Board Games at Choice Time

Board games are wonderful learning tools for young children. They can teach important social skills such as communicating verbally, sharing and waiting, taking turns, and enjoying interaction with others as they share each other’s ideas. Board games can foster the ability to focus, and lengthen a child’s attention span by encouraging the completion of an exciting, enjoyable game. In addition to teaching young children about patience and good sportsmanship, board games also help children improve their literacy, mathematical, memory and spatial skills.

As a selection during Choice Time, the Cardinals were provided with the opportunity to play either Candyland ...

or The Lady Bug Game....

They were so excited to have these choices. One Cardinal responded, “I want to play the Ladybug Game cause I already know how to play the Candyland Game and I want to learn a new one.” It is amazing all the leaning that takes place just by virtue of playing these board games. 

Artistic Expression: Collage

Creative thinking and expression is an important component of the Cardinals’ early learning experiences. One of the many opportunities provided for them to develop their imagination and creativity is by attending Art class with Amanda.  

During our Art class this week, Amanda introduced the artistic composition of putting things together that is called a collage. “We are going to glue things together”, she began by saying.   Amanda explained to the Cardinals that the word collage is a French word “and it actually means glue.” She invited the Cardinals to create pictures of roads and houses by using cut out pieces of construction paper in a variety of geometric shapes and colors. She encouraged them to first start by laying out unglued shapes in an overlapping design. Once they crafted their picture, then they could begin by applying glue to the back of each piece.  Once done, they could draw details in their picture with a marker.

Everyone had so much fun with this activity! The Cardinals truly enjoyed the challenge of using their imagination to create their very own house. Ask them what details they added to their masterpiece.

A great Wednesday!

What a fun filled day we had. After a much enjoyed Meeting for Worship gathering, we headed for the Music room for our scheduled music class with Aedín. We sang .... and we danced .... and we played some percussion instruments. 

  

To help us practice the skill of turn-taking, Aedín created a Cardinal tree. Once a Cardinal student takes a turn, he or she places their cardinal bird on the tree. What a fantastic way to assure that each person has a chance at participating in some way or another. Great idea, Aedín!

After our Music experience, we went to our classroom to enjoy a delicious snack brought in by Katy and Tori. In honor of their 5^th birthday, Katy and Tori brought cupcakes to share with us all.  Mmm, mmm, good! Delicious! Thank you Katy and Tori! ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

 

 

Following the Jackson girls’ celebration, we headed outdoors to enjoy a cool wintery day.

We ended our morning with Math Workshops. Last week we got the chance to work on sorting and this week we practiced the mathematical concept of patterning. Learning patterns goes hand in hand with learning how to sort. Both activities rely on seeing the characteristics and attributes a set of items has in common.

During our Math Workshops last week, three stations were presented with a sorting activity. One station included (plastic) American coinage. The Cardinals worked together to sort dimes, nickels and quarters.

In another station, the Cardinals were invited to sort fruit counters.

And, in the final station, the Cardinals were asked to sort foam letters.

Today, we re-visited the topic of Patterns and encouraged the Cardinals to create simple AB patterns.  We reminded them that what makes a pattern a pattern is that the sequence repeats in the same order. So, putting down a red square, a pink square and a red square is not yet a pattern. A red square needs to be put down to complete two sequences of the pattern to begin a pattern.

One workshop was set up with unifix cubes.

In another station, the Cardinals were encouraged to create their own simple pattern using cut out pieces of construction paper in a variety of colors.  Some friends challenged themselves and generated more complex patterns such as ABC, ABBA, and ABCDE.

In the last workshop, the Cardinals were asked to draw their own patterns. Using a printed pattern grid, the Cardinals used markers to shade in the boxes to create their own simple AB pattern or more complex.