Teaching young children foreign languages a huge topic and one that many daycare providers or those that own childcare centers debate.  In our interview with Myelita Melton, CEO of SpeakEasy Communications, Inc, and author of the SpeakEasy Spanish™ series, Melton explains the importance of teaching foreign language to young children.

OwnADaycare: What is an appropriate age to begin learning foreign languages?

Melton: Experts agree that introducing children to second and third languages as early as possible is best. The earlier a child is exposed to another language the greater the likelihood that the child will become truly proficient in the language. Some suggest that waiting until age 10 or later is too late to develop true fluency.

OwnADaycare: What are the benefits of learning foreign languages at an early age (infants, toddlers, preschoolers)?

Melton: The benefits of learning foreign languages at an early age are numerous:

1. Children develop a life-long love of communicating with others
2. Standardized test scores are often higher than for those of children who do not learn second languages
3. Children develop a greater appreciation for diversity.
4. A child’s ability in English is enhanced from learning about the structure of other languages.
5. Children have the capacity to learn many languages without getting them confused. The body automatically compartmentalizes each language correctly.
6. Children will achieve a more native grasp of both grammar and pronunciation in the second language.
7. Since we live in a global community that’s filled with diversity, the need for a child to have second language capability is greater today than ever before.
8. Bilingual skills are in great demand in the job market

OwnADaycare: What are some of the myths about exposing young children to foreign languages?

Melton: Common myths about exposing children to languages are:

1. A child’s short attention span prohibits second language learning
2. A child must be able to read and write in English before beginning second language study
3. A child must be totally immersed in the language in order to begin learning a second language

OwnADaycare: Are there benefits to being bilingual when you are learning to read?

Melton: By being exposed to foreign languages a child can more easily see vocabulary and grammatical structures that the English and the other language have in common. Seeing commonalities in vocabulary helps a child learn new words more easily.

OwnADaycare: Can you describe how a full immersion daycare or preschool program works?

Melton: During language immersion programs children spend all or a large portion of their day learning in a foreign language. The foreign language is used to teach in all other subject areas. It is not a separate subject area.

OwnADaycare: What are the advantages of a full immersion daycare or preschool program? Any disadvantages?

Melton: Children in total immersion programs work toward total fluency in the foreign language. They are more likely to “think” and function naturally in the language. Normally, they are able to achieve an extremely high level of overall competency, and they hold speakers of that language in high regard. In addition, their skills in English flourish.

OwnADaycare: What are some tips for daycare provider and preschool teachers who wish to begin incorporating foreign language learning into their curriculum?

Melton:

1. Determine the long and short-term goals for your language immersion program
2. Purchase age and subject appropriate materials
3. Hire qualified instructors
4. Get the support of parents
5. Offer frequent staff development opportunities and planning time

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Learning Objectives

• The students will identify the letter V.
• The students make and recognize the V sound.
• The students will learn to trace and write upper and lower case V’s.
• The students will identify objects that begin with the letter V.
• The students will make a Valentine’s Day wreath.
• The students will make a letter V vase.
• The students will learn about volcanoes and create an erupting volcano.
• The students will listen to books that feature the letter V.

Handwriting and Alphabet Recognition

Introduce the children to the letter V along with simple objects that begin with the letter V. Create a colorful letter V poster board or bulletin board that presents both the upper and lower case V. Include pictures of objects cut from magazines that begin with the letter V. For example: valentine, violin, vulture, volcano, vegetables, van, vase, vine, vacuum, vest, volleyball, and vampire.

Write both the upper and lowercase V on a whiteboard or chalkboard. Demonstrate the V sound and ask the children to make (repeat) the V sound. Next ask the children to think of words (names, objects, or places) that might begin with the letter V.

Allow the children to practice tracing the letter V in both upper and lower case using a letter V worksheet. A good example of such a worksheet is available on the Kid’s Learning Station website. Children can also practice writing and tracing the letter V on blank sheets of paper using pencils, colored pencils, or crayon.

