Babies
Reading
Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers
Clive and His Babies by Jessica Spanyol
Singing
Although this is a fun song to sing with babies when you're changing their diaper, it is also fun to sing with toddlers as they get dressed. It encourages independence and makes this daily routine lots of fun!
Baby Put Your Pants On
Baby put your pants on,
pants on, pants on
Baby put your pants on,
one, two, three
Leg to the left,leg to the right (move legs)
Wiggle and jiggle
and pull them up tight
Other verses: put your shirt on, socks, hat, mittens, shoes...
Extension Activity: Baby Dolls!
"A cuddly doll represents real beings that can love back. The young child uses it to mimic the actions of those about him: to bathe, to put to sleep, to feed, and to dress and undress repeatedly. This repetitive "play" develops skills for feeding and undressing himself and leads him to further identify with the dolls as a symbol of self or other family members."
-Paula Polk Lillard & Lynn Lillard Jessen in the book, Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three
If you have a baby doll at home for your child, that's great! If not, it's something worth looking into, even for boys (I only mention this because of common gender stereotypes). Caring for baby dolls can be an excellent way for ALL toddlers to exercise empathy and care for others. It's extra helpful for toddlers who are expecting a new sibling in their immediate or extended family!
Some activities you can set up for your child to do with their baby doll include washing, dressing, and even changing a diaper! When I worked in a Montessori classroom, we had a few preemie diapers we kept on hand for the toddlers to practice diaper changing. They absolutely loved these activities.
Dressing, including snapping buttons and putting diapers on the baby, helped the toddlers strengthen fine motor skills, build concentration, and understand sequencing (sequencing is understanding how a series of objects, events, and time occur in a specific and logical order). Additionally, washing the baby in a small plastic basin with a little bit of soap and water, and a sponge, provides them with a whole range of sensory experiences!
Baby Doll Washing - Image via Living Montessori Now
Here are some suggested steps from Living Montessori Now that you can have your child follow while washing & dressing their baby dolls:
Put on an apron.
Take pitcher to sink to fill with water to red line.
Pour water into doll tub.
Undress doll.
Fold used clothes and diaper. Place on shelf underneath the “changing table.”
Place doll in bathtub.
Add 2 squirts of baby wash.
Wash doll with wash cloth.
Put one squirt of baby shampoo in hand.
Wash and rinse doll’s hair.
Finish washing doll.
Place doll on towel spread out on changing table.
Dry doll
Put a squirt of baby lotion on hand and spread on doll.
Put diaper on doll.
Put clothes on doll.
Wrap doll in blanket.
Put doll back in original place or in doll bed. (A doll bassinet would be great for this if you have one.)
Empty doll bathtub into water recycling bucket or sink.
Dry bathtub with sponge.
Wring out washcloth and lay out to dry (or hang on a clothesline).
Straighten materials on changing table.
Straighten materials on baby bath table.
Fold or hang up apron. (We hang ours on a hook.)
hands / sense of touch
Reading
Hands Can by Cheryl Willis Hudson
What Can I Feel? by Annie Kubler
Singing
Open, Shut Them
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap clap clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Put them on your lap lap lap
Creep them, crawl them
Creep them, crawl them
Right up to your chin chin chin
Open wide your little mouth -
but do not let them in!
Other verses:
Creep them, crawl them
Creep them, crawl them
Right up to your cheeks cheeks cheeks
Cover up your little eyes -
and then you take a peek! (do peek-a-boo)
Creep them, crawl them
Creep them, crawl them
Right up to your nose nose nose
Creep them crawl them
Creep them crawl them
right down to your toes toes toes!
Extension Activity (from email to parents/caregivers)
Attached to this email, you'll find a scavenger hunt all about the sense of touch. It’s all about textures. The scavenger hunt incorporates basic textures – rough, smooth, hard, and soft – and a few others, such as squishy and fuzzy.
