Fall is in full swing! The leaves are changing colors and falling and the air is nice and brisk.  As many child daycare centers begin to implement fall themed activities, consider this pumpkin sorting activity. Pumpkin sorting is a fun autumn-themed activity that supports cognitive development.

Cognitive Development in Preschoolers

Cognitive development focuses on developing functions of the brain such as thinking, learning, awareness, judgment, and processing information. According to developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, children go through several stages of cognitive development and learning activities for toddlers and children should correspond to the appropriate developmental stage.

Pumpkin sorting is a cognitive activity for preschoolers that helps them learn and practice the skills of classification, relationships, and counting. This lesson plan includes preparation instructions, procedures, and materials list for this activity. The lesson plan also includes age-appropriate learning objectives and examples of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning in child care centers.

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Through storytelling and activities, celebrate and teach young children in your daycare center about  the season autumn (or fall).  This resource list will provide you with a fall themed reading list and free autumn themed  printable worksheets and activities for young children in child daycare centers.

Reading List

Autumn Board Books and Picture Books (Baby – Age 3)

Dappled Apples by Jan Carr and Dorothy Donohue [Holiday House, 2001]

Leaf Baby: Baby Seasons Board Books by Mary Bridgid Barrett and Eve Chwast [Red Wagon Books, 1998]

Autumn by Gerda Muller [Floris Books, 1994]

Fall: Seasons Board Books by Chris L. Demarest [Red Wagon Books, 1996]

5 Little Pumpkins by Michael Scott [Hyperion Books, 2003]

One Fall Day by Molly Bang [Greenwillow books, 1994]

Pumpkin Baby by Jane Yollen and Susan Mitchell [Key Porter Books, 2009] (more…)

All child care services must incorporate some type of learning through play. Your child care business should focus on a strong preschool curriculum that builds learning opportunities directly into play so that learning develops at the same pace as the growing child. Children by nature are curious, active, and eager to learn and try new things. To keep them that way, preschoolers need a readiness curriculum that encourages “playful learning.”

Different types of play support many different types of development:

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What is one activity that children love to do? This may seem such a difficult question to answer, but if you just took your time and notice what children love to do, you might find the answer. Children find it enjoyable to read. Maybe because of the curiosity that they have, children are always excited to read and learn new things. At their age, reading gives the children a lot of information added to their knowledge. There are so many lessons that they can learn when they read books. As parents, you may know that if there is one thing that you should invest in when it comes to your child’s learning, these are books.
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Children are always so enthusiastic to learn. At this stage, their learning abilities are at a maximum this is why parents should take advantage of this. You child is still willing to grasp new ideas and skills that they may find to be useful in the future. It is important that you come up with activities that will be both fun and effective for your child. Children learn best when they are having fun so you need to be as creative as possible. You can incorporate in your daily activities lessons in numbers, reading, writing, drawing, history and even science.
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Preschoolers should learn about the different animals that are present in our world today. These animals can usually be seen and observed in zoos, however if a trip to the zoo can’t be done, there are activities that a preschool teacher can do to introduce the different zoo animals to the kids without having the need to leave the classroom.
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Teaching a preschooler or a kindergartener the alphabet can really be a fulfilling adventure. The alphabet’s literally all over the place. Introducing the children the alphabet is a step closer to them being successful readers. However, this end goal requires hard work. To open the children’s eyes to the alphabet, you need to do much more than giving flash cards, tracing exercises and traditional songs. You can use the immediate environment around you so you can easily teach the children the alphabet.
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Every March daycare teachers and day-care providers have a chance to teach the children in their class a little bit about the culture and history of Ireland and the United States, by celebrating Irish-American History Month. Perhaps the most effective way to do this is by exposing the children to a simple and well-known aspect of Irish-American History; and what better topic to discuss than St. Patrick’s Day.
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Day care center teachers should always practice, model and reinforce kid’s behaviors by giving positive attention on their needs and by helping them understand the consequences of their action.
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Very important to the over all mental and physical well-being of a child is the kind of education that a child receives. A great factor to this quality determination is the teaching methodologies and techniques employed with the child. Since the brain of a child is very responsive to provided stimulus, it can easily absorb immense quantities of ideas and teachings. The rate of learning would shape the growth of the child’s brain. Thus, one of the best tools in teaching young minds is with day care toys.
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