STOP, DROP, ROLL.

Today I decided that we were due to spend an afternoon going over our Family Fire Safety Plan. It also worked well considering we are into our 5th day of rain and unable to get outside! We started off watching an episode of Finley the Fire Engine who demonstrates the STOP, DROP, ROLL and GET DOWN LOW AND GO GO GO methods of fire safety, both which are part of our family plan. We then spent time reading many of our fire books and fire engine books before we got into some practice. I try to keep it all fun while getting across a really important message to the boys. Below I have listed the 10 things that I work through for FIRE SAFETY in our home:

1. We practice feeling our way out of the home in the dark or with their eyes closed.I turn this into a game by blindfolding them and placing them in a room and asking them to feel their way to a designated area.


2. We practice opening and closing the windows and pushing the screens off in an emergency.


3. We practice getting down low and go go go from a fire in different rooms. That way the boys have to decide which exit to leave by.


4. Consider teaching a fire escape song to reinforce the need to get out of a burning house. This one can be sung to Fr ere Jacques: There's a fire! There's a fire! Must get out! Must get out! Stay away from fire! Stay away from fire! It is hot. It is hot.


5. I teach the boys about smoke detectors, why they are installed, how they work, and the sound that they make. It is important that they be able to associate the sound going off with a fire as part of fire safety.


6. We talk about the fact that once they are out of a burning house or building, they must go to our designated place and never, ever venture back in. If someone or a family pet is missing, they should inform a fire fighter or adult.


7. We practice what to do in the event that their clothes catch fire. Make sure they understand “stop, drop and roll.” Many a fire-related injury could have been avoided or greatly minimized if a child heeded this advice instead of the natural instinct of running.


8. Practice your escape plan at least twice a year with your children.


9. We talk about how we never play with matches or lighters they may find: Tell your child to tell you if she finds matches or lighters, or to bring them to you.


10. Teach your child how to dial 000 and ask for help for emergency services. Teach them his/her full name, address, phone number. Role-play these situations.

Stop, Drop and Roll

If your clothes catch on fire

Your clothes catch on fire

Then you stop drop and roll

If your clothes catch on fire

Your clothes catch on fire

Then you stop drop and roll

Stop drop and roll

Stop drop and roll

Stop drop and roll

Get your self under control

If your clothes catch on fire

Your clothes catch on fire

Then you stop drop and roll

Stop! Drop! And Roll!

By taking precautions, you can make sure your home is as fire safe as possible.To Prevent Fires:

• Store all flammable and hazardous materials properly and out of reach of children. This includes: kerosene, cleaning materials and household products, lighters, matches, candles, pesticides, alcohol, paint. If you have gasoline, paint thinner, ammonia, or kerosene, these should be stored outside of the home.


• Keep matches, candles, and lighters out of reach of children. Child-resistant lighters are not foolproof, children can still light them.


• Use stove and cooking appliances safely or not at all when children are present. Either remove all knobs from the stove, or use safety knobs. If you're using a pot, turn the handle toward the back of the stove or use it on the back burner.


• Keep all electrical appliances and items with electrical cords out of reach of children. Young children tend to reach and pull on items that they see. Make your home safer by removing any temptations.


• Clean and empty all lint filters in dryers and have dryer vents inspected regularly. Dryer lint build-up is a major cause of home fires.


• Limit how much is on walls. Artwork should not cover more than 10 percent of your wall area. Papers or flammable materials on walls or doors can make fires burn faster.

Craft Activity

What you need:

a box, red and yellow paint, Marbles, construction paper (red,black, yellow) scissors

What to do:

1. Put blobs of yellow and red paint in the box.
2. Place about 5 marbles in and roll them back and forth to create a fire look.
3. Cut out a square, a rectangle, two circles and make a fire engine shape. Then I gave Master 4 a piece of yellow paper and some scissors to create the ladder.

