Blog Archives

Learning Begins At Birth ...

1/14/2015

Did you know that when a baby is born he/she is born with over 100 billion neurons or brain cells? A baby's brain is not completely developed at birth ... it will still need to connect the neurons and strengthen those connections.

How many strong neural connections a baby's brain will have is highly dependent upon the experiences and interactions they have with their caregivers and the environment.

Birth through age five is a time of rapid brain development. After the age of five the connections of neurons start to slow down and those connections that are weaker or not being used will be lost in a process known as pruning.

Here are a few great links on early brain development:

Baby Brain Map - interactive brain development map from prenatal to three.

Nature ... Nurture ... and Early Brain Development - how nature and nurture work together to shape the human brain.

Early Brain Development - what parents and caregivers need to know.

Importance of The Early Years - provides the on track guide.

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Weekly Printable January 12th - 16th

1/12/2015

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Snowflake Letter Sequence For Preschool and Kindergarten

The free daily printable this week is Snowflake Letter Sequence which is a great activity for letter recognition and review. I printed the letter snowflakes on cardstock paper and laminated them. I then attached them to craft sticks that I had painted white.

Handprint Snowflake Art Project For Preschool and Kindergarten

In this activity children put the snowflake sticks in alphabetical order. If you make two copies of each letter you can also set the activity up for a matching game by having the children find the two letters that match and put the together. You can grab the patterns for free until Sunday January 18th ... after that they will only be available in the member's section.

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Sequin Snowman

1/9/2015

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Sequin Snowman Fine Motor Skills Art Project For Preschool and Kindergarten

We love doing sequin projects!! To go along with our winter theme we made sequin snowmen and they are so cute and wonderful for fine motor skills.

Just print the pattern on cardstock paper and cut out. Apply glue drops inside the snowman and press sequins on the glue drops. We used iridescent glitter for the snowman body but you can choose any color you wish.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking below:

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Snowman Button Counting

1/7/2015

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Snowman Button Counting Math and Fine Motor Activity For Preschool and Kindergarten

I put together a snowman button counting activity for our math center and for fine motor development. It was really easy to set up. I cut a snowman shape out of a sheet of white construction paper using the whole length of the paper. I glued the eyes and nose on the snowman head and also drew on a mouth with a marker.

The next thing I did was to make the number hats that would be placed on the snowman's head. I put various colors of construction paper together and cut out a hat shape. I put the paper together instead of cutting them individually so that the hats would be close to the same size. I then glued a number circle on each hat.

In this activity the children would choose a number hat and put it on the snowman's head. They would then count out the same number of buttons and put them on the snowman's tummy. They would take of the buttons and the number hat and choose a new hat to put on for more button counting.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking below:

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Weekly Printable January 5th - 9th

1/5/2015

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Snowmen Number Puzzles For Preschool and Kindergarten

The free daily printable this week is Snowmen Number Puzzles which is a great activity for number recognition and review as well as fine motor development.

Snowman Number Puzzles For Preschool and Kindergarten

In this activity children find the two matching snowman halves and put them together. We put magnets on the back of all of the pieces and used them on a magnetic board. You can grab the patterns for free until Sunday January 11th ... after that they will only be available in the member's section.

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January Number Tracing Calendar

1/1/2015

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January Number Tracing Calendar For Preschool and Kindergarten

I have posted January's Number Tracing Calendar and Calendar Numbers along with other Janyuary items to my free printables page (if you do not see them at the bottom of the page please refresh your browser).

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