Here we have found ourselves in a position we were not anticipating. A situation none of us have lived through before. And now, for those of us with children, we have to decide how to keep them occupied. It's not their fault the have so much energy. And we certainly don't want them getting behind in their learning and development. So we must do what we can to exercise their minds and bodies. I've found in doing this, our preschooler has slept, even napped, very well (despite being all stuck at home).
Had I anticipated the date I'd have to withdraw our kids from school, perhaps I would have put this 1st weeks lesson plan together better. But here is what we did...
Toddler -
Lesson: Flash Cards
Theme: RECOGNIZING EMOTIONS
Notes
Babies and toddler learn by repetition, we are going to keep this in mind as we re-visit lessons through the weeks to come.
Using the Flash Cards
We are going as many different categories of cards as we can to get a basis of where to begin. Different categories may include, Animals, colors, numbers, places, objects, shapes…We want to sit on the floor facing them, laying out 3-5 at a time in one category. We will then ask them to show us certain card, using cues like, "touch bird", "touch nest"...
Emotions
As we create different faces (whether your own face, or drawing them), have them pint to different emotions. Possibly even show you a happy face. If you have an older child whom you're doing the EMOTIONS theme with, your toddler will love looking at and playing with the crafts. Use this time to ask them, "where's the silly face"...
PreK -
Lesson: Letter/Number Recognition & Writing
Theme: EMOTIONS and what we do with our FEELINGS
Notes
Jot down notes each week to see what you might want to touch back on with your child should you see an area they might be struggling a little in.
Letter/Number Recognition & Writing
We are using this week to determine a good starting point with our child. Going over this will help us to see which areas we may need to focus a little more. We want to use counting and alphabet activities first. Start simple by having them count with you (as they point at things, or even go down the steps), sing the alphabet song. Then later move onto using flash cards (try upper and lower case letter as well). Then practice writing and tracing the ABC's & 123's.
Emotions
As our toddlers grow, they are trying to sort out their new feelings. Perhaps thy didn't used to get scared in the dark, and now they do…things are changing in them. And they need our support to know how to best sort through these emotions, like fear, hurt, anger. Sometimes they simply want to know they are heard. We are going to create some fun activities and crafts for just this, and then talk about ways we can better express ourselves, release our anger, help a friend who's upset, and remember what we like about ourselves.
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