What Children Learn
Below are the key focus areas for learning and ideas for what teachers/volunteers can do to promote these skills.
- To classify and sort sizes, numbers, lengths, weight, colors
- To be creative
- To use small muscle coordination in hands
- To share and play together
- To solve problems
- To cooperate
- To respect different building ideas
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do
- Sit down, build and ask a child to join you
- Talk to children about their building
- Use open-ended questions (Can you tell me about your building?)
- Encourage children to use blocks safely
- Encourage children to add cars, people, animals, etc. with their blocks
- Offer help with problem solving
- Encourage children to put blocks away where they belong when finished
- Encourage creativity
- To express individuality and creativity
- To act out and negotiate roles
- To play cooperatively
- To play out real life experiences
- To enhance communication skills
- Learn problem solving skills
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do
- Encourage children to talk about what they are doing
- Ask open ended questions that will help children think about they are doing
- Play along with the children and have fun
- Encourage children to put toys where they belong
- Encourage problem solving skills
- Encourage creativity individually and with others
- To work cooperatively in small groups playing games
- To finish a project or puzzle
- To sort and match objects by color, texture, size and shape
- To classify, sequencing, numbers and letters
- To develop small muscles by string beads, puzzles, writing, play dough and using other materials
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do
- Help children work with table toys appropriately
- Help children do activities step by step
- Ask children to describe what they are thinking and doing using open-ended questions
- Join the children on the floor or at the table, encouraging conversation and language
- Encourage children to put toys back in correct containers and where they belong when they are finished
- To learn problem solving skills
- To express creativity individually and with others
- To express feelings through colors
- To express creativity individually and with others
- To observe cause and effect when mixing colors
- To learn to solve problems
- To learn to label what they have created
- To learn about spaces
- To develop small motor skills
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Encourage use of material provided
- Encourage exploring and experiment
- Describe what you see (example: “I see you used the color purple.”)
- Ask open-ended questions (example: “Tell me about your picture.”)
- Encourage and support children’s efforts
- Encourage children to ask for help when needed and help each other
- Encourage and assist children during clean-up (including washing hands)
- Encourage children write their name on their work or offer to help
- To play cooperatively with others
- To see how materials compare and change (example: mixing colored water)
- To understand cause and effect
- To explore volume and measurements (different sized containers available)
- To problem solve
- To develop creativity individually and with others
What Teachers/Volunteers can Do:
- Help children wash their hands before and after using sensory materials (sand, water, etc.)
- Encourage children to talk about what they are doing
- Encourage children to keep sensory materials in agreed upon spaces
- Encourage and assist children during clean-up time including washing hands
- Join in playing with materials provided
- Encourage children to help each other and work together
- Develop fine motor coordination using their hands and eyes
- Learn to use a variety of writing tools (pens, pencils, crayons, markers etc.)
- Learn to copy and write shapes, letters, and numbers
- Learn to label their projects
- Learn to choose materials independently
- Learn to work cooperatively with others
- Learn problem solving problems
- Develop vocabulary and language skills (talking about projects)
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Encourage children to use the hand they prefer
- Showing children how to hold their writing tool correctly
- Describe what you see
- Use open-ended questions
- Join in writing with materials provided
- Encourage creativity
- Encourage children to work together and help each other
- Encourage use of language and conversations
- Offer to write words for the children or their stories
- Encourage children to label their work, offer help if needed
- Learn about the importance of reading
- Learn to use their imagination
- Gain new information and vocabulary
- Learn to understand more about feelings, fears, etc.
- Learn to story predictions and retelling
- Proper use of books
- Learn about books (author, illustrator, front, back, turning pages etc.)
- Promotes language skills and conversation
- Using story props
- Increases letter and sound knowledge (phonemic awareness)
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Offer to read
- Talk about the books, how to use them, author, illustrator, etc.
- Ask story predictions
- Encourage retelling stories
- Use felt board, puppets and other props, and encourage use of the props
- Encourage proper use of books
- Encourage children to put books back when done using them
- Encourage children to share books with other children
- Encourage children to choose books on their own
- Read books your self
- Point to words as reading
- Develop large motor skills
- Children learn about season changes
- Use all senses to learn about the outdoors
- Learning social and problem-solving skills
- Learn to work with other
- Learn about plants and animals
- Creativity
- Learn safety, follow rules and directions
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Assist children in dressing appropriately for the weather
- Assist children in staying safe
- Encourage following directions and rules
- Join in outdoor play
- Use variety of activities structured and unstructured
- Encourage children to take turns, work together, cooperation
- Encourage children to use all their senses in outdoor experiences
- Discuss plants, animals and other areas of the environment (season changes)
- Assist in Cleaning up outdoors and themselves-washing hands when come in
- Encourage and model safe and proper use of equipment
*We are not currently eating "Family Style" due to COVID.
- To pass and serve food
- To set the table-counting skills how many people at the table
- Use manners, please, thank-you
- Increase vocabulary and conversation
- Stay seated throughout meal time
- Healthy eating habits
- Self-help skills (hand washing, toothbrushing)
- Help clean up after eating (checking floor, chair, table for dropped food)
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Encourage and model children to dish up and pass food
- Encourage all children to try a variety of foods (modeling)
- Encourage all children to wait until everyone is served, before eating
- Assist children in table setting (counting skills)
- Model and encourage manners and conversation
- Build language and vocabulary (use Ojibwe food names)
- Encourage children to stay at table until most of the children are finished
- Ensure a calm and relaxed mealtime
- Assist and encourage children to clean-up their own space (scrap plate)
- Push chair in when finished
- Large motor skills
- To follow directions and rules
- Learn how to use equipment properly and safely
- Creativity individually and together
- Learn socialization skills, communication, taking turns, sharing
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Encourage large motor activities child directed and teacher directed
- Teach and Model safe and proper use of equipment
- Teach, encourage and model problem solving skills
- Teach, encourage and model cooperation, turn taking and helping each other
- Encourage creativity
- To be part of a group
- Share ideas and listen to other’s ideas
- Participate and follow directions
- Finger plays, songs, poems, creative movement, games, stories, etc.
- Learn literacy, vocabulary, alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, pattern etc.
- Stay in their own space and respect other’s space
- Culture activities
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Participate in circle/large group activities and encourage children to do same
- Encourage and Model sharing ideas and listen to other’s ideas
- Encourage children to remain in the circle
- Share and Teach culture activities
- Encourage children to stay in their own space and respect other’s space
- Teach in a variety of ways: literacy, songs, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.
- Engage children using a variety of ways in the group time
- To share ideas and listen to others
- Follow directions and participate
- Enhance skills and learn new skills
- Get more individualized time on developing skills
- Follow-up activities from large group, the theme/unit, safety discussions
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Individualize Activities for children in the group
- Encourage participation
- Use hands on materials for learning (counting bears, blocks, etc.)
- Be creative, using a variety of teaching methods
- Use and encourage the use of new vocabulary words (including ojibwe)
- Use positive encouragement
- To move from one activity to the next
- To be more flexible
- To finish a task within a given amount of time
- Follow directions
What Teachers/Volunteers Can Do:
- Remind and encourage children to finish activities (5 min. before clean-up)
- Give specific directions
- Daily Routines-discuss, post with words and pictures
- Let children know before a transition occurs
- Transition activities (hop like a Wabooz, play music, finger plays)
