Today, we enjoyed a little ice play.

Sometimes the simplest of ideas can be the most enjoyable for young children. The teacher in this class set out a bowl of ice with some cups, smaller bowls, and spoons…

The children scooped the ice from one container to the other…

And some children used their hands to pick up ice cubes….

What makes an activity like this so successful is that it is truly all about discovery, exploring, and play…

We won’t be able to hang this up on a wall when we are finished but we can talk about our experience…

And during the process of our ice play we discovered the ice was cold and when it melts, water runs all over the table and down on the floor!

And when the teacher isn’t looking, we can place an ice cube on the handle end of our spoon and it suddenly becomes a Popsicle!

Can you see all the learning (and fun) going on just from some simple ice play?

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Copyright 2011 © Deborah J. Stewart

All Rights Reserved!

Contact Deborah for permission to sell, post, publish, or distribute all or any part of this article!

Many preschool teachers and stay at home moms spend hours on making games and activities for preschoolers.

When I make a game mat, I like to make it colorful, simple, self explanatory, and as open-ended as possible..

I like to laminate most of my game mats so they can be used over and over again.

Sometimes, I like the game mats to be big so they can be played by one child or more than one child. I want to encourage some collaboration, problem solving, and creativity.

With any game, I try to keep it out for several days. I find that often times the game will get passed over at first but eventually the children get curious and will give it a try. By the next day, the children will often come back for another go at the game only now they seem more confident or more engaged in the game in some way. I never know what the children will come up with but leaving it out for several days gives them more time to come up with new ideas for how they want to play the game.

Where possible, I also like to add other manipulatives to use as game pieces or another way to keep the children engaged in the game.

There are other times when I will make more than one game mat so the children can each have their own mat to play with.

Almost every game mat has some type of learning objective. It may be counting, number recognition, letter recognition, sorting, or graphing. But regardless of my core objectives, many other types of learning take place when I just let the children play.

There are times when I will explain my idea for the game with the children so to help them get started. In one recent game, the children just couldn’t get past fighting over their favorite color of frog.  So I showed them how we can roll the dice to see which color of frog gets to go to the next square and we can all cheer for every frog and just see which one will get to the finish line first.

The pre-k class caught on to the idea of cheering for all the frogs but the twos and threes just couldn’t grasp this idea so we had to encourage them to take turns sharing their favorite frog with each other. We may have never played the game correctly, but we had lots of practice learning to cooperate with each other:)

Sometimes, the children like me to sit with them and play the game. Some times, the children like for me to just sit and watch them play the game. Other times, the children just want to play alone and make up their own rules for play.

I often have to remind myself what the ultimate goal of playing any game should really be – and that is to not only give children the opportunity to learn a core concept but to also give them opportunities to build important life skills. Whether they are learning a core concept or how to follow rules, how to take turns, how to share, how to get along, and how to make up their own rules – there is value in the game-playing process.

Click here to learn how to make this frog game!

I am linking up with The Play Academy….

Order Deborah's Children's CD today!

www.teachpreschool.org

Copyright 2011 © Deborah J. Stewart

All Rights Reserved!

Contact Deborah for permission to sell, post, publish, or distribute all or any part of this article!

This may just look like an empty blue ice tray but if you stop and think about how it can be used to promote fine motor skills or sorting skills, the ideas are limitless.

By adding a basket of small, plastic objects – this ice tray becomes a tool for both play and developing new skills.

Today, the children are simply focused on putting pieces of fruit in the tray. No instructions are given. Instead, the children make up their own rules of play.

Through their play, the children are building fine motor muscle and control…

A little talking, sharing, comparing, patterning, and sorting is also going on…

And then there is spacial awareness and counting. How many of these little objects will fit into each square of the tray?

The teacher occasionally stops by and asks a casual question like, “Can you show me something purple?”

Notice that a little parallel play is happening too.

And then it is always fun to dump our trays back into the basket all by ourselves.

Wow, who knew an ice tray was actually a tool for so much learning?

When I came into observe clean-up time, I happen to notice that the block center looked like this.. Oh my!

But when I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the tumbling blocks, one little boy decided he wanted in on the action.

So he began to stack the blocks.

And then this little girl decided that this looked like fun too…

And then another little girl joined in…

And before long, we had a team of block stackers at work – I mean at play!

Stacking blocks is always much more fun when we do it together with our friends.

And when Mrs. Stewart comes in with a camera – you would be surprised at what we can accomplish all by ourselves!

Preschool Song: Stack the Blocks

Tune: The Ants Go Marching In

We stack the blocks one-by-one

Hurrah! Hurrah!

We stack the blocks one-by-one

Hurrah! Hurrah!

We stack the blocks one-by-one

We are having so much fun

Then they all go tumbling down – to the ground

Boom, Boom, Boom!

Repeat and change verses to two-by-two, three-by-three and so on…

See more ideas about play!

The early childhood years are filled with staggering growth and development. There are four main areas of development that occur all at the same time:

Physical development: In the first years of growth young children are physically developing at a rapid pace. There is both large motor (crawling, walking, running) and fine motor development (eye-hand coordination, cutting, writing, weaving) happening all at once.

Social development: Understanding how to communicate, share, make friends, and get along with others is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to social development in the first five years of life.

Emotional development: The building blocks for a positive self-esteem and self-confidence starts in early childhood. Young children are also learning how to manage and appropriately express their own emotions such as fear, saddness, anger, and happiness.

Social and emotional often come hand in hand since how a child fairs socially often impacts his or her emotional well-being.

Cognitive development: Young children are always processing information about their world. They do so through both structured and unstructured activities, play, and interaction with others. From experiences such as these, young children develop their understanding and abilities in such areas as math, science, language, art. The mind of a young child absorbs information like a sponge.