Fun Brain Learning

Kindergarten learning is the period of life where they are learning to develop their motor skills, cognitive thinking, social skills, creativity and it is very important to ensure that they are having fun and enjoying themselves. 

During this period, they love to play and create fun games which are most effective for learning.

Imaginary play
Pretend to use an imaginary object and have the children guess what you are doing. You can pretend to sew with a needle, water plants, iron your clothes, playing the piano or drink a glass of water. Reverse roles where you guess while the children pretend.This is one of many kindergarten letter activities which never fails to delight them but do not look down on this classic and simple game as it fosters many benefits as it can develop communication skills, cognitive thinking, observation skills, creativity and imagination. 

Simple technique of asking open-ended questions to stimulate their interest and curiosity

Ask children open-ended questions during their kindergarten letter activities as such questions can stimulate learning by encouraging them to think and discover on their own. Suggested open-ended questions are where there are many answers which can be correct such as -

How would you describe…?

How would you design this shoe to make it more comfortable to wear?

How does this work?

Why did you pick that?

Why do you need to drink water?

Who would you like to be when you grow up?

What does a leave feels like?

 What would happen when you can put together  imaginary play with open-ended questions? Awesome and “FUNtastic” kindergarten letter activities! 

1. Baby, It is your favourite Story time!
   When you read stories to your children regularly you are encouraging them to be good readers and you can promote pretending to read by providing them opportunities, such as reading to their baby dolls. Children who pretend to read in their kindergarten years are more likely to become successful readers.
   Set up the scene in their bedroom and place their favorite dolls, stuffed animals on the bed. Give your child books with big prints and colorful pictures, play lullaby music to set the mood and encourage them to read to their favorite dolls and although they are not really reading, they feel like readers when they pretend to read.
   After the story telling has ended, ask them open-ended questions like -
   How does your baby feel when you …….? Or
   what can you do to make them feel happier?
   This is one of the many kindergarten letter activities which can be played at their kindergarten but you can also bring this kindergarten learning to your home as the props are easy to set up, very safe, a single player game and can release you well needed time to do your own work.
2. Vet, Vet, Help! My pet is sick!
   When children are given opportunities to answer questions, their communication skills and as they become more active in questioning and answering, their understanding of the language will increase.
   Set up props to make your play area look like a veterinarian’s office. Make signs like “We are Open”, “Opening Hours”, or something humorous like “No toys please, we only treat real animals”. Encourage the children to think creatively for more of such signage to be hung around.
   Prepare slips of paper for them to “register” their pets – name, type, age of pet and allergies to any food. Have children pretending to be the receptionist, veterinarian and the customer.
   Roll the camera, start and action!
   After the session is over, ask them open-ended questions like -
   How can you tell if your pet is sick or happy?
   What did you do to help it feel more comfortable?

There are endless creative kindergarten letter activities which you can create for fun and effective kindergarten learning such as playing detective, doctor or firefighter. When you provide props to enrich the environment, unique literacy experiences are enhanced that encourages children’s creativity, stimulate more ideas to bring into play and capturing their interest as they learn to read and write and have fun at the same time. Just remember to inject fun into every kindergarten letter activities as  – Fun learning is effective learning!

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com/  and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

No Comments »

Click here to view samples

Songs, poems and finger plays are some of the preschoolers activities that promote pre-reading skills. These activities help them to strengthen their vocabulary, develop memory capacity, hear syllables, gain phonological awareness, learn auditory discrimination, play with rhyming, understand sequencing and hear the rhythm and flow of language.

You can engage a little twist to singing songs. Play any familiar songs but sing each syllable backwards, for example, “Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool” become “Aab, Aab kcalb peehs, evah uoy yna loow”. When the preschoolers hear the familiar melody, they will recognize the song and the preschoolers find them humorous as they are sung in a funny manner giving them laughter and enjoyment.

Songs, poems and finger plays are great preschoolers activities as they can instill a love of words and language.

Creating books has many benefits;

1. Train them to become readers and writers
2. Learn to apply the literacy concepts
3. Learn to associate oral language with written language
4. learn how to sequence events
5. Compose their own stories and write at their own levels
6. Motivate them to develop their writing skills at higher levels
7. Help them to gain confidence to believe that they are great readers and writers

When preschoolers are given the opportunity to create their own books foster an environment of excitement and enthusiasm encouraging them to keep and re-read their own books. Creating books is one of many special and meaningful preschoolers activities for pre-reading skills.

