas for children's actvities and games. I will be posting 2-3 activities every day I'm blogging that will encourage play and learing through play.
Just to introduce myself, I am an educator with 4 1/2 years of study in teaching 0-8 (B. Early childhood studies, Masters of teaching 0-8 years). I am soon to be recognised as a primary school teacher and have a passion for educatiung children for lifelong learning. I am male and I live in Australia and I also love playing guitar and following many sports.
I talk to many parents and fellow educators that are often stuck for ideas for their children and ask me for ideas. This blog should help provide a variety of ideas for parents and educators alike.
Just to introduce myself, I am an educator with 4 1/2 years of study in teaching 0-8 (B. Early childhood studies, Masters of teaching 0-8 years). I am soon to be recognised as a primary school teacher and have a passion for educatiung children for lifelong learning. I am male and I live in Australia and I also love playing guitar and following many sports.
I talk to many parents and fellow educators that are often stuck for ideas for their children and ask me for ideas. This blog should help provide a variety of ideas for parents and educators alike.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Understanding of E.C. curriculum vs primary school curriculum
Early Childhood curriculum
- It is underpined by social constructivist theory, promoting the children constructing their own knowledges and understandings through interactions with their peers, teachers, community and their environment.
- Learning revoloves around play and scaffolding. Engagement is enhanced through observation and investigation of the children's interests and 'funds of knowledge. This allows the curriculum to be much more fexible and meaningful for the children.
Primary School curriculum
- My perception of the school curriculum is that is revoloves around Outcome based education (OBE). The focus of the teahing is for the children to reach the outcomes set out by the governing body (Board of Studies).
- There is a large concentration on standardised testing and uniformity of information and learning across all schools. This is a result of less flexibility in teaching content, and state and federal pressures to ensure high test scores for evaluation and comparison to the rest of the world.
- Pedagogy is much more teacher centred and there is a major focus on direct instruction, rather than the freedom of play and interest based curriculum.
- It is underpined by social constructivist theory, promoting the children constructing their own knowledges and understandings through interactions with their peers, teachers, community and their environment.
- Learning revoloves around play and scaffolding. Engagement is enhanced through observation and investigation of the children's interests and 'funds of knowledge. This allows the curriculum to be much more fexible and meaningful for the children.
Primary School curriculum
- My perception of the school curriculum is that is revoloves around Outcome based education (OBE). The focus of the teahing is for the children to reach the outcomes set out by the governing body (Board of Studies).
- There is a large concentration on standardised testing and uniformity of information and learning across all schools. This is a result of less flexibility in teaching content, and state and federal pressures to ensure high test scores for evaluation and comparison to the rest of the world.
- Pedagogy is much more teacher centred and there is a major focus on direct instruction, rather than the freedom of play and interest based curriculum.
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