Cognitive advantages of being bilingual

Master 2 and Master 4 are fortunate to come from a family that will provide them with exposure, experience and identity from another culture. The boy's dad is New Zealand Maori and together we use simple forms of the spoken language (Te Reo) to the boys at home. (Thankfully a requirement of my teaching years in NZ meant I had to teach a basic level of the language!) Both my husband and I agree that although the boys are being raised here in Australia, they are in fact of Maori heritage and it is important that they are aware of this. We feel it is important for our boys to communicate with all members of the close and extended family as well as with friends, particularly when we are back visiting in New Zealand.

There are several advantages of being bilingual beyond the obvious one of being able to communicate in more than one language. However, many parents and grandparents worry about possible negative effects. When I was teaching in London I would often be asked by parents, Is speaking to my child in two different languages delaying his talking in either of the languages?

In response to this I like to refer to this analogy:

If you are building two houses, it will probably take you longer than if you are building just one. This is not necessarily a bad thing--you won't be homeless forever, and when you're done you'll have two houses instead of just one. The point of building a house is not to move in as quickly as possible, but to provide a safe and comfortable home for years (generations, perhaps!) to come.

Growing up bilingual can be a tremendous blessing. In addition to the obvious benefit (i.e., the ability to speak and understand more than one language), recent research has revealed a number of cognitive advantages to bilingualism.

Bilingual children have been shown to have:

1. better metalinguistic awareness (ability to identify and describe

characteristics and features of language);
2. better classification skills;
3. better concept formation;
4. better analogical reasoning;
5. better visual-spatial skills;
6. better storytelling skills;
7. better semantic development.

How to Raise Bilingual Children

There are a few different ways that parents can successfully bring up their children to be fluent in more than one language. In many families, each parent speaks only one language with the child. This can also work if a nanny or grandparent speaks to the child consistently in a language that is different to the one the parents speak. Other families speak a different language in different settings, for example a minority language at home and the majority language in public. There can even be an agreement to speak alternate languages every other day.

Interaction as well as exposure seems to be critical. Children don't usually end up knowing a language just from TV. They need a fluent speaker to talk to. It used to be thought that it was better for the child to master one language well before hearing the other, to avoid confusion, but nowadays most researchers don't believe that. Children's brains have a tremendous capacity to absorb different languages and differentiate them.

In immigrant families, a child may learn only the minority language at home. They may become fully bilingual after they start school and learn the majority language. But a common historical phenomenon is that such children later forget the minority language, or retain only a receptive understanding, without full speaking fluency. There may be many complex psychological and social reasons, such as embarrassment at feeling different from peers. Yet in many parts of the world, such as Scandinavia, Switzerland and India, multilingualism is universal and is promoted naturally both in homes and school systems from an early age.

Brother's Are for Making Mud Pies

Can you remember making mud pies and daisy chains , rolling down grassy hills , drawing with
sticks in the dirt , creating fairy perfumes from flowers and building bush cubbies? These are some of the experiences we had as children that connected us with the natural environment. While they may not be part of our conscious thought as adults, they are significant nonetheless in shaping who we are and our values about the natural environment. Direct experiences with the natural environment are important for sensory development. These experiences cannot be described verbally or portrayed by images in picture storybooks or on television and computer screens; they must be explored up close and personal!

How to aid Sensory development in your child:

Though sensory development is natural process in kids, you can certainly make the entire procedure fast by helping him in coming out of the complex hurdles in the way. But before that you yourself need to understand few things.

• Do not over burden your kid with knowledge at an initiating point. This will do nothing but irritate your kid.


• Try to help him where he feels hindered otherwise let him explore the world on his own.


• Do not be overprotective about your kid. Draw a line between being caring and over caring.


• Let him go out of the way to explore the world. Do not safeguard him so much that you start limiting his desires and capabilities.


• Try to understand the world from a kid's point of view before you start telling all complex things together. It's not a kid who will become mature to understand you, remember you will have to become a kid to understand him.

