Month: July 2020

The children have been fascinated by sharks lately. Many have been sharing shark facts at the last couple circle times. I decided to use this fascination to keep the children tuned in to our most recent virtual circle time.

The children were sent the invitation to our circle time. The invitation encouraged the children to practice some printing activities.

On the social media accounts, I shared activities for the children to do that encourage writing skills. Additionally, I shared the following article from NAEYC to give parents information regarding emergent writing skills. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/emergent-writing

A great activity for fine motor development and emergent writing skills is lacing. Families were provided a shark lacing activity to download and complete at home. Feel free to print and use this lacing activity for yourself!

Our first activity during the virtual circle time was to learn about sharks! We listened to Sharks by Kate Riggs on Youtube.com. The reading of the book is a little fast, but the concepts shared are simple and engaging.

Following the book, we played a shark game. I shared the PowerPoint presentation with everyone. The children were to feed the shark the letter I said. They told me the color of the letter to acknowledge they had found it. The children were all unmuted and just shouted out the answers.

This is an easy game to make on PowerPoint. Simply place a shark, or any clipart animal, in the center. Add text boxes with each letter of the alphabet. Choose a different color for the letters. Once you have all the letters placed, use the animations tab to create the movement. Choose the Exit Effects animation then select the drop option to have the letters fall away. On the animations pane, you should see the letters of the alphabet in order. This will ensure that the correct letter will fall when you click your mouse.

Our final activity was a movement song. The kids enjoy interacting physically with one another. Movement songs is an excellent way to feel connected.

I hope you enjoy your shark day as much as we did!

A favorite book in the classroom is The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood. The story is simple, and easy for children to remember. On the second reading, children are able to recite parts of the book. The Little Mouse is trying to keep his red, ripe strawberry from the big hungry bear. He hides it, disguises it, and locks it up. None of these are effective until the reader makes a suggestion.

The book can be purchased from the following affiliate link: https://amzn.to/39fs4Zm

The children were asked to come to our virtual circle time in disguise so they wouldn’t be found by the big hungry bear.

Once the children were gathered on Zoom.us, the story was read over a shared screen. I no longer mute the children while the story is read. Our group size is small so it is fun to hear the children react to the story. The following link is the read-a-loud I used during our virtual circle time.

https://www.schooltube.com/media/The+Little+Mouse%2C+The+Red-Ripe+Strawberry+and+the+Big+Hungry+Bear/1_vbnqehhc

Our activity was a strawberry hunt. I obtained the background images from https://unsplash.com/. This site offers free images to use. I created a slideshow on PowerPoint. I added the circles and then used animations to have them appear one at a time.

The children were unmuted during the activity. They counted, used preposition words, and described the locations of the strawberries. Many different skills were used during the strawberry hunt.

We finished the virtual circle time with a song about fruits and vegetables. This allowed the children to move around!

The shift in our social interactions during the pandemic mean children will need additional support understanding emotions. They are feeling different, stronger emotions while experiencing the new normal. Children are seeing masked faces. These masks make it difficult to read how others are feeling. Children are egocentric from the ages of 2 to 7. This means children are not able to see things from another’s point of view. Children believe everyone hears, sees, and feels exactly what they are hearing, seeing, and feeling. Emotions are already a challenge and masks make it even more difficult. It is important to emphasize emotional skills in order for children to succeed socially during the pandemic.

Many young children will find themselves in front of a computer using a program such as zoom to learn in the fall. Children need to be prepared to read emotions in a new way. This can be practiced over Zoom with the use of the following activities.

Children were asked to wear sunglasses for our virtual circle time.

We began our circle time with Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean and Kimberly Dean. This story depicts how you view the world around you is your choice. You control your mood not what is happening in the world around you. Pete the Cat is well known to our children. He is familiar and offers a resounding message for children.

