Fine Motor Development

Hi! Welcome to another installment of the Alexis and Ingrid Show!

One of my answers to my essential question, what is the most important skill a child develops in preschool that helps them best excel in kindergarten?, was fine motor skills.

So for this installment I will be talking a little more about what they are, how they affect children, and how educators can help improve them. I came across this PDF when doing one of my research checks. It was created by a school readiness program and they talk about what a child needs in order to be ready for early education programs. 

According to the article "...fine motor skills are those skills that require the small muscles of the hand to work together to perform precise and refined movements." Fine motor skills typically develop in a consistent manner throughout the early years of childhood. Unless affected by an outside force, most children's fine motor skills are developed enough by the time they enter formal schooling and as they practice on them they tend to continue developing and improving smoothly.

For some children, their hands do not seem to work together in the way that they should which may lead to frustration that they may resist activities that require them to coordinate all of the muscles and joints in their hands and fingers. As a result they may get behind on this developmental milestone and develop future problems. Because of this, it is highly important for teachers to be able to identify when children are at most risk for fine motor weakness and be able to incorporate activities that specifically works on enhancing this skill.

With help and encouragement children tend to improve significantly and continue building upon their newly acquired skill.

All About Self-Regulation

Welcome to another wonderful addition of the Alexis and Ingrid Show!

My essential question to my topic, early childhood education, is: what is the most important skill a child develops in preschool that helps them best excel academically in kindergarten? And one of my answers to this question was executive function skills, also known as self-regulation. 

In this post I will be talking about what exactly is self-regulation and how it affects a child in their early learning and their future learning endeavors. Through one of my many Pinterest adventures I found this pin that led me to a website called Tools of the Mind.

History time! Tools of the Mind itself is a curriculum that began in 1993 at Metropolitan State College of Denver (now Metropolitan State University of Denver). It was created when Dr. Elena Bodrova and Dr. Deborah Leong began working together in early childhood classrooms to improve children's ability to learn and to teach educators new techniques for working with children. 

Any who as I said before the pin/link led me to the website where it talks about self-regulation and how it affects children. Self-regulation itself as stated by the writers is "...a critical competency that underlies the mindful, intentional, and thoughtful behaviors of younger and older children alike...capacity to control one’s impulses, both to stop doing something, if needed (even if one wants to continue doing it) and to start doing something, if needed (even if one doesn’t want to do it)".

Evidence has shown that lack of self-regulation in many children has a great impact on how well they do in school and later in life. Self-regulation affects a child's ability to successfully function in school settings in two ways: social-emotional self-regulation which makes it possible for children to follow classroom rules; and second, cognitive self-regulation which allows children to use and further develop the cognitive processes necessary for academic learning.

It is through the help of this article and other resources I've read that I strongly believe executive function skills (self-regulation) needs to be developed in preschool to help the child succeed.

Earth Day

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Alexis and Ingrid Show! 

On April 22nd, just two days away, it'll be Earth Day! We found some great activities and crafts based on Earth day and made sure to add them to our Pinterest.

In spirit of Earth day, Alexis and I came up with an edible treat with easy clean up and activity great for all ages. For this edible treat* you'll need:

• Mason jars (Preferably green, representing Earth Day) 
• Rocky Road ice cream 
• Mini Oreos snack pack
• Gummy Worms
• Ribbon (optional)

*The amount of materials needed for this treat varies and is determined by the size of your mason jars and party.

Mason jars are reusable and when you make this treat with your class (or when you have friends over!), they are able to take it home and make other recipes with it as well. Once you have your mason jar, scoop the rocky road to fill 75% of the jar. The layer of ice cream in this sweet treat represents the soil of the earth. From there, take the Mini Oreos snack pack bag and crush all the Oreos.  Pour the Oreos on the layer of ice cream and place the gummy worms on top. And TADAA! You have an Earth Day inspired recipe.

Preparing this recipe is easy and fun to do. You could find ribbon at your local craft store and use it to personalize your mason jars. This in itself, is an activity, but if you want to have an extra pizzazz play The Lorax, a movie about a "grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world." We hope you enjoy the Earth Day inspired festivities! This has been another addition of the Alexis and Ingrid Show, have a wonderful day.    

The Disturbing Transformation of Kindergarten

Hi and welcome to the Alexis an Ingrid Show!

So today I wanted to talk a little bit about this article that I was directed towards about the changes in present day kindergarten. 

I thought this was relevant to my topic Early Childhood Education (ECE) because kindergarten is under the umbrella of ECE and concerns my overall EQ. 