As educators we have an active and significant role to play ensuring children experience connections with the natural environment in meaningful ways — ways that will assist their understanding of connectedness both with and in the natural environment, and ultimately, promote action for sustainability. So when you are looking at Childcare/Daycare/Kinders for your child be sure to ask how they provide these learning experiences for the children in their care.

One of my favourite childhood memories comes from making mud pies in the backyard with my brother. So today Master 4 and Master 2 put on their boots and got out in the mud and made some mud pies! Wow what fun did they have, and even better the language that I heard coming from the two was great. As a bedtime favourite "The Little Yellow Digger" both boys know this story inside out and back the front, so it was wonderful to hear them chatting away and using the language they have picked up from our story time. A couple of muffin tins, spoons, bucket and diggers provided the stage for an hour long outdoor play session that provide them with so many valuable skills. All of which was easily packed up with a warm bath and LOTS of soap!!!

Ways To Share Books with Babies and Toddlers

•Make Sharing Books Part Of Every Day -Read or share stories at bedtime or on the bus.

•Have Fun -Children can learn from you that books are fun, which is an important ingredient in learning to read.

•A Few Minutes is OK—Don’t Worry if You Don’t Finish the Story.Young children can only sit for a few minutes for a story, but as they grow, they will be able to sit longer.

•Talk or Sing About the Pictures -You do not have to read the words to tell a story.

•Let Children Turn the Pages -Babies need board books and help turning pages, but a three-year-old can do it alone. Remember, it’s OK to skip pages!



•Show Children the Cover Page - Explain what the story is about.

•Show Children the Words - Run your finger along the words as you read them, from left to right.

•Make the Story Come Alive - Create voices for the story characters and use your body to tell the story.

•Make It Personal - Talk about your own family, pets, or community when you are reading about others in a story.



•Ask Questions About the Story, and Let Children Ask Questions Too! Use the story to engage in conversation and to talk about familiar activities and objects.Let Children Tell the Story - Children as young as three years old can memorize a story, and many children love to be creative through storytelling.

Learning With Puzzles

We have been sick in our household for the last couple of days, so it was a perfect opportunity to bring out all our puzzles, get down on the floor and get busy. I find puzzles are an innovative way to learn certain skills, that are essential to toddlers before they enter school. The bright and attractive colours, and the uniquely shaped pieces, appeal to them, and are therefore useful and effective in ways that both, entertain and educate the little ones.

Puzzles help children learn to solve problems. By trying several ways to fit a puzzle piece in place, requires abstract thinking: the ability to see a space and envision what belongs there.Their fine motor skills are sharpened by manipulating the pieces and fitting them in their proper space. Putting together a puzzle helps children actively practice important skills such as inference, deductive reasoning, and the notion that whole objects are generally made up of parts.

Having puzzles for varied skill levels permits children at all stages of development to experience success.The home should have puzzles that vary in complexity, five-piece puzzles, as well as 12-piece puzzles, and puzzles made of different materials. You should also find puzzles that interlock and those that have individual slots for pieces (for example, a five-piece puzzle of five individual animals).

Babies and toddlers can learn a lot from the right kind of puzzle. Shape stackers are a good type of puzzle for babies because the pieces are easy for small hands to grasp.The wooden puzzles that have a board with pictures of the corresponding pieces allow a toddler to learn how to match objects. The pieces fit loosely, so they're not too hard for them. Another benefit of toddler puzzles is that they can help teach the names of colours and shapes. You can help by pointing out the colors or shapes of the pieces that your child is matching. Some puzzles have pieces with letters, numbers or animals on them, and you can use those in the same way.

Puzzles for preschoolers may be a little more advanced. Jigsaw puzzles with a few large pieces are good for this age group. They are still developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, so they are probably not ready for puzzles with small pieces yet.At this age children can benefit tremendously from working together to solve puzzles. They might share strategies such as sorting pieces by color or searching for patterns.This aids in social development and communication skills as well as intellectual development.

