What I Learn While Playing

What looks to many adults like simple fun and games is actually focused, purposeful, and thoughtful learning. Below you will find a number of things your child learns while “playing” at different activities.

When I Scribble and Draw I am learning:

  • to hold and control a pencil or other writing instrument
  • hand-eye coordination
  • to exercise my creativity and imagination
  • that my ideas have value
  • concepts of color, shape, size and location
  • to express myself with words to describe my drawing

When I play with Scissors I am learning:

  • to control the small muscles of my hand
  • concepts of shape, size, color, and location
  • to exercise my imagination and creativity

When I play with Pegboards I am learning:

  • one-to-one correspondence, an essential math concept
  • to make patterns and repeat patterns
  • creativity and self expression
  • concepts of addition as I add one peg at a time
  • colors
  • symmetry, shapes, order and design
  • hand-eye coordination, a writing skill

When I Sort Things I am learning:

  • to notice details, likenesses, and differences in objects
  • to form categories, and essential concept for reading and math
  • concepts of color, size, and shape
  • numerical concepts of more or less
  • logical reasoning

When I Paint I am learning:

  • to develop my imagination and creativity
  • hand-eye coordination, a pre-writing skill
  • the names of colors and how to make new colors
  • to distinguish and purposely create shapes
  • to notice patterns, a pre-reading skill
  • to express my feelings and ideas
  • that my ideas have value
  • relationships of space and size, necessary for mathematics
  • concepts of symmetry, balance, and design

When I play with Playdoh I am learning:

  • to see the shape against the background of the table, a reading skill
  • concepts of shape, length, height, and size
  • to see negative space when cookie cutter shapes are taken away
  • to express feelings when squeezing and pounding
  • to exercise imagination and creativity
  • that the amount of a substance remains the same, even when the shape changes

With Glue and Collage Materials I am learning:

  • to exercise my imagination and creativity
  • concepts of shape, size, location and design–relevant to learning to read
  • about things that have different textures
  • how to create patterns and designs, a math skill
  • to distinguish positive and negative space, a reading skill

When I am Stringing Beads I am learning:

  • hand-eye coordination
  • concepts of color, shape, and location
  • math concepts such as more,less, longer, and shorter
  • to create and reproduce patterns
  • pride in accomplishment

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