ELC Toddler Twos: October 2012

Toddlers Love to Dance!

Ms. Kris felt that our families needed to see how much fun we have

during our music and dance time. Music is very beneficial to a young

child's development. It teaches early math skills, strengthens gross motor

development, and expands vocabulary. Plus it is a ton of fun!

Pumpkins, Blocks, and Corn

She is doing one-to-one coorespondence, a great cognitive skill.

This is a classic example of spacial awareness, another cognitive skill.

Even our youngest toddler is learning his spacial awareness.

An older toddler is playing with a younger todder. He is using
his words to communicte his ideas. The younger toddler is
following his direction. Both are working on their language skills and
social skills through play.

The sensory table is not only a fun place to be, but many things are learned.
Early math/spacial skills are discovered through filling and dumping the corn
with the measuring cups. The toddler's social skills are also improving by the
sharing of space and materials with each other.

Science, Science, Science!

Homemade Watercolors

Ms. Kris made her own watercolors by drying out tempera paint on

a plate. The toddlers needed to add water and rub the paint with their

paint brush to get color on their paper. This activity uses their fine

motor skills, early writing skills, and cause and effect skills.

More Fall Activities

These children are working on their one-to-one correspondence

and counting skills with this seasonal game.

These two pictures show you how our paint and crayon resist painting

worked. We had a white outline of leaves on white paper.

When the children painted with watercolors they noticed a leaf appear.

The watercolor didn't stick to the oil of the crayon.

Pretty cool!

Hammered Flower Art

This series of pictures shows you the entire

process of how we did our hammered flower art project.

First we collected leaves and flowers with bright colors.
We talked about what colors the children picked up.
We found a lot of purple, yellow, and green.

Next we placed a bunch of leaves, grass, and flowers from our walk
on the table. Then placed a white sheet of paper on top.
We used a hammer to hit the paper and we began to see
color on our paper!

The kids loved having the permission to hit something!

State Guidelines: Motor Development

Large muscle

State Guideline: Cognitive Development

Cause and effect
Memory (For example, remembering their colors.)

State Guideline: Language and Communication

Expressive language: The child will convey a message or transfer information to another person. (For example, telling us what they have found on our walk.)

Creative Fall Activities

We are using a lot of our senses this month!

Take a look at what we are doing.

Leaf rubbings. The children colored really FAST and really HARD.

These children are feeling the bumps of the leaves.
When they did this it made a wonderful sound.

The children are using large tweezers to pick up straw in our
outdoor sensory table.

Some children pounded into the straw with the tweezers.

When we saw him doing this we had to take a picture!
It looks like he is levitating!

State Guidelines: Motor Development

Large Muscle: Movement, balance, and coordination.
Small Muscle: Touch, grasp, reach, and manipulate

State Guidelines: Language and Communication

Early Writing: The child will develop the fine motor abilities required to hold a writing tool and make marks on a surface
Comprehending Language: The child will comprehend the message of another's communication. (For example, a teacher requesting the children to scribble really hard and really fast.)