Letter V Crafts

Valentine’s Day Wreath

Materials: Red and pink construction paper, sturdy paper plates, glue, scissors.

Cut heart shapes from red and pink construction paper. Cut a large whole out of a paper plate to create a ring. Next, glue red and pink hearts to the paper plate to create a Valentine’s Day wreath.

Letter V Vase

Materials: construction paper in the color of your choice, crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors, and glue. Cut a large letter V, flowers shapes (flowers with stems) from construction paper. Then, glue the letter V on a large piece of construction paper. This is the flower vase. Next, glue flowers to appear as if they are coming out of the vase. Decorate the vase with crayons, colored pencils, or markers.

Letter V Science Activity

Erupting Volcano Activity
Materials: Paper plates, clear plastic cups, baking soda, vinegar, red food coloring.

Before implementing this science activity, explain the basics of volcanoes and volcano activity. Create lava by mixing vinegar with red food coloring. Give each child a paper plate and place a cup on each paper plate. Place one teaspoon of baking soda in each child’s cup. Next go around and pour the vinegar into each cup. The mixture will fizz in the cup and overflow onto the paper plate, creating a “volcano eruption”.

Letter V Story Time

• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Mass and Marjorie Priceman [Aladdin, 2000]
• The Magic Violin by Mayra Calvani and K.C. Snider [Guardian Angel, 2007]
• What is a Volcano by Chris Avertis [Checkerboard PR, 1983]
• The Best Book of Volcanoes by Simon Adams [Kingfisher, 2007]
• The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll and Jeni Bassett [Cartwheel, 2006]
• Where is Baby’s Valentine by Karen Katz [Little Simon, 2006]

Including these simple activities into the curriculum of child care centers will greatly enhance preschoolers’ language learning. Lesson plans should contain clear learning objectives but also remember to seize spontaneous moments of opportunity to teach.

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According to experts, introducing children to foreign languages should begin as early as possible. For a child in a daycare center, the advantages and benefits of learning multiple languages at an early age are extremely valuable and continue long into adulthood.

In our interview with Myelita Melton, CEO of SpeakEasy Communications, Inc., and author of the SpeakEasy Spanish™, discusses the importance of teaching foreign languages to young children.

OwnADaycare: What is an appropriate age to begin learning foreign languages?

Melton:  Experts agree that introducing children to second and third languages as early as possible is best. The earlier a child is exposed to another language the greater the likelihood that the child will become truly proficient in the language. Some suggest that waiting until age 10 or later is too late to develop true fluency.

OwnADaycare: What are the benefits of learning foreign languages at an early age (infants, toddlers, preschoolers)?

Melton: The benefits of learning foreign languages at an early age are numerous:

1. Children develop a life-long love of communicating with others
2. Standardized test scores are often higher than for those of children who do not learn second languages
3. Children develop a greater appreciation for diversity
4. A child’s ability in English is enhanced from learning about the structure of other languages
5. Children have the capacity to learn many languages without getting them confused. The body automatically compartmentalizes each language correctly.
6. Children will achieve a more native grasp of both grammar and pronunciation in the second language
7. Since we live in a global community that’s filled with diversity, the need for a child to have second language capability is greater today than ever before.
8. Bilingual skills are in great demand in the job market

OwnADaycare: What are some of the myths about exposing young children to foreign languages?

Melton: Common myths about exposing children to languages are:

1. A child’s short attention span prohibits second language learning
2. A child must be able to read and write in English before beginning second language study
3. A child must be totally immersed in the language in order to begin learning a second language

OwnADaycare: Are there benefits to being bilingual when you are learning to read?

Melton: By being exposed to foreign languages a child can more easily see vocabulary and grammatical structures that the English and the other language have in common. Seeing commonalities in vocabulary helps a child learn new words more easily.

OwnADaycare: Can you describe how a full immersion daycare or preschool program works?

Melton: During language immersion programs children spend all or a large portion of their day learning in a foreign language. The foreign language is used to teach in all other subject areas. It is not a separate subject area.