Following the book, we did an emotions activity. Children were asked to show various emotions. We then talked about how their faces looked while they expressed the various emotions. When the children were happy, they had smiles and crinkly eyes. When they were surprised, they had open mouths and raised eyebrows. Below is a video of the PowerPoint slideshow I shared with the children.

The sunglass images are available for your to download to create this activity on your own!

We finished our circle time with the following song available on You Tube.

The children have to watch the characters and follow their actions. This helps children practice watching other people for cues which is an important social emotional skill.

As the world shifts, so do the needs of children. One need is clear to be a high priority. It is a need children have always needed to focus on, but is often skipped due to academic skills being pressed. Children need to develop social emotional skills first before they can become engaged academic learners. The social emotional skills needed today, look a little different than in the past. Children need to experience more virtual learning, need to interact with people virtually, and need to express their feelings appropriately in this environment. I have never been a fan of technology in early childhood settings. I firmly believe children need to interact with others first and foremost. However, the pandemic has changed how I view interactions and technology. Physical interactions can be dangerous at this time. They can be scary due to personal protection equipment and can be restrictive due to social distancing. Technology is one way to overcome many of these pandemic setbacks. Children can still interact with others, just in a different way. Children can share verbally, take turns, play games, and make connections with the use of technology. We are fortunate to live in a time when we are able to still be socially active even during a global pandemic. If you use technology wisely, children will benefit from your program.

This time of year fireflies are out in Michigan. It is a family tradition that we stay up later than usual to get to dark. It can be 9:30 or 10pm before it is dusk here. Then all the kids run around catching fireflies. We put them in a jar to watch them flicker off and on then let them go. The kids see who can catch the most.

Many kids can relate to catching fireflies. It is a common summer activity in Michigan. With fireflies as the theme, I created a counting game on PowerPoint to use in our virtual circle time.

Prior to our circle time, the children were asked to bring a bug. It could be drawn, a plastic bug, a stuffed animal, or real!

We began our circle time by sharing our bugs. Some were colored, some were printed, and some were stickers. Once everyone had shared, we moved on to our story. I had the book, The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle pulled up on youtube.

This version makes the firefly light up. The narrator reads slowly so the children are able to follow along.

After reading the book, I presented the following counting activity.

I created this activity using PowerPoint. I created the bug and jar clipart, but any bug image would work. Add the images to the slide. Include the final number for the bug count. Open the animations tab, select the emphasis button. Choose the pulse option to make the bug glow. On the number, choose an entrance animation to reveal the number after counting.

The activity had basic counting and basic addition.

For this part of the slideshow on PowerPoint, I used the spin emphasis to indicate which ladybug we were counting. The firefly was “flown” into the jar by choosing the bounce entrance on the animations tab. It was fun to hear the kids counting on their own during this activity.

We ended our virtual circle time with a new finger play. I created a basic slideshow with photos showing the children the motions to the Here is the Beehive finger play. I shared my screen and we did the finger play along with the presentation.

The virtual circle time finished with the following song using the beehive finger play.

Have fun while counting bugs!

Sorting with children online can be difficult. It is hard to see what is being asked to be sorted. I found PowerPoint to be quite helpful in creating a sorting activity for preschool children. I used a clipart shell and three clipart buckets of different color.

The shells were three different sizes. With a click of the mouse, one of the shells would spin. The children would then shout out which color bucket the shell belonged in.

To create the shell sort, open PowerPoint. Place the clipart at the top of the page in different sizes. Place where you will sort the objects at the bottom. Select one of the shells and open the animations tab. Select the emphasis effects option. Choose the spin effect.

This will make the shell spin when the mouse is clicked. Now, select the bucket the object is being sorted into. Apply the same spin effect to this object. As the children play the game together, the spinning indicates the objects that are being sorted and where they belong.

Prior to our virtual circle time, the children were asked to create a fish.

We shared our fish and then read The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.

Our song was by Laurie Berkner. The children swam the fish they created along with the song!