The age old game of Hide and Seek has traveled throughout many generations, and just maybe the go to game for you and your young child. According to The Child Development Institute, playing Hide and Seek with young children can have life long benefits including the following:
Teaches the concept of object permanence- “Things can still exist even when they cannot see them”
Technology is flowing full steam ahead. With that, being in quarantine has forced creativity to sore at an all time high in most households, especially those with young children. Although, this is a “different” time, innovative interactions are taking place for our youngest learners.
If you are an educator or a parent that is looking for creative ways to excite your preschooler while Zoom video calling, this is for you!
Here are 20 Ideas When on Zoom With Your Preschoolers:
1. Virtual Hide and Seek Around the House- Have your preschooler give you clues where they have chosen to hide. Make sure mom or dad is supervising to ensure safe hiding places are happening
2. Cooking with My Teacher– This is a great way to talk about sequence (First, Next, Then, and Last) when cooking! “What are you mixing together first?”
3. Drawing Together/Free Art
4. Virtual Story time
5. Letter Activity (Flash cards)– Show flash cards on the screen and pause for student to respond. Creating online flash cards and using a split screen such as Flip Grid is another option.
6. Grocery shopping with my Teacher- Schedule a time to Zoom while the student is grocery shopping with parents. Practice naming some of the items you see in the store
7. Virtual Circle Time with Friends
8. Show and Tell- This can include favorite toys, household pets, drawings, etc
11. Collect Rocks and Plants from outside and show them off
12. Gardening with my mom/dad and teacher- Schedule a Zoom and plan for your student and parent(s) to plant flowers or vegetables
13. Practice lacing shoe strings
14. Talk about why people are wearing masks
15. Encourage healthy habits– If your preschooler says they need to use the restroom or sneezing, be sure to encourage healthy habits, even virtually
16. Playlist Sing-A-Long
17. Have Your Preschooler Showcase their skills- “Hop on One Foot! Hold Your Left Arm in the Air!”
18. Eat Lunch Together- Schedule a Zoom during your students lunch time and chat it up
19. Nature Walk in Backyard
20. Scavenger Hunt Around the House- Provide pictures and names of safe items that may be in your preschoolers home like “Window,” “Light,” and “Sock”
While these aren’t all sure signs that your preschooler will stay engaged during the entire Zoom video call, these are great learning and interactive opportunities!
Hey Teachers or Parents! When choosing a digital planner, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you are an educator or parent homeschooling your child during virtual learning, you will find this article extremely beneficial. When choosing a digital planner, keep in mind the following: accessibility, user friendliness, costs, and of course aesthetics. To find the right, digital planner, read below:
Microsoft One Note:
Free; Online version/Mobile Application
•Offers immersive reader (assistive technology for people with disabilities)
•Convert computer screen to Printable document (pdf)
•Touch screen capabilities
Microsoft One Note Immersive Reader
Whiteboard for iOS:
•Free/ Mobile application
•Simple writing screen with multicolored writing options
•Export final document and import pictures on existing document
Technology is flowing full steam ahead. With that, being in quarantine has forced creativity to sore at an all time high in most households, especially those with young children. Although, this is a “different” time, innovative interactions are taking place for our youngest learners.
If you are an educator or a parent that is looking for creative ways to excite your preschooler while Zoom video calling, this is for you!
Here are 20 Ideas When on Zoom With Your Preschoolers:
1. Virtual Hide and Seek Around the House- Have your preschooler give you clues where they have chosen to hide. Make sure mom or dad is supervising to ensure safe hiding places are happening
2. Cooking with My Teacher– This is a great way to talk about sequence (First, Next, Then, and Last) when cooking! “What are you mixing together first?”
3. Drawing Together/Free Art
4. Virtual Story time
5. Letter Activity (Flash cards)– Show flash cards on the screen and pause for student to respond. Creating online flash cards and using a split screen such as Flip Grid is another option.
