Reading Books! A no brainer, right? Wondering what's so unique about our method of giving children books to read vs other preschools'? Well, along with having a vast library of age appropriate books at hand, we pair book reading with social time as we will discuss the books in class as well as allow the children to engage in miny discussions where they talk to their peers about their favorite things about the book as well as read together. This seemingly simple idea is key to language development. For children to use their rapidly developing brain to indulge in the wonders of literature and imagination helps to stimulate the Broca and Wernicke are of the brain which, respectively and collectively, are responsible for the process of reading, understanding writing, language, and speaking. This goes along directly with Rosenzweig's experiment that basically showed how the providing of information to a young mind will help enhance the development of the brain's cerebral cortex volume.
Make a Puzzle! Not just any kind of puzzle, but one that they must make themselves! Children will be tasked with using colored pencils, paper, and whatever other supplies we have around to make a short puzzle game for other children to try and successfully navigate. This will help to stimulate the frontal lobe in the activity of problem solving as well as decision making to help facilitate a future generation that takes their time to make decisions.
Create your own.....anything! What better way to stimulate a child's imagination than to given them free reign when it comes to building anything they desire? Paired along with the create your very own story activity, this allows the child to bring to fruition his or her very own original ideas while also encouraging him or her to continue to not be ashamed or embarrassed of his or her ideas and to teach them not to give up on them! Dream on children!
Strategy Games! No need to worry parents! Your kids won't be playing mindless games during these activities as the mind is the center of this activity. A variety of fun and engaging computer games will be presented to the children in an effort to help them grasp the concept of Conservation, something that Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development states is rather difficult for a child at this age. We shall go about doing so by presenting them games pertaining to logic and reasoning.
Go Fish! Card games! This game along with others will be used to help teach children basic math concepts as well as further stimulate their frontal lobe as they learn to make important decisions.
Create your very own story! Children will be tasked with the responsibility of creating their very own story of any kind. This will help them to take their imagination and make something tangible out of it.
Who am I!? Ask all of the children to sit in a circle or just in a group on the floor. One player is asked to leave the room. While they are away the others decide "who they are" when they return. For example, if they choose a fireman, they call them back and they must ask each player in turn what they need to buy in order to assume this identity. One will say a hat, another a hose, another a dalmatian, and so on. If the "guesser" goes all the way around the circle without guessing what they are, then they must go out again. Then the remaining children will choose something else for them to be. For younger children, we help them to choose well known characters or themes they're familiar with (i.e. Cinderella) and for older children the chosen identity can be a bit more grown up (i.e a rock star). This is a great way for children to begin assimilation which is a psychological concept involving the association of a piece of information to something already known such as learning that firefighters require gas masks to go into burning buildings and from then on out imagining them with a gas mask on.