Developmental Activities   for kids

The activities shown below were sent to me by university students as an assignment in the Child Development class I teach.  The students are a diverse group of parents, teachers, nannies, teachers-in-training, and students of many different majors.  The beauty of the list, I believe, is in its diversity.  Enjoy!

Baby dinosaur egg game.  For younger kids.  Everybody gets in a small circle, on their hands and knees in the big sand box, facing the center.  The idea is to dig up a baby dinosaur egg.  First, using the edge of your hands, scrape away the top layer of dry, sun-baked sand, to get at the damp sand below.  Create a damp-sand area of about 18 inches x 18 inches wide.  Then get someone to use one finger to draw the outline of a 6 inch by 8 inch oval in the sand (this will be the baby dinosaur egg).  Next, ask everyone to use their little shovels to dig a trough outside of and right up against the egg line.  Be sure to tell them to dig only on the outside of the egg line (not inside, cuz they might hurt the baby dinosaur!)  This trough will be about 4-5 inches wide and about that deep.  Then using their little hands, ask them to smooth the surface and outer edges of the baby dinosaur egg, causing the ‘egg’ to take shape (dome shaped at first).  Then keep digging deeper down around the egg.  Now, the lead person, while helping smooth and shape the egg with their hand, curls and digs their fingers in under the egg, to help dig out and shape it below.  The egg is becoming less and less attached to the sand below it.  At this point, the egg is definitely looking like an egg, about 6 inches x 8 inches long and wide, and about 3-4 inches deep.  It is only attached to the ground by the very underside of the egg, where the lead person has been using their curled fingers to smooth/dig in under to prepare for when the egg is ready to be broken loose from the base.  Now’s the big finale.  Ask everyone to help by sliding their little hands/fingers under the egg, and then poke into the base attachment sand with their fingers (be sure to tell them to poke in, and not to lift up, because lifting up will cause the egg to break apart). The egg will pop loose from the bottom, hopefully in one piece (it usually comes up in one piece if the lead person pokes their hands/fingers in all the way under it to actually lift the egg while the other little hands help lift it), and then you have this big, heavy (to the kids) baby dinosaur egg that they are all holding and feeling the weight of.  And of course there’s always some kid that wants to smash the egg, and so it doesn’t last long.  But before it gets smashed, the kids see and feel it as one big baby dinosaur egg!  It is Cognitive development because the lead person can talk it up while everyone is digging.  What are we going to name the baby dinosaur?  Should we take it to the museum… or maybe the zoo?   What kind of dinosaur do you think it will be…a Stegosaurus…a Triceratops?  It is Physical in that 1) they learn to dig sort of forcefully, but carefully, and 2) they use their hands to smooth it, gaining a sense of soft-touch.  And the teamwork required makes it Socioemotional. 

Just off the top of my head I can suggest is to play Peek-A-Boo with a baby.  Now you will get varying reactions depending on the actual age of the baby. If it is still an infant you may not get more than a smile, but between 12 -24 months the baby will cognitively understand the game.  By the way this I believe is more of a cognitive development, because it teaches the baby to recognize that just because mommy is not in immediate view (due to the blanket being pulled over her head...or ducking behind a door way) that she will pop back up/out at any minute.  The baby gets excited in anticipation of the surprise.  After several sessions of this activity, the baby begins to do/mimic the game him/herself.  (Of course not as well) but you can see the baby will take his/her little hands and try to cover his face (of course peeking) and or pull his/her own blanket up and then put in down real quick and giggle. At this point he is anticipating your reaction, to which you should be just as excited as he/her so that the baby then knows they did it right.  ** On a second note though, because you are spending such quality time with the baby, and bonding this not only has a profound effect cognitively but it will also affect the social emotional basis as well.  The baby will see you as a foundation for learning, but will trust and look up to you for help and fun fulfillment.

For my kids, I have come up with a socioemotional activity. Once a day, the children will be asked to paint/draw/etc. a picture that best describes their mood. This seems like a simple task, which is the idea of it. A child's artwork can say a lot about how he/she is feeling emotionally. It is a great way to find out if a child is having any inner struggles or hardships at home without he/she having to say it out loud. This can also just be a time for the kids to have fun and be creative!

An activity that children can play throughout their adolescent years, so from around 3-12, is a game called memory. You place cards face down and flip one over at a time to get pairs. The first person to get the most pairs wins. This activity will deal with the cognitive part of the brain and thinking because you have to remember where each of the cards is to find the pairs. I used to play this game a lot when I was younger and loved it. I feel that it gives you a good sense of memory and aids you in critical thinking processes.

I would start my Child development center by focusing on toddlers (aged 2-3). In order to advance their cognitive development I would come up with specific shape matching tasks for them to complete, and maybe some simple puzzles for them to put together. I would also face them with such tasks as "you may not eat your snack until you match all of the shapes correctly" this way it gives them an understanding of cause and effect and also some positive reinforcement for their good actions.

Physical development activity for children about 18 months to 3 years old.   To help develop the children’s fine motor skills, one of their activities will be to make jewelry using beads and strings.

Speech and Language Program/Cognitive and Language Function - The Letter game – Name a letter and go around and think of and say as many words as you can that begin with that letter

Improving parent-Child relationships - Interdisciplinary interaction to promote independence/hands-on activities – Clear the dishes away and draw your own bath water

Foster a Positive Self Image – understanding why we all differ from one another

Team Building Activities – Circle time – Gather in a circle and share snacks, songs, & stories

Song and instrument activities – maracas, recorders, harmonica, xylophone, banjo, bongo

Fingerpaint the World Summer Program – Children gather in groups of 20-30 – Fairly chose a region of the world – Learn about the region and what it is known for – then fingerpaint the region and continents using information that they learned about

Using roadmaps to their favorite places to go in the summer

4H club (agricultural experience) Performing arts/plays; water play; creative movement; activity center

Build a swimming pool, and teach the stuff on that video.  I believe it's good for children from 6 months to like 5 years.  It would target all three.  Physical because they're using their bodies.  Cognitive because they are learning what to do.  And socioemotional because it would be a group activity.

I would focus on physical development for kids ages 10-15 because i feel as if kids these days don't really get enough of that on a regular basis. Now-a-days they have all these games and activities on the television and on the computer for kids to watch, learn and interact so I think it would be great to go outside for at least an hour a day. I'd build a sort of nature trail around the Child Development Center and since I'd have so much money to build the center I'd also purchase a digital camera for each kid. That way we could walk around and take pictures every day. Then the children would be able to keep up with the pictures they’re taking and keep a photo album. In the photo album I'd ask them to write about what they took a picture of and why.

1. Good old "Simon Says"

Playing this game allows children to think deeply: thinking of how to imitate the other person involves balance & coordination, while also increasing muscle skill & strength. In addition to physical gain, to constantly be on alert for the word "simon" as to not loose the game requires children's constant attention which can sometimes be challenging for young kids.

Age 0-9mos Story time combined with classical music playing softly in the background (cognitive and socioemotional) development.

Age 10-17mos A game I made up called Lion Tigers and bears which consists on everyone crawling around and roaring and then lifting themselves up ( with assistance) while standing on knees progressing to stand and then getting back on their knees again.(physical, socioemotional, cognitive) Age 18mos-2years the parachute game, everyone holds the parachute together and lifts it up together and brings it back down again (repeated) then small toys are put into the parachute and then everyone shakes the parachute and watches the toys, ie. small foam balls, small teddy bears... bounce around on the shaky parachute.

Age 3 to 4 the choo-choo train all the children put their hands on each others back and walk around in a big circle that is surrounded by circular colored mats while music is playing , when the music stops, the children must find their assigned color of the "week" and sit down ( repeated several times). (physical, socioemtional, cognitive) Age 5 to 6 the "I spy" game, the teacher will scope out particular objects that will be from the toy box and say "I spy something red and yummy"...and go around asking each student," what could it possibly be?" allowing each student to guess and then the instructor will show which object they were referring to. (cognitive, socioemotional because it teaches the children to be patient and how to await their turn)

I would set up an area that allowed preschool aged children to engage in pretend play.  It may be something as simple as a grocery store equipped with a cash register, money, plastic groceries, and a shopping cart to get the kids minds going.  This would not only help the children learn how to share and build on their social but also help their cognitive growth.

Set up a game for all ages where they ask trivia. There could be teams, and the teams would compete with each other. Whoever answers the most questions wins. This would help with the cognitive and socioemotional. Cognitive because they have to think for the answers, and socioemotional because they have to interact with each other.

For children around the age of 3-4 I think that hand puppets could be good for their emotional development. For it could help them express how they feel and see how other children feel. It also helps with motor skills. I would also have a bunch of arts, crafts, and music so the kids could develop their cognitive and creative side. We'd do arts and crafts a few days a week and on the other days we'd do music activities. It wouldn't have to be extreme but it could be something as simple as listening to music as they do lunch or take a nap.

For the older kids around 8 and up I'd like to have more books for them to read. I think that reading, especially at a younger age can open up your mind and make you more creative. I'd also have educational games they could play and you're never too old for arts and crafts so I'd also have a more difficult set of arts for the older kids. For them maybe they could play the music themselves and enhance their skills.

A potential activity could be a variation of musical chairs using colored circles. You would tape different colored circles onto the floor and children would walk around the outside of the circle until the music stopped. When the music stops, they have to name the color they are standing on. this would probably be directed towards pre-schoolers. this helps them with, i think, all three areas of development. Interacting with other kids (socioemotional), learning colors (cognitive), and balance and coordination (physical).

For a Cognitive activity that would stimulate growth in the children ages 3-4 yrs., I would give them block shapes and then each year as they get older I would make it more of a competitive game amongst each other of who can get do it the fastest. At year 8 I would do Spelling Bee contests to up the challenge.

For a Physical activity for children ages 6 and up I would introduce Hop Scotch and Jump Rope to them to help move along their muscle growth and 4-Square with a medicine ball also.

For a Socioemotional activity I would set up a Treasure hunt and put the children in groups. They would have to all work together to solve the clues to find the treasure. W hen the treasure is found they would have to divide it up evenly since everyone worked equally. This game would be intended for 6-12 yrs. of age.

Children Ages 4-6

Mostly contributes to physical development but also some cognitive because of game strategy and some socioemotional because the children will also interact with one another.

Activity: Fun Field Day

Featuring Official Rounds of

1) Red Light Green Light

2) Red Rover Red Rover

3) Duck Duck Goose

4) Kid's Choice

15 minutes each

Small prizes awarded to the winners

If I had my own child development center, I would encourage children's cognitive development by offering the activity of a memory game. I used to play "memory" a lot when I was younger and really enjoyed it.

Basically, there are a deck of cards. The cards have various pictures of animals or toys on them. (There are 2 of each picture). The cards are placed in rows and columns, face down on a table and the child overturns one at a time, trying to match the cards. If the child doesn't make a match, they turn the card face down again and try to memorize the positions of the cards so they can attempt to make a match during their next turn. This game will improve their cognitive skills by improving memory.

I would use soccer to help the kids develop physically.  It would help the kids really learn how to balance and use there feet, as well as run in different directions, backwards, forwards, and side to side.  Plus the goalie would gain better dexterity in there hands.  It would really help them just learn there bodies.  Also they learn there right from left.  The age group to start participating in this activity would probably be 4-5 years of age, but the kids above these ages could participate as well in there respective age groups.

If I had to come up with one activity for child development I would build an awesome playhouse. Where it would be like a small town. The town would have a grocery store, post office, police office, fire station, bakery, and many different homes. Each location would have hands on activities for the children to do. For example children in the grocery store can pretend to be the cashier or a person buying groceries. And the children in the houses can pretend to have siblings and their own made up families. The age range for this activity would be pre-school to Kindergarten. And I believe this would combine all three aspects of child development. The child will be physically interacting with other children, will be participating in developing socio-emotional relationships with other children, and cognitively expanding their imaginations and thinking while they experience each different activity. I know if I had tons of money this would be a really neat idea and the building would be huge and inside it would look like a mini town replica, where the children will be able to develop socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically.

My first goal would be to bring in the top child personal trainers to include 10-12 in a very active day and lifestyle. All of the cognitive and socioemotional health stems from physical health. With these trainers, I would develop a physical fitness plan to have the kids start the day with one hour of exercise and in the middle of the day another hour. Also paying close attention to children with special needs.

You could teach them the different shapes by giving them blocks to put in holes that have a certain shape on them.  This would be for ages 4 to 6 and would help their cognitive development.

I would put special focus on cognitive development for the kids. One activity I remember playing in early elementary school was the telephone game. Now that I think about it this game is a great way to increase a child's thinking, remembering, and communication abilities. The game starts when one child comes up with a message that they then must pass to every other child sitting in a circle. This is a great way for a kid to listen to a message, understand it, and then pass it along by means of communication to the child sitting next to them. It is enjoyable for the kids too because the message that the very last child has to say out loud is never what the original massage said.

My activity would be for 2 year olds. The activity would be for cognitive and Physical. I would spend one week talking about farmers and farm animals. A specific activity I would do is to have shapes cut out and let the 2 year olds glue squares, triangles, and circles on a piece of paper to build a tractor. This will make them have to think about what shape went where and help their hand coordination while they were gluing.

If I got to run a child development center, an activity I would do choose would be something having to do with hands on experience for the children. I am a firm believer in learning through experience. So if I could I would have a petting zoo come to the day care for the children's amusement. I would have someone come to talk to the children about each of the animals and explain each of them. This activity would be fore 6-12 years old and it would be cognitive. The children would enjoy the animals and learn about them as well.

If I could make my own child development center, I would include a time during which the children would follow a sort of treasure map, or follow a series of clues to find a "treasure" or toy. I think that that would be good for cognitive development, and kids love to solve fun puzzles!

(Cognitive) -- It is important to creative activities that will stimulate a child’s brain and body.  Children around the age of 4 to 5 are learning to be independent and do things on their own.  A great way to allow a child to have a sense of freedom would be for the parent to pick out 3 or 4 different outfits, and then allow their child to pick out an outfit to wear from those already selected.  This way, the child feels they have made the final decision over what to wear for the day, but at the same time, the parent will know that the child matches.  Many children this age, both boys and girls, also enjoy playing house.  They imitate what they see their parents doing and recreate the situation.  A great way for children to learn how to listen and follow directions, sort, and fine tune their physical coordination and to learn responsibility is to give them chores.  This allows them to feel like they are contributing.

(Cognitive) – Children often do not understand the value of a dollar.  For children between the ages of 8 and 12, a great way to improve their math skills would be to open a “bank” and allow the child to deposit and withdraw money they have earned.   They can earn the money by doing chores, being kind, and helping out to name a few.   Although they are still young and will not have a real bank account for many years, it is never to early to teach your child how to be responsible.

Pre-School Age Kids:

The kids that attend my pre-school will be encouraged to develop their important skills by using all of their senses including, taste, touch, smell, hear, and see in various ways.

Cognitive Development: the kids would be involved in memory games to help develop good cognitive skills. Math skills will also be taught including counting and grouping numbers. Literacy is very important to be taught at a young age. Word recognition and reading will be a big part of the program, which will include classic children’s literature of the highest quality. Fine arts will also be a big part of the program. Putting on plays, learning to play instruments and being artistic will really help these kids to develop their imagination and be set apart from the rest of the kids going into elementary school.  Independent learning is very important for pre-school age kids. They are encouraged to improve fine and gross motor skills in order to help themselves to take care of themselves and to promote independence.

