Tag Archives: bug learning activities

Kindergarten Readiness – Telling Stories For Fun & Learning

Once upon a kindergarten readiness time…Instead of reading books do you and your child sometimes make up your own stories? Did you know that making up stories with your child is a super learning activity as well as lots of fun? Since these posts are about bugs, how about a bug story? Once upon a time there was a little bug who lived in a house in the forest…

As adults, we take the basic structure of a story for granted but children are only beginning to understand that stories have a beginning, middle and end sequence. Some of them have dialogue. Stories are usually built around one event or idea. When you tell your child a story you will use this same structure even if you are not aware of doing so. As with so many things, kids need to experience this same pattern over and over before it gets recorded into their thinking strategies.

Telling stories instead of reading them gives kids a chance to make the pictures in their own heads instead of putting the book’s pictures in their minds. This is called visualizing. Creating pictures also exercises their imaginations, plus they link words and images using context and language. You model for your little one how to think on one’s feet and build on resources that are immediately available.

These are just a few of the ways that telling stories promotes development and kindergarten readiness. As parent or caregiver you have extensive knowledge of what interests your child. You can start with a level and things that are familiar and expand them. For extra enrichment, your child can draw a story and you print the story line. That way you have a unique book to enjoy over and over. Is telling stories doable for you?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Plastic Bugs for Learning Fun

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Plastic bugs – dollar store; kindergarten readiness learning and fun – priceless. A few bugs and stickers from the dollar store provided hours of play time for supported all different kinds of early learning. Here are some photos from some of the activities:

making groups: Being able to categorize is an important skill; it helps the brain deal with large volumes of information. Kids need to be able to notice details, evaluate if something belongs or not,and make decisions.

counting: Counting is an early math skill and a basis for number sense as children learn that one item is one number and how many objects belong to each number.

1 to1 matching: Being able to match one item to one number is a key to understanding how the number system works. Matching 1 object to another is practice for this brain connection: each caterpillar has a butterfly

patterns: Patterning is another thinking skill that helps children tackle information. They look for structure and repetition and can build on what they see and understand.

sizes: Size is a somewhat tricky concept and has to do with relationships, how much of one thing there is in relation to another.

colors: This a very tricky concept as there is so much variation in colors and so many different things with the same color.Lots of language used too to talk about colors.

These are some sample activities that children can do with anything as they play and learn. They develop all sorts of brain connections that will support later learning. Again, the emphasis is on play. Are these ideas helpful for you and your child?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Learning About Colors, with Bugs

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Yesterday, while working on another kindergarten readiness and bug learning activity blog I saw this fantastic photo on Play, Create, Explore’s facebook page. ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Play-Create-Explore )

Photo: Play Create Explore

Isn’t this pink worm cool? Or maybe that should be hot, as in hot pink! In any case, it’s perfect for talking about colors.

Learning colors is a challenging thinking skill. First, there’s many variations of each and every color name: blue can be pale, dark, greeny or kind of purple and it’s still called blue. Second, very different objects can be the same color, such as green trees, green olives and green grapes. Third, not everybody agrees all the time on what to call a particular color. Case in point: Our house is tan. My son insists our house is pink and explains that it is “a man pink”. And fourth, some of the words are hard for little kids to say, like lellow, wed and puple. For kids trying to get the right name of a color is like trying to hit a moving target that changes, or trying to catch a butterfly.

In order to learn colors, kids need to see many examples for each and every color. Gradually, they figure out which shades go with which name. Did you know that asking kids about colors is often included on kindergarten readiness checklists? This gives teachers an idea of a child’s level of thinking skills. Kids who are having difficulty learning colors may be struggling with other concepts, too. There is no doubt that learning colors is a challenge for young brains.

Even if kindergarten is a long way off for your child, talk about colors and help your child notice them. There will be lots of opportunities for this in a day. You might be able to say “Do you want to wear your red shirt like a strawberry or your green shirt like the grass?” Or, “We don’t want to catch the red bus, we want one with a blue stripe.” All these little bits accumulate to support your child to learn about colors. What colors can you find in your day for your child’s learning fun?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Drawing Bugs for Fun & Learning

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Kindergarten readiness has legs! Actually, the legs were on a centipede. On a walk yesterday, a centipede crossed our path. Of course, we had to stop and look. It was easy to encourage little hands to draw a picture of the bug. While the color isn’t the same, nor are there as many legs, the picture is recognizable as a bug.

Drawing is the first way that children express themselves on paper. Pictures and drawing are another form of communication, similar to words and speaking. Drawing can be considered play because it is very much an internal activity. Children are interpreting and representing their view of the world. There are other learnings, too.

Drawing encourages creativity and imagination, as well as careful observation.
Eye-hand coordination is one of the obvious brain connections as children learn to use tools such as paints, pencils, crayons, markers, etc.
In addition to physical skills, children are also building mental ones; they are visualizing or making pictures in their mind.
Drawing also encourages growth of attention span and concentration as kids focus on what they are doing.

When it comes to drawing, I’m not far beyond the kindergarten readiness level. Some children will love to draw and some will be barely interested, but encouraging kids to draw helps with all kinds of brain connections. What can you and your child find to draw about today?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Bug Puppets For Fun & Learning

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Q. What was the Spider doing on the computer? A. Searching the web. Maybe the spider was looking for some kindergarten readiness fun and bug learning activities! Just in case you can’t recognize the picture, it is a spider puppet made from 2 circles of fabric with 8 legs cut from bag handles and 2 button eyes.

A more important question is what can kids learn when they are playing with puppets?