Dramatic play allows preschoolers to explore oral and written language. Ideas and concepts which they have learned and familiar with are no longer abstract and arbitrary but become real when they engage in dramatic plays. When they are surrounded by an enriched literacy environment, learning becomes natural as they can practice, experiment and explore oral and written language.

During dramatic play, props are usually used for their many benefits -

1. To stimulate ideas
2. To learn to interact by encouraging them to communicate their needs and ideas to peers
3. To provide unique literacy experiences that develops their creativity
4. To expose them to print from real-life situations and use these prints in meaningful ways. Suggested ideas are creating a scene from a doctor’s office where you have a receptionist writing down the particulars of patients using sign-in sheets or a scene from a restaurant with waiters or waitresses writing the orders from customers using order pads.

Dramatic plays are very fun preschoolers activities which provide the opportunities to discover literacy concepts in a natural environment or setting.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

No Comments »

Laughter is a powerful tool in childhood education for its many benefits -

1. Develops good social skills – laughter helps to break the ice and creates bonds between people
2. Develops pre-reading skills – kids love poems and nursery rhymes for their rhyming words or nonsense syllables
3. Develops creativity – when kids are given the opportunities to do silly or funny things such as walking backwards or walk and quack like a duck instill in them a sense of humor which has long-term benefits such as they are encouraged or allowed to stretch their imagination, think outside the box and expose them to look at situations from different perspectives.
4. Develops cognitive thinking – among the areas of cognitive thinking are intelligence, reasoning, language development and memory. Laughter can increase learning and retention as both sides of the brain are stimulated and when kids are enjoying themselves while learning tend to learn and retain more of what is being taught.

Below are several funny for kids’ animal games which will make your kids roar with laughter.

1. Five Mischievous Monkeys
   You can finger play while reading this short story.
   One mischievous monkey eats banana (pretend to peel banana)
   Two mischievous monkeys walk like crabs (walk sideways)
   Three mischievous monkeys sing like ducks (quack and flap your arms)
   Four mischievous monkeys dance like ballerinas ( raise arms and toes and circle round)
   Five mischievous monkeys sleep all day (put your hands against cheek and snore)
2. Three little Pigs
   Encourage the kids to act out the story as they are read and to make this funnier for kids, show them how to do the actions in slow motion and the movements must be in tandem with the reading. This game develops the kids in many skills such as body awareness, cognitive thinking, creative movement, emotions, listening, observation, reading, coordination and socializing. This is a group game and is great for parties too.
   Once upon a time, there were three little pigs.
   The first little pig built his house with straw
   The second little pig built his house with sticks.
   The third little pig built his house with bricks.
   One day, a big bad wolf came to the straw house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the first little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf. (To make this even more funny for kids, encourage them to think creatively how to act silly while huffing and puffing)
   And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
   The big bad wolf came to the stick house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the second little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
   And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
   The big bad wolf came to the brick house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the third little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
   So he huffed, and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed, but he couldn’t blow the house down.
   So the big bad wolf climbed on to the roof and came down the chimney…..
   Splash! That was the end of the big bad wolf.
   At the end of the play, ask the kids why the big bad wolf could not blow the house down and what happened to the wolf when he came down the chimney. Encourage and allow the kids to make up the ending of the wolf themselves.

Kids are fond of animals and can empathize with their feelings and when they are exposed to such funny for kids animal games help them to explore and understand the world of animals in funny ways.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

No Comments »

Children laugh when they are doing playful and funny kindergarten games and laughter can stimulate both sides of the brain, increases learning and retention and breaks down communication barriers and creates bond between people.

Children will roar with laughter when they hear, read, do or see something silly or funny.

1. “Knock Knock” silly stories to promote literacy skills
   This game requires more than one child to play and can develop rhyming and sequencing skills. Pair the children and ask them to pretend play as they think of something to say, pretend to knock on the door when saying Knock Knock and the other child putting their ear against an invisible door.

   Knock Knock
   Who’s there?
   Susan
   Susan who?
   Susan, the crooked cat who caught a crooked mouse.

   Knock Knock
   Who’s there?
   Peter
   Peter who?
   Peter, the knight riding on a white horse.