Physical Development: kids would be involved in creating collages and other challenging art projects which would incorporate creativeness and tactile development. These skills can be reinforced by practicing using scissors to cut things, writing, and drawing. The kids will be encouraged to run, jump, play, and do other physical things in order to help develop their coordination, motor skills, and team work capabilities.

Socioemotional Development: there will be group time to ensure that the kids interact with each other to help to build better relationships and to make friends with each other. This ensures that the child learns to share, to cooperate, and to work together with other kids to problem solve. This is also included in the physical activities that involve teamwork such as team sports and other physical games.

I believe that language development is essential especially when children are young.  The video that was shown in class stated that it is crucial for parents to communicate with their children before the age of 2. I would set up a day care/learning center. In stead of baby sitting 6months - 3 yr olds they would be taught how to formulate words and sentences and also second languages such as Spanish and/or French (the basics).  Everyday there would be sessions in which the words are being said and shown to them. This way they would know more vocabulary than they were expected to know for their age and learning other languages would become a less complex task later in life. this would be intended to assist parents who may not be able to dedicated as much time as they should to help develop their children language skills. The purpose of this activity is to further develop their cognitive ability.

I used to work at a day camp with children ages 3-4, and one of the games that we played, which developed the children's cognitive as well as socio-emotional skills, was "Simon says". Having to quickly recall where on their body are the different parts, as well as following directions as to when to move and when not to move, depending on if the "Simon" said "Simon says..." before the command, pushes the children to really pay attention and develop their listening skills. "Simon says" also developed the children's socio-emotional skills, because if they lost, they would have to sit down, and deal with the fact that the other children were allowed to keep playing the game until there was only one winner. I think that this is a great game for this age group and would be an adequate activity for the new Child Development Center.

The developmental activity I chose focuses on the theme of the five senses. It is for children ages 3 to 5 and the area of development it is intended for is the cognitive domain. There are four parts to this activity.

Part I.  On a table, there will be a row of containers that have cotton balls soaked in flavors such as: lemon, orange. grape, banana, apple, peach, etc. Each child will be blind folded and asked to sniff each container to see if he or she can identify the fruits.

Part II.  On another table, there be a mixture of pictures in a basket.  Each student will be asked to take the pictures of the fruits out and identify which fruits they sniffed.

Part III.  This is the yummy part!  All of the students will be lined up at the sink to clean their hands and directed to the third table.  On this table, there will be a basket filled with various fruits such as: grapes, apples, oranges, peaches, lemons, etc. Each child will be asked to select a fruit that they like. Then, the children will have the opportunity to sample a piece of the fruit he or she chose( in bite size portions, under the supervision of the teachers)

Part V. After we are done sampling the fruits.  The children will be directed to the last table where a chart will be made with the names of each child on it. There will be a basket filled with fruit cut outs. Each child will be asked to find the fruit they sampled and stick it on the chart by their name.  After each child has had his or her turn, we will discuss the results on the big rug in front of the class and find a designated place to hang the poster in the classroom for easy access and view.

My activity would be for children, approx. ages 4-5. The activity would involve children making a 'kindness tree.' This is a tree made out of construction paper, placed on a wall. Children will strive to perform random acts of kindness each day, thus, allowing the tree to bloom. They will write down their act of kindness on a flower (made out of construction paper) and pin it to the tree on the wall. The more acts of kindness, the more flowers on the tree. This is intended for the socio-emotional area of development. Children will strive to help others and will be rewarded for it.

I would open a state of the art facility with enough trainers to have 1 for every 3 kids. I would also do all age groups from 6 months to 13 years. The children would work on their physical development as well as mental. While they work out and develop they will also learn how to develop and what the body parts are. Of course the difficulty would vary with the age groups. They would also learn how to eat healthy, self-control, respect, and discipline.

Child Development Plan:

1 month to 12 yrs

Swimming lessons every Monday Wednesday, & Friday (physical development)

1 month to 12 months

Baby Pilates (emphasis on stretching, crawling, etc. physical development)

Musical instruments (listening to different types of instruments (6 months to 2yrs) Playing instruments 3yrs to 12 (Cognitive)

Exposure to Spanish lessons (Cognitive)

15 months 3 years

Spanish lessons (Cognitive)

4yrs to 12

Recess (socioemotional & physical)

For a child who is between the age of 2-4 I would use a wooden peg board that has cute outs of different shapes.  The child would have to put the blocks that are the correct shape into the peg board.  This would be cognitive development for the child.

I really feel that physical activity is imperative for not only a child's healthy development, but all around well being. I believe starting physical activity early in life will encourage children to stay active, and keep them healthy.

I would target my child development activity towards 5 and 6 year old kindergarten students. I would specifically target the physical aspect of development.

My activity would be a fun obstacle course that involves running, crawling, and jumping. The children would form two teams. Each team would race against each other, also forming team work within each child.

They first would race each other to a small opening full of rope. The only way to pass through this opening would be to crawl through it. Then, after making it through there they would have to race each other again to a jump rope and jump 10 times. After that, they race to their next teammate and tag them into the course. I believe this uses many different levels of physical development, along with giving the children a sense of teamwork and Competitiveness.

The child developmental activity I would use is Jazzer-Time. It would be a combination of playtime/exercise and buddy time. This program would be a time for children in the ages of 2-10 although it could be used on children up to ages 12 or even older. They would have to follow instructions such as follow a gymnastics course that is simple and fun that requires tumbles and other physical activities. It would also be a time to add to the social development process in pairing or allowing the children to pair with partners for assistance when they have difficulty. This would be a good way to encourage them and help them with their self-esteem and it would be fun. On top of the course we would do activities that require the children to depend on their partner. This program would be good for socioemotional and physical development.

When I was eleven years old, my teacher had us all use popsicle sticks to construct a birdhouse.  In making the house, we weren't given proper instructions, instead we had to rely on our own schema of how we thought birdhouses actually looked like. It was a great way for me to learn valuable planning skills as well as perception skills too, in the amount of organization that went into the house. In personal experiences, constructing items from nothing feels great in its own, and for a young child of 11, the warm feeling of accomplishment is unavoidable.

Physical: "Parachute Time" kids play games with the parachute and jump, move around in circles (ages 3-6) "Dance Party" kids will learn songs like the hokey pokey; the bones song...and learn the movements that go with it. (ages 4-7)

Socioemotional: Activities that deal with sharing.  Telephone to deal with communication. Playground time so the kids can get social interaction.

Cognitive: Tales and Stories Time - kids who cannot read yet can have stories read to them.- children who can read can take turns reading aloud.

Homework/Study Time: students in school can work on homework and will have a chance to ask questions about their assignments.

Others: Learn songs in other languages "Siyahamba" (Zulu); Feliz Navidad (Spanish)...

           Arts and Crafts:  make maracas, frames, beadings...

           Mommy and Me activities for infants or moms who are pregnant.

I would focus on building activities to cater to those children 1-2 years of age in developing socioemotional capacities. I think it would be interesting to do this through building model housing in a community type setting. This would obviously be scaled to the children’s size, built in a miniature fashion. The houses would not be fully functional, for example a play stove wouldn’t actually turn on to the point of giving off heat-but still react to the children’s initiation of their power function, etc so that they could actually learn from their activities and interactions. The children could develop social skills, responsibility, and emotion through interacting with the other kids through roll play and basic interaction.

I think it is very important especially today that a socioemotional activity be developed so that children become aware and accepting of people that are different than they are. There are so many cultures in our country - I believe it is VERY important that we incorporate activities so that we can gain an understanding to different cultures. I think learning or studying a few different languages other than English around ages 2-5 is important. I also think incorporating the different culture's music and getting the kids to do arts and crafts to replicate the culture is a good way to open their minds as well. This country needs more understanding of the different cultures our nation was founded on. I think it would be great to have people of different nationalities speak or come in a typical dress or fashion of their culture and explain the purpose behind the garment or the ritual or ceremony it is used in connection with.

My activity is for age 12. It promotes physical development. I would build an indoor heated swimming center. Swimming is excellent low impact exercise.

Create a kitchen for 8 and 9 year olds to cook and bake assisting with cognitive development. Also for children 3-5 years of age, I would create a puppet theatre which assists in cognitive development as well. Lastly for children between the ages of 7-10, I would create an obstacle course which can be adjusted to meet the different physical abilities of the various ages, and this would assist in physical development.

The activities I would bring to my Child Development center would focus on physical development. I am a firm believer in exercise and i believe are school are phasing out physical activities because of liability purposes as well as lack of academic achievement. The physical activities i would focus on are would be basic physical fitness and coordination activities such as jumping jacks, stretching, running, games of tag, tug of war, kick ball, dodge ball, and bombardment.  Through these activities children would learn how to properly vent there physical energy so they can focus in the classroom.  This early learning of the importance of physical activity would also teach children how they need to exercise to fight child obesity.  And lastly the development of the children's physical development through team sports will also instill important values such as social interaction and team work.

My child development activity focuses on cognitive development and is intended for pre-school age children (3-4 yrs). This activity is a matching game with pictures of key words on them. This child will pick up a card from a set lying face down on the floor and try to find its matching partner. Once the child finds the cards mate, the child and the instructor say the word that is depicted on the card and then discuss what it is and how it is used and such. This kind of activity helps the child develop a vocabulary and fosters his or her knowledge of the world around them.

I would build a career center that the kids would go to once a month. They could explore different careers and pretend to work a certain job of their choice. This would help them develop both cognitively and socioemotionally.

The development center would incorporate a "hands-on" learning approach that would allow us (the developers) to examine children's cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional characteristics, while also benefiting their individual growth and development.

I did gymnastics all throughout my childhood and I can recall a climbing exercise that taught me much more than obvious physical endurance. I would include a climbing rope activity, similar to the one in my gymnastics center, targeted towards children aged 6-9 years old. I believe that the obstacle of getting to the top of the 10 + foot rope forces one to think about how they are going to reach the top and how much work they have already put towards the goal. Exercise is very important for children, with its obvious physical and health benefits, I also believe exercise is cognitively beneficial and can reduce and aid stress and help with anxiety. Children need exercise in their everyday lives and the climbing rope developmental activity could provide both cognitive and physical benefits.

Goal:  The goal of this activity is to present the concept to school-agers that oil (wax) and water do not mix by creating an art piece that demonstrates the “wax resist technique”.  This activity is works very well when teaching lessons about space and astronomy.

Materials needed:  Pencils, crayons, white construction paper, black water-color paints, newspaper, books with pictures of things to do with space such as the planets, constellations, astronauts, the space shuttle, satellites, ect. that the students can refer to get ideas about their sketches.

Instructions: First have your students create a sketch of anything that has to do with space using the pencils and construction paper.  Then have them color in the drawings using a very heavy coverage of bright-colored crayons that will contrast well with black paint.  Instruct them not to color in the backgrounds (leave them white). They are then to write their name at the bottom of the design with crayon.  Next, have them put newspaper under their drawing and using black watercolor paint, cover entire paper using long broad strokes.  Also be sure to have them prepare a little cup of water to wet the watercolor paint.  Finally, designate an area in the room for the paintings to dry.

Source:  Ms. Julie; Fourth and Fifth grade teacher at the School of Arts and Sciences.  

For Cognitive and Socioemotional development. Ages 4-6: The Germ Game. Two children, designated as our "special helpers" will hold up a velcro board with two columns. One side of the velcro board will say bad with a picture of a "germ" with a sad face and the other side will say good with a picture of a "germ" with a happy face. The rest of the Children will be handed index cards with a picture on one side and velcro on the other side. One by one, each child will go up to the board and place their cards under either the sad or happy face "germ", depending on whether they think the picture on the card is a bad germ or if its a good clean habit. For Example: the "bad" pictures on the cards can consist of trash cans, people sneezing or coughing without covering their mouths, toilets, etc., while the "good" pictures can be a sink, bar of soap, or box of tissues, etc. The children may also ask their peers for help by having them either give a thumbs up if it's good or a thumbs down if it's bad. Once they have gotten recognition from their peers they can place it on the board.

age 3-5 years

have different size objects from small to large. have them pick them up and match them in cups with the same objects. helps to develop both cognitive and fine motor skills.

my child development center would have the following activities:1. for physical development, I would set up a yoga class for kids. it would be for kids five and up, they would do simple exercises like stretching, and balancing to develop their muscles and strengthen their bones. 2. for cognitive development i would set up games that involve memory, like the ones you turn up one card and have to find the partner, or drawing classes, I think these would help them improve their memory and cognitive skills. 3. socioemotional development, I would set up group activities that would involve all the members of a group to work together, like building or creating something new. this would improve their social skills and would teach them to work with others and help each other.

A good activity for physical development in children going through middle childhood (7-11) is having a playground outside. There, they develop physically by playing outside with each other and on swings, sand, tunnels, and slides.

I'm doing a developmental activity for a group of 10 year olds.  This activity will be for physical development.  The activity is going to consist of an obstacle course.  In the obstacle course is going to be a rope to climb up to a swaying bridge, then bouncing from one end of a trampoline to the other.  Next will be monkey bars leading to a slide to slide down.  Followed by a row of 10 tires they will have to run through and race to the finish line.

At my child development center I would have a language lab/game center. In the language lab/game center the children would play all the child hood games kids play but they must be done in a different language. For example simon says, or duck duck goose in spanish. These games would obviously be aimed towards younger children ages 3-6.  After 6 the center can be used for team sports, for example soccer or basketball but all conversing is in another language. The center would help with cognitive, physical and socioemotional development, because they are getting exercise, learning another language and playing with others all in one shot.

Cognitive: Various games that are not only fun but give the kids the initiative to play. An example would be jeopardy the categories possibly being: school subjects, short word problems, etc

Physical: Would not be "required" but I would encourage all the children to participate in various sports: hockey, football, basketball, etc.. I would also give the kids an opportunity to make up their own games and I would implement them into the program

Socio-emotional: I would simply do team-building activities. These would be activities where the children would have to achieve a common goal that would not be attainable unless they worked together.

A Child Development activity I would include in my daycare center would be a cognitive activity intended for children ages 3-5. Each child would be assigned one letter of the alphabet and would be given a blank sheet of paper and coloring utensils to write their single letter on. Along with writing a letter, each child would be asked to draw an object beginning with that letter. Afterwards the kids would interact with their peers by lining up outside and try to figure out the correct order of the alphabet. One successfully accomplished, the kids would recite their letter and drawing aloud in alphabetical order.

Since the ages for reciting the alphabet vary, this activity may be altered to accommodate the majority of the children in the program. For example: having pre-made letters/drawings done by the teacher or using purchased flash cards.

My child development activity would focus on cognitive development specifically through interactive reading and primarily for ages 6 to 10.

I would create a sort of virtual reality system that would be paired with specific children's books. The kids would read the book and as they do there would be specific instructions that would prompt them to interact with a touch computer screen. The computer screen would allow them to make direct connections between physical actions and written text. It could be very basic for the younger kids, associating colors, shapes, etc. and could grow more advanced for the older kids, reading books with plots and characters. The older children could manipulate characters on the screen, mirroring the actions in the book, and placing them at the center of the book.