Teaching About Shapes

When I'm teaching Pre-schoolers about shapes I like to use the book The Shape Of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds. The shapes are big and colourful, and a lovely way to subtly introduce the children's ears to alliteration.

Teaching Shapes to Preschoolers can be so much fun! Below are some fun activities that will begin to help your young children recognise simple shapes.

• Snack Shapes - Cut bread into shapes and ask them to eat the shapes. You can create a mix of squares and triangles and ask your child to eat the squares first. Not only he or she will eat a lot of bread in this way, but will also learn to differentiate between a square and a triangle. For an added variation, cut cheese into shapes as well to make shape sandwiches.

• Shape BINGO -Use the printable BINGO cards below to play a friendly game of Shape BINGO with your preschooler. They will have fun, and learn at the same time.
  Preschoolers only need to know about the basic shapes, such as squares, circles, triangles, etc. They will learn the more complex shapes in the later years of their education.

• SHAPE RUBBINGS - Try one or both of these ideas with your group.
  On cardboard, draw shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. Squeeze glue from a bottle over the shape outlines and allow it to dry. Then let your children place pieces of paper on top of the shapes and color over them with the sides of crayons to make rubbings of the glue outlines.
  Cut familiar shapes out of cardboard and attach them to a tabletop with double-sided tape. Have the children place their papers on top of the shapes and rub over them with crayons.


• COOPERATIVE SHAPE COLLAGES - Draw a familiar shape, such as a circle, in the middle of a piece of butcher paper. Invite your children to look through magazines and tear or cut out pictures of circular shaped items. Then have them glue the pictures onto the butcher paper around the circle in the center. Let the children make collages for other familiar shapes to display together on a wall or a bulletin board.
  
• CREATING WITH SHAPES - From several colors of poster board, cut out assorted sizes of circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. Store the shapes in a box or a zipper-top bag. Let your children take turns arranging the shapes on a tabletop or on the floor any way they wish to create pictures.

• TRACE AND MATCH SHAPE GAMES - Cut several familiar shapes out of cardboard to use for these games. Sit with your children in a circle and lay out the shapes in the middle. While the children close their eyes, trace around one of the shapes on a piece of paper. When the children open their eyes, have them guess which shape matches the traced one. Continue with the remaining shapes.
  Using a marker, trace around each shape on a large piece of poster board. Let the children try matching the shapes by placing them on top of the tracings.


• SHAPE LACING CARDS - Cut familiar shapes out of cardboard and punch holes around the edges. On each shape, tie one end of a long piece of yarn through one of the holes. Wrap tape around the other end of the yarn to form a lacing needle. Set out the shapes and invite your children to lace the yarn in and out of the holes (activity requires supervision).
  


• SHAPES, SHAPES, SHAPES Tune: “Three Blind Mice” Shapes, shapes, shapes; shapes, shapes, shapes.We love shapes, we love shapes.There’re squares and circles for me and you,Triangles, rectangles, ovals, too,Hearts and diamonds, to name a few.Yes, we love shapes.
  


• PUZZLES - bring out any puzzles that have shapes in them. Puzzles provide a great opportunity to talk about the properties of each shape.

DIAMONDS

FIND A DIAMOND Tune: “Clementine”

Find a diamond, find a diamond,

Find a diamond on the floor.

Put your finger on the diamond,

On the diamond on the floor.

Find a diamond, find a diamond,

Find a diamond on the floor.

Put your two feet on the diamond,

On the diamond on the floor.

• Bake diamond-shaped cookies for kites. Let your children decorate them with frosting and sprinkles and add licorice whips for kite strings.


• Use masking tape to make a large diamond shape on the floor. Have the children try tossing beanbags inside the shape.


• Show the children how to glue craft sticks onto paper in diamond shapes to make kites. Have them decorate their kites as desired and glue on pieces of string.

OVALS

WAVE YOUR OVAL IN THE AIR Tune: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”

Wave your oval in the air, in the air.

