5 Benefits of Arts and Crafts:

5 Benefits of Arts and Crafts:

 Bilateral Coordination– Crafts such as coloring, drawing, cutting, all require your child to use both of their hands together. This skill is important in other areas of their lives as they continue to grow, such as writing, tying shoes, typing and so much more!

Fine Motor Coordination– In order to draw shapes, cut patterns, and hand writing, your child is required to use their fine motor coordination. These skills similarly translate to other areas of their lives, such as dressing ,eating, and in the academic setting.

 Self Regulation– Crafts that require drying require waiting! This is a great lesson for you child to demonstrate self control and patience. Also, as always things might not go exactly as we hoped! Crafts are a great way to promote flexibility in your child. There is no right or wrong way in exploring one’s own creativity!

 Self-esteem booster– Although we want to challenge our kids, it is also important to initially choose arts and crafts that are at your child’s skill level. Completing the crafts successfully will give them a great sense of accomplishment and pride. As you and your child             begin to explore more crafts, you can add in more and more challenge                                                               .                                                                                    

 Bonding and fun-Your kids will love spending time with you and creating something together!

Playdough is marvelous

Squishing, rolling, sculpting, molding...young
children love to play with playdough. Add some props from around the home and playdough play becomes a powerful way to support your child's learning. This simple preschool staple lets children use their imaginations and strengthen the small muscles in their fingers-the same muscles they will one day use to hold a pencil and write. Using playdough with you, a friend or siblings supports your child's social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and enjoying being with other people. Playdough also encourages children's language and literacy, science, and math skills-all at the same time!

Rooms and things in the house

We spent last week learning about the rooms and objects found in the house. We talked about the Bedroom, Kitchen, Living room and Bathroom.

 Coloring is a great way to express using color and helps build finger strength to prepare for writing ABC's

 A lot of good coloring work was done by everyone! As we color we talk about the objects in the picture. It helps us to remember vocabulary. If you say the word you won't forget as quickly.

Bingo is always fun and we can show our skills at quickly locating the object mentioned.

Benefits of Playing with Blocks ブロックで遊んでのメリット

These are some the things children learn from playing with blocks :)

Math

size

area

shapes

spacial awareness

patterns

estimation

Science

balance

symmetry

weight

height

length

order

cause and effect

Literacy

vocabulary

dictating stories

recalling stories

using books as inspiration

Cognitive

sequencing

manipulation

logical reasoning

comparisons

Physical

coordination

fine motor development

depth perception

spacial awarenes

Creative

problem solving

creative building

sensory play

Social

cooperation

success

failure

negotiation

problem solving

compromise

Today we spent some time using Playdough. It's a great way to work with shapes and talk about things we are interested in. Here some cheese pancakes are being made!

 Lot's of cutting, squeezing, pulling, rolling, pinching and stretching took place...

 working on the fine details of a snowman!

More pancakes!

Flattening out the piece before attaching it to the main body.

 Looking great!

 Final details!

Working very hard!

Final product is done!

ABC's And Shapes with Mickey and Minnie Mouse

It was another fun filled week in the Preschool. Our theme during the past week was "shapes all around us" in which we discovered that all objects contain shapes. This week we reinforced many of the things that we learnt using a CD-ROM that allowed us to play with shape and discover the ABC's

Mickey Mouse Preschool CD-ROM

ABC's and Shapes with Mickey and Minnie is fun

Hands on experience using a computer mouse! Sometimes a little team work makes things easier to do.

 We continued working with shapes and discovering that they are all around us. Everywhere we look we can find circles, squares, triangles, hearts. ovals and so many more. Even our play town road has a lot of different shapes on it.

 We used our flip flap books to learn and discover more shapes among us in nature, machinery and transportation.

 Our clothes as well have shape patterns on them. Stripes, stars and even strawberries patterns are shapes!

 If you look carefully you'll find that our play toys also contain shapes!

Yesterday we made an elephant using mostly circles. Today we followed up a triangle to make a body with eyes, a nose, a mouth and arms and legs. I wonder what shape will use tomorrow?