I would focus on the 4 -5 year olds with an activity like finger painting in groups.

This would teach them to socialize and work together. This would help them with their cognitive development because they would be assigned to draw images that I assigned them. I would also teach them to play duck duck goose. This would be a fun way to increase physical development.

An activity for children 0-12 to do:

-have all the children sit in a circle

-give out one object (ball, stuffed animal etc.)

- have the children pass it around, instruct them to reveal something to the other children every time you receive the object

- it will help the child’s ability to grab and handle all sorts of object, the interaction with others, and maybe even help them learn about themselves

I decided that I would design several science experiments for the children, ranging from very simple to more challenging. This way various age groups (probably from age 5-12) could be included and kids of all different ability levels would be able to participate at their own pace. The experiments would include: mixing paint to learn about colors, using a prism to show the spectrum of light, basic static electricity demonstrations, and other fun and educational activities to get the children involved and excited to learn. This would be great for cognitive development, but putting the children in groups would help their socioemotional development and any assembly they do would be good for their physical development as well.

My sister is a special education teacher for young kids (around grade 5) and I remember her mentioning that her kids love science experiments, so that is what gave me this idea.

The first thing I would do is have building blocks for the kids. Ages 1-4… I think building blocks not only develop the thought process but it also helps out imagination. Obviously I would have a fairly large playground for the kids. Swing set, monkey bars, sand box, slides and a play fort. I loved play forts when I was a kid. The playground would be for all ages. I would also have a library full of kids books and up. There would be a mandatory one hour of reading for the appropriate ages. I would also have a music section. That would include music cds and instruments.  I believe music is in the forefront of creativity. I would defiantly make sure my kids get enough exercise there would be no TV except maybe a movie on Friday. The kids are going to have to play outside or play games inside to entertain.

If I was to begin a daycare, one of my big ideas would be to have children come in the mornings to a "sing-a-long and storytime". I would utilize songs to teach them the letters in the alphabet and numbers. And I will read them books to help broaden their imaginations because I think little children should have a very extravagant imagination. Even so, by reading them a new book at least every two days, I think that would tremendously enhance their vocabulary, even at a very young age.

A great developmental activity for the kids is to have recess. Recess allows the children to interact with the other kids and become sociable and work on those skills. Recess also allows for the kids to burn up all their energy outside. The recess aspect would be a physical developmental area, since they are working their muscles and gaining strength in order to play on the equipment.

So I would first make sure that the developmental center has a playground established.

My developmental activity would be geared toward the younger children in the 1-2 year old range. I would have them be building blocks and making a log cabin out of Lincoln Logs or other materials like this. This would enhance their cognitive thinking abilities by having them grab pieces in order to make a solid base structure for the house and then work their way up to the roof.

As for the socioemotional area of development, the only activity that I can really think of at the moment would be through story-telling time. This could be for children of age 1 through 5. Having the kids being read to helps them interpret the words they are hearing and expressing their emotions when certain parts in the story make them sad, happy, or upset.

If I had the money and the space I think I would go all out for a day of some sort of annual "Baby Olympics". Nothing big, but big enough for babies to enjoy themselves. The "olympics" would only be one obstacle course that should take about 40 seconds to do.

   First I would divide the babies into teams designated by color. I would ask the teachers to ask the kids to collaborate in the choosing of a mascot. This process will allow them socio-emotionally to deal with other classmates and get them excited about the obstacle course.

   The course itself will separate each team's track with 2ft panelings. The panels should be tall enough to guide the kids in the race and short enough for them to know the are racing against someone else. Each track will be decorated with the colors of the respective team, however, depending on the age and abilities of the babies, they may or may not be put in front of their track. The purpose of this is that they realize that they need to get to the corresponding track before even thinking about starting the track. Those who begin standing in front of the corresponding track, will just find it helpful to be in their color track.

Once the race has started. The obstacles will allow them to develop physically with some cognitive value by using logic. The first obstacle will be a balance beam with the appropriate padding in case they fall. The second obstacle will be finding a key (large size) in a bucket full of confetti to put in a door(that doesn't really need the key to open) to get through. Third obstacle will be getting through a trampoline (the kids may jump, run, or skip through it). By the fourth obstacle the panelings are gone and now the kids face each other. Farther up should be paper walls with the teams colors; once again each team player needs to realize they must break through their teams paper wall (what’s funnier than breaking through things anyway? hahaha!). Finally after the kids have done this, they will find themselves facing some sort of tall box with the numbers that go with place in which they arrive. The box will be a color non of the teams have chosen and the numbers will go from top to bottom starting with the first place a go to possibly the fourth place, assuming there are only four teams. A bell will be the corresponding level in the box, which the kids must ring when they are finished with the race giving the kids a sense of accomplishment. They will all finish the race.

At the end, all the kids will get to take part in the competition, they will all get to keep the bell as sort of a trophy, and only those kids with enough cognitive development will know that it indicates the place in which they arrived, otherwise it will avoid conflict within the children. Refreshments will be served at the end to allow them to celebrate and interact with other children in their own way.

I would have this as an activity where the kids can have fun and interact with all of the kids in the daycare. In addition, it would allow them to get out of the scheme they may have about school allowing it expand the fun beyond their classroom.

Ages: 30 to 36 months

Materials that will be needed::

-         Stickers

-         Playroom area (or some other enclosed area of play)

What will be done::

1.      An adult will place the stickers on various places within the one room. They should be fairly visible

2.      The child would then be told to go and find the stickers

3.      The adult should use hinting words like “hot” when they are close and “cold” when they are far away from a sticker.

4.      As the child finds the stickers, they can be placed on their shirt or on something they can take home with them and share with others.

5.      Make sure to tell them “great job” and reinforce good behavior and good decisions.

Different Variations of this Activity::

1.      If it is an older group, you could try using a treasure map and hiding things in several rooms around the area.

2.      You could also place children in groups to find things together (this encourages social interaction)

3.      The item doesn’t have to be stickers; it could be small toys or other various things.

Learning Skills::

1.      Gross Motor Development

2.      Fine Motor Development

3.      Problem Solving

4.      Cognitive Development (Thinking Skills)

5.      Social Interaction

6.      Visual Tracking and Acuity

A good child development activity for 4-5 year olds would be playing a game where they learn how to count, add and subtract. A good example could be baking cookies. For example, Timmy gives Ashley his cookie, now he only has 3 cookies but then he eats one so he is left with two cookies. This game is aimed to built a child's cognitive development.

Over the summer I Worked with the Weed and Seed program in Miami Fla., and we orchestrated a plethora of activities geared to the advancement of kids ages 6-12. We did activities ranging from the intellectual level to the motor skills. One thing that I believe parents take for granted is the health of our kids. Most families eat out yet don't emphasize adequate work out regiments to keep their children in shape. One activity that should be added to the daily routine is sports or exercise of some sort. With kids it would have to be more fun than competitive but working out none the less.

I'd probably go with the game "memory" where you have the cards in front of you and you have to flip them over... remembering their image and spot of placement. It's a good game for developing the cognitive aspect in my opinion. If I weren't to pick that, I'd probably choose for the physical development, or a game for both physical and cognitive. Perhaps a game like "Simon says" would work in everything. You have to pay attention to direction, sometimes using physical activities, and you are being around others who are doing the same thing which would associate with the socioemotional.

first: i will separate then by 0-1, 2-5, 5-8, 9-12.

First (0-1)

I will make a separate room where the babies are not distract from the older kids. It will be mandatory that mom have to come out of the 5 days 2 times to play and interact with the babies. and of course feed then.

The room with be always with soft classic music and pastel colors in the walls. the babies that are before 1 will focused on the following: breast feeding, visual perception, and trust between parents.

babies that are older around 9 months to a year will focused in : motor development like reflexes, we will help babies work on the reflexes by doing activities like the posture , head up and maintaining balance .we will focused on small exersizes babies could do. In addition every other day babies will be train to learn how to swim.

In addition we will work with the movement of muscles and read to then to help then with their vocabulary.

in addition also intermodal perception

age 2-5

we start the toilet training before this each by we will reinforce this area.

we will take then to a play ground to work on the strength and work with the development of muscles.

We will use symbols to represent object to help children’s related thing and use develop their language skills.

also we will have interaction between children’s to develop social interaction and follow our swimming classes and focused the children’s in a sport they like/ in addition , develop a study group that teach then the color, letters, and basic knowledge.

Also teach then to be organized and clean after then.

(5-8) will be more focused in social interaction and develop and strong ethics and moral values.

Teach then how to be more independence and start setting goals .

More basic knowledge and more subjects added to their curriculum.

Safety classes and the differences of a girls and boys.

Swimming lessons, games, competitions, drawings.

music to release stress and games to be focused and use difference sizes of the brain.

(9-12)

social interaction

language acceleration

physical like games , sports,

mystery games, investigator, critical thinking team work with a group of children’s

independences, trusts,

games that make children’s use cognitive , physical and socioemotional relation together to develop until a adult or teenager.

I would create a game for children around the ages of 1-3yrs of age. This game would encourage the children to sing along with me when I do simple things such as counting from 1-10 or singing the ABC's. At certain points I would stop singing and wait for them to say the next letter/number. My 18month old niece plays this with me and it has helped her cognitively develop much fast than most children her age. :-)

Foot/hand tracing:

for this activity all you need is drawing paper and crayons/markers or paints. put the drawing paper on the floor and let the toddler stand and trace around the child's feet with the crayons. Then trace your own feet and compare sizes. then, let the child color the feet with different colors. you can do the same thing with their hands. an adult can start this activity first, by showing them how to do it. then the kids can do it themselves, helping each other.

anybody can do this activity starting with toddlers 1 1/2 years old-3 years old. this activity helps in the development of socioemotional, physical and cognitive.

socioemotional: it's more like a group activity, finding a partner, helping each other.

physical: the kids have to move around getting the crayons, tracing their feet or hands, painting etc. it does not focus as much on physical development as it does on social and cognitive development.

cognitive development: the toddler learns how to use a crayons, how to follow their feet's shape, how to paint, and how to compare the sizes. by looking at different feet he/she can recognize that there is a difference in his feet with his friends feet. they can also learn different colors, and making decisions which ones to use each time.

this activity is entertaining and easy to do, not too overwhelming on the toddlers.

You cut out different shapes (triangle, square, circle, ect..) and you make them very colorful so that the child also see's a color. You let that child put the shape onto the shape that it fits into on the posterboard. While the child is learning the different shapes, he or she will also be able to learn the colors of each.

This activity i think suites children between the ages of  2-4. The area i believe it affects and is intended for is both physical and cognitive.

If I were to have my own child care center with money, my one activity would include having a sandbox. I would have the kids sit in the sand boxes and help them build sandcastles. Each week, I would have them build a bigger sandcastle than the one the week before. This would identify with kids' interests because kids like to play in sandboxes and I would have a sandbox and block molds ready for them as well as having them move foward each week by building onto the castle. Cognitively, this would help because the kids have to remember what they built the previous week in order to have their sandcastle bigger than the week before. This would help socioemotionally because I would have the kids work together in the sandbox to build one castle between all of them.

I would build a Child Development Center (0-12 y/o), and include activities that will enhance a child's knowledge and abilities by including activities such as:

Puzzles : Of various sizes and complexity, to be completed by children 3+ years old. To work with the child's ability for mental rotation and cognitive skills.

Blocks : for children 0-5 years old.(Mental rotation) Balls : for children 2+ years old. (Physical development, dexterity and social skills) Beads and strings : for children 4+ years old. (Eye hand coordination) Rattles : 0-12 months (sensory development, especially grasp and hearing) Hopscotch activities for 3+ years old. (Balance, and coordination along with lower extremity strength) Games involving matching and classifying objects by shape, size and function. (Cognitive development) Hide and seek (Socioemotional development, creating trust among peers and caregiver) Story Books (Memory and imagination, also to develop social and emotional reactions to stories, encourage reading) Tag games (Physical and social development) Sand Box, and appropriate materials Letters (Cognitive development, encourage reading and writing) Coloring (with color pencils, crayons or brushes) Cut and paste activities. (Eye and hand coordination, increase creativity) Rhyming games (Develop language) Music activities (Develop memory and language skills) Creative writing (increase creativity, and grammar skills) Sports (basketball, volleyball) engage in teamwork, while developing muscle groups and keeping up with coordination, and endurance.

Monkey bars (Physical development)

The center would be complete with trained professionals and a wide open space for children to interact with one another. 1-2 walls covered in mirrors for children 0-6 months to see themselves while they move.

Finding Color in Nature. This activity is intended for "The playful years" and focuses on cognitive development. In this activity children will be given a color to go out and find in nature and bring back to the teacher. This will be repeated with many different colors and then later when all of the colors have been asked about the children will have to re-identify the colors they found. This helps them learn how to process information and store memory.

Child Development Center for ages 0-12. This center will have 3 music rooms, 4 types of playground area (for each growing stage), 5 art rooms, and 5 movie rooms.

0-1  Year: these children will have one-on- one contact with the instructor.

·        Beethoven Classical Music (relaxation) (cognitive)

·        Color stimulation = showing the babies softer colors, to explore the new environment around them. (environmental and socioemotional)

·        Each instructor will work their motor skills at least 3 times a day (this includes: arm circles, leg presses, and foot massages to relieve any gas they might be experiencing). (physical)

1-2 Years: These children will be in a class room setting of 13 children and have two teachers. This enables the children to have communication with other children as well as having great supervision.

·      Color stimulation: start to show different types of colors as well         

     as the softer colors shown at a younger age. Doing this in a pair

     can help both of the children see expression. (Enviormental and

     Socioemotional)

·       Taking trips outside to explore grass, leaves, and the trees. (This

               Is to help put sight and touch of things together) (env. & socio.

              & cognitive)

·        Having the children to interact with other paired up children,

      Let them finger paint, color and play with learning toys. (Toys

      that stimulates the sight and interest, ex: spinners, animal

      sounds, numbers, and building blocks) (cognitive & physical)

·         Interaction on the play ground. This is a great way to relieve

          Excess energy and build communication skills with other

          Children. (Physical & socio).

·          Reading story books and watching movies. This is a great

                 Way to build imagination. (Cognitive)

2-3 Years: Keeping children in the same type of environment same amount of children with the same about of instructors.

·        Teaching the different types of colors, shapes, numbers and

                Animals. This is feeding off what they have learned in their     

                 prior class.    (Cognitive)

·        This class will maintain all sorts of activities. (ex: singing,

               Dancing, coloring, learning about their family, discovering

               and identifying all animals, numbers, colors and shapes.)    

               (Cognitive) (Socio)

·       This class will have time spend on the playground to build

               Character with the other children.

3-4 Years: Keeping children in the same type of environment same amount of children with the same about of instructors.

·       Build on knowing  the alphabet and maintaining the skills

     Learned from the prior class. (cog)

·       Have activities that require the children to identify their

       Favorite foods, what type of animals they have at their home.

4-5 Years: This is going to have more of a class room setting to build the children into where they will be the following year. The class will have 12 children to 1 teacher, this is for their benefit of getting ready for the next stage of life.

