Make a Keepsake Christmas ornament before putting those decorations away!

STOP! Don't put those Christmas ornaments away just yet!

You can easily create a unique Christmas keepsake with your ornaments.

 

If you already have any solid colored or glass ball ornaments, all you need now is paint and your child. If you don't have any ornaments that will work, you're in luck because most retail stores are having after-Christmas sales on decorations right now.

I did this project with my CBRS children this year. While my original idea was to make beautiful snowmen out of their handprints, it ended up looking more like blobs of paint. But, all of the parents loved the handmade ornaments, so it really didn't matter what it ended up looking like.

If your child has high-sensitivity to messy stuff on their hands, encourage them to just paint on the ornament. You can allow it to dry and then write their name and the year on it as well. You can also try doing footprints with children less willing to use their hand OR for babies (feet are much cuter anyway, right?)

Wouldn't this make a wonderful family weekend activity before having to put your holiday decorations away and returning to normal live? And you'll have a family memory and keepsake for Christmases to come!

Katie Zink, Infant-Toddler Family Specialist

Sensory, Sensory, Sensory!

I have blogged about Sensory activities before (maybe because I love them!), but I wanted to share with you my newest sensory toy!

After months of searching for the perfect one, I found a durable play tunnel at a consignment shop for ONLY $8!

I used the tunnel this week as part of our activity plan for my CBRS children and they loved it!

Some of the children were shy at first, but all of them eventually went through the tunnel.

For the children who were hesitant, I used favorite toys, such as balls or cars to slowly coax them into going further into the tunnel. We used many vocabulary terms, such as "in/out," "tunnel," "dark," and we identified the colors of the tunnel. Even children as young as 1 1/2 enjoyed the tunnel!

Other ideas for sensory activities include sensory boxes, which I have talked about before and will again soon!

Sensory bottles are great for visual identification of objects.

These types of toys are wonderful for children on the Autism spectrum because it often provides them with a sense of calm from being in a small space. A child that I see for CBRS who is on the Autism spectrum had a blast going in and out of the tunnel on his own. However, this child does not enjoy sensory boxes. Each child with sensitivities to "weird" stuff is different, not only children with Autism.

Katie Zink, Infant-Toddler Family Specialist

An easy way to teach engineering at home or in the classroom

The new buzz word in education is STEM.  STEM stands for "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math".   Parents and even most educators are afraid of the word and how to truly implement it.  I must admit that I have struggled with the engineering piece of STEM.  However, the other night while surfing the internet, I found an article with pictures about making an inventors box for your child, and it came to me; this is what the engineering part  of STEM should look like.

As a mother of five children and four of them being boys, this was a regular practice in our home.  Our children were always taking things apart to see how it worked.  I must admit that there were times that I wanted to scream because of the small nuts, bolts, and screws laying around.  Then I began to wonder how many parents allow this today.  Is this why the writer of the article talked about putting together inventor boxes?

Don't get me wrong, it is a great idea, especially if you are not currently allowing your child to do this and an even better idea if you are a classroom teacher.  For some parents, this is just a natural part of their children growing up, but for those who it is not; here's an idea for you!

Blessings, Norma Honeycutt, Director

Don't toss out those pumpkins just yet!

Still have pumpkins lying around after Halloween? Here are some ideas for how to put them to use before tossing them out.

Create a simple bowling game for your children. You don't have to use toilet paper rolls, bottles or other household objects will work just fine.

Gather some paint. Let the pumpkin be the canvas while your child is the artist.

If you are feeling extra brave, let your child smash the pumpkins. If your child is younger, go ahead and smash the pumpkin before allowing them to explore the guts inside. Take this time to teach your child about seeds and how we grow plants and foods.

Have fun!

Katie Zink, Infant-Toddler Family Specialist

IPads in the Classroom

 

I pads in classroom can be a wonderful thing. It is a great way to frame a 21^st century learning classroom. You can almost find any type of app for any lesson you are doing. The children LOVE working on the I pad and learn so much from it! It helps with fine motor skills along cognitive learning.

In this picture my co teacher is showing the letter G on the ipad, signing the letter G along what showing them things that start with the letter G. This is helping children with all different learning styles.


Ipads also help special needs children with fine motor skills along with all types of finger moving and brain games.

They also help children feel proud and themselves when doing something right and helps them fix it if they are wrong.

Here Mrs. Kelly is showing the children a story on pumpkins, while playing with pumpkin pie play doh.