OwnADaycare: What are the advantages of a full immersion daycare or preschool program? Any disadvantages?

Melton: Children in total immersion programs work toward total fluency in the foreign language. They are more likely to “think” and function naturally in the language. Normally, they are able to achieve an extremely high level of overall competency, and they hold speakers of that language in high regard. In addition, their skills in English flourish.

OwnADaycare: What are some tips for daycare providers and preschool teachers who wish to begin incorporating foreign language learning into their curriculum?

Melton:

1. Determine the long and short-term goals for your language immersion program
2. Purchase age and subject appropriate materials
3. Hire qualified instructors
4. Get the support of parents
5. Offer frequent staff development opportunities and planning time

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In this interview with Stacey Kannenberg, co-author of the award winning, California and Texas Approved books Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!, discusses signs of kindergarten readiness.

OwnADaycare: What is kindergarten readiness?  Is there a best age to start kindergarten?

Kannenberg: I believe age 5 is the best time to start Kindergarten.  It might not always work that way due to late birthdays. But I also believe parents and preschool or daycare teachers can start getting children ready for Kindergarten as early as age 2.  Children at a young age can start to learn their colors, shapes, numbers and the alphabet.

OwnADaycare: What are some signs of kindergarten readiness that parents and educators should look for with respect to concept, physical, number, language, reading, and writing development?

Kannenberg:

• Concept development – children will be tested on basic shapes, colors, the numbers 1-10 and the alphabet mixed up
• Physical development – children should be able to use the bathroom, independently as well as able have good motor skills
• Social and emotional development – Share, take turns, answer questions with more than a yes or no response
• Number concept – be able to recognize numbers out of sequence, count objects to 10, start to count toward 100
• Language – Children should be able to talk in complete sentences and hold a conversation with an adult and answer in more than just a yes or no response.
• Writing and reading – Children should be able to focus along while someone is reading them a picture book as well as writing their first name.OwnADaycare: Are preschool readiness programs necessary or advisable?

Kannenberg: Yes!  As part of its $100 million, 10-year investment in school readiness, PNC Financial Services Group commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a national survey to measure the opinions of teachers, parents, U.S. Congress and more regarding this issue. Some interesting top-line points include:
A child’s readiness to start school as a Kindergartner is paramount for success – not only in school, but in life.

• 56 percent say U.S. youngsters are not very/not at all prepared with basic skills, like counting and spelling their name, when they enter kindergarten.

• The primary weakness here is that only 2 percent of parents say their own child was not very/not at all prepared with the basics.

• Both  parents and teachers associate some clear benefits of having a child who is  ready to learn entering kindergarten versus one who is not as well prepared to  learn, including:
  • More likely to  attend college
  • More likely to have  greater self-confidence as adults
  • More likely to earn  higher income
  • Have lower rates in  social problems, such as teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency

Today, 38 states are talking about all day 4 year old Kindergarten programs.  We have a crisis in education and will continue to have one until parents, preschool teachers, Kindergarten teachers and kids are all on the same page.  How can we empower parents to be involved in education if we are not sharing with them the information that their children will be tested on until after they are already tested.  It’s like building a foundation without providing the blueprint.

OwnADaycare: In your opinion, can a child who has never attended preschool be as successful in kindergarten as a child who has attended preschool?

Kannenberg: Absolutely!! The parent is the first and foremost teacher and if that child has been preparing for school at home and has good social and motor skills, Kindergarten will a successful first year of school.

OwnADaycare: Any additional comments or tips?

Kannenberg: Yes, here are those 7 Things Kindergartener’s Need to Know and will be tested on within the first month of Kindergarten with the results shared with parents at their first parent/teacher conference:

1. The upper case alphabet out of sequence or mixed up.  Kids will be asked to name the letters listed, such as: B, D, X, K, J, M, O, etc.