·       This class is going to be a transition class. Having fun and

              get ready to abide by structure.

o        This class will incorporate to have turns talking by raising your hand.  (physical)

o       The children will also learn to write their own names and to write the alphabet characters in upper and lower case. (cog)

o       The children will have 1 hour of play ground time. During this time the children can play on the gymnasium or they can participate in kickball. (physical)

o       The children will interact with one another to help build their communication skills. (socioemotional)

5-6 Year: This is the class room setting.

o       Children will began to learn addition and subtraction, in a way that they find interesting. If one child can understand by number then we do it by numbers, If another can understand by items in place of numbers then we will use other means to incorporate the learning skills (cog & physical).

o       We will still have activities such as coloring, finger painting and arts and crafts. (socio. and physical, cog)

7-9 Years: This is an area where the kids can get help in the school work they need or if they just want to have fun and learn new things.

o       This is time for children to either be assisted with their school work if need or wanting to.

o       Mainly this section is for building relationships with other children, how to get along and manage yourself.

o       This is going to be an activity surrounded area with the choice of  arts, music, learning channels, and fitness.

o       This is for the kids to feel like they can do what ever they want to do w/out being harped on. This also encourages the kids to be proactive and do things that they enjoy.

o       If the children want to do the arts and crafts part there will be 3 teachers to assist in what they would like to do.

o       If the children want to learn music or my an instrument, there will be 3 teachers there to assist them.

o       The children that want to do fitness they will have a choice from football, cheerleading, soccer, kickball, basketball, tennis, and track.

10-12 Years: Adolescent time……This class is to teach these children how to learn and adjust to what their needs are as well as what there are interested in.

o       The kids that participate in this program will have to opportunity to learn/ get help in any academic problems they would like. The facility will have 9 certified teachers to assist in any area of interest. (ex: space, ocean, and wildlife refuge)

o       These children will also have the ability to take on the fitness challenge as well as learning more about music and the arts.

o       At this age they can start games to interact with each other as well as take on challenges of helping others.

o       This area is to help these children learn what they want, while they are still getting the required education. They are learning to assist in human relations and in their own environment.

Socioemotional Activity:  Puzzle Me, Puzzle You

Ages:  4-6

Goal: Interacts appropriately with others by helping, sharing, discussing and developing friendships. This activity will build awareness about other people and cultures that make up the community while developing fine motor and cooperative play skills. This activity also reinforces language skills, spatial skills, and reasoning.

How to play:

1.  Display the puzzle boxes where each child can see them.

2.  Give each child one piece of the puzzle.

3.  After the first child puts his or her piece down, encourage others to figure out how their piece fits.

4.  Encourage them to talk about the pieces and to help one another decide which piece belongs where.

There are infinite amounts of developmental activities that a center for children can have, especially when they have lots of money at their disposal. Some of my favorite activities as a kid were outdoor games I played. I read that "by three his running is better, but he still has problems stopping and turning. By five these should be better. He can comfortably jump with both feet and can walk on tip toes. The best games to play between these ages encourage balance, dodging and jumping."  So knowing this, there should be a set of age appropriate games set for kids at the center. These could include, hopscotch, simon says, all various forms of tag, etc. These not only play a huge role in the physical development of kids, but they also include cognitive thinking processes and socioemotional aspects if played in groups.

If I was in charge of running or starting a new child development center and had the funds to do so, I would begin by focusing on cognitive development.  I would invest some of my money or funds into computers and develop computer programs to help children improve their mental processes.  These programs would try and improve the child's ability to think, remember, solve problems, and communicating with language.  These programs would provide new experiences and information which would reshape the way the child thinks.  The programs would include sections with symbols that represent objects to help the child with language development.  Language is a learned skill like any other skill and needs to be constantly practiced.  The programs would use moving objects, outer edges, color contrasts, patterns, and human faces because these types of things maintain the attention of the child longer, this is commonly known as the preferential-looking technique.  Using these techniques the child should improve their cognitive development significantly. I would be mainly focusing on kids in Piaget's preoperational stage which consists of children ages 2-7.

development activity is aimed towards cognitive development for ages up to 4.

i would have the children use everyday symbols and correlate then with their uses and the names of them.

An activity I can come up with is something to do with sharing. For example, when kids are younger their cognitive development hasn’t developed completely and they don't understand the concept of sharing.

Younger kids might act mad when having to give away their toys- this also ties into the Reactance Theory.

For Physical development- any physical activity could test that. For example babies who are 6-8 months old, you can have them crawl to receive a toy. And kids who are 12 months old- you can have an activity in which they have to walk.

I should be able to have a state of the art facility and really cater to every childs needs when it comes to their development.  The school would consist of 5 areas and all students 0-12 would cycle through the 5 areas weekly.

1.) Animals - The children would have access to many types of easy to maintain animals.  The animals would help the children with all important skills (cognitive, physical, socioemotional).  The children would be closely supervised and would also have an introductory class with the animals to get them comfortable and introduced properly.

2.) Water - There would be an on-site pool at the facility.  The pool would be built to specifics of child development and safety with a beach style entry, sliding boards, and diving boards for continued physical development and awareness in various surroundings.

3.) Sound/Music Center - Children have access to all instruments, recording devices, and multi-media center.  They will be able to broadcast themselves and raise self confidence.

4.) Sport Complex - Every sport made available to children.  Younger children's activities would consist of just physical movement where older children would have organized sports.

5.) Art - Students would have access to art center and also have quarterly art shows to display their work.

To exercise the children's socioemotional development, I would have the kids participate in a treasure hunt. I would divide the kids in groups of 4 and create clues in a way that would force the kids to depend on each other to figure them out. This game would be intended for 10 year old children.

The activity I would use would be a memory matching game involving cards with pictures on one side. This would be considered a cognitive exercise as the children would have to remember where the cards were with the corresponding pictures would be. This exercise would be geared for ages 3-7

Socioemotional Activity:  Puzzle Me, Puzzle You

Ages:  4-6

Goal:  Interacts appropriately with others by helping, sharing, discussing and developing friendships.  This activity will builds awareness about people and cultures that make up the community while developing fine motor and cooperative play skills.  This activity also reinforces language skills, spatial relationships, and reasoning.

How to play:

1.  Display the puzzle boxes where each child can see them.

2.  Give each child one piece of the puzzle.

3.  After the first child puts his or her piece down, encourage others to figure out how their piece fits.

4.  Encourage them to talk about the pieces and to help one another decide which piece belongs where.

If I was able to build my own Child Development Center, I would focus on the individual child in some aspects and then group them together in others in each of the developmental areas, physical, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Development.  Each area would not be specific to age range, but the difficulty would definitely increase from easy to hard the older the child gets.

For the Physical side, I would develop several stations that would test individual and group physical activities, such as having a pool that would require retrieving rings, or balls from the pool.  Another area would be a climbing station. And as a group, a game like Tug-O-War would be good because it uses the Physical Development and the Socioemotional Development (because they are forced to work in a group, rather than choosing too).  All of these areas could incorporate a variety of games.  The types of games would be left up to the instructors to decide based on the ages of the children.

For Cognitive Development, there would be memory games, critical thinking exercises that would involve reading and solving real life problems.  I would steer away from fairy tale problems as to not confuse the children.

My Socioemotional Development would incorporate more observing than "hands on" as the Physical and Cognitive processes does.  To do this would mean that on site Psychologists would evaluate each individual child as they are in groups to determine their weaknesses and create exercises that would improve those weaknesses.  For example, if a child has an anger problem, the Doctor would work closely with this child to subdue this as so it won’t become a problem later in life.

My Development Center would not have a base price as it applies to the child but based on each child's needs and the time needed to spend with the child would determine the amount of money requested. 

One activity that promotes physical development would be blowing bubbles for the child to chase after to start strengthening muscles. This is an activity for a child that begins to walk at around 11-14 months.

An obstacle course would increase a child's physical development. This activity would be inside a gym, where there would be a mat and the course would be made with soft materials so that the children would not get hurt. There would be large angled mats to run up, tunnels to go through, and a floor trampoline to bounce on. Of course, all these stages of the course would be fully supervised and the children would be doing it one by one. There would be two lines and it would be a relay method. Some of the types of equipment are shown below. This obstacle course would increase strength, agility, and overall physical performance. If they would be doing it the relay method, it would teach them team work. The children would get lots of exercise while having fun. It would be good for ages 3-8.

Tumbling mat provided throughout the course so if the children fall, they won’t scrape themselves.

The incline mats for running up and sliding down.

The floor trampoline which is good for bouncing and jumping.

The octagon would be used to jump on from the floor trampoline.

If I were to open a child development center I would have children from ages 6 months to 3 years play with toys such as the Lamaze soft sorter to help develop hand/eye coordination, the ability to manipulate objects (fine motor skills).  This is a link to the webpage with more info on the toy and why its a good toy for children.  I use it when I babysit actually lol.    

i would purchase about 4 or five big buckets and some soft squishy balls fill the buckets up with water and have the kids stand at different lengths and try to get the balls into the buckets. the age that i would do this activity with would be the 4-5 year olds and i think it would be physical development because they are throwing the balls into the buckets.

I would build a technology center aimed at the development of 5-7 year olds. In this technology center, I would include the new $100 laptops for children to use, as well as a variety of Vtech and other similar type computers. These computers would be used to stimulate cognitive development for these children. I believe that intense academic training on computer games or programs for education would be beneficial in helping these children develop skills to make cognitive decisions. It would be a state of the art facility, unlike any in place today.

A project that I would like to assign to an 11-12 year old group of children is to create a newspaper.  The teacher could read a real newspaper to the kids and show them the layout to give an idea of what the project is supposed to look like.  After discussion and some practice writing, the kids could divide into groups to write different articles on events going on in the school or community.  It would be fun for them to make up headlines for the articles, add pictures, and see their own name in the byline.  The final touch would be to print out the newspaper and give each child a copy to take home.  This project would develop their cognitive skills by doing research on events and summarizing stories.  It would also develop their socioemotional skills by working in groups and bringing all of the articles together into one newspaper, and finally it would help develop their typing (physical) skills.

I would probably soon realize that a child’s development requires much more than money—it requires attention from parents or staff, as well as simple games that can help him/her develop physically and mentally.

When I think about a specific activity for such a center, I look back at my own childhood. One of my favorite toys when I was a kid was this lifesize KNEX-style set. Using large rods and connectors, I could create my own box, or car, or helicopter, that I could actually play in as well. I know this toy did so much for building my imagination, as well as the cognitive ability to determine how structures could be built without falling, what different ways the pieces could be connected, etc.

No doubt, I would include this in my Center, but an even larger version with more pieces (I never had enough) that would allow adults to join in on the fun, thus allowing a socioemotional bond through the building process.

I really believe this toy was one of the greatest things in my childhood!

Activity: An outdoors game with colored squares either painted or chalked onto the ground 4 squares long and 4 squares wide. The squares will also have numbers on them (1-16 in order). The game is to call out either a number or a color and have the kids run to that square to see if they get the right one. If they stand on the wrong square they are out. (You can only play the game with a few kids at a time to avoid injury)

Age range: 3-7. The game can be modified for older or younger age groups by either calling out just a number or just a color for the younger kids, or calling out math problems (2+3=5), or calling out color combos (red and blue make purple) and having the kids stand on the answer to the problem for the older kids.

Develops: Physical- running to the square; Cognitive- thinking out the answer or remembering colors and numbers; or Socioemotional- they will have to interact with one another while playing the game and learn not to push or fight over squares, as well as to be kind to other kids who got the answer wrong.

I would like to have lots of animals at my child center because i believe that they stimulate children in many ways. I would like to assign the 9 to 12 years olds responsible to the different animals and allow them to interact with the animals through out the day. i plan on being a teacher while i go to grad school and this idea is one i will apply  in my class room.

Specific child development activity:  dramatic play for ages 6-12  the children will dress up and pretend to be adults by role playing.  this falls under socioemotional behavior and cognitive.

My activity is a cognitive one for ages 4 and up and consists of patterns. The young kids start off with blocks that contain AB patterns such as red, blue, red, blue and then can get progressively harder with longer patterns and include things other than color as the kids get older.

AGES (10-12) For children who are entering middle school it is extremely hard to obtain an understanding for diversity, because they are accustomed to being around people just like themselves. So giving attention to that factor I would create a game for students to guess the gender and race of their classmates by pairing them together while their eyes are closed, with them ajoining hands and having them guess the race and gender. After they have guessed they have to open their eyes and explain why the thought what they thought. Then each student will have to tell their partner about their interests, birthday/special events within their family life, and the things they like in a friend. Using my budget I would take these students to a special museum built within my childcare center specifically for this that goes through history with examples of great things done by each culture with the help of the other (culture). Hopefully through this exercise they will learn about cultural differences, give inspiration, and eventually advance in the near future with people unlike them.

-For kids ages 10-12, one of the activities could be dodge ball

            1. Physical: because they have to use their strength to throw the dodge ball

            2. Socioemotional: the children have to be able to deal with being on the losing   team

-For kids of all ages, one activity could be a show and tell of one of their favorite possessions and why

            1. Cognitive: because they have to think about which object and why

            2. Socioemotional: because they have to share their emotions with the class

If I were to build my own Child Development Center I would come up with several activities for the kids to participate in. One developmental activity centered around kids ages 4-5 would be to have a “my story” station. In this station kids would be able to work with station leaders to create a story about themselves.  Most kids ages 4-5 can’t write down words themselves but have a lot to say and enjoy dictating stories to other people. The station leader would help kids make a booklet of pages with twisted pipe cleaners to hold it together. The children could help put the booklet together. The station leader would help the child decide what will go in the book such as my favorite pets, my family etc. This activity is considered cognitive development as well as physical development. It is cognitive because it helps the child develop language skills, thinking processes and it is physical because it gives him practice using the small muscles in his hands.

The child development activity I would design would include children (age 3-6) and would consist of sports related activities (all basic sports) in order to create a foundation for improved physical and social development.  We would work on learning the basics of sports as well as what it means to be part of a team and work with others.  Also, children will be able to improve on their motor skills which will in turn result in YOUR child gaining more confidence.

A great child development activity for kids about age 6-9 that is intended for physical development is TAG on the playground. This is the classic game where someone who is "IT" has to tag someone else to be it. This is great exercise for children and it also helps for children to interact with their peers on a fun level, which can help them make new friends and form stronger friendships with the ones they have. It also brings a sense of competitiveness in a positive way by challenging the children to run and tag their peers, as they are getting great exercise at the same time which is very important for children to get outdoors in the fresh air and away from the TV and video games.

I would focus on fun physical development activities. Races such as the sack race, the three legged race, or just hopping on one foot can be of great advantages to a child. I would plan these activities for children around the ages 6, 7 or 8. Not only would this increase the rate of their physical development, but it would also be an exciting and fun experience for the children. I'm all about having fun! In a sense, it disguises the motivation behind the activity.

For young children between ages 1-2, I would have a game where they would have multiple shaped blocks that they would have to pick-up (using fine motor skills) and place in cut out shapes that the blocks would fit into (that uses hand-eye coordination as well as ability to recognize shapes and differentiate them from others.

Ages 4-6, kids can play games that develop their problem solving skills with sticks games.

For older kids age 5-7 I would have more physical activities where they would have to work cooperatively with other children (develop social interaction skills). I would two teams.  They would create team names and logos (this would hopefully create a feeling of unity between the children and their teammates- as well as allow them to use creativity and work together).  And the teams could play numerous games such as capture the flag and kickball.  This also develops gross motor skills.