Ipad fun is great for learning skills like taking turns, sharing, teamwork and learning to wait.
To sum it all up, technology in the classroom increases motivation and self esteem, technical skills, more collabortion with peers and increases the use of outside resources.
Some other great websites to use in the classroom are as followed:
1) Word World
http://pbskids.org/wordworld/index_flash.html
This is a fun website were “words come alive”. Children can build their own words and everything on the site is build with a word.
The site has a place for teachers to go for actives that they can do in the classroom like Uppercase-Lowercase Matching Game, Find the Ant and Looking for Pieces of Pie.
2) NeoK12
http://www.neok12.com/
This website helps children see the real world via videos, lesson, games and puzzles.
Teachers can use this site to pull activity from and show the children the world in a different light.
3) Between The Lions
http://pbskids.org/lions/
This is a great website for children to learn about reading, it has games, video clips, and stories.
Teachers can take the stories and or clips and do finger plays, and play out the stories with the class.
4) Coolmath-Games
http://www.coolmath-games.com/
Coolmath-Games.com is great for learning shapes/colors, skills, strategy, memory and logic.
Teachers can pull games from this website and interact them in the classroom along with asking questions when the children are playing these games.
5) Hooda Math
http://www.hoodamath.com/games/
This is a website that makes math fun with games and season ideas to use.
Teacher can brings these games to live with sitting up the games in the room.

Amanda Marshall

Pumpkin Fun in the Classroom

This month we have been talking about fall and the things that come with fall. One of those things is pumpkins. You can do so much with pumpkins including counting, learning letters, learning smells and the way the guts feel inside the pumpkin. I feel children learn best when hands on and that’s just what we did with pumpkins. We used the ipad for a learning tool to learn about pumpkins and the thing we could do with them.

The children loved to dress up the pumpkins.

Making letters out of pumpkin pie playdoh.

 Mrs. Kelly is showing the children a story about pumpkins while the children are playing with playdoh.

Making pumpkin pie playdoh.

Counting seeds from the pumpkin.



 

below are websites that can expand on the leraning of letter, numbers, counting, reading and colors:

 

1)      Starfall

http://www.starfall.com/

This website is for preschool, kindergarten and up. It uses common core and has items for the holidays. They also have a Starfall Pre-K and Kindergarten curriculum.

Teachers can take the songs from the website and sing it with the children in the classroom; the children can also match colors from the web to inside the classroom.

2)      Abcya

http://www.abcya.com/kindergarten_computers.htm

With this website children can do ABC and 123 Magnets witch then they can do in the classroom. The website aloud children to make words, music and read story.

Teachers can make alphabet bingo cards and matching games along with puzzles.

3)      Preschool Learning Games

 http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/preschool_games.html

Great website on tons of different things, there is a color mixing song, learning body parts, heath games and art games.

Children can learn the songs (like the color song) and bring it to the classroom and mix color while singing the song.

4)      Fisher Price

 http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/gamesandactivities/onlinegames/index.html

This website helps children learn their ABC’s, Shapes, Numbers, and more.

Teacher will be able to help children learn by playing games about learning, teacher can get ideas and make lessons from the games and have the children interact with the games.

5)      Sheppards software preschool

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/preschool.htm

This website has a lot of color games along with animal games and numbers.

When playing the color game, teachers can tape a strip across the bottom with the color word in the boxes for the children to learn to read the color.



 

 



Self-feeding at an early age

Many years ago..... Over 20 to be exact; I was a young mother of three messy little boys and just beginning my carreer in early childhood education.  I cound't stand to have to clean up a mess so I fed my children for years.  I would have never dreamed of putting a plate of spaghetti in front of them to feed themselves.  However, as you can see in the pictures below, this is no longer the case for me.  I now know the importance in developing these early developmental skills. 

My granddaughter, Braylyn Honeycutt self-feeding

So proud of herself!

Mess-making is all part of your baby’s first attempts to learn to eat independently. To make mealtimes less stressful, it can help if you:

• put a plastic sheet or newspaper under the highchair
• use a bib or take their shirt off
• cut food into strips or fingers so that it is easier to eat
• let your baby eat with her hands

It is important for young children to learn self-feeding even at this messy stage. Before long they will  will use the spoon very well and can enjoy a variety of flavors and textures.  They can eat the same food as other members of the family if it is cut up for them.  By the age of three they will have learned to use a spoon and fork without help. This helps in developing independence, and ensures that they can use both hands skilfully together.

If your child has difficulty achieving the milestones suggested then you should discuss this with your child's teacher or doctor. By encouraging your child to feed himself independently and offering a variety of nourishing foods you will be starting him on the road towards a healthy lifestyle.

Mr. PUMPKIN Head

This blog will help you make your very own Mr. Pumpkin Head!

First, find a pumpkin. Any size will be fine. Cut or drill holes in the pumpkin where the pieces will go in. (Most pumpkins are too hard to simply push the body part pieces in without a little help)

 

Next, gather Mr. Potato Head pieces.

