Category Archives: Holiday Activities

Happy Mother’s Day

Earlier this week, Nicolle Nattrass, actor and writer of the solo play “Mamahood: Turn and Face the Strange”, was a guest on my radio show. She thought of motherhood as life on another planet. We’ve all been there and wondered if this is indeed some sort of alternate reality.

The role of mothers in the lives of children is special and profound. Even before they are born, babies recognize and prefer the voice of their mothers. It’s no wonder, kids want to make something wonderful to give their moms for Mother’s Day. There are probably more ideas circulating on blogs and Pinterest that there are kids to do them. But kids often have their own ideas.

Big Sister (4) took a look through the fabric scraps and choose ones she wanted to use for a Mother’s Day card. They needed lots of glue to stick. The ‘card’ is the side of a box and it couldn’t be folded. Little Sister, almost 2 years old, picked a few items from the craft box. Whatever your children do will come with hugs and kisses.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Kindergarten Readiness: April Fool’s Day Pranks for Kids

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Kindergarten readiness can’t be too serious, especially on April Fool’s Day. Silly little pranks are one way to help children develop their sense of humor. While we think humor is just a reaction to a funny event, it actually involves some complex thinking. First, children need to be able to tell that what is happening is not usual or normal. Once they have recognized that is unusual, then they need to respond on an emotional level, sorting out if they will be scared or delighted. Babies love when parents make silly faces or funny noises and may laugh and giggle with glee. But those same faces and noises can be scary on an unfamiliar face.

Older kids are figuring out how words and meanings can be funny. When young children tell jokes the punch line doesn’t always match. April Fool’s day is a perfect time to practice humor, but kids will need guidance and supervision. Some funny things to do at home might include:

switching the bags inside the cereal boxes
putting a few drops of food coloring into water to look like juice
stuffing the toes of shoes with tissue or toilet paper
buckling a stuffie into the driver’s seat of mommy’s or daddy’s car
calling kids by the wrong name, or mommy can answer when a kidlet says daddy and daddy can be mommy
sitting in somebody else’s place at the table
kids can wear mustaches and clown noses
wearing clothes backwards
answering a banana when the phone rings

Laughter is healthy, and we all love jokes. Humor is one of the ways that we connect and interact with others. What fun and learning April Fool’s pranks might happen at your house?

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Happy Easter from Mrs. A at 1 2 3 Kindergarten

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Happy Easter

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Kindergarten Readiness: Easter Egg Hunt

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During an Easter egg hunt kids can find not just eggs, but fun, early learning and kindergarten readiness, too. Many places will have community activities this weekend and some families will do this at home. But wherever you are, as kids are hunting and finding eggs, they are practicing looking for details. They need to sort out what is relevant information and what is not. For instance, both some rocks and eggs are oval shapes, but the colors will be different. Kids will concentrate and bring their attention back from distractions.

Adults can extend the learning but adding in some comments, “Oh look, you find a blue egg.” This reinforces color skills and adds in some language. Placement can be tricky concepts. Is an egg in the grass or on the grass? Kids need to hear about in, on, beside, under, above and other words over and over to build their understanding.

Plus, in a way kids are connecting with others on the same hunt this weekend in various places around the world and participating in an activity that’s been done far into the past and will continue for future generations. All this adds up to early learning and fun that will last far beyond school. What else might families and kids find when they hunt for eggs this weekend?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Coloring Easter Eggs

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Today, kindergarten readiness fun and learning is taking a bath, a color bath that is. This play-of-the-day is one of my personal favorites. I love decorating eggs. It’s a fun activity for all ages. Younger toddlers like to watch the color changes. Older kids can be much more creative, combining colors and adding decorations. Adults can create elaborate designs. Activities that are done year after year build traditions and memories and connect families. Here’s some ways this helps with skills that last much longer than kindergarten:

Colors are difficult to learn because there are so many different ones for each color name. Kids need to have lots of experiences in order to be able to match a color to it’s name. This is a way for kids to practice the names of colors and to experiment with how colors can mix and change. Some children like to have only 1 color for each egg, others will dip 1 egg in every color available, which usually makes a sort of purple-grey.

There are so many variations such as wrapping around elastic bands, covering parts with wax crayon or tape, wrapping eggs with old tissue paper, adding a bit of olive oil for a marble effect, decorating with stickers or glitter glue, and more. This is wonderful for imaginations.

Waiting for eggs to color and dye stretches patience and concentration. When working with others, it’s important to share and take turns. There’s a sense of anticipation and excitement as kids watch and discover, as well as a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Maybe we can’t tell eggs a joke in case they crack up, but do you agree we can sure have a lot of fun and learning coloring them?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Easter Bunny Snack

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Today’s kindergarten readiness learning and fun play-of-the-day is brought to you by the Easter bunny, who has a snack in his basket. Somehow, despite all the other foods that rabbits eat, when asked most kids will say they eat carrots. This Easter bunny shares a snack of some carrots, celery, and dip.

