the arts and crafts experiment: Little Humans of 2012

Here are some activities you can do with children.
These mini-projects addressed the numeracy, phonics,
and literacy requirements of a curriculum for
two year old children. These encouraged children's
creativity, problem solving skills, and fine motor
skills development. Feel free to do these lessons with children.

Have fun! :)

(This page is work in progress.
I'll be filling in the details of each post once I
find some free time.)

Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto

The children experienced the letter "r" by building this robot. Instruction was given to the children by drawing each robot piece and explaining the different robot parts that were to be glued to the robot's body. "R" words such as, rice, rock, red, and row (as in the song row your boat), helped build the children's growing vocabulary. The "r" words were shown to the children with a highlighted "r" and a picture. This aids the children in recognizing letter shapes and being aware of initial sounds of letters.

Learning continued as the children used the robot during their free time - my little girls club fed the robot. Some of them said that it didn't need food because robots have batteries and that they don't poop :)

These popsicle sticks, according to the children, have to be pressed so that the robot can walk.

Creating an Ocean
Another phonics activity, this time to introduce the long sound of "o". I dared to use the glass window at the Ministry of Education building, worried that I'd get sacked for not asking for permission. My principal wasn't around at that time and I thought I'd just put on a sweet smile and explain that I did it for the children if I was questioned. But no one complained.

The children were so thrilled to paint on such a big area. Plus they discovered all these sea creatures that I placed behind the glass. They couldn't stop laughing at the sea turtle. I never really found out why though. There was something about the natural light that put some children in a trance-like state. They stared at the different shades of blue on the glass produced by the same colour of paint...thank you, sun, for shining that day!

Shadow Play

Shane started this shadow play at the playground. He wasn't in the mood to play that day. He didn't want to run with the other kids. He sat alone, drinking his water and when I turned back to check on him, his hands were extended and would not stop moving. He was playing with his shadow. I gathered the whole class, let them stand with the sun behind them, and let them play with their shadow.

They were kinda upset with me when I told them we had to go in. It was getting too hot and I didn't want anyone to collapse. (I let them play with the tracing table in the K2 classroom that afternoon. It wasn't quite the same, but they also enjoyed the coloured tiles on the glass.)

Discovering Pastel Colours with Yoghurt