Encourage your child to be creative while teaching body parts. Find fun ways to teach, such as singing a song, such as "eye, nose, and mouth then ears on top, arms on bottom" to encourage the learning of body parts.

Another fun activity to do with pumpkins is to carve out shapes, such as in a shape sorter. Save the cut-out shapes and encourage your child to play the puzzle of finding where the shapes go.

Have fun with it and allow your child to make "silly faces."

Katie Zink, Infant-Toddler Family Specialist

Inside the Classroom

Fire Fire Fire !!

Last week in the classroom we talked about fire trucks and fire safety. The children loved every bit of it, they were very happy to learn all the things about fire. Thanks to Mrs. Kelly and Smart Start we got to have a lot of fire items in our classroom. Some of the things we got to do in the classroom include:

Using different shapes to make a fire truck along with dressing up like a fireman.

 

 

    Making fire truck snacks.

 

Making tracks in the beans with a fire truck.

 

Playing fire safety games in the Ipad.

 

Working on fire trucks in the block center.

 

All the children loved everything about fire week and would tell any teacher to try this lesson in the classroom!

 

 

Amanda Marshall 

Developing Teamwork in Children
    

Benefits of Teamwork:

    When the word teamwork is mentioned, images of people playing sports come to mind. But Teamwork doesn’t just happen in sport.  Our kids engage in lots of activities that require teamwork.  In class, they’re usually asked to work on projects in pairs or in groups and they play games which require them to make teams.

 

Making and keeping friends:

  Being part of a team helps develop social skills in our children – listening to others’ opinions and ideas, conflict resolution, motivating others, and even supporting one another when there’s failure.  All these things help your kids make friends at school and at home. Sociable kids are usually popular kids and teamwork is a big part of that.

 

Benefits for life:

  The future holds big rewards for children who are team players.  Most enterprises acknowledge that the ability to be a team player is an essential skill, and often is a requirement of the job.  Those who display skills in being a team player will be more likely to get hired. 

 

Some ways we use team work in our classrooms:

 

Working together to build in the sand.

 

 Using teamwork to make playdoh.

 

Teamwork in block center.

 

Teamwork putting together a puzzle.

 

Cooking together.

 

Making airplanes as a team.  

 

 

Having children work together in the classroom is a life long learning skill!!

 

 

 

Amanda Marshall

 

 

 

 

Technology Workshop Highlights

We missed many of you during our "Using Technology with Children with Special Needs" workshop!

The four professionals who participated in the session shared iPad apps and other technology tips for working with young children. I feel so lucky to be part of such a high-quality child development center that is able to offer workshops such as these. Feel free to join us for any of our classes, you will probably learn something new and meet new people!

Here are some of the highlights from the App discussion.

Visual Aids/Behavior Issues

·         Clock App – Use the timer for a visual aid. Ex. “When the circle is green, it will be time to clean up.”

·         SoundingBoard (AbleNet) – Visual Aid for giving choices, such as Yes/No or Cars/Ball.

Baby or Finger Isolation

·         Light Box & Sound Box (Cognable) – Cause and Effect. Sensory Light/Sound Box. Finger Isolation

·         Sound Box (Sago) – Music. Finger Isolation.

·         Baby Finger (DJ International) – Fun for baby. Finger Isolation.

·         Laugh & Learn Where’s Puppy’s Nose (Fisher-Price) – Body Parts. Music.

·         Doodle Buddy (Pinger) – Drawing. Can use finger or stylus for pre-writing skills.

Speech Specific

·         Talking Ginger (Out Fit 7 Ltd.) – Speech. Follow Directions.

·         Camera App – Talk to self. Take picture and learn body parts.

Animals

·         Feed The Animals (Curious Fingers) – Animal habitats and foods.

·         Make a Scene: Farmyard (Innivo) – Animals. Creativity.

·         Animals iSpy Junior (ToyTek) – Puzzles with different habitats of animals. Spanish and English.

Identification & Therapy

·         Preschool Games-Farm Animals by Photo Touch (GrasshopperApps.com) – Identify correct animals.

·         Touch and Learn Emotions (Innovative Mobile Apps) – Older children, teaches emotions and feelings. Coping skills.

·         Things That Go Together (GrasshopperApps.com) – Match objects that go together.

·         Little Writer (Innovative Mobile Apps) – Tracing. Pre-writing skills.

·         VocabuLarry’s Things That Go! (BabyFirst) – Label vehicles in a story format.

·         AR Flashcards (Mitchlehan Media LLC) – Label and identify animals through augmented reality. *Must print off flashcards*

·         Injini (NCSOFT) – Puzzles. Tracing. Identify colors. Matching. Search and find. **Generally good OT/Speech App**

·         Dexteria & Dexteria Jr. (BinaryLabs) – Fine motor skill development. **Good OT**

Educational Games

·         AlphaTots & TallyTots (Spinlight Studio) – Mini-games with every letter or number. Teaches alphabet and counting.