1. The numbers to 10, out of sequence or mixed up.  Kids will be asked to name the letters, listed, such as:  2, 5, 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, etc.
2. Kids will be asked to identify basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple
3. Kids will be asked to identify basic shapes: circle, diamond, rectangle, triangle, oval and square
4. Kids will be asked to identify basic coins: penny, nickel and dime
5. Kids will be asked to count objects to 10
6. Kids will be asked how far they can count to 100.

As the year progresses, kindergarteners will need to know both upper and lower case letters and numbers to 30, out of sequence.  More colors and shapes will be added including hexagon and octagon and more coins such as quarter and dollar.  Children need to know their name, address and phone number and be able to get dressed for outside play and use the bathroom independently, to make that first year a success!

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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.

Activity Materials

• Large Felt Board
• Orange Felt
• Pumpkin templates (optional)
• Scissors

Activity Preparation

Trace pumpkins in various sizes (some large and some small) on a large piece of orange felt. You may also use pumpkin templates to trace the pumpkins on the felt. Cut the pumpkins out the felt. Arrange them randomly on a large felt board.

Procedure

Invite the children over to the felt board. Explain to them that they will be sorting pumpkins and arranging them biggest to smallest. Encourage the children to place the pumpkin cut outs in graduated order from biggest to smallest. After they are arranged encourage the children to sort into two categories, placing big pumpkins on one side of the board and small pumpkins on the other. Next ask them to count the number of pumpkins in each group.

Objective 1: To develop an understanding of classification by encourage children to sort pumpkins by size

• Verbal Cue A: Can you sort the pumpkins into big and small?
• Verbal Cue B: Let’s put the big large pumpkins on this side of the board and the small pumpkins on the other side.

Objective 2: To teach about relationships using the terms small, big, and bigger

• Verbal cue A: Let’s arrange all of the pumpkins in order from big to small.
• Verbal Cue B: Which pumpkin is bigger? This pumpkin or this pumpkin?

Objective 3: To introduce the number concept of 1-10

• Verbal Cue A: Let’s count the number of small pumpkins
• Verbal Cue B: How many large pumpkins are there?

By participating in this pumpkin sorting activity, young children will learn important cognitive skills such as sorting and classification, spend time becoming familiar with the symbols of autumn, and have great fun.

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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]

Acorns Everywhere by Kevin Sherry [Dial, 2009]

Early Readers Ages 4-8

Clifford’s First Autumn by Norman Bridwell [Cartwheel, 1997]

Why Do Leaves Change Color? By Betsy Maestro and Loretta Krupinski [Collins, 1994]

In November by Cynthia Rylant and Jill Kastner [Sandpiper, 2008]

Corn is Maize by Aliki [Collins, 1986]

We Gather Together by Wendy Pfeiffer and Linda Beck [Dutton Juvenile, 2006]

Autumn An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and  Leslie Evans [Clarion Books, 1997]

When Autumn Comes by Robert Mass [Henry Holt & co., 1992]

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Elhert [Harcourt Children’s Books, 1991]

Fall (Four Seasons Series) by Nuria Roca [Barron’s Educational Series, 2004]

Arthur Jumps into Fall by Marc Brown [LB Kids, 2006]

Fall is Here by Elaine W. Good [Good Books, 1969]

Leaves by David Ezra Stein [Putnam Juvenile, 2007]

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper [Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005]

Every Autumn Comes the Bear by Jim Arnosky [Putnam, 1996]

Free Autumn Preschool Worksheets and Printables
There are many worksheets for fall that you can print out and use for your lesson plans. Worksheets should include coloring pages, handwriting worksheets like those on First-Preschool’s website, and printable craft patterns. For older children, try DLTK’s autumn worksheets which are appropriate for school aged children.

The following websites provide free fall printables:
First- Preschool: Autumn Coloring Pages
DLTK:  Autumn activities for Kids
KidZone: Autumn Themed Resources
PrintActivities.com: Fall Activities
Apples for the Teacher: Autumn Coloring Book Pages

Autumn symbols and themes include leaves, pumpkins, corn, scarecrows, apples, wheat, harvest, cornucopia, sunflowers, trees, acorns, pinecones, and wreaths. Building lesson plans around these symbols help teach young children in daycare centers about autumn, fall, harvesting, and thanksgiving.