Here’s what you will need:
Rough or grainy-textured objects – sponges, a bowl of salt or sugar, a rough woolen sweater
Smooth-textured objects – silky ribbon, magazine pages, a polished tabletop
Hard-textured objects – building blocks, ice cubes, arm rests or backs of chairs
Soft-textured objects – cotton pieces, a teddy bear, a baby blanket
Squishy-textured objects – a squishy toy, a marshmallow, or playdough
Fuzzy-textured objects – a stuffed animal, a piece of clothing, or blanket
Here’s how to start:
Start with one object from the scavenger hunt list. Use only one object per texture.
Hide the chosen objects around a room in your house. Don’t hide them too well, though – your child should be able to find them without much difficulty (or climbing on top of things!).
When you’re ready, give your child clues to find these objects. You can say, “Find something that is soft/smooth/squishy/etc.” If they're having a bit of trouble, give him a hint as to where he may find that object, or remind them what the texture feels like. You may want to model finding the first few textures for your child. Soon, they'll get the hang of it!
Whenever your child finds an object, encourage them to take some time and really feel its texture, and help them relate the feeling to other objects as well.
Lastly, once your child has found all the different-textured objects and the hunt is complete, remind your child of how hard they worked to find everything!
Winter Storytime Pt. 3
Winter this season in the Chicago area has seemed never-ending. We’ve had blizzard upon blizzard upon blizzard. Hence the 3-part winter storytime series! Enjoy. :)
Reading
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Winter in the Forest by Rusty Finch
Singing
Today we recited a little rhyme while playing a guessing game with the felt board. Similar to Little Mouse, children had to guess which color mitten the snowball was hidden behind. Here is how the rhyme goes:
Snowball, snowball, cold and round
Behind which mitten could you be found?
Snowball, snowball, where could you be?
Are you behind the (color) mitten? Let’s look and see!
Extension Activity
Today we read The Snowy Day because of the big snowfall we got overnight and into this afternoon. I hope you were able to get outside with your child today! If not today, then tomorrow. Just like Peter did in our book, make a snowman together, or lay down and make snow angels. Playing in snow is a wonderful sensory experience for your child.
Also, in The Snowy Day, Peter brings a snowball into his house, in his pocket. The snowball melts, but the book never says this outright, it just hints at it. Bring a bowl outside and have your child pack a snowball to put in the bowl. Before you go inside, ask your child what they think will happen to the snowball once you bring it indoors.
Bring the bowl and snowball inside and watch with your child as it quickly melts. Explain that the warm air from inside your house is melting the snow into water, just like Peter's snowball melted and made a wet spot on his coat. This activity helps your child work on making predictions, observation skills, and patience.
If you'd like to listen to this story again, please check out this lovely animated version of the book on YouTube.
Vehicles & Machines Storytime
Reading
Machines Go to Work in the City by William Low
A Train Goes Clickety-Clack by Jonathan London
Singing
Chuggin’
One little blue train,
chuggin' down the track,
chuggin' down the track,
chuggin' down the track.
One little blue train,
chuggin' down the track,
chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga,
choo choo!
Verses: Count up (2 trains, 3 trains, etc.) and change the color (red trains, green trains, etc.)
(This is a song that I made up! If you use it, please link back to me, thanks!)
Extension Activity (a feature in the recap email to parents & caregivers)
“Children's early language exposure impacts their later linguistic skills, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement.”
Romeo, R.R., Leonard, J.A., Robinson, S.T., West, M.R., Mackey, A.P., Rowe, M.L. & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2018). Beyond the 30-Million-Word Gap: Children’s Conversational Exposure Is Associated with Language-Related Brain Function. Psychological Science.
Today I'd like to encourage you to take an interest-driven approach to helping your child with their speech & language development. Vehicles and machines provide a great foundation to build your child's vocabulary upon. If vehicles and machines aren't part of your child's interests, try adapting these suggestions to something that is! Children learn language and speech better when we relate it to topics that they are interested in.
There are many books out there that introduce new types of vehicles and may even feature a glossary of all the names and parts of these machines (like the book we read, Machines Go to Work in the City). What a wonderful opportunity for your child to work on their vocabulary!