I would make my number one priority, children having fun! I think it is very important for kids to have fun and learn to play. You only get to be a kid once, and I think living their childhood to the fullest will help them develop the most.

I would come up with all kinds of fun games for ages 0-2. I think that is way too young to be pushing a child. Children 3-5 I would try to make their game a little more educational. Maybe do some kinds of guessing games with letters and numbers. The children from ages 7-12 I would try to divide them into different levels of athletics. At that age I think it is very important to start learning physical activity, and learning how to keep in shape and have fun. Being an athlete is very important, because not only does it teach you to think, but it teaches you how to get along and work together.

For my activity I decided to set up a large "obstacle course" for the children ages 4 and 5 to play on. The course is designed with three major activities the child has to complete in order to finish the entire course. The first activity is designed to aid in developing cognitive skills, especially to do with memory. There are 8 large black squares on the ground each with a colored dot underneath, 4 colors total making each color a pair. Each child one at a time plays 'the memory game' with these large color spaces until finding all the pairs. Because the spaces are so large it enables to child to feel physically involved in the activity, making learning more fun therefore provoking a larger interest and facilitating learning. The second activity is a test of patience. The child carries an egg on a plastic spoon from the starting point to the finish point without dropping it. If the egg is dropped, they start over. This will take concentration, patience and will aid in developing hand-eye coordination. Finally, the last activity has to do with fine motor skills. The child takes a large piece of paper with a simple body part drawn onto it (foot, eye, nose, arm, ect.) and cuts out the shape. Then he or she tapes the piece to a large outline drawing of a human, sort of like a huge puzzle. Once the child has completed taping their body part on they are done with the obstacle course and have learned a lot!

Age Range (4-5)

Area of study (cognitive and socioemotional)

Objective: Create stations with groups of letters from the alphabet for each station and then group children in children in pairs of 4 for each station, it would be a good amount for the kids to interact and get to know the other children. They come up with objects or colors and words for each letter in the station and then the kids switch stations and at the end have all the kids as a whole and compare and bring together all the ideas.

One developmental activity I would put together for kids if I owned my own Child Development Center is a simple fifteen minute hike every day for kids old enough to walk.  This is a great physical activity!  It is a good way also for counselors and the kids to interact and build relationships. During the hike the counselor s can do a cognitive activity also.  This cognitive activity would involve asking questions about nature and the environment around them for maybe candy or anything positive if the kids get the answer correct.

My school would be focused on toddlers.

Cognitive- I would provide the toddlers with the matching games, i.e. sound an animal makes to the animal and shapes to the right shape.  I would have classical music play while they do crafts and during free time.

My activity will be for ages 3-5 working on their cognitive areas. The activity will be matching letters with specific colors. Like the red A with the other red A or the blue D with the other blue D.

If I could put together one child development activity, I would choose Karate.  Karate helps children develop both physically and mentally. The program would be non-contact and would include all types of music appropriate for children.  The program will cover all the basics, such as punching and kicking, and will also help the children learn to focus and use concentration. Children who participate in this program will benefit greatly, and can use the skills they learn to guide them through the rest of their lives.

My first thought of an activity dealt with one thing: Nintendo. With the release of the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS the opportunity for engaging child development activities could be exploited by the use of these two gaming systems.

My Child Development center would include an interactive gaming center where kids (ages 4-12) could come together to play cooperatively and alone with educational game and/or games that include the use of movement. This can be done by the use of Nintendo's gesture controls, allowing players to get up and move rather than sitting with limited movement. Games Like Wii Sports and Brain Age can be load onto the systems to get the most out of the developmental ideas of the Center.

This Child Development idea is intended for:

Physical: The gesture system of control will allow student to focus on hand/eye coordination and other movements that simulate sports (golfing, baseball, boxing, bowling, and tennis)

Cognitive: The ways the Nintendo Wii allows students to learn is key to cognitive development

Socioemotional: Allowing the kids to work with others and learn cooperatively with others also helps with socioemotional development.  This idea of an interactive gaming center would be key to my center and fulfills all 3 areas of development.

One developmental activity is puzzles for children ages 4 and up for physical development.

Another developmental activity would be to have a playhouse with a key high up, out of reach of the child. The object would be to come up with a strategy to get the key and unlock the door. The children are learning how to problem solve. This is an example of cognitive development. The children's thoughts gradually becomes more organized and complex. This child development activity would be for children ages 6-12 years old.

I would create a large, segmented adventure activity center. One that would integrate many areas of a child's cognitive, physical and socioemotional development. Let me explain. There would be three main arenas that would contain large expensive play stations that are equipped the newest technology in playgrounds and safety. The three arenas are divided by developmental age and level. Each arena has an integrated cognitive and socioemotional centers within the play facility. Containing many different activities from creativity with arts, crafts, and music to puzzles and role playing. All areas would be made to be easily supervisable for the staff members, which of course would be remarkably trained and educated in child development. It would be an overall experience full of positive learning and interactions in a safe environment, I think it would be great!

I would target children between 1 and 4 years old. I would help stimulate cognitive development by hiring bilingual teachers who would gradually introduce new languages for the children.

A developmental project that could be done for the center is preparing them to run track. It would develop the kids physically and keep them in shape. This would fight off child obesity. It would be a program mainly just training the kids on how to run and the advantages of doing so.

Field Trip Activities

I would take the kids to the beach.  They would learn about the different sea life that make the ocean their home, they'd also learn about the different creatures that make the beach their homes, those that live in shells and those that fly about and eat the creatures in the sea.  At the end of day we would go for ice cream...

These specially picked 4 kindergartners that are going on this field trip would be taken to a Museum of Science and Industry. They have a great learning center for kids to experience how things are made and many hands-on activities that they would love to do. They have stations for the kids to build things in their arts and crafts center and they have a wind tunnel machine that kids can experience how fast wind travels in a hurricane or tornado or anything that has high winds.  I have been here myself and I had a blast when I was a little kid. So I'm sure that these 4 kids would highly enjoy it as well. These 4 kids would learn from the trip some aspects of how to build things by using cognitive processing and able to get a real feel for how things work. They would also get to see parts of the human body that are also displayed. Hopefully these 4 kids gained more knowledge about things that exist outside of their small little world and can start to gain a broader concept of the bigger world that it out there that they still have so many years to continue exploring.

If I were taking four kindergarteners on a field trip I would choose to take them to the Zoo. I think it would be a perfect environment for children that age to get a first hand learning experience! 'The Zoo and Gardens is home to over 1,400 species of animals and 1,000 species of plants from around the world.  There is plenty to see and do while visiting the Zoo.  Field trips are self-guided, but we encourage you to download scavenger hunts, attend keeper talks and schedule an education program to maximize the resources available to you and your students.' The Zoo has prepared a many scavenger hunts to help maximize the educational resources at the Zoo.  All of the answers to the questions can be found in animal graphics and on the identification panels at the exhibits. This way each student can see each animal close up and learn something about each one. Putting a face with a name and a fact can increase the chance that the information will stick with them for the future. Knowing this, I feel taking four children would be educational and fun! (For them, and me too!)

Most kids are taken to the zoo at that age (I remember I was. Well I think instead of the zoo that the kids should be taken to a wildlife reserve. Let me explain why: when kids go to the zoo, it's a passive learning experience that can be overlooked and just seen as a giant place the kids can run around in, this is mainly due to the lack of interaction possible with the animals and the shows they put on for the people. Going to the zoo is more of an entertainment experience then a learning one (it is a business after all and they need/want to make their money) At a wildlife reserve the kids would be allowed to interact and actively participate in caring for the animals by doing simple tasks like helping to feed, water and love the animals. Also most reserves are run by people with a great passion for the animals, and these people usually know a lot more then just your textbook definition of rare wild animals. Not to mention that most reserves are non profit and could use all the help they can get (even if it is with small children) It would be a wonderful learning experience through interaction and passive observation (for those that may be a bit scared) it would allows for the children to grow an appreciation for wildlife and know what to do if and when ever they may face these animals in the wild. This would definitely be something I would love my kindergarten to do (when the time has come for me to have my own :)

I would take these children to the beach and we would walk along the shore and observe the many species of marine life. I would also do a scavenger hunt. I would make a photo list of all the things they need to find and set them out to explore. The kids would learn what various things that are found at the beach and i would also discuss with them what the consequences of littering would do to the precious wildlife found at the beach. On this field trip they will be able to have hands on experience while also getting some physical activity in the fresh air not too mention how much fun they would have as well.

I would take the kids to the beach because it seems that that place has a lot to learn about. While the beach is a place where everyone is supposed to have fun, I can teach the kids about how the seashells end up in the sand and teach them that they can hear the ocean with a conch shell! The kids would learn about the ocean as well and how it has many animals under the sea.

I would take the kids to a local planatarium.  I would walk around with them and show them all sorts of species that live in the sea.  It would be really cool if the planatarium had a program for small children where they could get up close to the animals and also maybe touch certain things.  The children would learn the different shapes of living creatures and also learn how they all live together in the sea!

If I could take four kindergarteners on a field trip,  I would try to take them to places I think would be memorable. I would love to first take them to the zoo, because not only is it fun, but it is educational. The zoo is one place were children want to learn, and it is easy for them to learn, because it is something they enjoy doing. The next stop we would make would have to be the fire station and police station. It is very important for children to feel safe, and learn about safety.

The Junior museum is also another important stop I would make. It is always fun for children to learn about dinosaurs and stars. The junior museum is a great place were children can learn hands on.

Our last stop would have to be the beach. I would not want to overwhelm the kids, with cramming information in their heads, so I would like to end the day with something fun that they will enjoy. I think by starting, and ending the day with fun things will make the children more willing to go on another educational trip.

I would take the four kindergarteners to a small carnival. There they would encounter things they are not really used to such as: animals, clowns, attractions etc. Here they would interact with each other which will enhance their socioemotional skills. They would also get to run around, thus working on their physical skills.

And finally they would see things they are not really used to so they can think about the things they saw which would work on their cognitive skills.

I would take them to an aquarium. They would have coloring books that they worked on before the field trip. On the trip, they would check off the marine animals they saw in their coloring book.

Its a place where kids learn how to do real jobs (fire fighter, cop, cashier, baker, etc) We took the kids in the youth program I worked in over the summer and they loved it. What it is a completely self sufficient city. When the kids work, they earn money; but when they wanna make things like cookies and want candy they pay for it. The kids had a blast, and there is even a jail and a club for the kids to have fun at. The age group we took was 6-12 but there is stuff for younger kids to do.

The field trip with four kindergartens would depend on my time available (how long it will be) and on my budget.

If I had to choose, I would take them to a sea park. This park is an amazing place with places to visit and things to do for fun. kids would see amazing dolphin's shows, play with them, feed them and maybe learn something about them. kids could see the penguins racing through the water or just pet them. they can learn more things about the penguins, these comedian creatures. There the kids will see hilarious shows about pets' talents: such as dogs, birds, rats, pigs and other animals.

I would take the kindergarteners on a field trip to the beach. I would play Simon says with them in the sand to help them with their the balance (i.e. gross motors skills). Then I would have the children participate in activities such as finding sea shells and writing their name is the sand to help with fine motor skills. I believe building sand castles would also fit in this group. Then we would play in the ocean because it is just fun.

If I was a kindergarten teacher and I had to go on a field trip I would take the children to an aurum. It would be both an educational and fun experience.  I also would like to take the children to the beach so they can see, smell and get a feel for their environment.

I would take the children out to the beach teach them about the ocean and the animals in the ocean .I would also teach them how to be at the beach and be safe. Teach them about the "buddy rule"; always travel with a buddy. We would also learn how to make a castle together and that would teach them how to work as a team. I would take them there and teach them about all the animals. The children will have fun and enjoy having fun!

I would take the children to the zoo. There they would learn about different animals and the habitats they reside in as well get some exercise from walking. The children would learn but would also have fun.

As the Children live on the beach i would first of all take them to an aquarium, here they would learn and see for themselves some of the creatures that live in the sea. Hopefully they would pick up on some of the more dangerous fish and be able to tell which ones were friendly. The aquarium would be a fun and exciting place to visit with a lesson included.

I would also take them to a small store and tell them to pick out a few items. We would practice calculating the total amount of their items and then study the process of how to buy them. This would give the children an interaction with the real world!

Finally i would take them to the park and let them observe all the different types of people and have them try to guess what they were up to depending on their entire. Such as, if they see a man wearing a suit i would ask, "where do you think he is going" hoping for the answer of "to work." This would also get them more accustomed to life in the real world

I think taking the kids to the beach would be the best option for a day long field trip (as long as you bring enough sunscreen!). The beach offer stimuli for all the senses and encourages the kids to have fun while learning an assortment of things. For kindergartners, I would use explaining the 5 senses as the focus for learning:

Sight - by drawing and/or explaining the beach seen as they see it.

Touch - exploring how touch works and collecting things on the beach that represent different textures (sand, shells, seaweed, water, towels, etc.) Taste - introduce the different types of taste buds, "salty" would obviously be the focus Sound - explain what they hear to each other, this promotes communication with peers Smell - making the kids aware of the different smells associated with the ocean.

This would obviously be done incorporated in playing the in the water and building sand castles. I think this would be a great simple lesson for younger kids that would keep them engaged throughout the day.

On this field trip I would take the kids to a variety of different jobs. For an example, I would take the children to a hospital so they could see what a doctor does during the day. At the hospital I would take them to the children's ward so they could interact with the kids there; they could play with the kids and ask questions if they had any. I'd take them to a fire station so they could see the facility and the procedure for when there is a fire. I'd get there input also in order to peak their interest. By taking them to all these places, it is educational and also fun. Its gets their mind thinking about professions that they could possibly be interested in even thought they are young!!!

At the end of the day we'd chill though a probably catch a movie!

I would take the children to an aquarium. The children would be able to view many different types of sea life while walking through the aquatic viewing center. They would also be able to experience the different oceanarium exhibits that include a dolphin show, otter show. The aquarium also has a hands on center where the children can actually touch different sea life while an employee explains what each creature is.

The children would learn etiquette while traveling in a group. They would learn how to sit quietly on the bus ride there. They would also learn how to stay together and follow directions while going through the museum.

They would learn a lot about sea life as they view the different displays and have interaction in the hands on center.

When returning back to school in the next few days I would have them draw pictures of the different fish we had seen and we would discuss what they had learned at the aquarium.

A museum would be a very suitable place for kindergarteners to be taken for a field trip. This is a very populated site that would promote higher levels of learning. Studies of our past help introduce younger minds to aspects of culture and science. They also would learn the creative drives behind new scientific technologies, such as telescopes, and magnetism. This would present them with information about our innovations. A museum is also a wonderful atmosphere to watch people and their interactions. The children would observe how people react to such abstract creations that they've never seen, such as dinosaurs and astronomy. Sciences in archaeology would allow them to see some of the earliest stages of man, and what evolutions we have underwent. The most essential characteristic of a museum is that it allows children, as well as adults to imagine and perceive what is irrational and illogical. Through artifacts and reconstructions, they recreate our history, in a simple way for people to understand. The museum seems very suitable for as a symbol of our shift from primitive in mind, to creating the unimaginable.

