Class Notes: Summer Part 2

HELLO SONG: ROUTINES
A balance between everyday routines and new experiences helps stimulate babies and encourage mastery of new skills. The hello song, for instance, is an important element of consistency for the five camp classes. With repetition, this song will become the familiar musical cue that class is beginning; once established, introducing small variations to the song adds an element of newness.

“PIZZA, PICKLE, PUMPERNICKEL”: MOVEMENT
Moving their arms, legs, and other parts of the body helps babies begin to make deliberate movements and start to gain control over their motions.

STEADY BEAT
Very young children love listening to a steady beat as it is played, sung, or chanted. Its appeal may be its similarity to the heartbeat heard in the womb. Bouncing, hearing the music, and moving around the room are all ways that babies experience the steady beat, learn to internalize it, and begin to express it physically.

“PAPER BAG CONCERTO” (IN & OUT): AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
Teaching sign language to hearing babies offers a way for adults and young children to communicate with one another even before a little one’s vocal chords are developed enough for speaking. This early communication helps eliminate babies’ frustration with not being able to communicate, engages them as active participants in their own learning, and builds self-esteem. Signing can also help babies begin to understand abstract concepts such as the ones demonstrated here.

RELAXATION TIME
Relaxation is a learned behavior. Creating quiet times while listening to soothing music helps babies to learn-and adults to remember-that intentionally unwinding can help rejuvenate everyone.

“MAMA PAQUITA”: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Watch the babies’ faces as they move toward each other during the dance. Young children become more social as they learn to see themselves as separate from others.

BUSY DAYS BOOK: INTERACTING WITH BOOKS
Oh, What Busy Days! is meant to be held, looked at, and touched by little ones. The pleasure of inter- acting with a book gives an experience with written language even before written symbols are understood.

PLAY AND SHARE TIME: SENSORY LEARNING
Everything in a baby’s world is new and needs to be explored and understood using all the senses. The sense of smell is strongly linked to memory and plays an important role in early learning.

STORY TIME
*    Exposes children to new words and new ways to communicate.
*    Motivates children to think about things in new and different ways.
*    Provides opportunity for children to interact with each other.
*    Provides cognitive stimulation.
*    Builds early interest in literacy.

STEADY BEAT
Many children ages 1 1/2 – 3 years have a well-developed sense of their own internal steady beat. Once this internal steady beat is secured, children are then ready for experiences in which they are invited to match the steady beat of an external sound source.

ACTIVE LISTENING
Active listening differs from hearing in that it is an intentional act. While we are surrounded by sounds in our everyday life, we choose whether or not to listen and process the sounds we hear. Active listening activities allow children the opportunity to learn to listen intentionally.

LEVELS IN MOVEMENT
As toddlers become competent walkers and runners, most of the locomotor movement they are interested in is done in an upright position. Exploring levels in movement provides an opportunity to explore dancing upright as well as bent or crouched over, providing stimulation to the vestibular system while encouraging creativity in movement and providing an opportunity for linking a label with movement. 

MAPPING THE WAY: CREATIVE THINKING
Activities that provide an opportunity for flexibility, change or rearrangement encourage creativity. The creative process enhances the child’s ability to think in different ways, extending the thought process.

ROAD TRIP MOVE-ALONG: PRACTICING INHIBITORY CONTROL
Activities which encourage the child to move or stop moving in response to a cue help the child develop inhibitory (internal) control. The ability to control body movement is an important step toward developing self-discipline.

ACTIVE LISTENING
Active listening differs from hearing in that it is an intentional act. While we are surrounded by sounds in our everyday life, we choose whether or not to listen and process the sounds we hear. Active listening activities allow children the opportunity to learn to listen intentionally.

PLAYING WITH HOOPS: VISUAL-SPATIAL SKILLS
The more experiences a child has with movement, the better her brain can interpret and integrate sensation from her eyes and body. Later on, these visual-spatial skills will manifest in Baby when she: can match shapes, letters, and numbers; can pick out objects in the fore- and background; has developed spatial awareness and an awareness of form constancy, directionality and position in space.

CRAFT TIME: PLAYING WITH YOUR CHILD
Your child reaps many benefits from playing with you! IN play activities, roles can be reversed as he takes the lead and directs what is happening. Play gives you the opportunity to teach your child how to be a good player, how to elaborate and add ideas, and how to take suggestions from others. All of these benefits of play support your child’s imagination and show your child that you value his ideas.

“ONE BOTTLE OF POP”: SINGING TOGETHER
Singing games offer children the chance to learn social patterns, interact with others in a positive way, play in a group for an extended amount of time, learn to communicate with others, and have fun!

“GO VAN GO” STORY: READING ALOUD
Reading aloud to your child is the most powerful way to prepare her for success in reading. “Because words are essential in building the thought connections in the brain, the more language a child experiences-through books and through conversation with others, not passively from television-the more advantaged socially, educationally, and in every way that child will be for the rest of his or her life.” (Mem Fox, Reading Magic , p. 17)