teacher/caregiver/parent help needed

[JAK]

I need to make a toy or game (some sort of learning material) that promotes cognitive development. Any ideas? I know one of you wonderful ladies has to have a great and easy idea!

Leigh- did you complete all of you modules when you worked at the center in Germany? I have 10 completed and am working on the last 5 now using the family childcare modules.

[Jeff]

Thats a pretty broad question...

[TXmom]

What age?
There's a game we used to love that's called the cookie game, but I didn't make it up. I guess I should pull it out again so Trey can start learning to read color names. Take circles of colored paper and write the color name on them. They're supposed to be cookies. Put as many colors as you think the child can handle on the floor in front of you. Then say the folowing rhyme:

Late one night in the cookie shop,
there were two (or whatever number you have) little cookies with sugar on top,
in came (child's name),
hip, hip, hooray,
s/he picked up the (color) one and ran away.

Then the child gets to pick up the color you called out and run around with it.

It teaches color recognition, turn taking, word recognition, gross motor skills, fine motor skills..........

[Cathy]

How about a matching game? File folders are wonderful--Just glue/laminate one item of a pair onto the inside of the folder, and laminate the other part. Have the child match them up. (ex. Shoe/sock, cookie/milk.....or colors, shapes......or cut a picture of an animal in half, and let the child match)

Cover a large coffee can with felt, and cut felt shapes/letters/numbers. Let the child arrange, name, and create with the pieces. Storage is quick....great for car trips.

[JAK]

Thanks! I knew you would have some ideas! I wasn't looking for a specific age range to us it with. It's something that I have to do for my home daycare. I can use it with my dck's or my own children so it didn't matter what the age since I have toddlers, a preschooler and school age children in my care. (Just had to be something that one of them could use)

[bizymum]

I once made an alphabet board...

I had a square piece of plywood in which I painted with a paint that was safe for children..
Then used Alphabet stickers and lined them up on the board leaving spaces in between, with a small nail under neath the letter..

EX..... A B C D E F G H
. .

Then I made circle from a heavey paper and drew one thing that started with that letter on the paper, like A Apple, B Ball.......

Then I laminated the paper circle punch a hole in the top. Then what the children do is match the letter to the object drawn on the circile, when it is matched they put it on the nail underneath the right letter..

Hope you are able to understand what I mean...lol

Good Luck...

[Postey]

These are excellent. We use them a lot in the math center. You can do one to one correlations, with shapes, colors, size, or patterns. I know a website that has a lot of file folder game ideas that are really neat if you want to email me. One neat one that my director let me use was one with mittens that were colored but they also had a shape inside them so the kids could match them according to color or the shape...their choice.

acv@myexcel.com

[Leigh]

Originally posted by JAK
Leigh- did you complete all of you modules when you worked at the center in Germany? I have 10 completed and am working on the last 5 now using the family childcare modules.


I am so sorry that I did not see this before. No, I didn't finish my modules. I got to about the sixth or seventh one I think. I really wish that I had finished them now though. Once again, I am so soory that I missed this before.

[JAK]

Originally posted by Leigh



I am so sorry that I did not see this before. No, I didn't finish my modules. I got to about the sixth or seventh one I think. I really wish that I had finished them now though. Once again, I am so soory that I missed this before.

That's ok! LOL

I just finished another one today and get observed on it next week- only 3 more to go and I'm done! :yippee: LOL