Puzzles

Trent enjoys puzzles...he's left handed...oh, what does that have to do with anything?  LOL  Hmmm....another blog!  L. tends to think he "can't" do puzzles over 12 pieces.  :-P  But with a little encouragement...voila!  All by himself.  He was so proud of himself!  Now onto a 24 piece!  K. is retelling Little Red Riding Hood! I don't think she even knew I took a picture.  It was completely all on her own! LOVE IT!!!

 
I'll start by sharing a little blurb from another's blog.  You can read the whole article at
http://hubpages.com/hub/Educational-Toys-for-Kids-The-Benefits-of-Puzzles

Here are some of the skills that are enhanced by playing with puzzles:

1. Cognitive skills: Puzzles improve a child's problem solving and reasoning skills. It helps them to see whole-part relationships, increases their visual spacial awareness and depending on the subject matter can teach them a variety of topics like the Alphabet, Numbers, Color recognition, shape recognition, categories like pets or transportation vehicles, and more.
2. Fine motor skills: Puzzles are fun way to improve fine motor skills. From the time a baby can start eating solid food parents give their children cheerios to help a child with their pincher grasp. Fine motor manipulation is key for writing but but children start learning this skill long before they can hold a crayon or a pencil. Various types of puzzles like peg puzzles and chunky can help teach little ones to pick up and grasp pieces and they aid in the development of the pincher grasp.
3. Hand-eye coordination: As a child places each piece in the puzzle they are manipulating it so see if it fits. Their hand eye coordination is enhanced through this trial and error process.
4. Social skills: Puzzles can be done alone but are also a great tool for fostering cooperative play. As kids ask for a piece to be passed to them, or discuss where a piece should go they are sharing the task and learning to cooperate. It can also help a child learn how to handle frustration when a piece does not fit.

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I agree with what this individual has posted.  It's good to think about the reasons why certain toys/manipulatives are beneficial.   There are so many different types of puzzles.  They vary in number pieces, material it's made out of, peg/no peg, large/small peg, jigsaw etc.  What I have on the assessment I use is that a child, at the end of their preschool years, is able to complete a 12 piece jigsaw puzzle.  That is actually "harder" then what many preschool assessments state.  Usually I see a 6-8 piece puzzle.  But, like with anything, when a child works with something and has been taught how to do it...they advance.  I find that my students often leave with the ability to do up to a 24 piece puzzle.  My own boys did 63-100 piece before Kindergarten.  Part of it has to do with their personality and natural ability for logical thinking but most of all it's experience. 

The logical thinking that is working in the background as they try to do a puzzle will eventually help them be able to think about larger problems and solve them.  We definitely want that.  Also, I find that many children just don't notice details and so I find that puzzle activities helps them in this regard.  Noticing details will help them with writing letters/numbers, drawing, patterning and more!

The small pegs are great for encouraging the tripod grasp. 

The complete article might be beneficial for you.

http://www.drawyourworld.com/grip.html

Well, what do you do if your child is past these peg puzzles but still could use the fine motor experience of them?  That's very often the case, I find.  They consider the peg puzzles "baby puzzles".  Well, breathe some new life into them.  :-)

*  If you are missing pieces...use the others for stamping.  Most are a basic shape and will print nicely on a paper.

*  Remove the puzzle pieces and place them into a sensory tub of rice, lentils, or other "clean" sensory.  Then they can find them and put them back in the board.

*  Hide them around the room...better yet, have them hide them for you and you bring them back for the child to put back in the board.

*  And my favorite...use them for creating or retelling stories.  Peg puzzles can be great story starters.  And often you can find classic story puzzles at the dollar store that work GREAT for retelling/sequencing.

This past school year I found that puzzles got put on "the back shelf".  I very seldom noticed the children getting out the puzzles.  Hmmm.  Not good, at least from my perspective.  :-)  Part of it is interest...I hadn't really worked on creating an interest with them.  Part of it was that we had to move our main shelf and though the puzzles were kept under the shelf, just like the old one...however, they weren't as noticeable.  So, I started putting one puzzle out on one of the desks in the kitchen. That really helped!  It was like ..."oh yeah, Ms. Amber always puts out puzzles."  Now I see them pulling them out more frequently.  I rotate my puzzles every 1-2 weeks and provide a variety of types.  Large floor puzzles are perfect for getting the children to work together!  I also find that putting an older child with a younger child is great too.  In those cases I observe the older child pointing out and verbalizing about the details.   My favorite was when a child was doing one of our 12 piece alphabet puzzle and another was watching and the child was trying to put a non edge piece on the edge.  The observer said, "No, that's not right. See the perimeter is pink. There's no pink on yours."   Wouldn't that put a smile on your face?  It did mine.  Yes, I think the word "perimeter" is brought up in conversation almost every day....we use it with gluing, in math, with puzzles, during large motor and so on.  So when they hit 2nd grade and they are starting to learn about perimeter (like the work my son brought home from school yesterday)...it will be easy for them.  :-P

I'd like to have a set puzzle time and I may just work it in one of these days.  :-)  There is just not enough time in the day!!!  Be sure to encourage your child to pull out a puzzle today!  :-P

April Showers Bring May Flowers III

I really had another post started for today...but it can wait. I've been doing a lot of informational blogs so we'll do another day of "what we did today" pictures.  Those are the fun ones!

Ever had a day...not that it didn't have it's normal behaviors/issues...but it left you smiling.  That was this morning for me.  To see children engaged in dramatic play.  To hear words like, "May I use that when you are done?" Or even "You're being bossy." but said in a very matter of fact tone of voice. To listen to the singing, humming, unprompted conversation all through their work.  To hear "I like this kind of work."  Playing and exploring is their "work" at this stage of life and so we want to encourage it.  What an awesome morning we had!