6. Grocery shopping with my Teacher- Schedule a time to Zoom while the student is grocery shopping with parents. Practice naming some of the items you see in the store
7. Virtual Circle Time with Friends
8. Show and Tell- This can include favorite toys, household pets, drawings, etc
11. Collect Rocks and Plants from outside and show them off
12. Gardening with my mom/dad and teacher- Schedule a Zoom and plan for your student and parent(s) to plant flowers or vegetables
13. Practice lacing shoe strings
14. Talk about why people are wearing masks
15. Encourage healthy habits– If your preschooler says they need to use the restroom or sneezing, be sure to encourage healthy habits, even virtually
16. Playlist Sing-A-Long
17. Have Your Preschooler Showcase their skills- “Hop on One Foot! Hold Your Left Arm in the Air!”
18. Eat Lunch Together- Schedule a Zoom during your students lunch time and chat it up
19. Nature Walk in Backyard
20. Scavenger Hunt Around the House- Provide pictures and names of safe items that may be in your preschoolers home like “Window,” “Light,” and “Sock”
While these aren’t all sure signs that your preschooler will stay engaged during the entire Zoom video call, these are great learning and interactive opportunities!
Research shows that infants and toddlers acquire language at a much higher rate due to an increase in brain development during the younger years. When working with young children virtually, it is imperative to acknowledge and support language development through healthy interactions between the child, parent and teacher.
According to The Linguistic Society, children acquire language through interactions with parents, teachers and other children.
Whether you are conducting a Zoom, Google Hangout, or FaceTime with your toddlers and preschoolers, the language interactions between the adult and the child matter.
To support the overall language development of young children when conducting remote learning opportunities, teachers and parents should be aware of exactly “what” is being communicated. It’s important!
As a guide, here are 5 ways to enhance preschool language development while conducting virtual learning:
Caregiver to child: “Good morning to you (child’s name). Today is Wednesday and it’s bright and sunny outside. Can you see the sun from your window? Can you show me?”
Hey Cool Momma! Did you know you can use your Apple Phone to record your voice? If you want to record a goodnight/good morning song (working moms), short message, alphabet song or record a message to calm your child while he/she is at childcare, this is a great tech option. Find a text buddy (grandma, teacher, parent) and send your message. These can also be downloaded for email use.
Here is a list of ways to connect preschool learning with technology:
Technology in learning is booming right now. Not only are teachers seeking for innovative ways to integrate technology into learning, parents are having to also integrate their devices into their child’s learning.
1. Take nature walk photos and print them:
🍁 Take a short nature walk around your house, neighborhood or park. Take pictures of the things you see (I.e. leaves, trees, flowers, dirt, water puddle). After the walk, print the photos and allow your child to glue them in a journal (this can be a spiral notebook or made with construction paper).
2. Letter/Shape Tracing
Letter tracing can be done using FaceTime, Google Duo, and iOS Messages for immediate free options. There are many letter tracing apps available on iOS and Android, as well such as the ABC Kids App.
To enhance the fun: Find a messaging buddy for your child (i.e. teacher/parent) to exchange the letter messages between parent/child/educator. The teacher can send the letter via message and allow the child to respond with their hand written letter.
YouTube Kids offers free and short story time videos for young children like The Very Hungry Spider. To gauge attention, stick to engaging/short videos. Parents can pause the videos to discuss what is being seen in the video.
If you have a touch screen device, the use of E-Books can allow your child the opportunity to “turn the page” of the story as you read aloud. Using E-books allows the parent to be involved in the learning experience and the child to be actively present in the story by presuming responsibility for turning the pages or scrolling to the next page. Free E-Books are not as difficult to find as in the past. Oxford Owl has an online E-Book library that can be categorized by age group and made downloadable. Also, Free Kids Books has a library of online e-books ready to download for Free.
5. Record Dramatic Play
Record your child playing dress up. Make it into a movie! Dress up with your child and act out a scene. Afterwards, play back the movie using your device and talk about it with them.