Taking this a step further, talking about machine actions allow for new ways to introduce verbs and spatial words. A lot of books about vehicles and machines provide opportunities for children to say onomatopoeias, like "vroom" or "beep beep!" which can be easier to say for children struggling with speech development.
The speech-language pathologists over at Wee Talkers point out:
Researchers found that, yes…. TALKING is important, BUT it’s not just about the number of words children hear. Researchers found that the children need to hear words within motivating, back-and forth-conversations. Responsive, positive interactions with young children are key!
You can think of it like a game of tennis. Back & forth. Back & forth. You take a turn & your child takes a turn!
Don't underestimate the power of conversing with your child, whether it be while they're playing with vehicles, or watching them out the window, or in the car. These are powerful opportunities to help your child develop their language and speech. Here are some ways to start back-and-forth conversations with your child, through modeling:
Steer away from asking too many questions.
Wee Talkers speech-language pathologists also point out, "For kids who are just starting to talk or aren’t talking much yet, questions can be hard to answer and respond to. Some questions can even make kids feel like they’re on the spot which adds pressure. Using comments more often than questions can help make sure that learning to talk never feels like a test."Talk about what your child is seeing, hearing, and experiencing.
"Wow! that car is moving so fast!" or "That truck is backing up. I hear it beeping. It is moving slowly and carefully."Talk about your child's past and future experiences with vehicles.
This helps your child learn what to expect and compare it to what they already know.
"Tomorrow the garbage truck comes. We have to set the garbage out. When the garbage truck comes it is loud!"Pretend to be vehicles and play with toy vehicles with your child.
The Construction Vehicle Song is great for this!
"The excavator scoops up dirt like this!" (scooping motion with hand)
"I'm going to try driving this (toy) car over this bumpy carpet. I wonder how it will feel."Describe the characteristics of vehicles.
"That firetruck is red, and its siren makes a loud sound!"
"This toy steamroller has a large smooth wheel."Make vehicle sounds.
Encourage your child to imitate you!
Winter Storytime pt. 2
Reading
The Snowy Day by Anna Milbourne
The Last Marshmallow by Grace Lin
Singing
The Walrus Washes His Winter Coat (use with a shaker egg or scarf)
Oh, the walrus washes his winter coat,
down by the wavy ocean.
He adds some water and he adds some soap
and he waits...and he waits...and he waits.
Then the laundry shakes, shakes, shakes
The laundry shakes and shakes and shakes
The laundry shakes, shakes, shakes until it's clean.
The laundry shakes, shakes, shakes
The laundry shakes and shakes and shakes
The laundry shakes, shakes, shakes until it's clean.
Verses: The laundry spins, spins, spins
Credits This song was written by Brytani Fraser. Watch her original video here: https://youtu.be/5tQf_knWFRU
Extension Activity (a feature in the recap email to parents & caregivers)
Today's activity ideas come straight from the back of the book The Last Marshmallow by Grace Lin, which we read this morning. This board book is a part of a series called Storytelling Math which covers early childhood math concepts for toddlers and preschoolers. I highly recommend checking out the other books in this series!
"One for you, one more me, and one more..." As Olivia and Mei discover, sometimes sharing fairly can be a challenge. If one child ends up with one marshmallow and the other with two, they know it's not fair, even if they can't count yet! When children find ways to share, they begin to develop real-world understanding of division and fractions.
Invite your child to share a few crackers or apple slices with you. Try some of these ways to share:
Two people share four, six, or eight items.
Encourage children to find a way to share equally. Ask, "How can you tell if we have the same amount?"Two people share three, five, or seven items.
Help children think through what to do with the extra.Three people share a few items.
Let children decide how to share fairly.
Fair does not always mean exactly the same. Olivia and Mei divide the last marshmallow in half. Another child may want to save it for someone else, give it to you because you're bigger, or eat it themselves!
These activities were developed by Douglas Clements, Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and Director of the Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy.