Have you wondered what the listening activity is all about in class. Why listen to sounds? Shouldn’t we be listening to music?? Listening differs from hearing in that it is an intentional act. While we are surrounded by sounds in our everyday life, we choose whether or not to listen and process the sounds we hear. Listening activities that are brief, focusing on one sound at a time, allow children to practice the skills of attention and engaged listening. Imitation of the sound and age-appropriate discussion following the listening experience increase comprehension and learning. Moving in ways that complement the sound will also help turn a listening experience into a learning one. What creatures of the ocean can you and your child move like. Check out your home Cd for ideas. Move like the crab, the whale, or even the octopus “Movement is the Key to learning! Our brains fully develop through movement activities such as crawling, rolling, involves specific and intensive motor activities to make full use of our complicated nervous system.” (Anne Green Gilbert, “Movement and Music: The Keys to learning,” Kindermusik Notes, Nov/Dec 1998) Is your child asking to repeat a song or rhyme over and over? Are you getting tired of replaying that one song on your home CD over and over. Two key elements for a toddler’s learning environment are variety and repetition. Through exposure to variety (songs, chants, dances, instruments, props, animals), the groundwork for new learning is laid in the form of new neural connections. But not all of these connections will remain intact; it is through repetition that new neural connections are strengthened and learning occurs. So when your child asks to repeat an activity or hear a book for the 100th time, remember that he is doing what he needs to do in order to learn.
Craft at home: Whale
Materials needed
Paper lunch bag
Rubber band
Blue paper
Fin template
Scissors
Crayons and decorations
Black marker
Shredded newspaper
Stuff paper bag with newspaper, leaving 3 inches unstuffed. Scrunch top together and wrap an elastic band or masking tape around to seal. Cut out 2 flippers from white or grey paper and glue to bottom of bag. Cut slits in the blue paper about ¼ inch apart (see diagram above). Roll the piece around a pencil and tape to make a tube. Poke a hole in the top of the bag with a pencil and squish the bottom of the spout in and apply scotch tape as needed. Use a black marker to draw eyes and mouth. You can always paint the bag first if you want or keep your bag white. You can read the book we read in class this week Baby Beluga by Raffi. Your child can pretend their whale is actually “Baby Beluga”