·         My PlayHome (Shimon Young) – Pretend play. Virtual doll house.

·         Mr.PotatoHead Create & Play (Callaway Digital Arts) – Body Parts. Creativity.

·         Swapsies (Spinlight Studio) – Community Occupations. Mini-games.

·         Toca Kitchen (Toca Boca AB) – Creativity. Pretend to cook food. Follow directions.

·         Toca Train (Toca Boca) – I use as a reward, especially for boys who love trains.

·         Zoo Train (Busy Bee Studios) – Puzzle. Put train pieces together. Label animals.

·         Bugs & Bubbles/Bugs & Buttons (Little Bit Studio) – Mini-games for OT, Speech.

Autism

·         Autism and PDD Reasoning and Problem Solving (Linguisystems) – Problem solving

·         Going Places (Model Me Kids) – Social skills training. Real peers demonstrate appropriate behavior while going places.

·         AutismApps (TouchAutism) – Search apps by price and category that are great for children with autism.

·         IEPPAL (Perceptum Solutions) – Collect data easily during sessions.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE APPS TO USE WITH YOUR PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN?

Katie Zink, Infant-Toddler Family Specialist/P

Why Family Time is so Important

Why is Family Time so important? Sometimes we get caught up in everyday flow and think, did I see and spend time with my family today? Every child needs and wants that family time. Not only do they want it but it benefits who they are as a person and who they may become.
 Some of these benefits include:
• Children learn about families from the time they spend in their own families.
• Children learn to share, how to stand up for their own rights, and how to love another person.
 • We help children develop positive self-esteem by communicating the value we feel for the child. Words of encouragement and love help provide children with the courage to try new things without worrying excessively about not being able to do them.
• Children learn about trust at home from their parents. They learn trust from being trusted. Spending time with our children can be fun and educational for us and for them. Much of the child's basic learning takes place in the many informal situations that occur daily in the life of the family.
 These informal occasions for learning include all the times the family members are together doing ordinary things, such as getting dressed, talking over the day’s happenings, dealing with problems, interacting with people outside the family, taking baths, eating, and so forth.
 The activity does need not be costly, but rather one that satisfies both the parent and the child.
 Some more ideas to spend family time without spending money:

                            Friday nights out are alway fun and most things are free......like face panting!

      Walks downtown or in the park, this is always free and a great way to spend time with the whole family.

                   Spend time doing little things at the house like coloring and talk about what you are drawing.

                   Going outside is always fun. Talk about the things aound you, get dirty and play in the mud.

We need to take this time and spend as much of it as we can, children grow up to fast and we need to be apart of every min. Before we know it, they will be going off to school and driving.....................and well lets hope this never happens :)


Amanda Marshall

Will you be a voice for our children?

Have you ever heard a quote that just really made you think?  This past week I attended the NC Center for Non-profit Conference.  The keynote speaker shared a wonderful quote that has had me thinking all week.  The quote was "Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."  Zimbabwean Proverbs

I couldn't get the quote off of my mind and decided to research it a little more.  The articles talked

about how hunters are powerful and respected personalities in their communities. They are believed to have some supernatural powers. They often have great stories to tell that emphasize their achievements and their hunting skills. People often praise them and celebrate their exploits. This is especially true when they come home with big animals like an elephant or a lion. 

Even though people celebrate their stories, they are also aware that they will never know all that goes on in the forest. When a hunter brings home a lion (or any animal) it may very well be due to the hunter's skills, but it may as well be due to pure luck. The lion might have been sleeping or injured. No matter in what circumstances the lion is killed, a hunter will always tell a story that makes the hunter shine. Is the hunter telling the true story or just bragging? No one will ever know. 

This Ewe-mina Proverb refers to this unknown part of the struggle between the lion and the hunter because we Africans know well that a story is never complete until one hears from both sides. The one who does not have the voice is often the loser.

Many of the children that we serve have no voice.  Children who go hungry, homeless, abused, fatherless, sexually abused, abandoned, and it goes on and on......  



Erica Parson's case is evidence of the voiceless.  We may never hear her voice.  Who will be the voice for these children?  Who will hear their side?  I will!  Will you?

 Norma W. Honeycutt, Executive Director


http://www.afriprov.org/index.php/african-proverb-of-the-month/32-2006proverbs/224-april-2006-proverb-quntil-the-lion-has-his-or-her-own-storyteller-the-hunter-will-always-have-the-best-part-of-the-storyq-ewe-mina-benin-ghana-and-togo-.html