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Different types of play support many different types of development:

• Singing, with movement develops memory and language, social participation and imitation, rhythm, rhyme and body awareness
• Undirected playing encourages social skills, such as cooperation, taking turns and following instructions
• Hands on letter play builds pre-writing skill. The teacher shows children how to make letters with dough, wood pieces, or magnetic stamps. They learn letters (and numbers) in multi-sensory active play.
• Coloring and drawing with small crayons help children develop a good pencil grip and developmentally appropriate pages make for easy coloring and drawing. Building structures and simple shapes with wood pieces leads naturally to drawing success.

At its core, play is a physical, kinetic activity. Sitting at a table playing a literacy game, for example, can be a great opportunity to build fine motor skills. A teacher could give a child of preschooler age plastic tweezers and cover a table with paper-cut out letters and ask the students to pick out all of the B’s, or the letters in their name. Not only are her students building their letter identification, they are practicing the skills essential for later writing development.

Gross motor play, including outside time, is full of pretend play and physical activity. This type of play is often easiest for an adult to enter without disrupting the flow of the activity. Adults should observe for a few moments before entering the game, and then ask, “What are we playing?” A simple verbal cue can set the stage for the pretend story at hand. Very quickly, she will find herself running, laughing, and enjoying as much physical development as her young playmates.

In pretend play, children use their imaginations and generate different ideas and images. This helps them to learn to think of different ways to solve a problem, either in a creativity task or in daily life. Children who have good pretend play ability can think of more things to do in a situation (like being at the doctor). This ability is usually independent of intelligence. Pretend play also relates to ability to understand the emotions of others and to take the perspective of the other. This is probably because children take many different roles when they play. For example, they pretend to be the mother, baby, boy, girl, teacher, dentist, etc.

Do not discount the importance of learning through play. Play allows children to learn through their natural curiosity about the world at large. Daycare providers should take advantage of the opportunity to facilitate this type of learning by offering play activities that foster creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills like negotiation.

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Wordless picture books are a great way to start teaching your child. These books are full of pictures which tell a story without the sentences or words that usually come with these. This is quite effective for pre school children since the pictures create a story as they are viewed in sequential order. Through this, your child will learn that reading is done from left to right with the right way of flipping the pages. This will give them the sense of the right way of reading a book. As you read to them, they will be able to make up their own dialogues as well as story lines as they read each picture. This can encourage them to become readers in the future.

Slowly Build Up
The advantage of having wordless picture books is the way in which you can adjust story telling. Since there are no words that accompany each page, you have the liberty to add or make the stories more complex as you read to your child. You will be able to add certain details as slowly as you can. You can add verb, adjectives, nouns and so on which can add to the vocabulary of your child. The tenses can also be varied as well as well as the tones in the dialogues. This makes your story telling as versatile as you want it to be. You can add more event as well as dialogues each time you read the story to your child. This will expand his imaginations when it comes to reading books.

Let Him Read
Encouraging interaction between you and your child will make reading a more enjoyable and fun activity for your child. You can start reading the first page of the story and ask your child to continue what you have started. This will make you child be more attentive to what you are saying to him. You will be able to enhance the communication skills that you children is developing. One way to make this very effective is by asking him questions along the way, this will make your child pay more attention to the details of the book as well as make his imagination work. If you think that your child is ready, your child can even be the one to make up his own story. He can have his share of reading by asking him to read the story for you. This will give you a chance to evaluate the reading progress of your child.

What should you look for when you evaluate your child? You need to know that good readers follow a certain sequence that is logical. They have a way of organizing their thoughts into events that should happen logically. Besides from this, your child should be able to pay attention to as much details as possible. They are not expected to just notice what id obvious but they need to make sure that each and every detail is not missed as he looks at every picture. They are able to practice their comprehension skills. Through the pictures only, the children are expected to be able to make sense out of them. They should be able to come up with a story which has a unified theme. Part of this includes the elements of the story such as the plot, tone and the characters. By having an idea on these things, your child will have an easier time when it comes to reading various stories in the future.

