Activity ideas

Using Words To Describe Directionality

A lot of parents assume their super verbal and proficient little ones have a wider speaking vocabulary than listening vocabulary. It is not that your little one doesn’t “know” the words they are looking for, but there are certain language concepts that are not yet part of their speaking vocabulary.

For instance, if I asked your little one to look “under” the table to find my pencil, he or she probably wouldn’t hesitate. Your little one probably knows the word “under” in context enough to search in the direction that I am referring to. Or, if I am “under” a table and I asked your little one where I was he or she might state, “Under the table” using the position word “under.” But, in the context that I had a doll “under” something and asked your little one to describe where the doll is in their words. He/she may or may not use words to describe directionality like (under, next to, through, between, back, on top, over, above, etc.)

So, to work on developing this skill through a natural progression from head knowledge to incorporating these words into their oral voacbulary and using them abstractly, I am going to give you a series of position word activities using pictures of Casey’s little ones because she is such an awesome mommy teacher – check out her kidspiration blog 🙂

1) Playing Copy Cat Games: Casey loves to play these games with her little “Leyson man.” This is very similar to “simon says” – ask your little one to copy you as you place your hands “Over” your head, “between” your knees, “beside” your cheeks, etc.

under the bed2 — Casey's little one, James, hiding under the bed!

2) Hide and Seek: Hide a toy and give directions using position words for your little one to find it, “The block is between the couch pillows.”

3) Act it out with your whole body: “Can you hide under the bed? Can you climb on top of the stool? Can you jump over the pillow?” This part of the activity helps little ones meet the needs of learning through movement!Casey’s little one, Leyson, practicing position words with his farm animals!

position words activity — Casey's little one, Leyson, practicing position words with his farm animals!

4) Act it out with toys: “Can your cow jump over the farmhouse? Can your pig squeeze through the doorway?” This helps the little ones needs to learn in a hands-on way!

5) Use words to give directions: Place something (like a doll’s purse) between two chairs, then dialogue with your little one “Pretend that I cant find the Barbie’s favorite purse, but you know where it is! Without showing me, can you use your words to tell me where it is?”

November 14, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Homemade Newspaper

Growing up, when my cousins and I would get together we would always come up with new and inventive ideas for dramatic play. At times we ran a shoe store with all of my grandmother’s shoes that we would place a tag of our own, made-up price (which was a great math activity). Other times we would run a snack shop or bakery.

My personal favorite scenario was our News Stand. We made newspapers based on the information that we gathered from our own experiences or imaginations and modeled them after the structure of an actual newspaper article.

There are so many learning opportunities wrapped up in this scene. I recommend sparking the idea with your little one “Oooh, let’s make our own newspaper today that Daddy can read tomorrow morning before he goes to work!”

I realize that times have changed and newspapers are not the main source of information, but I still think that this should be something that you and your child can do together that will build researching skills, teach your little one how to collect information and re-create it inventively, develop creative writing skills, and much more. How exciting to see what your little one might come up with or what he/she is interested in writing about. How many different articles might you have (a comic strip, a weather report, a community article, etc.)? You and your little one could team up – you could be the journalist (writing down everything your little one dictates) while your little one is the illustrator. There are so many open-ended possibilities!

November 11, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Tear-ific AbC’s & 123’s

If you liked the Tear-ific Artwork activity idea from last week and if you are currently working on letter (or number) recognition, then you will love this activity idea.

Using the letter or number templates I made for an activity book in the past: Alphabet Color Font PDF or Numbers Color Font PDF, you can help your little one manipulate letter and number formation for better memory recall.

Guide your little one to fill in the outline of the letters and/or numbers with little scraps of paper that he/she has torn piece by piece. This helps your little one to really take his/her time learning the letter or number formation (how it is formed), as well as develop his/her fine motor skills, dexterity, and spatial skills.

Make a colorful alphabet or counting book or use this activity as a special art activity for the letter of the week.

November 2, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

ABC Hopscotch For Your Active Learner

It finally feels like Fall here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana! Although it will probably only feel like this for one more day before the weather decides to melt us again, it is the perfect day to get outside and get your little one moving. If you are like me, you like to get moving too so you might join your little one for this letter-naming activity.
I have noticed two mistakes on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to teaching letters: 1) we teach too many letters at one time 2) we stop reinforcing letters when our little ones “know” them all.
Today, I want you to do this activity with your little one EVEN if your little one already “knows” all their letters….this is a GREAT activity for active learners to practice their concentration on a few letters at a time, AND their fluency (how quickly they can identify the letters that they know).

Draw a hopscotch court with chalk or tape one down on the concrete if you want it to last longer and fill it in with letters of the alphabet instead of numbers. HOW you write the letters and WHICH letters you choose should cater to your little one’s knowledge of letter recognition.

*If your little one doesn’t know their ABC’s then write the letters in alphabetical order so that your little one can use the abc song to figure out which letters he/she lands on.

*If your little one knows 4 letters then write those 4 letters and 2 more letters that you can focus on teaching for that particular “court.”

*If your little one knows all the letters, pick upper and lower case letters AT RANDOM and place them out of order on the court and then erase (wet the letters with water) after playing a few rounds, and write new letters for them to practice naming them quickly.

For other ideas of how you might accommodate this activity for your little learner…contact me 🙂

October 3, 2011 by Jessica | 2 Comments

Creative Writing

Just a few days ago, I re-discovered my creative writing folder from my childhood and I LOVED this:

Rebus books that use pictures in place of words are usually for beginners to focus on a minimal amount of words on each page and use pictures as well as words within the print so that a beginner can see that words and pictures BOTH communicate meaning. That is one reason why I loved this creative “stamp story” (as I call it) because I was trying to tell a story using the stamp characters I had.

This would be such a fun writing activity for you to work on with your little one! If your little one is not yet “writing” – allow them to dictate the story to you and help you “write” when they can. You can substitute stamps with whatever you have in your house…..stickers, pictures (cut up double of family members and pets), magazine cut outs, etc.

This activity has so many possibilities that I would love for you to SHARE what you and your little one come up with on The Mommy Teacher Facebook Page

September 29, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments