Celebrate the “Week of the Young Child”
This week is the National Association for the Education Young Children’s “Week of the Young Child.” The first week of April is dedicated to celebrating early learning, young children, their teachers, their families, and their communities. Each day of the week, Monday through Friday, has a theme. To help kickstart your celebrations, we’re sharing a simple activity for each day that families or classrooms can do together. Each video is available in English and Spanish.
Music Monday
Singing nursery rhymes is a great way to introduce new vocabulary words. Using gestures and movements to act out the words helps babies attribute meaning to what is being said. They will begin to develop an understanding of the new words that are being sung because of the clues provided by the motions. In this video, Mom is acting out the words to a traditional rhyme with her baby: “This is the way the lady rides, jiggety jog, jiggety jog. This is the way the gentleman rides, gallop and trot, gallop and trot. This is the way the farmer rides, hobbledy-hoy, hobbledy-hoy.”
Tasty Tuesday
The grocery store is the perfect place to practice counting and making healthy eating choices! Asking a child to help find the items needed for a fruit salad encourages counting together as each piece of fruit is placed in the basket. By associating the items with each number said, children learn 1-to-1 correspondence, a critical step in the development of counting.
Work Together Wednesday
Cooperation is an important life and school skill. Playing cooperative games helps children practice this skill. In this video, they work together and keep count every time someone touches the balloon—which helps develop number sense and sequencing skills. Both are needed for a strong math foundation.
Artsy Thursday
Creating shapes allows children to apply knowledge about their attributes, such as how many sides a triangle has. In this video, Dad spreads some shaving cream on a flat surface and invites his child to use a finger to draw a house. They begin by making a square with four equal sides and add a triangle for the roof. What shapes should you add for the doors and windows?
Family Friday
It’s important for children to feel connected to family and their larger community. Children who believe they are loved and cared for by adults other than their parents tend to be more successful in school and life. In this video, Dad joins his child in looking through the family photos on his phone and asks, “Who do you see? What were they doing?”
Each video featured in this blog comes from ReadyRosie, our evidence-informed and research-based family engagement and early learning resource that supports families with Modeled Moments videos filmed in English and in Spanish that show real families modeling fun activities and games to support classroom learning in authentic ways.
What are you doing this week to celebrate young children?
Share your planned activities with us on Instagram (@TeachStrategies)!