For the field trip, I would take the students to a field trip to the aquarium.  I would teach the children about the different types of marine life, but I wouldn't get too specific because they wouldn't be into learning everything with their cognitive limit. I feel this would be safer than taking them to the beach because kids at that age would be nearly impossible to keep them within their limits. The kids would learn about the different animals/sea life at the aquarium and be able to apply it to their own beach trips with their families.

the Museum of Science and History  is a great interactive museum for kids, especially kindergartners. This museum is a much better option than what you'd expect us to pick. The beach??  Boat Ride??  Those are just accidents waiting to happen. Kids get lost…or sea sick!! This museum is great and helps kids interact and play with each other, while learning about the world. There is a special show where you are in an auditorium and sit under the stars as they show you all of the constellations. It's fun for all ages!! The four kids will leave the museum with a better understanding of the earth and have fun at the same time.

If I were to take four kindergartners on a field trip in a big city, I would take the children on a tour of the city. My reason for doing this is so that the scope of the children are broadened instead of limited to one thing such as a park or museum and so forth. What I intend for the children to learn from this experience is how a city is made up especially a big city. They would experience the varying compositions of people, buildings, roads and lighting. Children explore their neighborhoods all the time, not necessarily one aspect and a city tour would grant them the opportunity to see how neighborhoods vary.

You don't really need a big city to teach kids things. If I were in charge of teaching a group of kindergartners I would take them to the school kitchen and roll out several things of sugar cookie dough. The dough would all be colored different colors. I would then give each student several plastic cookie cutters that are in different shapes. There would be a goal sheet that would ask each student to cut out a certain amount of shapes and colors for each cookie. If they did the project right, they could cook and keep their cookies. :-)

i would take the 4 children to the beach and teach them how to surf. I believe teaching then how to surf would also teach them how to swim and how to be patient (waiting on waves) also how to respect the earth and what it has to give us. I also believe it would hopefully interest them in a sport at a young age therefore getting and keeping them active the rest of there lives. Also if they become interested in surfing they would go home and tell there parents about it, in doing so the parents will want to continue the surf lessons and therefore will become more involved in the child’s life.

If I were in charge of taking four kindergartners out for the day I would take them to a hands-on interactive museum. And, possibly take them to more than one place. For example, if the city we are in is Manhattan in New York we could either spend the day in the Museum of Natural History.  It is a rather large building, so it would not be the best idea to push to walk through all of the exhibits, but the ones that are set up to be the most "child friendly". The beauty of that specific museum is that it is catered toward children for the most part, therefore there are many exhibits that are highly interactive.  They have wonderful images to enable the soaking in of knowledge while still having a fun time.  The Dinosaur exhibit was always one of my childhood favorites. Or there is the space show that teaches them of the "hypersonic" collisions in space, which introduces the children to the concept of evolution.

After two or three of these activities we would take a break to have a healthy lunch. There is no reason to overwhelm them with excessive information in one sitting. After the break we would go learn about the city they live in.  Taking a tour that will keep them entertained, while educating them of the area that surround them. This opens the children up to knowledge of all that is available to them. So, this could be a boat tour around the city, or a open top bus tour. After this, we would end the day with one last treat for behaving well. Most likely done so at a local park, so they can let their built up energy reign free for a little bit before they are returned to their parents.

I would take them to a park where they could play and enjoy nature. i would take some snacks for them to have. after they played, i would take the to the beach and talk to them about keeping public areas clean. i would explain to them that they should not throw trash on parks and beaches in order to keep the planet clean. they would have a great day, with fun activities, and would learn to take care of the environment from a young age.

If my job for the day was to take four kindergarteners on a field trip, I would take them to a park that allows children to fulfill their fantasies of the adult world.  They are allowed to dress up and work as real professionals such as pilots, doctors, chefs, etc.  If they want to be a news host, there is an actual television station where they can do everything a real TV host would do during a typical days work.  They would dress up in the proper attire while being filmed.  They would then be able to watch the tape and see themselves.   This could help introduce concepts of knowledge, skills, and strategy to the child which is mentioned in the concept of mediation of Vygotsky’s theory.  This opportunity assists in the development of fine-motor skills.  Putting their words into context and real life situations will enable the child to grow.  All around this field trip would be a learning experience for the children.

I would take the children to several different places.  First, I would take the children on a walking tour of the large downtown business district.  I would show the children the different buildings and explain to them what the importance of this part of the town was.  Then I would take them on tours of the more diverse parts of town (e.g. Chinatown, marketplaces, major parks and landmarks, museums etc.)  This would give the children a feel for the different cultures and was of existence in the city.  Although it may be one large city it is full of innumerable different styles of life.  Finally, I would take the children for a late afternoon/sunset at the beach.  This would give the children a glimpse at several of the bigger parts of the city and city life.

I would take the four children to a beach near the Gulf of Mexico.  The Gulf of Mexico is a beautiful place and it can offer a number of things to do on the beach, as well as activities that are physical that would give the children great exercise, as well as cognitive, and make them tired for when they go home to their parents.

An activity that I would have planned would be a "Sand Castle Building" contest, where that would put physical and cognitive skills together for the children, and give them a chance to be creative.  Another activity I would plan to do, is to play "Marco, Polo" in the ocean.  A game that uses strict senses to locate the people around when your eyes are closed.  A final activity would be a good old game of "Tug - O - War", where I would match boys and girls together to compete against each other.

The activities would be spread out, so that the children would get to interact with each and just have good old fun on a beach, and at a one of my favorite places to be.

I would actually take them down to the beach water and teach them how to swim, Like the video we seen in class a few weeks ago knowing how to swim can save a child’s life and if not swim at least float until safety arrives......

I would take the children to the aquarium in the museum where they would learn about different marine animals.  Then I would take them to the other animal exhibits where the children would learn about bats and bees. Afterwards I would take them to the children's play area so they could play with the bubble making machines and the water hoses just for fun.

I would take the children to the zoo and associate letters, color and sounds for each animal we saw, and they would learn which animal started with what letter and what color it was and sound it made.

I would take the kids a water park.

The field trip would include chaperones that will look over the children because of the proximity to the water. I would have them play in the pool with one another, maybe play tag in the water. Taking turns will be very important to keep fairness during games. The kids will be able to socialize with other children their ages to strengthen their social interactions in an unstructured environment/setting, while learning proper behavior outside the classrooms. The kids would be briefed on the importance of being cautious, although they won't follow all the rules, at least they have an idea that water parks although they are fun, they can also be dangerous if one is careless.

Other than that I would let them play and enjoy their childhood. I would provide them with beach balls and frisbees that they can throw to each other, as long as the park provides space for such activities.

My field trip would center around the different jobs available in the city. In the morning I would take the children to the beach to meet with a wildlife conservationist to teach the children the importance of wildlife on our beaches. They would help build/secure a safe sea turtle nest. The next stop on our trip would be to the downtown branch of a large bank to teach the children about how money is tendered and what bankers really do for a living. Of course we would make a stop for lunch and after the children finished eating I would take them to the kitchen of the restaurant so they could experience first hand what it is like to be a chef. Before we went home we would stop by the fire station to learn the importance of fire safety and get an up close look at our city's everyday heroes. I think that this would be an enriching experience for the children and they would go home with a wealth of new knowledge.

I would take the kindergarteners on a beach.  While at the beach, the children will be instructed to search and collect items pictured on his or her list (Because most kindergarteners are just being introduced to reading, the list would feature pictures with the word next to it).  Examples of items featured on the list are:  sand, sea shells, and sea water.  After the children have found their items, I will ask the children to sit in a circle and describe what he or she has collected.  The goal of this Scavenger Hunt will be to teach the children to develop an awareness of textures, sounds, build vocabulary, and strengthen communication.

We would do many activities, such as building sand castles, which would foster the children's physical development as well as their imaginations. We would also play in the water which would help the kids with their swimming skills and also their socio-emotional development, due to the fact that some children are afraid of the ocean since it is so large and dark. We would also fly kites, which would be enjoyable as well as teach the children a skill (controlling the kite can be quite difficult.)

If i were going to take 4 kindergarteners on a field trip i would just take them directly to the beach because what little kid doesn’t like the beach. Since kids that age are just starting to learn about numbers i would do an activity where we would collect seashells and as we are collecting explain that these comes from all over the world and the ocean washes them up onto the shore and what types of animals perhaps lived in them before the became just shells. Then i would have everyone dump out their pales when we got back to school and we would help each other count the number of seashells each found, then maybe make a necklace out of the shells because it would help with their coordination to have to put the string through the hole (which i would obviously make) and keep them on the string.

I would take my kindergarteners to the capital.

We would observe many interesting facts about the first governor and the mayor, civil rights leaders and the history of the state.

The kids would learn how the laws were passed and they would learn the date to date running of the state and how budgets are passed. They would be able to see the house and the senate and watch them debate the laws to be passed during session.

I feel this would be a learning experience for all ages, and while the kids would learn and interpret the history of the state they would enjoy riding up to the top story of the capital.

If I had the opportunity to take four kindergarten children on a field trip, they would obviously take them to the beach.  There is so much to learn there... at that age, children like playing with things... and the beach is the perfect place for them to collect shells (and then learn about them), feel the sand, learn about different types of fish, etc.  When my brother was in first grade, his teacher brought in dead fish, octopus, and other sea creatures and used them to paint; I was in fifth grade at the time and was allowed to help the class, and saw how much the kids enjoyed working on that project.  There is a wealth of information that can be learned just by spending a few hours at the beach.

I would take the kindergarteners to the city aquarium. The students and I would go on an animal scavenger hunt. We would have a stack of picture cards with various animals from all types of habitats (examples: bear, tiger, bird, shark, whale, octopus, etc). As we tour the aquarium, we would check off the animals that we find.  The students would learn which animals reside in a marine environment.

I would take the four kindergarteners down to a park with a wide open field and a playground. I would bring along a kickball, some snacks (possibly a box of oreos or so), and a cooler full of juices and water. Here we would play a game of kickball and a few games of tag. I would introduce to them the concept of pride (through victory) and the aspect of competition. Through this competition they will learn how to play together as a team to accomplish their goal at task. After tag and kickball, we would sit under a shaded area and learn how to share a single box of the oreos and relax with simple conversation. Since this is a full day's job, we would go to the movie theatre at night. The movies would teach them numerous things: how to be courteous and open the door for strangers and how to respect other's silence by watching a movie without screaming and yelling.

If I lived in a very large American City near the beach, I would take 4 Kindergarteners to a State Park. If we lived in a large city near a beach, a state park would show them, a side if the city that didn't know existed. Out in the nature and the woods we would go camping and they would learn the simpler things in life learn to listen to the birds in nature and not all the noise and craziness of a city. We would go bug hunting, identify birds, make smores, and learn about trees.

I am intrigued at how much a child can learn at such a young age, so i would want to expand that by with a language that most children aren't taught in school, i.e. sign language. This a center totally dedicated to the hearing impaired. There it would be actual housing for the hearing impaired, where they are taught to learning without their fourth sense, hearing. The children will learn small words in sign language, communicate with the individuals, and actually get a change to view how these people live. I think this is a cultural event that not only the children would enjoy, but also see other children like themselves who lack such a sense. It would promote awareness, diversity, and communication all at the same time.

I have lived in quite a few large American (and international) cities near the water since both my parents are active duty navy personnel and have had many educational aquatic experiences I think would be valuable to children. I think having an aquatic learning day would be interesting and exciting for the kids. We could start out at an aquatic museum (Marine Museum, or Aquarium) for the kids to get a little bit of an educational background, and then go play on the beach for a little while to get some physical interaction with the environment. The kids could swim, or practice swimming, build sandcastles and interact with various inner beach animals. If possible it would be really amazing for the kids to see an actual gestation process of sea turtles, during nesting season on the beach. The kids of course would need permission or parental accommodation to be able to see this at night, but could gain valuable biological perspective when watching such an interesting process. There are sometimes events held by rescue project teams to help the baby turtles reach the water which the children could be a part of. Even if they don’t fully understand the entire process, I feel that they would appreciate its uniqueness. Throughout the day the kids could have educationally stimulating activities both physically and mentally.

I think i would try to develop different parts of each child. I would take them to a art museum, a sports activity, a concert and maybe a history museum to try and give the kids a good idea of what they would enjoy learning more about. A more right brain child would like the art museum or the concert.  A left brain child would enjoy the history museum.

I would take the children into the art or theatre district of the city. Most large cities have an area like that.

There are usually large sculptures and colorful signs. The artwork in the area usually pertains to the cities history, so they'll learn some history. While the children won't get really care about the history, they will most likely think the enormous sculptures are cool and impressive. Then I would take them to the park and get lunch and let them run around a bit. If there were any museums of natural science or anything that would be my last stop. Children love animals, bugs and dinosaur fossils. All the things that can usually be found at a museum like that and these museums are usually free or fairly cheap to go to. The kids would get to learn about animals and science.

I would take the four kids on a glass bottom boat out on the water.  We would ride over a reef that is known for it's fish.  I would teach them about fish, what they eat, where they live, how long they live etc.  Not anything too hard because they are only in kindergarten.

One key to teaching young children is to expose them to many new things. I would start the day by taking them to a children's science museum. This would teach them things such as problem solving skills, easy to understand concepts about science such as where water comes from and how magnets work, and of course the museum is child-oriented so it would be very fun and interesting for the children! Next we would take in the benefits of the beach environment by having a nice picnic lunch on the beach which would expose the children to the many different people who would also be utilizing the beach. It's important to expose children to different types of people and cultures so they're able to appreciate everyone's differences. Finally, we would end the day by going to the zoo and seeing many different kinds of animals in the world. This would teach them mostly about different types of animals, but also what kinds of things they need in their habitats and hopefully give them an appreciation for animals and wildlife so they would learn to respect them and their environments.

I would simply take the kids to the beach.  We would then walk the shores of the beach and collect data on the different types of shells and marine life that we discovered.  Giving them a bit of information each time we discovered something different.  This would teach the kids what organisms live on or around the beach and what purposes they serve in their ecosystem.

II would take the four kindergartners to a butterfly garden.  It is a huge place that is mostly outside and they have many different kinds of birds and butterflies to look at.  A part of the garden is actually made to look like a rainforest and you go into it and you feel a light mist of rain and hummingbirds and butterflies come and land on your shoulders or even your head.  The kindergartners would learn about different types of birds and insects.

I would take the kindergarteners on a trip to the park.  On the way there, we would look at the road signs, and learn what they mean, then at the park, the kids could draw the road signs to learn and remember the symbols, and we would play a game:  One person holds up different signs, and everyone else would have to do what the "street sign" tells them to do.

  I would take the kids to a sea park where they can learn about different animals that live in the ocean and how they survive. We would interact with some of the species like a star fish, play or feed the dolphins, and most importantly learn how to respect them.  But most importantly, the kids would learn how different types of animals live together and cooperate with each other.

Where I Would Take Them:

-         I would take them to the shore. Allow them to get as close to the sea life as I possibly could, of course keeping their safety in mind.

-         Id see if there was a way to take them out on a small boat, or do a guided tour so they could have a chance to get even closer to the sea life and have more of a hands on experience. Depending on where I was specifically, maybe there would be places that offered that sort of thing.