Wave your oval in the air, in the air.

Wave your oval in the air,

Then wave it here and there.

Wave your oval in the air, in the air.

Wave your oval at your toe, at your toe.

Wave your oval at your toe, at your toe.

Wave your oval at your toe,

Then wave it to and fro.

Wave your oval at your toe, at your toe.

• Oval Ladybugs: Make thumbprints on light colored paper with red paint. When dry, use fine point markers to add spots, legs, and a head to each print.


• Cut five ovals out of felt and use a marker to number them from 1 to 5. Set out a bowl containing 15 oval-shaped dried beans. Then, sitting with each of your children in turn, have them name the numerals on the ovals and place a matching number of beans on each one. (Note: Activities using small objects require close supervision.)


• Have the children help make burritos with oval black beans.

CIRCLES

LET'S GO ROUND THE HULA-HOOP Tune: "London Bridge"

Let's go round the Hula-Hoop,

Hula-Hoop, Hula-Hoop.

Let's go round the Hula-Hoop,

Round the circle.

Round and round and round we go,

Round we go, round we go.

Round and round and round we go,

Round the circle.

• Place a Hula-Hoop flat on the floor. Then invite your children to try such activities as these.
  Walk, crawl, or tiptoe around the hoop.Toss beanbags inside the hoop.


• Pizza: Cut a large circle out of orange felt for a cheesy pizza. Cut out smaller red circles for pepperoni, black circles for olives, brown circles for sausage, and green rings for peppers.


• Place folded paper towels in shallow containers and pour on tempera paint. Let your children make circle prints by pressing the ends of corks onto the paint, then onto paper. When the paint has dried, have the children use markers to turn their prints into pictures.

RECTANGLES

DO YOU KNOW THE RECTANGLE? Tune: "The Muffin Man"

Do you know the rectangle, (Hold up a rectangle.)

The rectangle, the rectangle?

Do you know the rectangle?

It has four sides like this. (Point to four sides.)

Two are long and two are short, (Point to long sides, then short sides.)

Two are short, two are short.

Two are long and two are short.

It has four sides like this. (Point to four sides.)

• Have your children draw pictures on rectangular pieces of construction paper, encouraging them to fill up the space as much as possible. Then cut each child's paper into several rectangular puzzle pieces and challenge the child to put his or her puzzle back together.


• Collect rectangular sponges and pour tempera paint into shallow containers. Invite your children to dip the sponges into the paint and press them onto a rectangular piece of butcher paper to make a print mural.

HEARTS

RED HEARTS, RED HEARTS Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Red hearts, red hearts here and there,

Red hearts, red hearts everywhere.

All the hearts are here to say

Let's be special friends today.

Red hearts, red hearts here and there,

Red hearts, red hearts everywhere.

• Bake heart-shaped cookies to decorate with frosting and sprinkles.


• Make stencils by using a craft knife to cut heart-shaped holes out of cardboard squares. Tape the stencils on top of white paper and let your children sponge-paint over them to fill in the holes. When the paint has dried, remove the stencils to reveal the sponge-painted hearts.

TRIANGLES

TRIANGLES, TRIANGLES Tune: "Jingle Bells"

Triangles, triangles,

Triangles I see.

Count the points and count the sides,

Count them 1, 2, 3.

Triangles, triangles,

Just for you and me.

Count the points and count the sides,

Count them 1, 2, 3.

• Ice Cream Cones: Glue brown triangle cone shapes onto paper. Add colorful paper circles for scoops of ice cream.


• Let your children make collages using triangles cut from fabric scraps

SQUARES

I'M A SHAPE THAT HAS FOUR SIDES Tune: "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

I'm a shape that has four sides,

Has four sides, has four sides.

I'm a shape that has four sides,

And they are all the same.

Count my points, I have four too,

Have four too, have four too.

Count my points, I have four too.

And Square is my name.

