BEST BOOKS FOR THOSE BIG EMOTIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Sharing the best books for helping young children learn about their emotions and how to manage them through self regulation.

As adults we understand that our days can be filled with many different emotions but children are still learning about their feelings and it is important for parents and teachers alike to help young children understand and communicate their feelings. It's true that some children's emotional intelligence develops more easily than others but how do we best support those having difficulty in this area? Books are always a great place to start.

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EASTER EGGS AND KINETIC SAND

Combine Easter eggs and kinetic sand to create a unique invitation to play and learn about 3D shapes during play!

Looking for a simple Easter invitation to play? 

This activity was easy to set up and provided hours of sensory rich play for the preschool children I get to hang out with. 

The best part about invitations such as this one, is that you can never predict where the play will lead you or what you might learn. 

Even I was surprised with what we learnt about 3D shapes during our play!

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ALPHABET CAR PARK MATS

Our printable alphabet car park mats are a fun and engaging way to get car loving kids learning their letters!

Anyone else have car crazy students in their class this year? 

With them in mind, I've created these car parking mats as a literacy centre activity for my class but they've been just as popular at home! 

With all the letters of the alphabet in both lower case and upper case, these play mats invite young children to match the letters on the car to those in the car park. 

INSPIRING LITERACY CENTER IDEAS

Looking for more literacy station activities? Ideas for Daily 5 Word Work? Teaching inspiration for developing early literacy skills in our kids? Look no further!

Literacy centers or literacy centres (because I'm Australian) are a fun and engaging way to practice early literacy ideas intentionally taught during class but it can be a struggle to find new and inspiring ways to practice these concepts in purposeful, engaging small group activities.

Our literacy stations always incorporate some key focus areas - rhyme, beginning letter sounds, CVC words, letter recognition, handwriting, sight words and developing vocabulary making them ideal for Daily 5 stations too. As always, the activities often have other physical or social skills built in to them as well such as fine motor strengthening and learning to play cooperatively. You can find our other literacy center posts here, here and here. 

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BUILDING NUMBER SENSE - USING CARS + TRUCKS TO LEARN ABOUT QUANTITY

Use children's love of trucks and cars to help them learn to recognize and count in preschool and kindergarten.

Preschoolers love trucks and cars. Very few children seem to be able to resist their appeal making them perfect for inviting some hands-on playful learning to your classroom or for learning at home.

I've created this printable pack of transport themed resources to help build number sense in preschool and kindergarten age children while they play. The main focus being quantity as they work to 'load up' their trucks.

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