Activities We Would Do:

-         I would create a list of colorful pictures of fish and various things I know we would be sure to see while on our trip to the beach. Then I would have the students identify these things as we see them, and mark them off of our chart. I would tell them a little bit about each of those things as we came across them.

-         I would have the children write their names, or spell out some letters in the sand with sticks. I would also have them draw pictures in the sand. I could call out something, like fish or whale for example, and they could draw a picture of it in the sand.

-         I would also design a real “treasure hunt” where I would create a map and have the kids use it to find the items on the list. They would be out in the open and not to difficult to find. Although they would be able to work in a team so it would increase their social interaction and teamwork abilities. If I had other people on the trip (example parents or other teachers or volunteers) we could hide small plastic eggs in a small area. They could represent “turtle eggs” and have small prizes inside of them.

-         I would have them create shell sculptures. As we walk along the beach I’ll have the kids pick out shells, on our way back to out “spot” where we started, I’ll have them create sculptures and pictures with the shells. I’ll also do something involving texture. Having them press the shells into dry and wet sand to create texture and patterns. Teaching them the difference between the way it looks in the dry sand and the wet sand. They will also be given magnifying glasses to look at the shells patterns close up. I’ll ask them to describe them to me.

-         The kids will also be allowed to build sand castles while on the trip. Using shells, buckets and shovels to try to create the tallest castle without it falling down.

Things They Will Learn:

-         The kids would learn about the ocean and how things work and live there.

-         They would gain social interaction and hands on experience. 

-         Gross Motor Development and building skills

-         Eye Hand coordination and counting and identifying concepts

My kindergarteners and I will be spending the day at the aquarium. We will be attending the dolphin and sea otter shows, we plan to explore the exhibits and observe the different types of fish and deep sea creatures. We will spend time in the sting-ray petting zoo and a little time in the gift shop. Late lunch outside overlooking the beach, enjoying the afternoon weather and then back to school for the end of the day. Some things that my students will learn are facts about animals that live in the ocean we look at every day. It will also be a good experience to learn how to behave in a museum for example quiet voices and no running or horseplay. Overall I think the field trip will be a memorable time for the students.

I could take the kids to a fort that is right on the beach, there they would tour the fort and learn about how we fought to protect our country. They could also go to the fountain of youth and learn about how america was discovered. Lastly we would go down to the beach and look for marine life and learn about the different marine life in our area.

I would take the kids to an art museum with an interactive children's exhibit. While it lasted, I would direct their attention to highlights from the exhibit, showing them color and texture and having them identify these elements by having them point out and count the colors they see, or feel the different media used. Then we would move on to activities in which I would teach them how art can be fun and incorporated into everyday life. They would make their own art project to take home with them illustrating what they have learned.

I would take the kindergarteners to play miniature golf. This would enhance their coordination, while in a fun environment. They would be divided into two teams, so they would be introduced to the concept of teamwork and encouraging others. After, we would eat lunch in a park, where the children could play and release energy.

I would take the kids to the beach for a day. I would explain to them about the ocean and the sand. Show them how to build sand castles and pick shells. Teach them how to swim. Visit with the lifeguards and explain to them how important they are, and if they ever are in need of help they should go to them. Teach them the importance of sunscreen.

I would take them to the beach. I have been a Volusia county lifeguard for years and it always bothered me how many people did not know about the real threats of the ocean. I always got the question are there any sharks in the water but rarely heard a questions about rip currents. So I would take the kids to the beach and teach them water safety. How to spot a rip current and what to do once you are in one.

Well considering the beach is my favorite place in the entire world - our field trip would definitely be to the beach. There would be so much to show them and teach them. You could begin by just talking about items that reach all of our senses. What the ocean water is made of i.e. salt water composition. How the waves shape the beach. What the sand is made of. Collect shells and talk about all the animals that can be found in the sea and those they are in the sand i.e. sand dollars, crabs, talk about the dangers of jelly fish. You definitely would have to talk a walk on the boardwalk and get hotdogs and ice cream. Can't all be about the learning.

I would take them to the beach or a marine facility nearby that has access to marine animals and allow them to make leaf prints with paint  or other materials, look at microscopic animals through microscopes and go on a scavenger hunt to find bigger animals like tortoises  or such. This field trip will teach them about the different plant and animal life that are in the environment and allow them to have fun while learning.

If I was able to take four children on a field trip in an American city that is right on the beach I'd definitely take advantage of being close to the beach and take the children there. I'd take them along the shoreline of the beach first and ask them to collect any items which make them think of the beach such as sea shells, skeletons from things such as horse crabs and crabs, sand dollars, seaweed etc. After they had fun collecting items I'd ask them to describe them to me and tell me what they think they are. When we're done with the walk on the sea shore I'd let them take their shoes off and carefully wade with them in the water so they could see the small fish that swim around. We'd then board a boat so we could float out to sea and hopefully see some more sea creatures like bigger fish or even a dolphin. I'd bring small fishing poles too so we could even try fishing for some fish. Once the boating trip was over I'd take them to a Seafood Restaurant on the beach where they’d be able to eat seafood!

  If I was to take four kindergartners on a field trip in a large city, I would take them to an aquarium. The children would be able to see the mammals and fish up close and personal, as well as be able to watch the many shows which include dolphins and Orcas.  With a little bit of planning there are also ways to get children behind the scenes of the aquarium.  They can get a chance to feed and handle the sea animals, and learn valuable information that they can use throughout their lives. There are also many gift shops at aquariums, where the children will be able to bring home souvenirs, many of which have an educational purpose.

If I had to take four kindergarteners on a field trip, I would first take them to a park and teach them how to fly a kite. This would help them apply instructions to actions. We would spend the day learning about nature and being able to see it first hand. Then I would have a picnic showing the kids healthy, good foods to eat. That would sum up our day together.

I would plan a field trip to the beach. At the beach the children will all be equipped with sand buckets and shovels. I would show them how to make sand castles so they can learn how buildings are built. Each child will have to make a sturdy sand castle. Using things that they find on the beach. I would make references to concrete and how it is made to build big sturdy buildings. The children will also identify the materials used and where it came from. For example, broken sea shells, drift wood, soda cans, etc. ( anything found on the beach). This will teach the children that the world is bigger than they think and cause them to expand they're view of the world we live in as well as their imagination.

(ages 5-8)

I would take the kids to a zoo. They could go on a tour and learn about different animals and what they are called and what they eat. Then they could go to the petting zoo and have hands on contact with some of the animals to see what they feel like and act like.

I would take the kids to a zoo in the city. Animals seem to interest most kids, so it would be fun and educational at the same time; seeing as learning about animals is in most school curriculums. Plus, a zoo is, for the most part, an enclosed area so it would be safe.

Well since we are so close to the beach I would take the kindergarteners on a beach field trip. I would take them down to the pier by the beach. We would search for sea life in and around the sea. We would bring small nets and buckets and maybe a magnifying glass. Sea life we would look for would be things like hermit crabs, crabs, lobsters, star fish, sand dollars, fish, sting rays and anything else in the water. We would use the buckets, nets, and magnifying glasses to look at the different animals. I would them proceed to tell them different things about each animal. For example fish have scales, hermit crabs out grow their shells, star fish can grow new legs, and sting rays can sting you. We will have a fun day at the beach learning and searching for sea life. And then we will enjoy a picnic lunch and play time to do things like swim, build sand castles, and play catch. When working with kindergarteners everything has to be about play and having fun, even when there learning.

If i were to take four kindergarteners on a trip i would really want to take them to a place that has so many things a child can do and learn yet it is still fun for the child to learn. It has really fun rides and some roller coasters yet it also has international stand and foods so you can learn about the different countries all over the world. I would take the children for one full day of fun and try to get them to see and take in as many of the attractions. I feel that the international aspect of it is what is most important because i feel that kids need to know what is outside of the United States. International learning is something that every child needs and if you don't have the resources to take them out of the country, then do as many learning activities that you can inside the country.

If I were to have the opportunity to take four kindergarteners on a field trip I would take them to an interactive museum aimed towards children. When I was younger I remember going to one in Boston with my family. The activities focused on enhancing creativity and memory skills (cognitive development) in a fun atmosphere as well as focusing on social development because the children will be placed in a situation where they can interact.

Sunrise at the Sandbar & Aquarium:

1^st adventure of the fieldtrip includes taking the kids to the beach onto the sandbar. The purpose of this trip is to get the kids acquainted with different species fish and plankton, salt water and moist terrestrial environments (i.e. ameba), and other small marine life found on the sandbar. The kids are furnished sand pails and shovels to scoop samples of the sandbar. The kids will learn about sea life. They will be assigned to draw and color a sea creature that they learned about.

Noonday at the Museum of Natural Science:

2^nd adventure of the fieldtrip includes a trip to the museum of natural science. Here the kids can explore a wide range of activities and learning experiences. I have scheduled them to venue in the early investigation programs. This program is geared especially for 5 - 7 year-olds, and combines a 45-minute, hands-on program with a 45-minute tour of a Museum exhibit hall. The kids will learn about Wildlife, Paleontology, Under the Sea, Native North Americans, Native Latin Americans, Africa, and the Zoo Insect.  

Afternoon in the Park:

3^rd adventure of the field trip includes a trip to the state park. The kids will have a chance to unwind and have fun. A specially prepared lunch will be provided and the ranger will give interesting facts about the park to the kids. From there, the kids head straight to the play ground and that will conclude their field trip.

I'd first take the kids to a zoo.  I think seeing animals and learning about them helps kids develop a sense that humans aren't the only ones on this planet.  After that, I'd drop by our local police department.  I went to one when I was in first grade and learned about respect and an appreciation for our community.  That would take up about our whole day.

I would take the kids to a pet store so they can encounter different types of animals. From this they would learn about different kinds of species and expand their knowledge about the world. I would also take them to a restaurant with different kinds of foods, maybe from different ethnicities, so they could build up their tastes and learn what types of food they like and don't like.

If I were to take the group of kindergartners on a field trip I would most likely first take them to the beach. I would tell them about the animals that live in the sea, I would tell then about the waves, as well as the influence the moon has on the ocean. After that, I believe the children should have some time to play in the sand, to interact with each other - but also to feel the texture of the sand. I would then take the children into one of the more populated parts of the town. There I would point out little things to them they may not have noticed. For Example; I would point out cracks in the pavement and show them that flowers grew out of them. Overall, my goal would be to show the children the ways in which nature interacts with our lives and how it finds its way.

Well since we live in a large city by the beach, I'd first take them to the beach. I would make an activity out of finding the biggest sea shells and letting them describe to me the sea shell they picked out and why. Then i would want them to explore the city by the buildings and its surroundings they viewed. We could also play a game like "i spy".

At the end of the trip I would have them draw me a picture of what their field trip involved and have them explain it to me. I believe they'd learn a lot from seeing the city own their own and what our world has to offer for them. Also, learning colors and shapes and designs!

If the city is right on the beach, that would probably be the most entertaining and eye-catching place to a 5 year old. There are numerous activities like those as follow:

1. Fly a kite

2. Build Sandcastles

3. Go Swimming

4. Find sea shells

5. Frisbee

They are all activities that are hands-on and kids can feel a sense of accomplishment after getting the kite to fly, a castle is complete, who finds the most sea shells, and playing Frisbee. They can learn teamwork while simultaneously having an appreciation for nature.

Objectives:

1.  Pre-visit:

a)  Arrange for chaperones- 1 adult/5 students

b)  Arrange transportation to and from zoo.

c)  Plan trip based on zoo map.

-bus tour

-safari ride

d)  Meeting with chaperones to discuss activities and responsibilities.

e)  1 week of class time dedicated to discussing the students' favorite animals and why, bring materials (books, pictures, multimedia, etc) to class that would help students brainstorm for making their own animal, bring art materials into class so that students can design their own animal, discuss what makes each student's animal unique and where it lives.

Field trip goals:

a)  help students understand the importance of conservation,

b)  zoo "scavenger hunt" list of animals and their characteristics,

c)  encourage students to ask questions about animals and their characteristics in order to facilitate observation skills.

Post-visit goals:

a)  Activity centered around comparing the animals at the zoo to their designed animal, discussing differences and commonalities.

b)  Discuss animals that they have never seen before.

If I lived in a very large American city, I would take four kindergarteners on a field trip to the Museum of Science. By taking the kids here, they will have a hands-on learning adventure that will bring science alive right in front of their eyes. It would provide experiential pathways to lifelong learning in science for the kids by using films, programs, and exhibits. This is a great place for sensory stimulation. It would be enjoyable for me as well as for the four children. Some of the things the kids can learn about is the eco system, space exploration, and wander through the changing exhibits which are hands on scientific demonstrations. An example of one of these exhibits is called the Center, which is designed to open children's eyes to the world around them and give you insights on how you can help them learn. It is a place where kids can build a wacky wall, climb a tree, or even hoist a sail. This sets a course for a lime time of learning adventures.

First I would take them to the beach to see the natural beauty that was there before we existed and something we can not create even with our modern technology.

Next I would take them to a museum of technology that shows all of our modern marvels from the past to the present (ex. from light bulb to solar electricity). I would also take them to see skyscrapers.

I would also take them to a historic location of the town that would give them a biography of their town, even before they were born.

I would also take them to a library to teach them the wisdom they can learn from books.

I would also take them to a park to teach them that being outside is so much more fun then playing video games inside.

If I took kindergarteners on a field trip in the city, I would take them to the beach. Once there I would give them nets and instruct them to walk into the water (only knee deep) and try to catch fish or seaweed. Or they could remain on the sand and find shells and crabs. The kids would learn about the environment and what sorts of animals live at the beach. 

The beach that I would take my students to the beach.  I myself grew up on this beach and found it the most amazing thing when I was growing up. I loved to be by the water hearing the waves crash and I like it the best because it is not beefed up for society. They haven't come through to clean the sand. This beach is very clean and will let the children see what our environment does for itself.

Once we arrived at the beach I would let the kids run around for a little bit and enjoy their surroundings. Then we would start our learning experience.  By the time we left our field trip these four children will be able to tell you what causes waves, what sand it, why the sky is blue, and what makes a seashell. Although this is tough material for kindergartners, I am breaking it down to where they understand what I am talking about.

 "What causes tides"?  Here is the answer: Tides are caused by the effects of gravity in the earth- moon- sun system. The earth is mainly completely covered with water, there are two separations in the water one is pulled towards the moon and the other is pulled on the opposite side. The earth rotating causes the pull from these areas to create the tides.

 "What is sand made of"? I would always wonder where all of this sand came from, my mom would tell me that they dropped it off with a dump truck. I knew that she would be kidding, but really where did all of it come from? Here is the answer: sand is made of minerals and tiny pieces of rock that have washed up from the oceans bottom. The fine white sand that we would normally see in a tourist area, are sometimes their by nature, this is caused by ground up coral (reef plants) that pass through a parrot fishes belly  and gives up fine white sand. Some of the sand deposits in certain areas contain gemstones that wash up on shore. This would make for a great treasure hunt when going on vacations with your family.

"Why is the sky blue"? Light that we see are made up of all different colors. The biggest ray of color that we see and changes to different colors is red. The shortest color that we see is blue/violet. When sunlight comes through the sky it collides with oxygen (what we breathe) and nitrogen (needed for the growth of plants and animals). When this occurs the shortest color that we see is scattered by this collision. Since our eyes are sensitive to blue light, this is what we perceive as the sky being blue.