Basically, wordless picture books prepared the child and equip them for future reading. Even if these books do not have words with them, the children are able to develop their reading skills. They will understand the concept that books have a begin, middle and an end. Their comprehension skills as well as imagination are enhanced as they are reading these books. These are two things which are very important when somebody reads a book because without these things, you will never really understand and enjoy reading a book.

Communication is also one thing which you need to enhance as your child is reading a book. They need to understand the sequences as well as the tenses which they are reading. As of now, as long as they are able to make up something out of the pictures, is already a great improvement for your child.

Do not get into a hurry by buying your children all those complicated books. Sometimes, all you need are the most simple things when you want your child to learn. Start from the basics and you will find it easier to develop more complex reading skills for your child. Teaching your child how to read is not that hard. You just need to know how to teach them in the right way. If you do, see how your child will easily be inclined to read as he grows older.

See: How to start a daycare center

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With so many choices, it may be difficult for you to choose one. It is highly recommended that you have a lesson plan and depending on the lesson for the day, you can now pick up your craft sets in toy stores and teach your children how to learn the fun way!

Puppet shows are one of the most enjoyable learning methods of children. You can teach them how to make their own puppet and play with them afterwards. Choose a theme or storyline from their favourite show and you can play with the puppets and imagine that they are the real thing. This will really allow your child to use their creativity in making puppets. One more thing is that they will learn how to be resourceful. They will learn that they can use sock for puppets and even buttons for eyes. Your child will learn a lot from this activity.

Play dough has been one of the most popular choices for parents. Almost everyone you know have played with this. All you need when playing with clay is your imagination. You can teach children how to make animals, people, shapes and numbers using play dough. The children can work in groups and come up with a whole set of animals or a village. This is an enjoyable activity for your child since they can mold anything that they like, in any color that they want. You can play guessing games by molding a shape and ask your child what you have molded. This will allow your child to discover new things through pay dough.

Cooking is a fun activity that you can teach your child. The easiest way that your child can enjoy cooking is through baking. You can bake your child’s favourite cake, cookies, cupcakes, muffin and almost anything. You can teach your child how to mix the batter and pour them in the pans. But cooking does not stop there. You can buy decorating materials for the cake. You can buy colored icing and flowers made out of sugar which you can use to decorate a cake. You can put different designs on the cake which will make it more enjoyable to eat.

In baking cookies, you can use various shapes on cookie cutters which will be make cookies more fun to eat. You can also make crafts like designing cookie jars where you will out your cookies after baking. You can teach them how to draw simple things on the jars which they will remember everytime they get a cookie.

Playing outdoors have always been one of the things that children enjoy doing. Crafts are usually done indoor which may bore your child. It is important to have some fresh air once in a while. One activity that you can teach your child that can e dine outdoors is gardening. Teach your child how to plant, make flowerpots and even garden bins. At this point, your child may have established a favourite flower, fruit or vegetable. You can buy seeds and team up so that you can plant together, dig the sand, place the seed and cover it with soil. You can teach your child to be responsible by checking up on the plant from time to time and watering them based on the schedule. You can also plant in pots where you can put designs like a face where the hair is the grass that is growing. There are countless of options that you may take when it come to gardening.

Making scrapbooks is one craft that your child will surely enjoy. You can but a blank scrapbook which you can decorate from scratch. Let your child pick pictures which they like or remember to have a good memory with. These are the pictures which you can place in the scrapbook. Your child can practice his writing, coloring and even designing. They can incorporate colors which complement each other and designs with a theme. You can have fun reminiscing these moments with your child.

There are so many crafts from which you can choose from. You just need to be creative in coming up with an activity for you and your child. Make sure that you are able to teach your child the importance of doing the activity so that they will not only enjoy to learn but they will also enjoy the activity.

