With all of the wild weather we have been witnessing across the globe, now is the perfect time to teach your little one the basics of meteorology. I am not suggesting you need to go into wind streams and how to map a weather pattern. However, even preschool children can enjoy learning about temperatures, precipitation, and clouds. And, although they may not use them correctly, a colorful map with weather symbols can also result in a budding meteorologist.
Use the internet to show your child a meteorologist in action or simply record a morning or evening news broadcast of a meteorologist describing the upcoming weather. Visit web sites, such as http://www.weather.com/, to view maps, radars, and five- or ten-day forecasts.
Print out a weather map or simply hang a map of the United States on the wall. Using a dowel rod or something to use as a pointer, demonstrate for your child how to pretend to be a meteorologist. Be sure to change your voice and language to mimic that of a professional weather person. Have fun with it, and make wild predictions. (As an extended activity, read the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a silly story about food falling from the sky.)
Hand the pointer to your child, and help him to play the role as well. Encourage him to talk as a meteorologist would even if the “predictions” are nonsensical. If possible, set up a “studio” and record your budding scientist in action.
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Written by BRWI Staff on June 10, 2011
Have you ever gotten frustrated while trying to thread a needle? Sometimes that tiny, little piece of string just won’t go into that itty, bitty hole. You lick the end or cut off the frayed pieces, and after several tries you finally end with success. This is much like how a young child might attempt to lace a shoe.
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Written by BRWI Staff on June 8, 2011
Our children are bombarded by bright lights, pungent scents, and blaring sounds, and it can often be difficult to draw their attention to small or simple items. Here is an activity to help you get your child to focus on a few objects while using their concentration skills to determine what’s missing.
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Written by BRWI Staff on May 4, 2011
Here are two games you can play with your child to practice and strengthen her rhyming skills. The great thing about these games is that you only have to make one set of materials in order to create both games. You will need two dozen plastic, colored Easter eggs (You can use more or less eggs to vary the difficulty of the games.) Create 12 pairs of rhyming pictures using clip art, such as hair
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 20, 2011
Have you ever seen a neat-looking container and wondered what is inside? Or perhaps you have sat at a birthday party and eyed-up all of the elegantly wrapped gifts? Holiday gift exchanges can also be intriguing as you try to determine what is inside each gift based solely on how it is wrapped. All of these situations produce the same type of curiosity in adults that we can harness in children i
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 18, 2011
Part of being able to read with expression, is identifying the feelings of the characters. Young children who are not yet able to read are still able to understand character emotions based on what is happening in the story. As the adult reading the story, you can help your child make a connection between how a character feels and how you read the words.
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 4, 2011
Breaking words into parts in a major part of learning to decode words once a child is beginning to read. One part of doing that is identifying syllables. Try this game with your child to help him practice identifying the number of syllables in a word.
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 1, 2011
As children are learning the sounds that letters make, it is always a good idea to make a connection between letter sounds and how they are used in forming words. The easiest place for youngsters to identify letters sounds is at the beginning. Here is an easy game you can play with your child that doesn’t require any materials and can be played almost anywhere.
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Written by BRWI Staff on March 23, 2011
Perhaps your child has a difficult time coming up with rhyming words on her own. Or maybe, she is a very visual or tactile learner and could use something in front of her to see and touch to jump-start her thoughts. Motivate your child to rhyme using this delicious color rhyming activity.
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Written by BRWI Staff on March 16, 2011
When your child was very young and just starting to take an interest in books, you probably noticed that your child’s library consisted almost entirely of thick board books that contained brightly colored pictures with very few words. In general, toddlers have not yet made the connection between the words on the page and the story they are telling. However, parents are able to help them ma
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Written by BRWI Staff on March 14, 2011
Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence to teach your preschooler the joy of reading and writing.
Sponsored by Bridges Reading & Writing Institute -- teaching the JOY of reading and writing to students in preschool through 12th grade.