"What are seashells"? Seashells are the outer layer of sea creatures. Some examples are: oysters, clams, pearl oysters, and conch shells. We often find these wash up looking pretty and clean because the marine life has already eaten what's on the inside. Some of the shells that we may finds are fossils of a sea creature that became stuck in between two rocks and formed the outer showing of what they look like.

Although this is a simple way of looking at certain items that surround the beach, this is also something that most children will not forget in the way that they have seen it felt it and watched it. If I were a teacher this would be a field trip that I would take to stretch their minds a little further than what they are used to. Children at this age have a great imagination and can picture these things happening.

Typical kindergarteners are 4 to 5 years old.  If this large American city is anything like lets say downtown Tallahassee, Miami, New York, or places with a lot of live culture, I would take them to such an area. There they would be exposed to different cultures as well as all types of musical entertainment.  We could dance, which would be physical activity and fun.  Around lunch time, I would take them to an eatery that's not so formal but not a typical fast food.  While there we could talk about the experience from earlier. What they liked about it, I could explain certain things about the event, just to let them know that there was more to the experience than just familiarizing them with the style of music.  After a nice walk around the town, which would give them a chance to take in their surroundings and we would discuss social norms for their level (such as how to behave in public, when and how to cross streets, etc.), we would head to the beach.  I'd give them time to play in the sand and water asking them to describe the colors and textures of all they saw.  We would observe the environment and I'd explain as much about the atmosphere as their minds could contain.

The first place that I would take the kindergarteners is to the zoo. I would take them there because kids love the outdoors and seeing new fascinating creatures up close. This would spark the kids interest in   animals and there habitat. Their minds would be open to learning all the facts about the creatures. Then we would go to the beach and I would tell the kids to act out their favorite animal.

Considering that the kids are used to the city life, I would take them to a park. That way they can experience nature. I would provide with basic knowledge about why everything in the park in important and how everything works together to survive. Plus after a little lesson kids can play in the grass with some toys that i would bring. A nice picnic for lunch on the grass would be nice to let kids just relax and come them down after the play session.

Well, since we are living in a large city on the beach, I am going to assume that there is an Aquarium there or some kind of aquatic research center. If that is the case, I would take the four kindergarteners there. When we first arrive I would take them on a brief walk around to see the different animals that are housed there. I say brief because I don't think I would have much luck spending hours just walking around with four kindergarteners. Then, for the remainder of the trip, I would take them to the "petting zoo," so-to-speak, in the aquarium. Here they can get some hands on experience and learn about living things and trying to protect them. By interacting with the animals, I believe the children would have a better grasp on wanting to protect the animals. Also, I think it would be more of an incentive for them to learn more about each animal. I also think they would enjoy a little hands on action with slimy, sticky fish!

If I lived in a big city right off the beach, I would take my four kindergartners to planetarium or to the seaquarium. At the seaquarium or planetarium, they would have all different kinds of animals and people who see them everyday. The people who work there can explain each animal and their functions. The children will learn how to differentiate each of the animals by there looks and also by their reasoning for doing things. Like the whale, they will see how they feed them and what they eat.

First, in the morning I'd take them to a nice breakfast. Somewhere in the city, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Then we'd head to the beach for some sun from 10-12. Then after they had their playtime and clothes changed. We'd head over to a historic site for a few hours. Dinner, and then maybe a nice play or broadway type show. So much fun!

I would take the kinder gardeners down to the beach and we would have a sand-castle contest. I'd put them on teams of two, and whoever builds the best sand-castle would be crowned sand-castle kings or queens. The purpose of this field trip would be to teach the children that working together can be fun and rewarding. And that team work is not something to be dreaded. Then we'd all get ice cream simply to prove that everyone's a winner =)

Field Trip:

I bring them to the shore to collect seashells.

Academic Lesson:

And while at the beach, I would also arrange for a marine biologist to come and talk to them about things you can find in the sea.

Creative Activity:

After the field trip we would do some kind of arts and crafts, like make shell boxes or something.

-or-

I would have them learn the song,  and we would learn all about the different fish and others things he talks about in the song.

Lesson Learned:

The children will have learned all about the sea and beach and then they would get to transfer their knowledge by doing the creative activities.

I would take the four kindergarten students to a nearby aquarium.  I would talk with the children about various marine animals such as the monterey ray, white shark, sea otter, octopus sea horse and various fish.  As I discuss each animal, I will talk to the students about what continent the animals live in, what type of water they live in and what foods they eat.

Throughout the day, I will talk to the students about the animals we reviewed and as we see the animals in the aquarium, I will ask them what animal it is, where it lives and what it eats to see if they can remember what we talked about previously.

After we have visited the while aquarium, the students and I will eat lunch and talk about all of the neat animals we saw and how fun it was to discover new animals.  I will then ask each student which animal they liked best.  After we finish lunch, I will have games for the children to play that center around our trip like: an aquarium bean toss (cut out animals filled with beans) where the children will stand at a distance and toss the animals into a bucket.  Also, a matching board game where the children match pictures of various animals on the board with pictures on cards.

The final activity I would do with the children before our departure is: a visit to the gift shop.  With permission, I will have asked the parents to provide money for each student to purchase something to bring back with them.  As we leave the gift shop, I would review with the children what we learned for the day about marine animals and ask them how they enjoyed the field trip.

First, I would take the kids to the beach, of course. We would play in the water, build sand castles and collect sea shells. They would learn about nature, such as how the sea water is salty.

Secondly, I would take the kids to a historical museum. We would spend the day in the museum learning about life in the 1800's and things of that nature.

I would take the kids to see the sea turtle nests at the beach and teach them about how the turtles bury their eggs and then leave them. After that we could build sand castles.

I would try to visit 4 very different places.  The first place I would take them is to either a large corporation or small, local business to teach about business and economics, see how things are managed.  Next I would take them to a historical building in town for a local history lesson.  Then, to a local sporting event....kids cant do all boring stuff-this would be a substitute for P.E. class.  Lastly we would go to the beach, for a science/nature lesson, these things are always best taught in a hands on activity.

I would take them to the sea aquarium and have them walk around the whole time. They would watch the dolphin and whale shows, go through the pools with the other creatures in them to look at, listen to the different experts talk about all the sea creatures and go through the computer simulations. They would learn about many different sea creatures, where they live, what they look like, what they eat, and more. This used to be my favorite type of field trip and I think it is a good way for kids to learn about sea creatures.

10am breakfast before the beach.

11am to the beach and first thing make sure all the children’s know how to swim 1130am a small lesson on swimming in the ocean.

1200am first lesson on the beautiful creatures that live in the ocean.

1230pm lunch, a fresh lunch

1pm relaxing time in a boat to explore the ocean and the creatures we talk about in our lesson.

2pm back in the sand the important of team work building a sand castle.

3pm the lesson on the importance of been careful in the ocean. (respect for the ocean n the waves ) 330pm lesson on the sun, the good and bad.

4pm after putting sun block some fun time playing soccer to work does muscles.

5pm playing with water and different small games that the children’s can interact with other.

6pm ready to head home.

The children will learn a lot from this trip: the fact that they are with me and not with the parents in a good way to see how they act in the beach without their parents. The lesson they will learn is all about team work, marine biology, like the creatures of the ocean, the respect to the ocean and waves, and to have fun with the beauty of the nature.

For this field trip I would choose to take these four very lucky kindergarteners to the beach.  *(You should not take them to something that’s too elaborate such as a museum because since they are still so young they are not quite ready to appreciate or get the full value from this yet) Each child would be provided with a small bucket and there task would be to see how many interesting things they can find and collect in their bucket.  We would walk together up and down the beach (with out shoes) talking about the type of environment that we are in.  Talk about the sand, and how it feels on our feet, the water, and I would encourage them to notice the shells and differences in them.  After we have all filled our buckets we would sit down and look at all the wonderful things that we had collected.  I would discuss the differences again in the shells and or objects collected and help them to think about "What do you think would have used this..." Talk about the clams that use the tiny shells, and then the more intricate were perhaps used by a crab (hermit crab).  Or if lucky find a sand dollar. I would have brought flash cards of these different animals. (Just in case we did not already see one on the beach).  I would explain that, just like there are so many different shells, that there are also so many different types of animals in the water.  Some big, and some small.

I would try to stay on their level.  I would not want to explain anything too complicated at this moment, but basically get them interested in the topic.  Then we would talk about things that could hurt the animals in the ocean/water and on the beach.

Tell them it is important that each one of us, picks up and throws are trash in the proper place.  And that if we see something bad on the sand or in the water we should make sure to pick it up, even if its not ours.  So that we can continue to find these pretty shells.  And see these amazing animals.  After lunch we would pick up all our trash and make sure that on the way back to the bus, I would have provided the children with a bag and gloves so that if we saw anything bad (trash) we would pick it up and place it in our bag so that we could put it in the big trash can before we left.

When we get back to the school with our shells we will then use those shells to make something from them. With yarn already cut, we could take and make a necklace from the smaller flat shells (I would have them pick out one of their favorite), and if they wanted they could paint it or leave it plain. The rest of the shells (treasure) they would just get to take home in their buckets.

I think the children would learn a little about environment and about the animals that live in that particular environment.

They would also have a fondness for the animals and hopefully learn to take responsibility for them.  I mean that hopefully the seed has been planted to throw trash away and to recycle.  To help keep the beaches clean...etc.

Since we live near the beach, I would take the children to a marine life center. The children could learn about some of the various animals of the sea and in some cases even get to see or touch the animals. I hope they would take from the experience a new respect for sea life and perhaps learned some new information on sea life.

If I had to take 4 kindergarteners for a day on a field trip, the first place I would take them would be to a farmers market, where they can learn about nutrition and grasp the concept of healthy eating.  There, they would learn about the different types of fruits and vegetables, as well as the importance of daily consumption of vitamins and minerals.  They would also be able to sample the different fruits and vegetables, allowing them to acquire a taste for many foods that they may not have tried yet.

Next, I would take the kids to the zoo or a science museum of some kind.  This would stimulate their minds and help them gain knowledge in a variety of subjects.  At the zoo, they could learn about the different kinds of animals, if they are endangered or not, where they can be found, what they eat, and what to do if you see one.  Afterwards, they would be allowed to pet the animals, if permitted.  At the museum, the kids could learn about the stars and the solar system, giving them a brief glance into the world of astrology.

Lastly, we would go to either the playground or the beach, a place where the kids would be able to run around freely and expel all the excess energy in their bodies for being composed all day.  At the playground, they could have fun playing with each other, learning to share, and engaging in normal childhood activities.  If we went to the beach, they would also be able to run around, where they could play in the sand and build sand castles.  I would also allow them to dip their feet in the water, allowing them to get a feel of the ocean.  During this part of the trip, the children would be further developing their social skills, as well as their motor skills.

If I had to take four kindergarteners on a field trip in the city I would take them to an interactive/hands on children’s museum. I can still remember visiting one of these in elementary school and I can even remember all that I learned and the fun that I had. There, the kids can learn about nearly everything while experiencing it all using hands on techniques. Many children’s museums have a very wide variety of things to learn about including the organs of the body, planetariums, aquariums, dinosaur exhibits, and many more things. Visiting the beach might also be a good thing to do with the kids. Learning about the ocean and aquatic life is very interesting to me and in a controlled safe environment, actually on beach and by the water, I think that the kids would learn a lot and have fun at the same time.

I would take them to a museum that had activities for children. They would have fun, and learn about the exhibits that the museum had to offer.

First I would take them to the aquarium for them to see all the sea animals and get a little bit of learning in, i would then take them out onto the beach to find shells, see any sea creatures that may have been washed up onto shore, maybe fly a kite(depending on how windy it is), and build sand castles. This day will teach them all there is to know about animals that live in the sea and also give them the opportunity to see it for themselves.

the Museum of Science and History. It is a really cool museum and very interactive, they offer programs in natural science, physical science, and  history for any age group. With just one visit to the museum we could walk through state history with interactive stations, take a look back at dinos with the big dino and ice age exhibit. There are hands on science experiments about gravity, the weather, and even a planetarium.

If I lived in a city that was on the beach and had all there is to offer I'd have a great time taking the kids on a field trip. I think that the first thing I'd do is find a history museum. Not one that would be too in depth for kids of that age but one that had big prehistoric animals all over the place and a guide that would talk about them.

After the museum I would have had them bring their lunch and we would go to the beach and eat some lunch. After lunch we'd walk the beach looking for some shells or anything else there is on the beach that washed up. We could make some kind of jewelry out of the shells or any other kind of art work with them and the other stuff. I'd tell them about why there were shells and the animals that use to live in them.

Then while on the beach I'd tell them to dig up under the parts where there are those little crabs and stuff under it. I'd tell them about the tides and some of the animals in the water.

After the day was done we'd walk back to the car and go to an ice cream place that makes its own ice cream. I would have asked the owner in advance if I'd be alright if the kids watched and learned about how ice cream was made. I'd see if they could help make some. I think that the kids would really enjoy doing that and then I'd top it off with a treat of ice cream. Then we'd finally go home after a long day of fun and learning.

i would choose to take the four kindergarteners to an amusement park.  Here, children can role play and actually be "adults" for the day.  There is a grocery store, hospital, mine, nursery, beauty parlor, and much more.  The kids would have the liberty of exploring many career options and just be able to do plenty of hands on work.  This experience would be very educational.  They are also encouraged to save money, they work and get paid and are then able to use banks, ATMs, etc.

I would take the children to an aquarium. That way they could see the animals close up and become more interested in perhaps caring for them and learning about their natural habitats. I would arrange for it to possibly be around turtle nesting season and see if they could release the baby turtles into the ocean. (I got to do that as a kid). I feel it would be beneficial to both the children and perhaps animals and the environment some day.

I would take the kids to the beach nearby to explore. I would of course make sure they have supervision and floatation devices just in case. Building sand castles and collecting shells that that could later use to do some sort of art project with would help explore their imagination and working with their hands.

I would take these kids to an Aquarium. When I was little, I thought this was the best thing in the world and made my parents take me back numerous times.

We would learn about all the different types of sealife and how to preserve the oceans and coral reefs. We would also learn about the dangers in the ocean. There are so many things to do there, like petting stingrays or watching them feed the sharks. The price is always right during the summer to be in the A/C and learning about nature.

I think that because of going there so much, it made me want a piece of the ocean for my house. Therefore I have been keeping saltwater fish and coral for a few years. It is the best hobby around.

I would take them to a sea aquarium where they would learn about all the different animals that live in the sea, including dolphins and killer whales.

For the field trip, I would take the children to one of the city's museums, probably a science museum.  I would do this because I remember when I was young, I enjoyed going to museums because they are filled with interesting facts. Most science museums feature things like animals, plants, the solar system, etc. so the kids could learn a little something about all of these things. At the end of the day, I would have a group discussion with the kids about what they learned and what their favorite part of the day was.

I would take them to the zoo. There we would visit each section and explore what kind of animals were there. To make this an educational experience I would play a game with the kids asking them what kind of animal noise, size, and color each animal was. Which ever child got the most questions right would win a small prize. The purpose of the game is to increase the child’s cognitive development by being able to recall what the animal looks like and it's characteristics. I also think this would be fun for the kids because it gives them a chance to view things that they normally wouldn't see.