Ms. Wendy Lecker, Education Columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group talks about the changes she is seeing in classrooms nowadays. While education reformers are trying to improve how students perform and ignore how students are learning which is sadly seen more prominently in kindergarten.  Allowing a child to lead their own activity has dropped and direct instruction has increased. So these teachers are now holding all children at the same standard which seems silly because it is well-known that not everyone is the same especially not children who are barely starting to learn and explore. 

She goes on to talk about the different opinions of child development experts and how they see this as silly because they understand that children can only learn what their brains are ready to absorb. 

Is it really worth showing young children new concepts at a very young age where they just memorize it instead of understanding it?

Marshmallow Sculptures

Hey guys! This is another addition of the Alexis and Ingrid Show!

While pinning on our Pinterest account I found this neat pin called 18 different fine motor activities for preschool children. 

 

The link led me to a website called Mess for Less which was created by Vicky who is currently a mom of three and was a teacher for nearly 10 years. She taught preschool-first grade and at one time she also taught fourth grade; she also has her Master's in Early Childhood Learning so she knows what she is talking about.

Any who the activity that really caught my eye was the "Marshmallow Sculpture" one.

Even though all the activities focus on enhancing fine motor skills while the children have fun doing it, I feel this one has a lot of potential for my presentation activity. The process of creating a sculpture with a group not only helps work on the obvious, fine motor skills, but it also touches on my other two answers which are executive function skills and emotional-social skills. The act of focusing on a task at hand and trying not to eat the marshmallows while doing it helps practice self-regulation skills; the act of communicating with others on how/what to build their scuplture helps put into practice social skills. 

Although it is a simple activity I truly believe it would have a great way to not only keep children entertained for hours but perhaps also an activity to teach high school juniors and seniors. 
 

Reading Fun

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Alexis and Ingrid Show!

For the past couple of days, we spent time fashioning our Pinterest according to early childhood education and elementary school teaching subtopics. Making sure to pin daily! Check it out.

When you first walk into an elementary school classroom room, what is the first thing you notice? Is it the smell of apple juice and PBJ sandwiches, traditional boy girl seating arrangements, or the use of color everywhere? I personally notice the vivid colors. According to Rachel Grumman Bender, in How Color Affects Our Mood, there are colors that have positive and negative connotations to them. Lets take the color yellow for example. Sunshine is associated with the color yellow and "conveys joy," in other words, a happy mood. But yellow could also be associated with Jaundice, an illness related to yellow pigmented skin.

A classroom adorned with the proper use of color is exciting for elementary school students because no matter where they look, there's something pleasant to look at. There are a numerous amount of ways to arrange and decorate a classroom, but the best way to relate to the students is by adding outside elements to the classroom, especially with color association. For example, every weekend my family and I host a movie night. We rent movies from Redbox, invite friends over, and together enjoy the time we spend together. Redbox can be used to transform classroom libraries (and doors) into "Readbox" by using the movie rental companies colors and font. The students, using their color association skills, is able to recognize the reference and is a fun way for teachers to relate and excite students about reading.  

Promoting Social and Emotional Learning

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Alexis and Ingrid Show!

The following is a review on a chapter found in the book Promoting Social and Emotional Learning by Maurice J. Elias,  Joseph E. Zins, Roger P. Weissberg, Karin S. Frey, Mark T. Greenberg, Norris M. Haynes, Rachael Kessler, Mary E. Schwab-Stone and Timothy P. Shriver

In chapter one, called The Need for Emotional and Emotional Learning, it talks about how America is so focused on making schooling better, "Some want to strengthen basic skills; others, critical thinking. Some want to promote citizenship or character; others want to warn against the dangers of drugs and violence. Some demand more from parents; others accent the role of community. Some emphasize core values; others, the need to respect diversity. All, however, recognize that schools play an essential role in preparing our children to become knowledgeable, responsible, caring adults." 

While this is great and it means that we are all working towards one common goal, to make sure our students are getting all the help they can to make sure they can strengthen certain skills and make their future look as bright as possible, most of this cannot be accomplished if they are not socially and emotionally ready at a young age. "...each element of this challenge can be enhanced by thoughtful, sustained, and systematic attention to children's social and emotional learning (SEL). Indeed, experience and research show that promoting social and emotional development in children is “the missing piece” in efforts to reach the array of goals associated with improving schooling in the United States."

The rest of the chapter goes on to talk about how important social-emotional development is in a child and the impact it has. It also discusses how more than likely adults tend to not be as successful in life if they had poor development of SEL during their childhood. This chapter helps support one of my answers to my EQ on how children need to develop good social-emotional skills to excel.