Two little black bears sitting on a hill
One named Jack and one named Jill
Run away Jack, run away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill
Two little black bears digging in the snow
One named Fast and one named Slow…
Two little black bears digging in the ground
One named Quiet and one named Loud..
This is a workshop I conducted on the importance of playing pretend. The workshop was conducted with our regular Family Storytime crowd of grown-ups with children ages 0-5. I framed the workshop as a regular story time, but included early literacy tips at appropriate moments throughout the workshop.
Book 1:Not A Box by Antoinette Portis
Theme Song: This is a sort of made up song, I originally found a version of it in some strange YouTube video, but edited it to better suit our workshop. Of course we did some pretending for each line of the song.
The Pretend Song It’s fun to be this It’s fun to be that To leap like a lamb To climb like a cat To hop like a frog To swim like a fish To trot like a horse To eat from your dish (om nom nom nom nom nom) It’s fun to pretend To play make believe It’s fun to pretend Or just to be me!
Book 2: Meeow and the Little Chairs by Sebastien Braun
We ended by using pretend to sing some of our favorites songs such as Tick Tock (pretending to be a cuckoo clock) and Snake in the Grass (pretending to be a snake).
Tips:
The following are the tips we discussed throughout our workshop:
Playing pretend is important because it helps our child develop:
Vocabulary
Language
Social skills
Problem solving skills
What can we play pretend with at home or on the go?
Boxes
Clothes and costumes
Pots and pans
Stuffed animals and dolls
Subway cards and old credit cards
Encourage your child to tell a story by asking open ended questions while they are playing:
The firefly at night goes blink blink blink Blink blink blink blink blink blink The firefly at night goes blink blink blink All around the town
The bees in the flowers go buzz buzz buzz…. The ants in the grass go march march march… The crickets in the leaves go chirp chirp chirp… The caterpillar in the field goes creep creep creep….
See the little bunnies sleeping ’til its early noon Come and let us gently wake them with a merry tune Why so still Are they ill Wake up soon Hop little bunnies hop hop hop! Hop little bunnies hop hop hop! Hop little bunnies hop hop hop! Hop little bunnies hop hop hop!
Puppet time: Pets, hugs and “feeding” time with bunny puppet Carrots!
Activity time: With this class I always do an activity at the end of our story time. Sometimes it’s artistic, sometimes science-y, whatever fun I can think up that has to do with our theme of the day! For this activity we played with instant snow. We talked about how the snow feels before and after we add water. We touched it and smelled it, added food coloring to mix up different colors, and the kids were very entertained when they learned that we were really playing with the stuff that goes inside diapers! Here is the “recipe” we used.
Snow Activity:
1 lb bucket instant snow (purchased for $20 from Lakeshore, one bucket makes GALLONS so you can use it for many activities))
Water Bowls Spoons Food coloring
Put snow in bowl, add water, then food coloring. Super easy and lots of fun!
Theme Song: This was a combined theme song and activity. As we sang the song I held up felt shapes for the children to identify. We used four standard shapes and one squiggly crazy shape that we made up a name for!
Shape Song (to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?
Do you know what shape this is? What shape this is, what shape this is Do you know what shape this is… I’m holding in my hand???
This was a workshop I conducted at a local school with parents of children ages around 3-5. The following is my outline of discussion for the workshop as well as the fun activity we did at the end.
Outline for Family Literacy Workshop
Welcome, Intros
What is early literacy? (Discussion)
Definition: Early literacy is what a child knows about reading and writing before they have the ability to read and write ex: scribbling with a crayon, recognizing shapes
5 Foundations of Literacy? (Discussion)
Read, Write, Talk, Sing, Play (I like to sing it to a beat, drum on table, helps us remember)
Read—read together, develops literacy skills, no X amount of time per day, okay to read book okay to repeat books, not finish a book, talk about pictures only, at this age we focus on development of LOVE of reading
Write—develops fine motor skills making it easier for child to hold a pencil, type etc
Talk—vocab skills, language skills, storytelling skills, social skills, word identification
Sing—singing slows down words so that its easier to understand vocabulary, also introduces children to rhythm
Play—develops, vocab, language skills and especially problem solving skills, gross motor skills
Silly Song Break! For this workshop we sang The Bananas Unite Song and Snake in the Grass. These can be found in my favorite songs section.
Today our activity will focus on the skill of writing.
Before a child excels at writing they develop fine motor skills, small hand movements that help with things later on such as writing and holding scissors.
What are some things you can do at home for writing skills?
Encourage scribbling by providing many opportunities to write and draw. Keep crayons and paper on a table where children can return again and again.
Get magnetic letters for the refrigerator or make letters from cardboard for the children to play with.
Have them sign their drawings to develop hand-eye coordination and build up their writing muscles. Children also begin to understand that writing represents words.
Talk about what they draw, have them make up stories or write captions for their drawings so they make the connection between written and spoken language.
Today we will be using easy to find at home materials to make a fun activity that your children can play with and that you can use to play with them. This activity will help your child develop those all important fine motor skills! As an added bonus, this activity, like many that you already do at home, covers many of the early literacy skills such as play, write, and talk when you engage with your child!
Activity: Gel Bags
Ingredients:
Clear hair gel
Quart sized freezer ziploc bags
Odds and ends (beads, pennies, old jewelry, pom poms, glitter)
Duct tape
Instructions:
Add gel generously into one ziploc bag, then add your odds and ends
Close first bag, duct tape, then place upside down into second bag
Duct tape second bag closed for added protection against leak
Smush away!
Extension activity:
Tape an X or O to the bag, challenge your child to get a particular item into the middle of the O!
