|
Music Makers
Music is a way to communicate that all children understand. It's not necessary for them to follow the words to a song; it makes them happy just to hear the comfort in your voice or on the recording or to dance to a peppy tune.
- Music
- Noise makers (rattles, a can filled with beans or buttons, empty toilet paper rolls, pots, pans, plastic bowls)
What to Do
- Have your toddler try banging a wooden spoon on pots, pans or plastic bowls; shaking a large rattle or shaking a securely closed plastic container filled with beans, buttons or other noisy items; and blowing through toilet-paper or paper-towel rolls.
- Sing or play recordings of nursery rhymes. Have your toddler participate actively. Even if he can't recite the words, he can imitate your hand movements, clap or hum along.
- As your child becomes more physically coordinated, encourage her to move to the music. She can twirl, spin, jump up and down, tiptoe or sway.
- Find recordings of all kinds of music for your child to listen to. Help her learn to clap out rhythms, to move to both slow and fast music
and to listen carefully for special sounds in the music.
Here are a few tips to get your child to sing:
- Sing yourself. Sing fairly slowly so that your child can join in. Discourage shouting.
- Start with simple chanting. Pick a simple melody, such as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and sing, "la, la, la." Add the words later
- Make singing a natural part of your daily routine - let your child hear you sing as you work around the house or sing along with songs on the radio or TV or with your own CDs or recordings. Encourage him to join in.
Introduce music to your child early. Music and dance help children learn to listen, to coordinate hand and body movements and to express themselves creatively |
Play Dough
Young children love to play with dough. And no wonder! They can squish and pound it and form it into fascinating shapes. Helping to make play
dough lets children learn about measuring and learn to use new words.
What You Need
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- Food coloring
- Saucepan
- Food extracts, such as almond, vanilla, lemon or peppermint
- Objects to stick in the dough, such as Popsicle sticks and straws
- Objects to pound with, such as a toy mallet
- Objects to make impressions with, such as jar lids, cookie cutters and bottle caps
What to Do to Make Play Dough:
- Add the food coloring to the water. Then mix all of the ingredients together in a pan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring until it forms a soft ball.
- Let the mixture cool. Knead slightly. Add food extracts to different chunks of the dough to make different smells.
Cooking with you - following the steps in a recipe - is the perfectway for your child to begin learning how to follow
directions and how to count and measure. It can also teach him how things change. |
- Talk with your child about what you are doing as you make the dough. Let your toddler or preschooler help you with measuring and adding ingredients.
- Let your child handle some dough while it is still slightly warm and some when it has cooled off to teach him about temperatures.
- Give some of the dough to your toddler or preschooler so she can pound it, stick things in it, make impressions in it and make her own animals, houses and people from it.
Learning Activities for Children:
|
|
|
