Playing Games

We play a lot of different commercial games in preschool that support a variety of learning goals. The general pattern for playing games goes something like this:

1. I put a game out, open and with all the parts and pieces on a table. Then I let the kids explore and play any way they want, without teaching them the "traditional" rules of the game.

2. Use the opportunity of small group time to teach traditional rules of games, and how to "break" and "change" the rules is they prefer. 

3. Put the games out for free choice time and watch how the kids decide to play.

The games we choose for preschool support different skills including matching, counting, taking turns, following rules, making patterns, learning number and letter symbols, and starting to recognize words. 

Here are the games the kids have learned this fall and what skills they practice when playing.

Zingo: This is a bingo game which has tiles come out of a chute two at a time. If you have the picture on your board, which is a 3 x 3 grid, you say the name of the picture first and get to put it on your board. It teaches motor coordination to slide the chute back and forth to get the tiles. The kids need to have quick naming of pictures, so they need to pay attention. They learn "all" (by filling all the boxes in their grid), and they work on matching pictures.

Pop Up Pirate: In this game, a pirate in plunged down into a barrel that has a bunch of holes for swords. the swords are red, green, yellow and blue. The kids take turns impaling the barrel with one sword at a time until the pirate POPS out. Sometimes it takes 1 sword and sometimes it takes 10 and sometimes it takes all of them. This game teaches turn taking, counting, sorting colors (the swords) and predicting (how many do you think it will take this time?).

Memory: This game is a classic. We play it with commercial memory cards, as well as cards I will hand make to go along with our learning focus. The cards are all face down and each child takes a turn and flipping two cards over at a time. If they match, the child keeps them. If they don't, they get turned back over again. Sometimes we play that we are all working together to find all of the matches. Sometimes, each child keeps his own matches and we count them at the end to find out who "won." This game helps kids use their memory, problem solving, matching, and counting skills.

Connect Four: This is a game they have not been taught how to play by traditional rules, yet. At this time, kids are filling the Connect Four grid with the red and black checkers to make designs, fill up stacks and make patterns. We will teach how to see the Four in a Row patterns a little later. This game helps them learn visual discrimination and strategy, much the same way the Tic Tac Toe does. 

Lucky Ducks: This game is a lot like Memory. The ducks swim in a pond that moves. They all have a color on the bottom. The kids each have a board with one of the colors. They have to find all of their ducks by picking up a duck each turn and checking the bottom to see if it matches their board. This game teaches matching, counting, knowing "all" and memory skills.

Fudge For Funds

     Everyone should have the Fudge for Funds order forms. The whole idea of this fundraiser is to get more technology for the preschool and to help fund future field trips. The more we sell, the more we can do. Last year we raised over $900 and we were able to get a digital microscope and Bee-Bot robots as technology additions to the classroom. This year we are thinking about investing in an iPad or acquiring an LCD projector. 

     We would also love to get ideas for who to donate 33% of what we raise to. I am looking to parents for ideas for a deserving charity. Last year, we donated to the Franklin/Grand Isle Bookmobile.

Here are the criteria:

1. It needs to benefit children

2. It needs to be a non-profit

3. It needs to be local (at least Vermont local).

     Bring your ideas into preschool over the next few weeks. If you are able to gather a little information on the cause of your choice, that would be great. We will be letting the kids know about the different places and how they help kids. On Election Day, (November 3), the kids will vote for the organization to which we will donate.

     Fudge order forms are due on Thursday, October 14. The fudge will be ready for distribution on October 26. For anyone interested, here is more information on Snowflake Chocolates Fudge for Funds program.

Skype

Today we got a surprise. Carolyn, a grandparent who lives in New Jersey, called up using Skype. This is a free program for people to see each other face to face (with a webcam) and talk to each other. Carolyn, or Bodgie, as she is known in her family, was able to see all of the kids and we could see her. 

They asked some questions about New Jersey. Some one asked if New Jersey was great. She said it was, but that she also thought Vermont was pretty great. Many of the kids told her, "I live in Vermont!" This kind of exchange gives the kids both a sense of place as well as awareness of other places in the world. Hopefully, we can think of all kinds of creative ways to use this.

Bodgie did promise she would call us back. When she does, she is going to read us one of her favorite books. I will have to get a hold of good LCD projector and speakers so we can all see and hear her really well.

If any other families have relatives living somewhere else who are interested in Skyping into the classroom, please let me know. It will be fun to have more places to find out about and more people to meet this way.

Gak

On Thursday in science, we made a time-honored favorite substance in preschool: Gak (also known as Flubber in some circles).

Here is the recipe:

Make sure to use non-metal bowls and utensils

In one bowl combine: 1/2 c. warm water, 1 c. of Elmer's Glue. Mix until well blended.

In another bowl combine: 1 c. warm water and 4 tsp. Borax. Mix until Borax dissolves. 

Add your preferred food coloring color to each bowl.

Pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch it turn into a stringy goop before your eyes. A grownup will need to knead the mixture until all of the water is worked in and you are left with a consistent, rubbery substance.

Now for the fun part. Gak is slimy, smooth, cool, icky, slippery, and a lot of fun to work in your hands. With some patience, you can let it ooze down you fingers as it stretches slowly. The kids made it into balls, snakes, shapes and pancakes. They also worked on sharing and fairness. They worked on making sure everyone had about the same amount to play with, even when new kids joined the fun.

Playing with Gak promotoes fine motor coordniation development by having the kids use the muscles in their fingers to explore it. In the scientific realm, they also learned that glue and borax have a chemical reaction that makes the rubbery Gak. Alone, they were wet and liquid. They use all sorts of scientific descriptions to talk about how the gak moves, feels, and changes as they play with it. They even did some color mixing. We made a blue batch and a red batch. When they worked the two colors together, they got a light purple color.