Puppets encourage lots of conversation. Children practice taking turns as they speak. then the puppet does. Kids learn how to ask questions and give answers.
Children need to put themselves in the place of the puppet. This is trying out how something looks from someone else’s point of view, a very important social skill.
There’s lots of pretending, imagining and interacting.
The puppet can also encourage different ways to move and use space.

No matter what you use to create a puppet: old socks, bags, stuffies, etc. or if your child has some already, you can extend your child’s play by asking about the puppet: What is its name? Does it have a friend? What does it like to do, eat, etc? Model for your child some different voices, low, high, fast, sleepy, and more. You and your child may want to take turns being the voice of the puppet. Make 2 and have conversations with them or 1 or 2 kids can be both puppets. Is the puppet having an adventure? How about you and your little one?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Bug Snacks and Learning For Kids

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The kitchen is a learning center for all kinds of kindergarten readiness. Our bug snack creations will never rival these incredible ones created by a chef but we had just as much fun. We made banana and peanut butter caterpillars, orange butterflies and ants on a cloudy log ( the arbutus trees in our area do have a sort of orangey bark) with yogurt as the cloud for the raisin ants. Here’s a few of the learning ingredients:

–colors, shapes, sizes
–following directions
–counting, vocabulary
–planning and organizing
–using tools
–fine motor skills
–basic safety
–self-care
–working and eating together
–healthy eating
–imagining and having FUN

Kids like to help and develop feelings of esteem and achievement when they are included. What kinds of snacks, learning and kindergarten readiness can you cook up with your child? Any more ideas for cute bug snacks?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Summer Learning Fun

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Ready, Set, Go, because it’s SUMMER and it’s easy and fun to include kindergarten readiness in summer activities. Here’s an example. In the summer it’s fun to go on a picnic. There’s lots of learning that gets packed along:

talking together about what’s needed using language to negotiate, specific vocabulary,
helping plan, prepare and organize,
encouraging basic care by including sunscreen and a hat,
promoting responsibility and safety, remembering to stay close to the family,
connecting to nature, early science, observing,
general concepts of colors, sizes, shapes,
enjoying being with others and social skills such as sharing, taking turns,

That’s only 1 activity and only some of the learning fun. Since it’s June and blog posts have been about bug learning activities…what else comes on a picnic? Ants. Sing the Ants Go Marching one by one, two by two, three by three, all the way to ten for some math and number practice. Now, all that is a big Hurrah for summer fun and kindergarten readiness learning. Do you agree?

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Kindergarten Readiness – Bug Catcher / Sucker

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Don’t panic when you read the title, it doesn’t mean kids have to suck up bugs as a kindergarten readiness activity. That’s the name of the tool. This super idea comes from Greening Sam and Avery via Teach Preschool. The entire post is so great you will want to read it all!

our new bug tool (from Greening Sam and Avery)

“This weekend a colleague of mine introduced me to The Bug Sucker. He had a whole bunch of them and actually sold me two! I thought they were interesting and such a unique bug tool. Check it out in action!

Greening-Sam-Avery

The idea is that there are some kids that do not like to touch bugs but it is still great for them to be able to safely collect bugs and study them. The bug sucker uses your breathe to pull the bug into the tube to be able to look at them up close.
You place the end of the green tube over the bug that you want to catch.

Then you put your mouth on the part that looks like the top of a water bottle. Then you simply suck, like you are drinking through a straw. You have to suck pretty hard but because of the shape of the tube and the water bottle top you aren’t in any danger of sucking up any bugs or major debris.

Greening-Sam-Avery-bug-bottle

Sam wanted to try again and again to see how many bugs she could catch. But then after a while she looked at me and said “Can’t I just pick them up with my fingers?” HA! Love that kid.

But not every kid is as bug friendly as Sam. You may also have a child that hasn’t quite mastered the skill of being gentle. This is a great tool for those kids that have a tendency to squish the bugs that they are trying to catch.

So, I did some research and figured out where my friend, David Stokes, got these from. You can find them HERE.

If you have one of these I would love to know what you (and your kids) think of it!” Greening Sam and Avery

I’m going to look for one of these or, at least, see if I can find out how to make one. (Just found out they are called POOTERS.) Think of all the kindergarten readiness fun and learning: exploring, observing, discovering, goal-setting, sizes, colors, persistence, habitats, connecting to nature and more. Some children are learning to deal with their emotions and overcome fears and anxiety. Hope there’s an easy way to transfer bugs out! Does this interest your family?

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Kindergarten Readiness– June Bugs For Fun and Learning #14

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Kindergarten readiness involves some emotional bravery. While some children are eager to be off on their own, for many it can be scary. Something as small as a bug can be scary, too. Learning to deal with that issue can help farther down the road.

Some children will have had nasty experiences with creepy crawlies but their fears and reactions can be intense. For all kids, some more information about bugs can be helpful. Check carefully for some low-key, ordinary images of bugs on the internet. One day at a toy store, stop and pick out a plastic critter, soft bug stuffie, or colorful picture book about bugs. Draw and color pictures; sing about spiders and other bugs. Use a clear jar or container with a good lid and watch a bug inside. Be sure to poke a few air holes in the lid.

Just like with adults, we can’t tell a child not to be afraid, there is nothing to be scared of. We can acknowledge their fear and feelings matter of factly and support kids with reassurance, information and positive experiences. This will help them deal with their fears. (And if you have to recruit your 4-yr old to please take the spider in the bathtub outside for you so it can play with other spider friends, while bravely hiding your dislike or fear of it with a big smile, you may find some of these strategies helpful, too.) Does your child have any fears or scary issues that may impact kindergarten readiness later on?

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