I'm really dying to show you what I made yesterday, but I can't yet. So, to hold us over until I can, I thought I'd go ahead and share a little of what I did for preschool time today.
Last week some of the moms in our neighborhood joined up to form a little co-op preschool. The cold weather cabin fever was really starting to set in and we needed a reason to get out of the house! Oh, and, ya know, it's good for the kids and stuff too. Especially since we're all young moms and a lot of us only have one child. Which means they don't always get a whole lot of social interaction with other kids during the cold months when we can't be out at the playground all the time.
Anyway, today was my turn to teach. I felt a bit rusty as I got my little lesson together. I haven't taught a whole group of children in at least a year or so. But it was fun to get it all set up. First we sang the alphabet song, then I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. After that we played this little game.
Alphabet Item Game
(umm... for lack of a better name)
To get it ready, I paired up each letter (uppercase and lowercase) with something that started with that letter.
In this case, "girl" for "G."
Then I wrapped a rubber band around the item and the coordinating flashcards to hold it all together.
I did this for each letter, but I didn't have time to photograph all of them.
Anyway, you get the idea. :)
Then all of the letters/ items went into a pillowcase.
Note: for more info on making your own flashcards, see THIS post.
Also, be sure to see the printable flashcards available in the shop.
Also, be sure to see the printable flashcards available in the shop.
After we read the book, each of the kids took turns pulling out a letter/item and taking it to their mom to see the letters. In my head it was all going to be very sweet and proper. In reality, it was still sweet, but very chaotic. The kids still seemed to enjoy it though, so no sweat. (Although I think I'll try this again sometime when I can do it just one-on-one with Olivia. She seemed to enjoy it, but I was a little focused on moving the lesson along. I think she'd like to do it again.)
When they had pulled out all of the letters/ items each of the moms wrote their child's name on a piece of paper (using a marker) and then we let the kids color in their names with crayons.
All in all, I'd say it was messy and chaotic and definitely could have gone better. But for a crowd of kids who were mostly 18 months or younger, I think it went pretty well.
Any other great ideas for large(ish) group activities to do with kids in the 18 month and younger age group?
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2 comments:
Music! Dancing and singing is SO much fun, and when the kids get together with their parents, at first people are a little weird, but once everyone is comfortable music and dancing is SO much fun, and can be really educational. I used to teach a music and movement class at the Y but now I just do it with my kids at home. It's always a blast.
Sorry...no suggestions for largish group activities with that age, since their attention span is SO short. You could try having little stations though, so there could be one or two kids at each station and then have them rotate, since it sounds like each kiddo has a mommy there to help them.
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