2. Reading to my Baby Toy/Doll – to promote pre-reading and language skills.
   Children who play kindergarten games which encourage them to pretend to read during their early years are more likely to become successful readers. Provide the children with many opportunities to pretend to read, such as reading to their baby dolls. Find books with big prints and pictures and read to your child and later encourage them to read the same book to their favorite toys and you can also play lullaby music to set the mood.
3. What will Papa buy? – to promote creativity and imagination skills.
   Sing this nursery rhyme and encourage the children to think what Papa will buy for the baby.

   Hush, little baby, don’t say a word;
   Papa’s going to buy you a mocking bird.
   If the mocking bird won’t sing,
   Papa’s going to buy you a diamond ring.

   After you have sung this rhyme, challenge the children to sing the same rhyme but replace “diamond ring” with something else.

Children will enjoy these kindergarten games as they are delightful and fun to play with and provides the foundation for language development in their early years.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

No Comments »

Adults often laugh when they hear or see something funny but when kids laugh, it might mean many things as they might only be mimicking the adults or other kids as they naturally model their behavior on what they see and feel around them. Parents who often laugh when they read, hear or see something humorous are subconsciously living a model for their kids to develop a good sense of humor. Culturing a good sense of humor can help to develop the kids pre-reading skills, creativity and cognitive thinking.

When kids are having fun and enjoying what they are learning helps them to retain more of what is being taught to them as the old saying goes “Laughter is the best medicine” can be extended to “Laughter can enhance memory skills and improves alertness and concentration”.

Here are several funny for kids games which will tickle their funny bone:-

1. Tongue twisters
   Tongue twisters rock kids with laughter and they also helps to develop language fluency, letter recognition, listening skills and fosters imagination. You can find many tongue twisters in the internet but here is one which you can try.
   She wishes to wish the wish you wish, but if you wish the wish the fish wishes, I won’t wish the wish she wishes to wish.
2. Poems and finger plays  is one of the many classic funny for kids games
   I always love to do this with the children at my daycare center and it has never failed to light up their smiles.  Try this classic poem.
   Miss Polly had a dolly
   Who was sick, sick ,sick (place your hand on your forehead and mimic a really sick expression)
   So she called for the doctor
   To come quick, quick, quick (use a toy phone and pretend to use it)
   This encourages creative movement and enhances listening and rhyming skills
3. Short stories and dramatic play
   This is another funny for kids games which I played during my English program and the kids enjoyed themselves so much that they kept asking for more short stories to play and never tire themselves acting out the stories over and over again. Some of the short stories which I played with them are The Three Little Pigs, The Bear who lost his tail and the Farmer and his silly Donkey. One of the kids will read out the story while the others act it out and it is really hilarious and funny to see how each group tries to outdo each other and had my center bombed with laughter. This can also be a great party game.
   This game encourages creativity, imagination and reading skills.
4. Memory Train
   This game enhances the kids concentration, memory and listening skills and would also help them to understand the concept of sequencing. Another great funny for kids games.

   Today is Monday,
   Today is Monday,
   Monday pizza,
   To share with you,
   Come and take your piece,Today is Tuesday,
   Today is Tuesday,
   Tuesday wind chimes,
   Monday pizza,
   To share with you,
   Come and take your piece,

   Today is Wednesday,
   Today is Wednesday,
   Wednesday storytelling,
   Tuesday wind chimes,
   Monday pizza,
   To share with you,
   Come and take your piece,

   Continue the rhyme for the rest of the week and you can see the children roaring with laughter while trying to remember the sequence. This is not only funny for kids but helps them to understand the concept of time.

A sense of humor can be cultivated in children just as they learn values like live, respect and kindness. When children are enjoying themselves while learning helps them to learn quickly and enrich their learning process.

A highly recommended site to visit for activities which are designed to equip parents, teachers, child care providers or anyone who are interested in early childhood education on the different aspects of child development, please click here as www.gamesforfunkids.com has more than 360 fun, enjoyable  and brain boosting activities and tips to help children age between 3 to 7 years of age to explore, develop and tap into their individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills. The most unique feature of these activities is that the users are guided with short, practical tips on how to get the best out of these activities for child development. Click here now to view their sample activities and you would wish you had used them earlier for your children.

Click picture below to claim your FREE e-book “Train Your Child to think like a Genius by putting 10 essential thinking skills into fun action” before it closes.

Comments Off