COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Math:

We present math activities to both our toddlers and to our preschoolers. Our math activities for the babies and toddlers include songs and finger-plays as well as a Circle Time presentation of quantity cards from the Balanced Beginnings Program of the World Core Curriculum.

Our preschool math activities include concrete, hands-on methods of presenting mathematical concepts. To accomplish this we use such resources such as the Montessori number rods, sand paper numerals, spindle boxes, cards and counters, constructive triangles, and geometric solids. We also use traditional preschool math activities and various computer math games. Practical mathematical applications are used throughout the day including such things as counting out coins during the preschool circle time for our Sharing Jars or, counting the harvest in the preschool garden and then counting the children to see how many pieces each child will get of the carrots, strawberries or whatever we are harvesting. Another practical math application is used to move from circle time to snack time. We let the preschool children reach into a box and draw out a card that has a number written on it. The child reads what number they have and then tries to match it to a number placed at the table. We also play a game called "Hide the Treasures" where the person who is IT hides 5 gold disks around the yard. As they are hiding the treasures the other children cover their eyes and we all count together until the disks are all hidden. As each treasure is found and brought to the adult, we use our fingers to demonstrate and ask the children, "If we had five treasures and one was found, how many do we have left to find?" Even the younger children often give the right answer.

Language:

Our language activities start with our very youngest babies. We read stories to the babies as well as to all of the other children, and we encourage them to look at the books themselves. For babies, we talk to them often describing what they are experiencing through their seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and even smelling. For babies and toddlers we often narrate what they are doing as well. For instance we may say, "You put the red ball under the slide. Now you put the two blue balls on top of the chair and they both rolled down to the floor." By narrating what the child is experiencing they hear words they can associate with size, color, location, quantity, quality, weight, function and categorization. When narrating for a toddler who has verbal skills, they often try out a new word and many times use it in the proper context. During our baby and toddler circle time we introduce the children to very basic phonics skills using the resource cards from the Balanced Beginnings Program of the World Core Curriculum. We also present concepts such as opposites by letting the children explore objects that are smooth and rough, soft and hard, or long and short, etc.

Our preschool language activities include Montessori activities such as the sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet, experience charts, vocabulary enrichment labels, classification games, sequence cards and rhyming words and objects. We play many games to reinforce language concepts such as spatial relationships that are described by the prepositions over, under, in, on, next to, behind, etc. Name recognition is supported by placing each child's name on their cubby, the shoe bag, their coat hanger, their pull-up bin, and the Montessori name labels. To reinforce language concepts for the preschoolers we use videos such as the Letter Factory series and the classic Letter People videos. We also use children's software such as the Reader Rabbit series, Arthur's educational software, Sesame Street, Jump Start, the Muppet Kids, and Caillou. Songs are an integral part of our phonics program. As children learn the sounds of the letters we move them on into sounding out words and then into reading. Children are not forced or pressured into reading, but it is offered to them if they are interested. Our language program also includes writing skills with an emphasis on using a proper pencil grip. To enhance our language program we have classes in Spanish for our preschool children and American Sign Language is presented to all of the children.