Children love to learn in a creative way so make sure that whatever you are doing, your child is interested in this. They will be willing to learn if they are enjoying what they are doing. Make sure that you are doing a craft that is age-appropriate that will allow them to learn from these. Remember that crafting is more than just a hobby or a past time, it is something which you can use to teach your child certain skills which they can further develop when they grow up.

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Animal Making
This first fun activity involves making the different animals using art materials. There are a lot of animals which can be made and each animal should be described and discussed accordingly.

An easy example is making a reindeer. You would need black, brown, tan and white construction papers, markers and scissors. Both hands of the child should be traced onto the tan construction paper. After which, the pattern should be cut out. The same thing should be done with a shoe on the brown paper. The two hand patterns should then be glued onto the narrower part of the shoe pattern. Eyes and mouth should also be made from the different colored papers and glued on the shoe pattern. The reindeer is already ready showing the kids that reindeers have antlers.

Other animals can be made in such a way that they would have other uses like dangling snakes which can be room decorations and elephant pencil holders which is also a nice method of recycling items. The most important thing in doing these activities is asking the kids to participate even through simple coloring or pasting for the kids to have their focus on the lesson and for them to really enjoy.

A “cook-and-eat” Activity
Since eating while learning is fun, learning while eating would be a nice activity for preschoolers. To avoid heavy clean up after classes, taping plastic covers on the table would be a good thing to do.

The first food to make is reindeer bread using brown bread as the body, raisins as eyes, pretzels as antlers, marshmallows as mouth and peanut butter. The bread should be sliced diagonally to obtain two triangles. The kids should do the spreading of the peanut butter on their slices and decorating their bread reindeers accordingly.

The next food is polar bear bread using bread which is cut in two circular sizes using a cookie cutter and black olives in different shapes as eyes (sliced), nose (whole) and mouth (thinly sliced) and grated cheese which would be the fur. The bigger circular bread would serve as the body, a smaller circle would be the head and two more small circles would serve as the ears. These are all placed in a plate and decorated with grated cheese and the olives.

Another food activity that would allow children to learn is by using animal crackers which come in different shapes, lettuce and chicken. Two plates are each given to a student: one is filled with lettuce while the other is filled with chicken. The child is then asked on which of the animals eat lettuce and which eat meat. They should then be classified as herbivores and carnivores animals that eat plants and animals that eat other animals respectively.

Assemble and Match
When the activity involves matching pictures and assembling puzzles, the children can easily remember the lesson because of the visual cues. Two activities under this section include matching the animal parents with their kids and assembling animal puzzles. Both activities are easy. By using the pictures of animals, the children could mix and match the pairs of parent and young. For puzzles the large animal pictures could be cut into two and shuffled on a table full of other pieces of pictures. Matching and assembling the puzzle would be a nice activity for the kids.

Animal Games
The last set of activities discussed in this article can be considered interactive games such as sound games, kangaroo games, monkey games and zoo keeper games. Interactive games are one of the most effective techniques in teaching small children.

The sound game is a teaching technique to inform the kids of the different sounds that animals make by showing a picture and asking them to listen to the sound you’ll make or asking them on what they think is the animal sound.

The kangaroo game is a relay that should be done outdoors. This is done so the children would know the nature of the kangaroos in rearing their young which is by placing them in their pouches and showing them the main mode of movement of the animals which is through hopping.

The zoo keeper game is another activity which can test the children’s knowledge about the different animals by asking them to tell a story about an animal they love to take care of in an imaginary scenario where they are the zoo keepers. Another version of the game is allowing the kids to make different animals sounds and making the “it” catch all the animals by identifying them and placing them in zoo cages which is the responsibility of a zoo keeper.

Lastly, the monkey game is aimed to teach children of the imitating ability of monkeys. The game is played in a circle where the leader monkey would do actions that the other monkeys should follow.

Aside from the activities mentioned in this article, there are a lot more things that you, as a preschool teacher can choose from. Nursery rhymes, songs with actions, story telling, puppets and other creative methods of teaching are the best methods to make small children learn about the different zoo animals and their importance in our world.

See: How to start a daycare center

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