Here's some of the "work" we did today.  :-P 

Rhyming Rainbows

One of our literacy activities were rhyming rainbows.  I found some rainbow clip art on the Internet.  I had already glued on one picture inside a cloud and then we went through the pictures to find their rhyming matches.  They did so well!  If you find a child not being able to make rhyming word/picture pairs...I suggest you do something similar to this activity.  Then you can give them two choices...one that is obviously not the rhyming match and one that is.  It helps them "hear" the rhyming ending sounds.  I heard a snipit from LeapFrog about a rhyming song so I'm going to go searching for it.  It seemed very catching.  I'll let you know if I find it.  :-)

A note about making activities:  I had the children help me decide which picture would go on the other cloud.  Now I'll laminate them.  Do you think they are more apt to use them on their own now?  You bet!  Involve them and they are much more interested (and they respect the materials more).

 Logical Thinking Matches

One of our mathematics activity was a "filler".  I wanted to get some logical thinking in with my younger ones.  This activity was from the Mailbox publication Find the Match: Math.  These make nice little fillers, especially for 3 year olds...or 4 year olds with minimal exposure.  Personally, I prefer actual objects but I understand that we just don't have the time necessary to collect the objects...at least I don't often. So these type of activities are available for purchase as well as pretty easy to make, if you so desire.

 

Muddy Boots

These turned out cute!

 Mailbox idea again.  Can you tell I like Mailbox?  Very reasonable...and the activities are "worth it".  Usually "tried and true" from other teachers.  I just want to reiterate that this is not an art activity.  On a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being "well, okay" and 5 being "awesome!"... I'd put this activity as a 1.  :-P  Just because it uses paint, it doesn't mean that it's true art.  There were a few decisions to be made...choices they could have so that put it at 1.  This was put under fine motor/scissors today.  Children cut out their boots, glued on the pieces using paste spreader and liquid glue, added legs in the color they wished and blobbed the "mud" on and smeared it the way the wanted.  But really, it's not open-ended at all. Now if I gave them all the materials and just let them go (hmmm...wonder how that would have turned out?  :-) Not "cute" by any adult standard.) then it would have been further up the scale.  The children also gave me a dictation sentence or two about muddy boots.  I got "Muddy boots.  It's okay they get dirty." (4 yrs) and "I like to step in mud and drive a car and get muddy tracks on it." (3 yrs). 

Stenciling

Our art today would be at a 4, in my opinion.  They pretty much had the freedom to do what they wished with it...but that stencil makes only certain flowers so it "limits" them.  Perhaps I'm harsh on myself...but so be it.  :-)  The stenciling is "new" lately.  And to see their expressions, I wished I had incorporate some of these kind of stenciling sooner.  I've used the large one object stencils but these whole sheet stencils add a different dimension.  I purchased a set of three at our dollar store.  They are a flimsy plastic...so we'll see how they hold up.  Here's an expression that's priceless!

 

One of the things that made it such a good morning was both children automatically started cleaning up their area.  The little guy sang his own little song, "Cleaning, cleaning, for the next person." (Even though he was the last person since we only had three here today.) I love that they are showing such a sense of order and respect for friends and materials. 

I purchase a box of store brand wipes that we call "art" wipes.  These are used for clean up (if it's something they can do on their own) or if they have just a wee bit on their hands so we don't have to constantly go through the livingroom to the bathroom.

Trent's version.  :-) 

He really concentrated after he got over the paint on his pinkie.  LOL  He does not like ANYTHING on him.  But my goal is to teach him it's "okay to get messy". (MOST TIMES!)

I really would love a decent drying rack.  Have had my eye on one from Discount School Supply but...really, I have no space for one.  So, my kitchen wall turns into a "drying rack" for most artwork that doesn't have a lot of drippiness to it.  Keeps it out of reach until dry and keeps my counters clear of artwork.  I could buy stock in masking tape.  One of my most used "materials". :-)  I am always securing down their work. It makes life easier on everyone if their work (especially painting) is secured to the tray or table.  Just a little FYI. 

So, I was talking about Trent.  Maybe today is a turning point.  Typically he enjoyed painting until something got on his hand...which was about the first or second stroke.  Lately, when I asked if he wished to paint he'd adamantly shake his head no and say something to that effect. But today he did so much more on his paper.  But even more important than that, after he was cleaned up he went out into the livingroom with the other kids, I stuck it up on the wall.  When he came back in for lunch...you should have heard him blibber blabber, pointing to his artwork and smiling and laughing.  Wow! Didn't have a clue what he said but sure got the point! :-P 

Sensory

April showers bring May flowers.

I took the flowers off of a lei to put in the water.  They will float...and sink as they found out!  They will also stick to the side of the container.  We had a pattern going at one point.  Awesome!  When they do a skill on their own then you know they've got it. 

He told me..."downpour...sprinkles" while he dumped the water out onto the flowers and then sprayed with the spray bottle.  We had been talking about downpours so most likely that was his connection.   Water play is always a favorite.  Lately I have been changing out our sensory material every day or every other day.  It's working out nicely.  At one point we did one sensory material for the week with different tools.  The kids are really enjoying this frequent change.  But that doesn't mean we don't want the "tried and true".  Water exploration has so many benefits and should be repeated often...even if it's only in the bathtub after a bath.  The spray bottle was the hit today and we know, from previous blog, the benefit of using a spray bottle.

Have a lovely day!