Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education: May 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

recognizing milestones--physical development--baby teeth

Tooth fairy--aka--my husband does delivery in person and my mail for my nieces and fairly soon for my youngest nephew! To recognize these steps in the physical developmental domain, because of living over 2 hours apart, I have had to create little pocket cards to send tooth fairy money to each niece in the past 5 months.

Here are photos for the older niece's pocket card last November and for her sister/younger niece last week:

Memory card game, puzzle, or file folder pieces

Becca's rule of thumb that has worked successfully with children goes like this:

The child's age up to 2x their age determines number of pieces(then based on their successful completions of at least 4 activities at that level, the teacher or parent starts adding pieces by 1s or 2s until their frustration level is reached.

Example:
1. A young 2 year old should be started with an activity that has 2-4 pieces to manipulate.

2. A young 3 year old should be started with an activity that has 3-6 pieces to manipulate.

3. A young 4 year old should be started with an activity that has 4-8 pieces to manipulate.

Continue to add as age and ability progress. Near 6-7 years of age, a jigsaw type puzzle with 25-50 pieces should be possible to complete. For memory card games, having 20-26 pieces or 10 -13 matches should be challenging enough. File folders have space limitations, so maintaining about 8-10 small zones or areas will be suitable. It will be the content used in the activity that will be the challenge for a child using a file folder game.

Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education

A love for teaching young children

Monday, May 2, 2011

recognizing milestones--physical development--baby teeth

stenciled numbers for room decor