Most kids love to help in the kitchen. While peeling carrots and cutting sticks is a job for big adult hands, kid hands can stir up a little dip or spoon some into a small container. This origami bunny is made out of paper so he’d better only hop the dip to the table. Including kids in cooking and food preparation is one way of interesting them in what they are eating. Why do bunnies eat rabbit food? So they are healthy bunnies.

As kids help in the kitchen, they are practicing various skills:

using language for directions and explaining,
doing things in sequence, for example the veggies need to get washed first,
developing a sense of self-worth as they take care of their bodies by eating nutritious food,
cooperating and working together, sharing and taking turns,
strengthening fine-muscles by stirring, dipping,
learning about safety such as letting grownups use sharp items and more

This is an activity where learning piggy-backs onto something that families are already doing. Neither the to-do list or the budget had to get stretched. In a way, the learning is like an extra ingredient, or maybe an extra treat from the Easter bunny?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Doin’ The Easter Bunny Hop

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Because so much of children’s early learning is done “on the move” today’s kindergarten readiness learn and fun play-of-the-day is also “on the move”. That is, it is on the hop. Besides the 5 senses, there are 2 more: the sense of the body’s position in space and the sense of movement. We’ve all seen how babies first learn to move their bodies bit by bit. As they move, they are actually creating brain connections that will be used for all kinds of learning later on. Movement activities are also important for young children. Just in case your child hasn’t been moving around enough today, here is a fun activity.

Using the tune to “If you’re happy and you know it” you and your child can sing:
If you like the Easter bunny, hop, hop, hop.
If you like the Easter bunny, hop, hop, hop.
If you like the Easter bunny and you think he’s kind of funny,
If you like the Easter bunny, hop, hop, hop.

Have your child try lots of different ways to hop: on two feet, on one foot and then the other, hop forwards, hop backwards, hop big bunny hops, hop little bunny hops, and more. The bunny can hop down the hall, it can hop in a circle, it can hop and hop and hop. Bunnies can even hop inside and outside.

Another variation might be an Easter egg that can roll, roll, roll. And an Easter basket that will sit, sit, sit. Maybe you can think of something that rhymes with egg and basket in the song! Rhyme or not, kids like–and need–to move. What are some other songs to encourage movement fun and learning?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Easter Books for Kids

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Sometimes parents ask the question: What is the best kindergarten readiness activity I can do at home with my child? The answer: Read. Share lots of stories and books with your child. Did you know that 3 or 4 books in a day, a days a week, can add up to 20 or more per week? Now, times 50 weeks that makes over 1000 a year. More than 5000 by the time a child gets to school. That creates a tremendous familiarity with language, a wide vocabulary, and builds a basic foundation of how books work. You can see the importance of reading to kids when you do the math. Of course, sometimes it’s only 1 book read a thousand times…

There are so many wonderful books about Easter that it is hard to choose. However, there are two of those ‘read-a-thousand-times’ that are favorites at our house. One of them is That’s Not My Bunny, an Usborne touchy-feely book. The pages have different textures like fluffy, rough, wooly, wrinkled, and soft. The simple text is very repetitive so little ones can follow along and find the special parts on the bunny. The other book that is well-loved is Pat the Bunny.

One of my favorites is The Easter Egg Farm by Mary Jane Auch. The eggs are so colorful and so are the little chicks. Another book that is an extraordinary work of art is The Easter Egg by Jan Brett. These two books are longer and would appeal to older toddlers. The video below is a reading of The Easter Egg with all kinds of sound effects. The illustrations are superb. While there are many other great Easter books, kids love any kind of book from anytime of the year. Books are also fun tucked in Easter baskets, not just ones about eggs and bunnies.
What Easter–and other–books and stories does your child like?

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Kindergarten Readiness: Easter Math Learning and Fun

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1 little, 2 little, 3 little Easter bunnies hop for some kindergarten readiness learning and fun. Do you remember being at school and having to work on math problems such as: If Ryan has 3 Easter eggs and gives one to Jason, how many does he have left? Or, if Emily has 4 eggs in her basket and finds 3 more how many does she have? The names and numbers may have been different depending on what years you were in school and the particular holiday.

For some children, solving these math problems can be difficult. Kids need lots of real experiences before they get to school to develop the brain wiring and pathways. Nowadays, these are not called problems but math stories and are easy and fun to do at home. Since it’s Easter, how about using some little bunny crackers? And fishy ones, too? You can put some bunny and fish crackers on a little plate. Have your child figure out if there are more fish crackers or more bunny ones. It’s okay to eat the extra ones. As your child is able, you can tell some stories such as: Here are 2 bunnies and 2 more come hop, hop, hopping along. Now there are how many bunny friends? Or, 5 little fish were swimming on a plate, 1 swam away and that’s what I ate. Oh no, how many fish are left?

Kids soon get the idea and make up their own stories. Not all the answers will be the right number, but kids are still practicing. They are learning that the number will change after an action. That seems obvious to us, but it’s a new idea to them. Stories can be easy or complicated as kids play and explore. What math stories will your child tell and eat?

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Q. When is an Irish potato not an Irish potato?

A. When it’s a French fry.

Top’ o the mornin’ & the whole rest of the day!

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