• Mosaics: Cut 1-inch squares out of bright coloured paper. Let the children glue the squares in designs on black paper.


• Picture Frames: Show the children how to glue four jumbo craft sticks together to make a square frame. Have them decorate their frames with such items as stickers, beads, or seeds.

Drawing Them In

Before children begin making art with pencils, crayons, and the like, they are creating artwork: A swipe of pudding on the high chair, a pudgy hand raking the sand, a stick scraping through the dirt, it all says, "I can make something appear out of nowhere."


Drawing can be fun. It's sometimes silly how we have preconceived notions on what a good or a bad drawing is. I believe that children should be allowed to use art as a form of expression. But for kids who want to learn how to make specific figures already; you have to show them that drawing is made up of several parts joined together. “I don’t know how to draw!” is what you will often here from pre-schoolers, so I'm a big believer in that we as the teachers/parents/carers can change that statement....how you ask? I think all children and adults can draw, remembering that drawing is a person's perspective on how they see the world. Encourage children to draw what they see and see what THEY see! PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE! Each year that I teach I use drawing for many different purposes within the classroom setting: Quiet time, conflict resolution, grief therapy, fine motor skill practice, just to name a few. During this time I always sit and draw too, modelling this behaviour is so important for little ones, they see their teacher as someone who can draw = they see themselves as someone who can draw. As a child I wasn't encouraged to draw and was often told that I wasn't very good at it, although I enjoyed it. So for me drawing has become a daily part of my routine with my own children and they confidently see themselves as little people who can draw even at this young age. There are a few easy ways that you can show your pre-schooler to draw:

Younger children can start off by drawing stick figures. In the above drawings, you can draw a lollipop by adding lines or circles. I see a man running. But what about the second man? What is he doing? Why are his arms wide open? You can make lots of stick figures. You can draw girl stick figures too by adding clothes. Or you can draw stick figures with hair or make them raise their hands, bend their body and more.

You can use basic shapes like circle, triangle, square, rectangle to come up with simple drawings. The above illustration shows a Missy the Cat facing you and the other is Mister Rabbit with his back to you.
The Cat: Draw a circle. Add a smaller circle inside the big circle. Make sure the inside circle is placed near the bottom of the circle. Then you can add the ears, eyes, nose, whiskers and don't forget a tiny tail. Meow...Missy says "Be quiet. She wants to sleep."
The Rabbit: Draw a circle. Put inside a small circle near the bottom and part of a circle on top. Add the ears making sure it’s pointed and long with whiskers. You’ve got a rabbit about to hop away. Run after him!!!!

STAGES OF SCRIBBLES

Random Scribbles, 12 to 30 months

As soon as they learn to hold a pen and make marks on paper, kids are likely to experience "kinesthetic enjoyment," the pleasure of moving around and making marks. Their marks are typically random and disordered, made with the whole hand and arm, and are likely to extend off the paper. Or off the wall.

Controlled Scribbles, 30 months to 3 years
Now a child begins to use wrist motions, control her marks, make them smaller, and keep them mostly on the paper. Or on the wall.

Named Scribbles, 3 to 4 1/2 years
Kids start to hold crayons with their fingers rather than their fists, make a variety of lines and shapes, and tell you what they are. Kids are also apt to "narrate," announcing as they draw that, say, a squiggle is actually Aunt Kate dancing with Uncle Al. It's a step toward connecting pictures and things.

Preschematic, 4 1/2 to 7 years
Squiggles, circles, and spirals start to develop into symbols that represent things, as well as self-portraits. These new figures, resembling tadpoles and such, may not be in proportion or even strike you as actual objects, but kids are learning that their pictures say something to others, and to value their product.

Schematic, 7 to 9 years
Those symbols start to appear within a larger framework, or schema. Kids might now draw themselves and their family on a baseline, and include the sky. Their colours get more realistic, but still don't expect to be able to recognise who's Aunt Kate and who's Uncle Al.